At 02:19 AM 12/3/2008, Rob MacKillop wrote:
So, Eugene...or anyone else...tell us what you can about the baroque
mandolin.
Thanks for tossing me this wee bone, Rob. I love
this stuff. For all those who don't, my
apologies. I suspect I'll go on longer than I should.
I see there have already been a number of
replies. One of the best English language resources is still:
Tyler, J. & P. Sparks. 1992. The early mandolin. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
My biggest issue with that text is they take a
very simplified approach to the nomenclature, I'm
certain in an effort to be easily understood by a
general audience. They refer to the earlier
gut-strung, fourth-tuned forms in Italian as
"mandolino" and the early incarnations of the
Neapolitan (modern) type in French as
"mandoline." In reality, both were "mandolino"
in Italy and "mandoline" in France. Another
reason for this simplified approach is that the
earliest literature for the modern instrument
(1760s) was popular and was published in
Paris. Regarding the instruments themselves and
some fair descriptions, basic measurements, and line drawings, there is:
Morey, Stephen. 1993. Mandolins of the 18th Century. Editrice Turris, Cremona.
One time lute-list semi-regular Davide Rebuffa
(on my shelves at home, but I don't have citation
here) touched on a few nice instruments in his
couple texts, as did Alex Timmerman (1994. De
Mandoline en de Gitaar door de Eeuwen Heen.
AETii-Producties, Zwolle, Netherlands.) in his.
A fair amount of older organological literature
misnames mandolins, either as unfortunate terms
of convenience to differentiate the modern types
from substantially different early types or out
of ignorance. Baines' texts, e.g., tend to be
very useful references, but tend to rename
gut-strung mandolins with fixed bridges
"mandore." There is a fine Brambilla (1759)
mandolino catalogued by the Stearns collection as
"pandourina." Etc. An early effort to sort out
the mess that early mandolin organology had become was:
Tyler, J. 1981. The Italian mandolin and mandola:
1589-1800. Early Music, 9(4):438-446.
Somewhere (sorry, I don't recall which source,
but it's probably one of those listed here) I
read it estimated that such mandolini outnumber
extant proper lutes in collections. I find that
quite interesting, especially for an instrument
type that hasn't been in common use since the 18th c.
1. Types of instruments - number of courses, construction features,
string lengths, etc
The most common thing called names like
"mandolin" (mandolino, mandoline, etc.)
throughout the baroque era was in five or six gut
courses tied directly to a fixed lute-like bridge
and tuned wholly or mostly in fourths ([g-g],
b-b, e'-e',a'-a', d''-d'', g''-g''). They almost
always featured a sickle-shaped pegbox that
terminated in a partial scroll with some type of
decorative finial (usually a simple veneered
square, but often fancifully engraved or veneered
in contrasting materials). Full scrolls and
cittern-like faces aren't uncommon. Inset and
chip-carved roses are both common, but inset more
so. Original scratchplates were not common to
this type, but were sometimes added later (I know
of two Milanese pieces by Brambilla so
defaced). String lengths for the standard soprano: ca. 29-32 cm.
There is some evidence that as 6-course
instruments were becoming more popular, some
referred to 5-course instruments as "mandolino"
and 6-course instruments as "mandola." Ugo
Orlandi has written some on this subject. The
Dalla Casa archlute book, e.g., has a tuning
chart for "mandolino" in five courses down to b,
but features a work for "mandola" that extends
down to a range that would not be possible
without a lower sixth course. There is also some
evidence that "mandola" and "mandolino" may have
been relatively plastic and possibly
interchangeable in their meanings at different times in different places.
Later, single-strung instruments were labeled
"mandolino milanese" and later yet "mandolino
lombardo" but there is no precedent for the use
of these regional terms until the early 19th c.
(Bortoloazzi's 1805 method, e.g.). I believe
their use as a modern term of convenience to
describe baroque-era instruments is
inappropriate. These later instruments
maintained the tuning of g, b, e', a', d'', g''
and were commonly used into the early 20th c.
Beginning in the 1760s, literature for the
Neapolitan type (what developed into all modern
mandolins) appeared. the earliest dated
instruments of the type were labeled in the 1740s
(with some labels slightly suspect). From what
little there is on stringing in the original
methods, the Neapolitan type originally was
strung in g'-g of plain brass and silver-wound
silk, d'-d' of twisted brass, a'-a' of plain
brass, and e''-e'' of gut. It usually had a flat
peghead, strings passing over a floating bridge
to fix to hitch pins in the tail block, and a
canted soundboard. Technique was
quill. Personally, I believe the features to
facilitate wire stringing on the earliest modern
mandolins were borrowed from construction paradigms of the chitarra battente.
Then there was the mandolino cremonese/bresciano
popular ca. 1800. It had four gut strings tuned
g,d',a',e''; fixed bridge; and plectrum
technique, sliver of wood prescribed by the likes of Bortolazzi.
..And then there was the 6-course mandolino
genovese popular in the very late 18th c.: e-e,
a-a, d'-d', g'-g', b'-b', e''-e'' (yes, octave
guitar tuning). There is precious little
dedicated repertoire for mandolino genovese, but some of it is by Paganini.
2. Modern luthiers, historical luthiers - names to look out for and
why. Price ranges...
For a few modern luthiers, have a look at this
page I concocted for Mandolin Cafe:
http://www.mandolincafe.com/archives/builders/early.html
On that page, the Albert & Mueller and Dietrich
instruments pictured are not patterned after
known originals, but are idealized German
"barockmandolinen" of essentially modern design.
