Hi Brad, You are right - there are many, many references to a mandora as mandore and vice versa. It has been and continues to be an area of much confusion. I personally started differentiating them (small mandore, large mandora) after reading Donald Gill's plea to do so in the Lute Society Journal (or Lute News - can't recall the year or issue). To make matters worse, the large German mandora is also known as a gallichon, itself having various spellings. And to cap it all, on my Flowers of the Forest CD I refered to my small mandore as a mandour (for a dour man).
I wouldn't take a museum attribution as gospel...they can often be wrong. I suggest following the gospel according to Gill. Rob On 27/03/2008, Brad McEwen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Rob: > > Tht's news to me. I have always read that the instruments referred to as > mandoras, (including the instrument that you call the mandore) are what you > call the "small treble'like lute" . The Royal Ontario Museum has the small > treble lute listed as a mandora. So does the Broadside Band, Ron McFarlane, > and otherrecordings. I don't know how many books I have seen over the > years that call mandores mandoras. Usually it is stated that mandora is the > Italian name and mandore is the French. > > Every book I have every read on the subject has stated that the terms > mandore, mandora and mandola were interchangeable for the same instrument > that you have recorded with. > > What was the period for this German Mandora? The period of usage of the > term mandora in the context that I know was the Renaissance. > > Has some newe reseaarch brought something to light that will cause all > previous books on the subject to now be incorrect and outdated? All museums > will have to recatalogue and rename the mandoras in their collections? > > Although I do not, as previously stated, have academic credentials, I > feell that I'm reasonably well informed on this subject and I ahve never > heard of this lower pitched German mandora. > > Brad > > > *Rob MacKillop <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>* wrote: > > Sorry, Brad, but you are not quite correct. I recorded music for the > mandore, not the mandora. The former is the small treble-like lute, four or > five courses, while the latter is a large German lute of various pitches and > numbers of strings. The mandora in E was the same tuning as the modern > guitar, but more often appeared down a tone in D, and often again in eight > courses. > > Rob > > > ------------------------------ > Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it > now.<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=51733/*http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ> > > -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
