The mandoloncello, also known as the modern and singable lute, mandocello in English-speaking countries, is often revisited for its ease of use and beautiful timbre, able to catch the attention of guitarists looking for something more experimental than usual.

It is larger than the mandolin and represents the baritone of the family, although we should mention the mandolone, which is almost completely lost and covered the lower range. It features 8 strings in paired courses which traditionally sound in unison, two by two.

Generally, it is tuned in fifths, similar to the mandolin, but due to the scale, it starts at C2. In orchestra placement, the mandocello occupies a role similar to the cello for violas.

Construction and Shape of the Mandocello

The shape of the mandocello largely mirrors that of the mandolin, except for the size. It can have a bowed body with a flat back, for models following the Vinaccia school active in the 18th century, while more modern ones from the early 20th century follow the design of the Gibson Guitar Corporation.

Gibson made them with flat backs and arched tops for the American market. The scale of the Gibson mandolocellos is about 62.87 cm, while Vega’s are 68.58 cm long. Some shorter models are about 57 cm.

The internal bracing also mirrors that of the mandolin. Current versions use an X-brace, while most Gibson models feature a single transverse bar located on the upper part of the top, just below the sound hole, which is oval.

However, many models, copying the typical shapes of violins for aesthetic reasons, prefer a f-shaped soundhole instead of the oval hole, with little difference in sound.

As for the fretboard, the rule calls for between 18 and 22 positions, but concert bell models can have more to allow virtuosos to reach higher registers to perform solo parts.

This trend is also related to the spread of the mandocello among guitarists, who often requested luthiers to craft instruments that were more familiar to them, if not even electrified.

String Layout of the Mandocello

The mandocello has four courses, each of which contains two strings. Since the gauge is quite large, it is not uncommon for folk-prepared instruments to remove one of the C strings to avoid unwanted buzzing during fortissimo performances.

To preserve the typical mandola effect, others choose to use thinner strings to avoid disturbance during intense performances.

Many mandolocellos with an additional pair of strings have been experimented with, resulting in a total of 5 courses, with one added above the highest course to enhance the expressiveness of soloists and virtuosos of the instrument.

In this case, it is often referred to as a cantabile or modern lute to distinguish it from the main instrument, though it remains part of the mandola family due to its constructional and expressive characteristics.

History of the Mandocello

This instrument developed in Europe, evolving in Italy from the lute family. It appeared around the 17th-19th century, but the bowl shape typical of Neapolitan musical culture and tradition stabilized in the 18th century.

Historically important are the early musicians who traveled across Europe and introduced the mandola family and thus the mandocello with the modern metal strings, quite revolutionary for the time.

We should mention Giovan Battista Gervasio, Pietro Denis, and Gabriele Leone, who, between 1750 and 1810, performed on many stages and in several important salons, bringing with them the new way of arranging pieces made possible by tremolo techniques.

From the archives of the Neapolitan Vinaccia family of luthiers come many documents from the period that led music historians to unanimously believe that the source of the first mandocello models and its formalization should be traced back to their workshop.

In the late Baroque, mandolin chamber ensembles became particularly popular in Neapolitan and Campanian circles. During this time, several instruments were created based on the soloist to complete the sound spectrum and allow the creation of ensembles that could compete with string orchestras.

The mandolone is often mentioned, a now forgotten instrument that was inadequately recovered by scholars but still the subject of significant debate. It had a tuning of fourths, A2-D3-G3-D4, and large, particularly heavy strings.

It is from this rudimentary bass instrument that the form of the mandocello derived, much more fortunate due to its more comfortable and lighter design. The golden age of these instruments spans from 1750 to 1825, but after 1815, musicology considers the cultured period of these string instruments to have ended.

This becomes the quintessential Neapolitan popular instrument while the mandolone almost completely disappears, leaving only a few heterogeneous specimens that make classification difficult.

Outside Italy, the mandola had become almost unknown, but there was a growing demand for novelty, and during the 1878 Paris Exhibition, new models were introduced that gave a significant boost to the field, catching the attention of composers and performers.

Vinaccia, besides stabilizing the mandolin, conceived, around 1835, the mandocello derived from the mandolone, but with a less piercing and high-pitched timbre than the mandolin, thus reducing the sound range.

The Neapolitan mandocello delivered the final blow to the few surviving mandolones, becoming the preferred instrument for covering the low registers in orchestras.

The resurgence of mandolins and mandocellos is also linked to the Estudiantina Figaro of Madrid, followed by many Italian musicians who then exported the instrument to the United States around 1880. There, the instrument enjoyed incredible success.

Gibson seized the opportunity to introduce its modern mandocello models, with arched backs and tops, and since then, the success of the instrument has had alternating fortunes, though it has never completely disappeared, remaining a key element of many orchestras, especially Italo-American ones.

Range and Tuning

The mandocello is tuned in four paired courses with the same pitch, C2-C2, G2-G2, D3-D3, A3-A3 like the cello.

It has a range of about 3-1/2 octaves, depending on the frets: with 18 frets, it extends 2 octaves below middle C and up to Eb5, while models with 24 frets reach A5. In versions with 10 paired strings, an additional half-octave is added with tones from E4 to E6.

Use in Orchestra

The mandocello is primarily used in mandolin orchestras and quartets, where it plays a role similar to the cello, both in terms of the bass and melodic parts.

In some cases, it is also used as a solo instrument, usually in arrangements of pieces written for solo cello. Pieces for cantabile lute were written by composer Raffaele Calace in the early 20th century.

Notable compositions were also presented at the Classical Mandolin Society Convention in Santa Rosa in 2018 by Dr. James Imhoff, one of the leading experts on the instrument, who helped revitalize it by introducing new composers from the United States, Australia, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

The mandocello is also frequently used in modern folk music, celtic music, and bluegrass, where the flat-back version is often employed. The sound is not particularly bright and fades in importance compared to other instruments like the mandolin.

Raffaele Calace, the author of the first specific method for cantabile lute, was an important performer of the mandocello and contributed in many ways, alongside the Vinaccia family, to optimizing the shape of the instrument between the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Mandocello in Contemporary Music

Played mainly with a plectrum and tremolo technique, though with less intensity than the mandolin, as it covers the lower spectrum, the mandocello finds a place in modern compositions, such as those performed by Stanley Greenthal, Carlo Alonso, or David Grisman.

In modern music, mention should be made of Steve Knightley of the English folk rock band Show of Hands, and Ryan Delahoussaye of the American band Blue October, with an instrument more guitar-like in arrangement.

Mandocello overdubs can also be found in Weather Report’s Birdland by Jaco Pastorius and Bon Jovi’s acoustic album This Left Feels Right, played by Richie Sambora on the track Lay Your Hands on Me.

How much does a Mandocello cost?

The prices of a mandocello can vary greatly, and as with any instrument, the luthier and materials used can make a big difference.

You can buy a mandocello starting from around 500€ and it can go up to several thousand euros.