Mandolin

The ancestor for the mandolin was the Italian soprano lute of the late XVII, early XVIII centuries . The strongly curved version of the lute, which was made only in Naples , became a model for mandolins already in the 19th century . The history of the mandolin began with the mandola , a kind of lute that appeared in the 14th century . When the instrument became widespread in Europe, it came up with many different names, and its structural characteristics varied from country to country.

The first mention of the modern version of the mandolin with steel strings (the "Genoese mandolin") comes from the works of famous Italian musicians who traveled throughout Europe, taught to play musical instruments and gave concerts. The most significant mention belongs to Gervasio Vinacia , who traveled from the middle of the XVIII to the beginning of the XIX century . These mentions and recordings of Neapolitan musicians of the Vinaccia family compel some historians to argue that representatives of the Vinacia family invented the modern mandolin in Naples. A later version of the mandolin was designed by Antonio Vinachia in 1772 . Now this copy is in London , at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Another instance of the mandolin belonged to Giuseppe Vinachia and was constructed in 1763 , and is now located at the Musical Instrument Museum in Clermont, California . The earliest existing mandolin was made in 1744 and can be found at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels .

These mandolins, like their modern descendants, are called Neapolitan mandolins because their history begins in Naples, Italy. Antique mandolins are distinguished by an amygdala with a body curved like a ball, made of curved boards (rivets) of the desired length with a recess (groove). The upper deck of the tool has a fold, which is located behind the movable stand. This beveled construction helps pull the strings harder. The larch bar is as close as possible to the strings, ten metal (or ivory) frets are located along the upper part in semitones, additional frets are attached to the bar. The strings are usually made of brass, except for the lowest. The stand is made of solid wood or ivory. Wooden pegs are attached at the back with wooden nails (pegs). To play the mandolin, a plectrum is often used (sometimes a feather).

The classical Neapolitan mandolin (sometimes called “onion” in the Russian musical tradition) acquired its present form at the end of the 19th century. It differs from the old mandolin in a slightly changed form, a fingerboard overlay on the deck, and sometimes overlapping the resonator hole, metal spikes with a worm gear and steel strings. At the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, the Neapolitan mandolin became very popular. Instruments are produced by tens of thousands, both by individual craftsmen and large manufactories not only in Naples, but also in other cities of Italy, as well as in Germany, France and other countries. Recessed rivets are less and less used in the manufacture of tool bodies, giving way to rivets without recesses (tools with a smooth body), as a cheaper and less time-consuming alternative. During this period, a large number of experiments in the field of mandolin construction took place. In the United States, Orville Gibson patents a mandolin with arched decks (carved from wood, like violin), in France Lucien Gelas creates a mandolin with reverse string tension (in a regular mandolin, strings put pressure on a movable stand and deck, in Gelas construction, on the contrary, the strings are pulled a rigidly fixed stand from the deck), in Italy, Umberto Ceccherini, and in Russia Ginislao Paris develop instuments with a double top deck, which enhances the timbre and improves the coloring of the instrument.

By the 1930s, the popularity of the Neapolitan mandolin in the world was declining. But at the same time, the mandolin is not of a classical design, with arched and flat decks it begins to be actively used in such areas of music as bluegrass , Celtic music , and jazz .

The renaissance of mandolin, as a classic instrument in the world, begins in the 1980s. In Russia, in recent years, there has also been a revival of the culture of the classical and Baroque mandolin, the instrument is taught in some music schools, colleges, and conservatories.

The most common Neapolitan mandolin, with four double strings having a violin system, being built in unison . The fingering is violin. The Milanese mandolin has not four, but five double strings. There is also a mandriola , a Central European version of the mandolin with four triple strings, also known as trichordia (tricordia, trichordia or tricordio), also used in Mexican folk music (it is also Sicilian mandolin). The lower triple string of the mandriola (salt, G) can build in unison, or through an octave. Sometimes the bass strings of the mandriola are not built, but are doubled, like a regular mandolin.

Here is how the famous Russian writer Vladimir Dahl describes the mandolin in his Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language: "The mandolin is a kind of guitar without interception, which is played with a stone or a feather." Mandolins differ not only in the number of strings, but also in the shape of the body: the Neapolitan mandolin has a pear-shaped body, like a lute; in the Portuguese mandolin, the lower deck of the hull is flat. In the XX century, the mandolin became quite widespread in American traditional music, mainly in the style of bluegrass . Bluegrass mandolins have flat decks, and on the upper deck there are two cut-outs in the shape of an elongated letter S. It should be noted that mandolins with a “lute” pear-shaped body have a softer and stronger sound, and flat varieties sound sharper.

Other members of the mandolin family:

Mandolin piccolo (or small mandolin, it. Sopranino mandolina or piccolo mandolina) is a rare tool. The scale is usually 240 mm. Story - C ₄ –G ₄ –D ₅ –A _5.

Mandola , also known by such names as “mandora” and “mandola”, “pandurin” and “bandurin” or “tenor-mandola” and is the “ancestor” of the mandolin, the name of which simply means “little mandala”. The scale is usually about 420 mm. Normal tuning: CGDA, similar to violin viola. In classical music, a mandala is an octave mandolin, and an instrument with an alto system is called a mandolin.

