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| Other names | Tenor mandolin, Alto mandola, Alto mandolin, Mandoliola, Liola |
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| Classification | String instrument (plucked) |
| Hornbostel–Sachs classification | 321.322 (Compositechordophone) |
| Playing range | |
| C3-D6 or E6 | |
| Related instruments | |
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Themandola (US and Canada) ortenor mandola (Ireland and UK) is a fretted,stringedmusical instrument. It is to themandolin what theviola is to theviolin: the four double courses of strings tuned in fifths to the same pitches as the viola (C3-G3-D4-A4), a fifth lower than a mandolin.[1] The mandola, though now rarer, is an ancestor of the mandolin. (The wordmandolin meanslittle mandola.)
The namemandola may originate with the ancientpandura, and is also rendered asmandora,[2] the change perhaps having been due to approximation to the Italian word for "almond". The instrument developed from thelute at an early date, being more compact and cheaper to build, but the sequence of development and nomenclature in different regions is now hard to discover. Historically related instruments include themandore, mandole, vandola (Joan Carles Amat, 1596), bandola, bandora, bandurina, pandurina and – in16th-centuryGermany – thequinterne or chiterna.
However, significantly different instruments have at times and places taken on the same or similar names, and the "true" mandola has been strung in several different ways.[3]
The mandola has four double courses of metal strings, tuned inunison. The scale length is typically around 42 cm (16.5 inches).[4] The mandola is typically played with aplectrum (pick). The double strings accommodate a sustaining technique calledtremolando, a rapid alternation of the plectrum on a single course of strings.
The mandola is commonly used infolk music—particularlyItalian folk music. It is sometimes played inIrish traditional music, but the instrumentsoctave mandolin,Irish bouzouki and moderncittern are more commonly used. Some Irish traditional musicians, following the example ofAndy Irvine, restring the tenor mandola with lighter,mandolin strings and tune it F-C-G-C (two semi-tones lower than G-D-A-D, since the mandola's fretboard is two frets longer than the mandolin's), while others (Brian McDonagh ofDervish being the best known) use alternate tunings such as D-A-E-A. Like theguitar, the mandola can be acoustic or electric.Attila the Stockbroker, punk poet and frontman of Barnstormer, uses an electric mandola as his main instrument, and Lief Sørbye of the bandTempest play an electric, double-neck mandola/mandolin.Alex Lifeson, guitarist ofRush, has also featured the mandola in his work.[5]
Mandolas are sometimes played inmandolin orchestras, along with other members of the mandolin family: mandolin,mandocello andmandobass.[6][7] Sometimes theoctave mandolin (also referred to as an octave mandola) is included as well.[8]
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