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| Mandolin |
I absolutely
love the mandolin. Its beauty is incomparable and its sound is so unique. I
can’t say that I’ve ever seen a liv performance with a mandolin but I’d sure
like too. One of the things that intrigues me about the fretted acoustic instrument
is that it has eight strings. I played guitar for two years when I was younger
and I could barely move my fingers around six strings. So, given my admiration
yet lack of familiarity with the mandolin, I figured doing a blog post on it
would give me a chance to learn more about it.
As you may have
been able to guess, the mandolin’s roots date way back. Based on cave paintings
made between 15000 BC and 8500 BC, the earliest string instrument, which had
one string instrument and was played with a bow. The next known chordophone
(instrument whose sound derives from the vibration of strings) appeared in 2000
BC. This chordophone would begin the evolution of the lute, which would in turn
begin the evolution of the mandolin.
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| Oud |
The first
instrument to really get the ball rolling was called the oud. Created in 711 AD
it was very popular in Spain and Arabic countries and is still much in use
today in eastern parts of the world. The actual European lute appeared in the
thirteenth century. At this time, the lute was mainly different from the oud
due to its fretted neck. (Today they both have 12 strings and although the lute
is less common, the lute can also be unfretted. The major difference lies in
their sounds.)
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| Lute |
During the
fourteenth century a small lute called the mandore appeared in Western Europe.
In Italy, the mandore was tinkered with by several instrument makers and was
eventually redesigned and called a mandolino. Interestingly and disgustingly,
it was on this instrument that the Italians used catgut strings, which were
strings made from the fibres found in the intestines of animals (mostly sheep
and goats). It was during the eighteenth century in Naples, the mandolin became
known as the mandolin. And that is how the beautiful mandolin came to be. I
hope you learned as much as I did!
Sources:
Wow, I’ve never heard of the mandolin, it seems like an amazing instrument! I find it very interesting that the lute and the oud both have 12 strings. I wonder how hard it must be to play them. I can’t believe they used animal intestines as strings! I guess you learn something new every day! Great blog!
ReplyDeleteThank you! Yes, when I think about playing a twelve-stringed instrument my brain starts to ache and I just get the shivers. I’d never be able to do it! I could barely play guitar when I took lessons and that only has half the strings!
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