MANDOLIN

also spelled Mandoline, small stringed musical instrument related to the lute. It evolved in the 18th century and was built in several varieties in different Italian towns, the Neapolitan mandolin becoming the representative type. The instrument's form and proportions were strongly influenced by the maker Pasquale Vinaccia of Naples (180682). The mandolin has four pairs of steel strings tuned, by a machine head (as on a guitar), to violin pitch (gdae). The pear-shaped body is deeply vaulted; the fingerboard, with 17 frets, is slightly raised. The strings are hitched to the instrument's end. At its widest part, where the bridge is set, the belly angles downward, increasing the pressure of the strings on the bridge to give a brilliant tone of great carrying power. Quick movement of the plectrum across each unison pair of strings produces a characteristic tremolo. A shell plate around the oval sound hole protects the belly from damage by the plectrum. In the 20th century the mandolin was built in a family of sizes from soprano to contrabass. Compositions for the mandolin include a concerto by Antonio Vivaldi and the serenade in W.A. Mozart's opera Don Giovanni. The mandolin played in American bluegrass string bands is a shallow, flat-backed version of the instrument. The Milanese mandolin of the 18th century was a small, lutelike instrument with five or six courses of strings, a late variety of the medieval mandora.