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MANDOLINE (Fr. mandoline; Ger. Mandol...

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 566 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MANDOLINE (Fr. mandoline; Ger. Mandoline; It. mandolina) , the See also:treble member of the See also:lute See also:family, and therefore a stringed insrument of See also:great antiquity. The mandoline is classified am -ngst the stringed See also:instruments having a vaulted back, which is more accentuated than even that of the lute. The mandoline is strung with See also:steel and See also:brass See also:wire strings. There are two varieties of mandolines, both See also:Italian: (I) the Neapolitan, 2 ft. See also:long, which is the best known, and has four courses of pairs of unisons tuned like the See also:violin in fifths; (2) the Milanese, which is slightly larger and has five or six courses of pairs of unisons. The See also:neck is covered by a See also:finger-See also:board, on which are distributed the twelve or more frets which See also:form nuts at the correct points under the strings on which the fingers must See also:press to obtain the See also:chromatic semitones of the See also:scale. The strings are twanged by means of a plectrum or pick, held between the thumb and first finger of the right See also:hand. In See also:order to strike a See also:string the pick is given a gliding See also:motion over the string combined with a down or an up See also:movement, respectively indicated by signs over the notes. In order to sustain notes on the mandoline the effect known as tremolo is employed; it is produced by means of a See also:double movement of the pick up and down over a pair of strings. ' On the ruins of the old See also:Melle dominions arose five smaller kingdoms, representing different sections of the See also:Mandingo peoples. The mandoline is a derivative of the mandola or mandore, which was smaller than the lute but larger than either of the mandolines described above. It had from four to eight courses of strings, the chanterelle or See also:melody string being single and the others in pairs of unisons.

The mandore is mentioned in See also:

Robert de Calenson (12th cent.), and elsewhere; it may be identified with the See also:pandura. The Neapolitan mandoline was scored for by See also:Mozart as an See also:accompaniment to the celebrated See also:serenade in See also:Don Juan. See also:Beethoven wrote for it a Sonatina per it mandolino, dedicated to his friend Krumpholz. See also:Gretry and See also:Paisiello also introduced it into their operas as an accompaniment to serenades. The earliest method for the mandoline was published by Fouchette in See also:Paris in 177o. The earliest mention of the See also:instrument in See also:England, in 1707, is quoted in See also:Ashton's Social See also:Life in the Reign of See also:Queen See also:Anne: "Signior See also:Conti will See also:play . . . . on the mandoline, an instrument not known yet." (K.

End of Article: MANDOLINE (Fr. mandoline; Ger. Mandoline; It. mandolina)

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