Regarding some modern players, Paul O'Dette uses
an Ivo Magherini; Nigel North used a Barber &
Harris; Dorina Frati and Marco Capucci (Ensemble
Baschenis) and Duillio Galfetti (Il Giardino
Armonico) use Federico Gabrielli; and Daniel Ahlert uses a Sebastian Nunez.
One rather prolific baroque-era builder was
Giovanne Smorsone in Rome, and his instruments
strike me as an appropriate archetype. My own is
a reproduction of the 1736 Smorsone in the Berlin
Museum. Here's another Smorsone restored by
Bruce Brook from an odd, later Milanese-type set
up to its original functionality:
http://www.brucebrook.co.uk/restoration.htm
I am also fond of the Milanese Domenico Brambilla
pieces I've seen. That in the Stearns is dated 1759.
The Presbler family in Milan were also very
prolific into the very late 18th c. They tended
to feature broader soundboxes and slightly shorter scales.
The 1680 "Cutler-Challen" mandolin by Stradivari
in Vermilion, South Dakota is not typical. Its
scale is on the short side, but its soundbox is
tiny. I believe it had a square finial before
restoration; I'm not certain of the justification
for restoring it with a shield-shaped finial:
http://www.usd.edu/smm/PluckedStrings/Mandolins/StradMandolin/StradMandolin.html
The other extant Stradivari mandolin was
purchased at auction in the 1970s by Biddulph's
firm, and I believe he still owns it.
There is a French piece by Lambert at the V&A in
England that is often copied, but it, again, is
rather atypical with a larger soundbox, a whole
lot of French-like marquetry (think Voboam
guitars), and a human head carved atop the pegbox.
The Cité de la Musique catalogues several fine
pieces with downloadable images. If you use
their search feature, be certain to search for
both "mandoline" and "mandore" which are used
interchangeably (e.g., they catalogue a 6-course
Brambilla as "mandoline" and similar 6-course
Smorsone instruments as "mandore") in reference
to the instrument type discussed here.
3. Techniques
There is some debate on that matter, but precious little written documentation.
There isn't anything of which I'm aware written
about mandolino technique until quills on
Neapolitan types rose to popularity. A few early
methods (1760s) discuss both the Neapolitan type
along with "mandoline a six cordes" in the same
breath, sometimes denigrating the latter, then
old-fashioned type. Quills obviously were commonly used by that time.
Earlier iconography varies quite a bit, but
almost always depicting what appears to be
punteado and most often depicting thumb
out. Pinkies seem to be planted or not. I play
thumb out, no plant--almost guitar-like--but I
tend to take scalar passages alternating p-i
(rather than the more guitar-like i-m). Here's
"The Little Concert" by Longhi (1746):
http://www.wga.hu/art/l/longhi/pietro/1/06thelit.jpg
Here's Alex Timmerman playing a little ca. 1700
Alemanda by Ceccherini (which I also play, but I use a lot more thumb):
http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=2SYZ8L2aLww
One day I'll get around to posting a recording of
some of my favorite bits someplace electronically accessible...one day.
4. Tunings
Depending on whether you're playing four to six
courses, most commonly [g-g], [b-b], e'-e',a'-a',
d''-d'', g''-g''. Morey refers to some 6-course
instruments tuned in straight 4ths: f#--f#, b-b,
e'-e', a'-a', d''-d'', g''-g'', I believe mostly in Rome.
5. Stringing - octaves, unisons, singles, double, triple(?)
In unisons. There isn't any evidence of which
I'm aware for any use of octaves on the standard
soprano instrument. There are a couple very
early pieces built for a single chanterelle
(again, I can get full citations for anybody
really pining for such things when I can access
my references at home), but none later. The most
common current practice is to double string all
courses in unison, all the way up to g''.
There were some larger, lute-sized pieces (scales
to ca. 60+ cm) built in five to seven courses
(regarding which I've written to this list
before), but there I'm not aware of much evidence
at all for how those lute-sized pieces were used or tuned.
6. Repertoire - specific and non specific (treble instrument and
continuo, for example)
Tyler offers a good catalogue of compositions in
the appendix of his portion of the Tyler & Sparks
text. Of course, the Vivaldi concerti are
probably the most famous. There is also an aria
with mandolino obbligato in Vivaldi's oratorio
"Juditha Triumphans" as well as one in Handel's
oratorio "Alexander Balus." There is one
manuscript with one movement of one of the
multi-movement Scarlatti sonatas for solo soprano
instrument and continuo that specifies
"mandolino" (I believe, discovered by Jean-Paul
Bazin), so it has become trendy to play them all
on 4th-tuned mandolini. There is a brief but
very fine three-movement sonata by Giovanni
Battista Sammartini. There are two excellent
sonatas (both recorded by Ensemble Baschenis and
the E minor excellently recorded by Paul O'Dette)
and one concerto by Carlo Arrigoni. There are
several multi-movement works for "mandolino" or
"mandola" that specify archlute continuo in the
Dalla Casa book. Hasse wrote a somewhat popular
(amongst mandolinists) concerto. Early in the
classical era, Giovanni/Johann Hoffmann wrote a
concerto and a number of excellent chamber
works--accompanied sonatas to substantial
quartets--for the instrument. His use of chords
implies plectrum technique. ...And then there
are countless sonatas, sinfonias, etc. by lesser
known composers like Piccone, Romaldi, etc.
Well, that will do for starters... ;-)
I hope I didn't do too much.
Best,
Eugene
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