Mandora
The mandora or gallichon is a type of 18th- and early 19th-century lute, with six to nine courses of strings. The terms were interchangeable, with mandora more commonly used from the mid-18th century onwards.
History
Mandora or gallichon generally refers to a bass lute from the 1700s, with a vibrating string length of 72 centimeters or greater, used in Germany and Bohemia. It could be either single- or double-strung.James Tyler pointed out in his book The Early Mandolin that the word mandora was rarely encountered before the 18th century. Then, it referred to a large bass lute. The gallichone, as it was better known, was a type of 6 or 8-course bass lute used, mainly for basso continuo, in Germany, Austria and Bohemia particularly during the 18th and early 19th centuries. It was also called the galizona, 'galichon or caledon. Tyler disputed that it was mainly used for continuo, saying it was used "both as a solo and as a continuo instrument". The instrument was popular in the 18th century and there are various surviving instruments and manuscript sources, mainly from Germany. The mandora often had only 6 courses, resulting in a simpler technique than the complex and difficult 13-course lute, so was more suitable for amateur players. Similar instruments were also in use in northern Italy, although generally referred to as "liuto" rather than mandora.
Composers for the gallichon/mandora include Johann Paul Schiffelholz and Telemann, as well as Ruggero Chiesa in the modern era. Chiesa called the instrument the colascione,' incorrectly as the colascione is a different instrument. Gottfried Finger suggested that it was used in Boheman musical circles. The mandora was still in use in the early 19th century, particularly in Vienna and the Bavarian town Eichstätt. The Viennese guitarist Simon Molitor mentions the mandora several times in his early 19th century writings and says that by that time mandoras had 8 single strings.
Construction
The bass type, similarly to the theorbo and other baroque lutes, has a vaulted body constructed of separate ribs, a flat soundboard with either a carved rose or one which is inset into the soundhole, and a bridge consisting of a wooden bar acting as a string-holder glued to the soundboard. Unique to this instrument is the neck, which is long enough to allow for ten to 12 tied gut frets. The pegbox is either straight and set at a sharp angle to the neck, or gently curving and set at a shallow angle, either case being fitted with laterally-inserted tuning pegs. The strings were of gut and are strung either singly or, especially on Italian instruments, in double courses. However, on German-made instruments, the first course is usually single and often has its own separate raised peg rider/holder attached to the pegbox. The number of courses varies from six to eight. Open string lengths tend to be fairly long on German instruments, but shorter on late Italian ones, probably because they tended to be tuned to a higher pitch.Luthiers who produced mandoras in the first half of the 18th century were Gregor Ferdinand Wenger in Augsburg, Jacob Goldt of Hamburg, Jacob Weiss of Salzburg, David Buchstetter of Regensburg and Mattias Greisser of Innsbruck. Italian-style instruments are represented by Martino Hell of Genoa, Enrico Ebar of Venice, David Tecchler of Rome, Antonio Scoti of Milan and, toward the end of the century, Antonio Monzino and Giuseppe Presbler of Milan.
At least 50 original instruments survive in collections around the world. Examples are found in museums in Berlin, Claremont, Copenhagen, Edinburgh, The Hague, Leipzig, Milan, Munich and Paris, New York and St. Petersburg. Many of these instruments are found in a more or less unaltered state, and therefore are often used as models for modern reconstructions.
Tuning
In the 18th century, mandora was the name of a six-course lute instrument of about 70 cm stringlength, tuned high-to-low d' - a - f - c - G - F or e' - b - g - d - A - E. With the former tuning, the instrument was called Calichon or Galichon in Bohemia.
Around 1800, a mutual interchange between the mandora and the guitar took place. The guitar, which had so far been tuned in re-entrant tuning, took over the 6th course and the tuning of the mandora, whereas the mandora took over the stringing with single strings instead of courses, as had been introduced to the guitar. The so-called wandervogellaute has been a late heir to that development.
From another source on tuning:
Two tunings are reported: a ‘galizona’ or ‘colachon’ is tuned A' -B' -C-D-G-c-e-a, and, under a separate heading, ‘mandora’ is given as D -E -F-G-c-f-a-d' or E-A-d-g-b-e'
The playing technique for the mandora involves the same basic right-hand finger style as for all 18th-century lutes and, because of the tuning intervals of the upper five courses, a left-hand technique that is similar to that of the 18th-century guitar.