Eugene C. Braig IV wrote:
At 04:47 PM 12/14/2007, Stuart Walsh wrote:
I' not sure what a 'mandola' is. Tyler refers to this genre as
mandolino/ mandore/mandola. Does 'mandola', as you understand it,
mean something other?
Mandora/mandore was similar but usually referred to something a bit
different with a different standard tuning, often alternating fourths
and fifths.
Orlandi contends that in the late baroque, at least in some sources
(perhaps Dalla Casa, e.g.) "mandola" came to describe 6-course
mandolins (g-b-e'-a'-d''-g'') where "mandolino" was used for 5-
(b-e'-a'-d''-g'') or even four course things in all fourths. I
believe Tyler had asserted the terms "mandola"/"mandolino" as
interchangeable early in their use, but "mandola" came to describe
something analogous to the late-baroque Germanic mandore later on.
Some on these lists contend there isn't much evidence for Tyler's
application of "mandola" to larger Italian lute-like thingies.
Yes, I got the idea from Tyler that the terms mandore/mandola/mandolino
refer to the same thing - at least up to the end of the 17th century. He
says (in EM Jan 1981) that the 'mandore' was associated with Northern
Europe (esp France) and the Italian equivalent, in the 16th century, was
'mandola' (and later, mandolino). I wasn't really thinking of the later
usage of the term for a larger instrument
The mandore/mandolino (if that's in the same territory as the
mandola) is a tiny thing, usually tuned in fourths and usually (it
would seem - given the nature of the music) played with a plectrum.
Not necessarily. The Sammartini ("San Martino") sonata, e.g.,
certainly favors fingerstyle with many pedal points and occasional
double stops that skip courses, rolling arpeggio patterns that fit the
fingers very naturally, etc. I even feel the Vivaldi concerti are
more natural with the fingers. ...And Hasse, Arrigoni, etc. Some
players argue fingerstyle dominated 4th-tuned, fixed-bridge mandolins
in the baroque and plectrum technique didn't become commonplace until
the classical aesthetic gained firmer sway. See "The Little Concert"
(1746) by Pietro Longhi, e.g.:
<http://www.wga.hu/art/l/longhi/pietro/1/06thelit.jpg>
No plectra on hand here. Still, it's relatively rare to record the
instrument with the fingers, I believe, because most players come to
fixed-bridge mandolins from modern mandolin rather than from lute or
guitar.
Yes, I should have noted there are other tunings than just fourths - but
never(?) the guitar tuning as in Calvi (?). And I should have mentioned
the clearly fingerstyle pieces of Sauli.
The Arrigoni 'Concerto' with violin and bass (and others form the same
source) certainly isn't obviously fingerstyle (in the way that the
Skene, Sauli, de Gallot pieces are) - but it could be. I can't
remember if there is a chord somewhere in it with the notes not on
consecutive strings but it's almost all just single line.
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