An octave mandolin or an octave mandola , tuned an octave below the mandolin. The scale is usually 500-584 mm. The usual GDAE system, sometimes also built like CDAD or ADAD, is used in Celtic tunes.

Mandocello (Mandocello), has dimensions and scale, close to the guitar - 635-686 mm. Normal build: CGDA.

Mandolin Lutea (Liuto Cantabile) - Advanced Mandocello with 5 pairs of strings, CGDAE system. The appearance of the instrument is associated with the family of musical masters Vinnachia from Naples in the XIX century. Raffaele Kalache - a composer, virtuoso performer and master of instrument making from Naples, at the beginning of the 20th century further improved and actively promoted the instrument by writing several works for him, both solo and as part of an ensemble.

Mando-bass, can be either eight-stringed, as a classical mandolin, or four-stringed. It is created on the basis of double bass, has the same scale - 1100 mm. The usual four-string instrument tuning is E1-A1-D2-G2. An eight-string instrument is usually configured as G1-D2-A2-E3 or C1-G1-D2-A2. The old Russian name for mando bass is the double bass mandolin Lula .

Electromandoline. Mandolin with magnetic pickup. Most often, like an electric guitar, it has a solid wood body and cannot be used without an amplifier, although the magnetic pickup can also be mounted on a regular acoustic mandolin. Electro-mandolin can be either with double or single strings. Sometimes a fifth, bass string (or a pair of strings) is added to build C, to expand the range of the electric mandolin.

Irish bouzouks are also considered a member of the mandolin family; although it is an Irish version of the classic Greek Buzuki . He shares a common device with the mandolin family - four double strings, tunable in pairs. Mensura 530-610 mm. The usual GDAE system, like the mandolin, or GDAD, this option is used more for accompaniment.

Sometimes the modern cystra belongs to the mandolin family . It has five double strings, customizable as DGDAD or GDADA. Mensura 500-550 mm. By sound, it resembles an octave mandolin with an additional pair of strings.

Mandolin is a solo, and accompanying, and ensemble instrument. There are mandolin orchestras of different sizes, sometimes they also include guitars . Such orchestras are called Neapolitan. Ginislao Paris , an Italian musician who lived in St. Petersburg, created a circle of mandolinists and guitarists in the 1870s, which soon turned into Russia's first full Neapolitan orchestra.

Mandolin was very popular in Russia in pre-Soviet times and after. Many films were voiced by the themes of the mandolin. Some of the most memorable are: solo in the songs of Papa Carlo, turtles Tortila and Pierrot, in the film "The Adventures of Pinocchio." Widespread in the Soviet Union were inexpensive, but not badly maintaining the musical system mandolins of the Leningrad Musical Instrument Plant (flat "Portuguese" mandolin). Mandolin was actively used in the initiative of the peoples of the Union of Soviet Republics along with national instruments, as evidenced by the mention in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, in an article on the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic:

“... In the Pamirs - setor (string-plucked), blanzik (string-plector), daf (percussion). In modern folk music playing there is an accordion, mandolin , tar. ”

Moldovan and Romanian folk music uses kobza, which has, like the mandolin, a pear-shaped body, a narrow short neck and four pair strings.

One of the greatest mandolinists of the XX century is considered an American musician Dave Apollo ^[2] .

Currently, interest in the mandolin is growing again and its capabilities are being increasingly used in a number of genres of modern music. It was used by Led Zeppelin in The Battle of Evermore (1971), Styx in Boat on the River (1980) in the song Losing My Religion of the alternative rock band REM, the main musical instrument is the mandolin. Mandolin is actively using Richie Blackmore in Blackmore's Night music. Mandocello sounds on the latest Nightwish album. Also playing the mandolin is the guitarist of the band " Aria " Vladimir Holstinin . You can hear the mandolin in the ballad of this group “ Paradise Lost ” and in the composition “ Baptism of Fire ”, also as a guest musician he played the mandolin with Sergei Mavrin on the album “ Wanderer ” in the song “Macadash” and in the metal opera of the group “ Epidemic ” “ Elven Manuscript ” in the song “Go Your Way.” Also, mandolin is present in some songs of the German folk metal band “ In Extremo ”.

• Four String Domra
• Lute ^[3]
• Bandurria
• Guitar

• The musical dictionary in the stories / Mikheeva L. - M .: 1986, 176 p.
• Encyclopedia of a Young Musician / I. Yu. Kubersky , E. V. Minin. - SPb.: LLC "Diamond", 2001. - 576 c.
• Riemann, Hugo. Music Dictionary : CD-ROM / Per. with him. B.P. Jurgenson, add. Russian by the rest. - M .: Direct Media Publishing, 2008.

• A site dedicated to mandolin (neopr.) . Date of treatment July 12, 2005. Archived November 30, 2012. (eng.)
• Page mandolinist Svetlana Myznikova (concert performance) (neopr.) . Date of treatment November 16, 2011. Archived November 30, 2012. (Russian) .
• Website of the mandolinist Olga Egorova (electro-mandolin) .
• Website mandolinist Anatoly Semikozov
• Page of Evgeny Bykov dedicated to the mandolin (amateur performance, tips for choosing an instrument, tricks of the game)
• Many faces mandolin
• Mandolin in pre-revolutionary Russia
• Gibson mandolin Léon Theremin's grandson (Theremin P. M.I. Glinka Museum)
• The origin of the mandolin