I think the tuning for the Mandora was a tone lower than modern
guitar, plus pitch may have been lower as well - from one to 3
semitones.
You're absolutely right about information being ignored - that's
always upset me.
On Mar 25, 2008, at 9:10 PM, Frank Nordberg wrote:
Brad McEwen wrote:
> I still think that an 18th C Mandola would be the ticket. I don't
> know if anyone makes them, but there are a lot of roundback short
> scale Italian made Mandocellos that are pretty close.
There wasn't any mandocello as we know it back in the mid 18th
century. The mandolin back then was basically just a scaled down
lute. A scaled up version of a scaled down version of a lute would
be ... a lute. ;-)
However, the 17th/18th century six course lute *is* an interesting
option no matter what name it goes by. It's a common belief that the
large lutes with extra bass strings completely replaced the old
renaissance lute but that may be a truth with modifications.
Brescianello published a collection of music for a six course lute
around the middle of the 18th century. He called the instrument a
colascione (although it doesn't seem to have much in common with the
regular three course colascione) and apparently it had six single
strings tuned like a modern guitar EADGBE.
Usually we think of this instrument as purely Italian but
Brescianello was connected in some way to the court of the Duke of
Württemberg at some time during the first few decades of the 18th
C., so there may be a German/Central European connection.
There is a surviving instrument of that kind that certainly has a
German connection. It was built by Johannes Schorn in Salzburg in
1688. Barber and Harris are making a copy of it and you can view an
example at:
http://www.lutesandguitars.co.uk/htm/cat08.htm
(at the bottom of the page)
It's got a relatively long neck and small body, making it look as
much like a colascione as a standard lute. I'm sure I've seen them
with more regular lute propotions though - just can't remember where
and when.
I'm a bit curious about the tuning mentioned there. The renaissance
A tuning seems awfully high for an 886 mm scale.
Barber and Harris mentions that Godfrey Finger had a similar
instrument, only slightly larger. Yet another German connection...
-------
Right now I'm wondering if we really know anything about 17th and
18th century stringed instruments at all. This little excercise of
ours has already unveiled more than enough information to completely
rewrite the "official" history. Worst of all, nothing of this is new
information, it's information that's been ignored until now.
Frank Nordberg
http://www.musicaviva.com
http://stores.ebay.com/Nordbergs-Music-Store?refid=store
To get on or off this list see list information at
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
