I would second Martin's intelligent guess of mandocello.
As for the lutoid... the instrument that comes to mind is the folk-lute we call "Polítiko" in Greece; no, NOT as in politics but as in "Constantinopolitan". It is the one developed in pre-revolutionary Constantinople, present-day Istanbul, as a crossbreed between the oud and the numerous bass folk-lutes that evolved in the Greek islands that were under Venetian rule— a most interesting cross-pollenization! The Turks call it "lavta"; such instruments, still made in Istanbul today, do come up on eBay from time to time.
The "laoúto polítiko" is tuned to (A)A-dd-aa-d'd' (The parenthesis indicates that it is, more often than not, a 7-string instrument. Its "harmonic bias" is clearly D-keyed, with the upper three courses tuned to the familiar bozuk düzeni, the Venetian quintaquarta DAD, with an additional, dominant drone in the bottom, single- or double-strung.
Lovely instrument, sans fauna. I wish I could tell the pudding's flavor from afar.
It is not man that lives but his work. (Ioannis Kapodistrias)
Bookmarks