# Music by Genre > Orchestral, Classical, Italian, Medieval, Renaissance >  Mandolin and lute

## Ajataa

Hi,
I'm going to get my conservatory mandolin degree, and I'm really fond of baroque music.
So, do you think that a mandolinist is facilitated to play lute and theorbo?
Thanks

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## billkilpatrick

different tunings ... whenever i play anything tuned in 4ths, i feel my brain changing shape - very uncomfortable.

da dove laureato lei? - bill (in toscana)

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## Alex Timmerman

Hi Ajataa,

Playing the Italian lute kinds and/or theorbos will not so much 'facilitate' playing the gut-strung Mandolino and/or the early Mandolin types. But it will certainly give you a greater understanding of the mandolin, its history, its music and the various ways inwhich they were played. 
With _"various ways inwhich they were played"_ I mean the manner of playing the Mandolino RH finger style and - somewhat later in time - with a quill and from what materials these quills were made with regard to the (early) Mandolin types used. 

Best, Alex.

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## etbarbaric

Hi Ajataa,

Well, it does depend on what you mean by "mandolin"... :-)  You say that you love Baroque music.  If that is really the case, I'd lean heavily toward the lute.  The earliest Neapolitan mandolins don't seem to have come around until the 1740s... and most of their music is somewhat later. Bach was dead by 1750.... Nuff said... :-)  If your focus is on the plectrum-played neapolitan mandolin, then there may be less cross-pollination, as it were.

That said, the earlier gut-strung mandolino and its variants are tuned quite similarly to the lute (primarily in fourths and played with the fingers).  There is some evidence of overlap between archlute/theorbo players who may have also played the mandolino.  Depending on the variety of lute, and the era of music selected, the right-hand technique does vary.  Nonetheless, it can be done.

Personally, I find it hard to argue with 300+ years of lute repertoire. It is some of the "best music yet written"... and one can easily spend a lifetime soaking up what it has to say.  Consider the ability to pay wonderful Renaissance lute or vihuela music, play Weiss on the D-minor lute, or the ability to pay continuo on the archlute and/or theorbo with most any baroque band... and I think I know what I'd study if I were young again (I know... heresy for this list... ) 

Best,

Eric 




> Hi,
> I'm going to get my conservatory mandolin degree, and I'm really fond of baroque music.
> So, do you think that a mandolinist is facilitated to play lute and theorbo?
> Thanks

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## Simen Kjaersdalen

Rolf Lislevand from Norway plays all of the lute-instruments, including the mandolin, on a very high level indeed - there you have one. The amount of high-quality lute music is just increadible, and John Downland alone is worth a study of a lifetime. You don't have to worry too much about tuning, because all lute-music is written in tab, and much of it available on the web. I've been playing guitar/lute and mandolin for many years now, and I think it's an extremly fine combination. But of course, I'm not a professional on either of the instruments, just a poet that happend to try out some strings. :Smile:

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## vkioulaphides

> ... just a poet that happend to try out some strings.


I could claim no finer, or more fitting title for myself: I so _happened_ to be handed (plucked) string instruments. One of my favorite pictures is of myself, aged 4-or-so, on my favorite aunt's lap, playing... a plastic mandolin! (brown bowl, white fingerboard, with primary-color markers ;-) Later, around age 7, my dear mother also _happened_ to teach me "the notes" (as rudimentary musicianship was known at that time) while cooking; I sat at the kitchen table and took dictation, with the smell of sauté onion and oregano wafting in the air. That's perhaps how I came to see some "poetry" in everyday things...

But I am no poet, of course, other than in writing those silly limericks that preface some of my scores, addressed to the recipient (ONLY!) And, as for the lute, _ars longa, vita brevis_, and all that. I will happily sit back and listen... I will leave both poetry and the lute to the younger, wiser, and/or more talented. 

Cheers,

Victor

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## Alex Timmerman

Hi Ajataa,

reading the above posts, it is (perhaps) better _not_ to think to much about lute kinds earlier than 1680 and the way these instruments were played in all their differences if compared to the RH finger-played, gut- and double strung Mandolino. Especially _not_ with the lute kinds outside Italy.

Much more of interest with regard to the Mandolino is the playing manner of the Italian 'Chitarra spagnola' in the Baroque period till around 1780.


Good luck,

Alex.

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## margora

I play renaissance lute (8, 10 course) thumb under and baroque lute (13 course) thumb out.   I began on lute after playing (modern) mandolin for several years.  There is no question that thumb under on the renaissance lute is easier to master if one is facile with a plectrum on the modern mandolin, as the fundamental motion in thumb under derives from medieval lute, which was played with a plectrum.   Last summer I saw Paul O'dette play the Vivaldi mandolin concerto on a 6-course mandolino using his fingers and his right hand position was somewhere in between thumb under and thumb out (quite similar to when I have seen him play theorobo).  It was a fantastic performance.

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## Ajataa

[QUOTE=Simen Kjaersdalen;800729]Rolf Lislevand from Norway plays all of the lute-instruments, including the mandolin, on a very high level indeed - there you have one. The amount of high-quality lute music is just increadible, and John Downland alone is worth a study of a lifetime. You don't have to worry too much about tuning, because all lute-music is written in tab, and much of it available on the web.QUOTE]

I've heard Lislevand CD about Vivaldi edit from Naive, and it's amazig, but Lislevand started with classical guitar isn't it?
Thanks all for the answers, now I'm studing and preparing my degree in Neapolitan mandolin, and I'd like to perform in not professional baroque ensembles, that in Italy are often related to churches...so the lute is more requested than the mandolin.

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## Acquavella

Hello, 

I recommend you study both the lute and theorboe. If you want to have a solid career as a musican, whether it be mandolin, lute, theorboe or guitar....you need as many tools in the "tool box" so to speak. The more options you can offer clients, the more jobs you will secure. Learning lute/theorboe will open opportunities to accompany singers who are always looking for an accompanist. The difference in tuning will not be much of an issue if you become proficient at both. Switching between guitar and mandolin only affects me for a minute and then my brain & hands adjust. Definitely don't give up an opportunity to learn lute while you are at college. 

Chris.....

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## Simen Kjaersdalen

"I've heard Lislevand CD about Vivaldi edit from Naive, and it's amazing, but Lislevand started with classical guitar isn't it?"


Yes, that is right. Lislevand started with classical guitar, then moved on to baroque guitar and the lute and mandolin - as far as I know. But why not go the other direction?

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