> All this mandora/gallichon talk has me a little worked up. There is a > marvelous matched ca. 1790 mandolino/mandola pair by Presbler in storage at > the Met. Their decor is almost identical and they appear to have been > built as a set. The mandolino is in six courses and I would assume > intended for standard g to g" tuning. The mandola is in seven courses with > a ca. 60 cm scale (maybe a touch more: I don't have measurements on > hand). I know of at least one other 7-course mandola/mandora by > Presbler. Anybody care to speculate on tuning? > > Eugene I saw and even touched it. A pretty thing, looks like a mandora though. RT
> > > At 02:01 PM 8/14/2005, Martyn Hodgson wrote: > >The picture about Gallichon/Mandora tunings and sizes is not tidy (up to > >60 different scodatura tunings are identified! - see Pietro Prosser's 1996 > >paper), but very briefly: > >various nominal pitches are known from 18thC documents commonly with the > >top string at f' and d' (but others known). Note that late 17thC > >instruments (not to be confused with the even earlier 17thC 3 string > >colascione) were much bigger with one tuning having the first string at a > >- as mentioned earlier the spread of overwound strings seems to have been > >the principal factor in shrinkage (ie could still get a strong bass with > >an easier to play shorter string length if overwound were used - tho' > >large instruments may have continued in orchestras & opera). There were > >earlier communications about this which will be in the archives. A good > >recent overview has been published by the British Lute Soc (referred to > >earlier); there's also Federico Marincola's ' LuteBot' (Winter 1999) > >available on the web and earlier articles in various FoMRHI Quarterlies. P > > > >As Mathias has observed, what pitch Bresc. considered the instrument to be > >at is made clear in the MS: it's the d tuning with three variants for the > >6th course. > > > >It's been suggested that the mid 18thC Gallichon was the larger instrument > >with open string length in the high 60/low 70cm range (in > >d'/e'?), whereas the Mandora's string length in this period would have > >been in the lower 60s (in f?). Another differentiating feature could be > >the design of peghead with that of the larger instruments (Gallichons?) > >often of the of the violin type, frequently ending in a plaque rather > >than a scroll, whereas the smaller instruments most usually have bent back > >lute type pegboxes (with a treble first string rider). But the picture is > >not entirely consistent and this difference in style may be more a > >reflection of regional tastes. > > > >A couple of things I forgot to mention in summarising major differences > >betweem G/Ms and the early lute: -the position and size of the rose - this > >is higher than in the classic lute and smaller too - in short, in line > >with most 18thC 'baroque' lutes; also they started to add extra bass > >courses (plus ca change) so that 7, 8 and even 9 course tunings are > >known................ > > > >My view is that these instruments were strung at significantly higher > >tensions than the earlier classical lute - around 50% higher but I have no > >historical evidence for this speculation other than the bellies do not > >seem thinner than 'baroque' lutes proper which had double the number of > >courses. > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
