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{{short description|Musical instrument in the lute family}}
{{About|the musical instrument|the kitchen tool|Mandoline}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}{{Infobox instrument
| name           = Mandolin
| image          = Mandolin MET DP169023 (2).jpg
| image_capt     = Neapolitan mandolin
| background     = string
| classification = * [[String instrument]]
* [[Plucked string instrument]]
| hornbostel_sachs = [[List of musical instruments by Hornbostel-Sachs number: 321.321|321.321-6]] (Neapolitan) or [[List of musical instruments by Hornbostel-Sachs number: 321.322|321.322-6]] (flat-backed)
| hornbostel_sachs_desc = [[Chordophone]] with permanently attached resonator and neck, sounded by a [[plectrum]]
| developed      = Mid-18th century from the mandolino
| timbre         = varies with the type:
*spruce carved-top, bright
*flatback, warm or mellow
| decay          = fast
| range          = [[File:Range mandolin.PNG|130px|center]]<div align=center>(a regularly tuned mandolin with 14 frets to body)</div>
| related        = {{collapsible list|
* '''Modern Family'''
**Mandolin
**[[Mandola]]
**[[Octave mandolin]]
**[[Mandocello]]
**[[Mandobass]]
*'''Ancestral instruments'''
**[[Gittern]]
**[[Mandore (instrument)|Mandore]]
*'''Related'''
*[[Bandurria]]
*[[Angélique (instrument)|Angélique]]
*[[Archlute]]
*[[Balalaika]]
*[[Bouzouki]]
*[[Chitarra italiana]]
*[[Domra]]
*[[Irish bouzouki]]
*[[Lute]]
*[[Mandriola]]
*[[Mandole]]
*[[Oud]]
*[[Pandura]]
*[[Balkan tambura|Tambura]]
}}
|sound sample    = {{listen
|type=music
|filename=Oh Little Town of Bethlehem mandolin version.ogg
|title=''Oh Little Town of Bethlehem'' played on mandolins.
|description=A public domain recording.}}
}}
A '''mandolin''' ({{langx|it|mandolino}}, {{IPA|it|mandoˈliːno|pron}}; literally "small [[mandola]]") is a [[Chordophone|stringed musical instrument]] in the [[lute]] family and is generally [[Plucked string instrument|plucked]] with a [[plectrum|pick]]. It most commonly has four [[Course (music)|courses]] of doubled [[Strings (music)|strings]] tuned in [[unison]], thus giving a total of eight strings. A variety of string types are used, with steel strings being the most common and usually the least expensive. The courses are typically tuned in an interval of [[perfect fifths]], with the same tuning as a violin (G3, D4, A4, E5). Also, like the violin, it is the [[soprano]] member of a [[Family (musical instruments)|family]] that includes the [[mandola]], [[octave mandolin]], [[mandocello]] and [[mandobass]].

There are many styles of mandolin, but the three most common types are the ''Neapolitan'' or ''round-backed'' mandolin, the ''archtop'' mandolin and the ''flat-backed'' mandolin. The round-backed version has a deep bottom, constructed of strips of wood, glued together into a bowl. The ''archtop'', also known as the ''carved-top'' mandolin, has an arched top and a shallower, arched back both carved out of wood. The flat-backed mandolin uses thin sheets of wood for the body, braced on the inside for strength in a similar manner to a guitar. Each style of instrument has its own sound quality and is associated with particular styles of music. Neapolitan mandolins feature prominently in European [[classical music]] and in [[traditional music]] like the [[Andean music]] of Peru.<ref>Mendívil, J. (2010). Yo soy el huayno: el huayno peruano como confluencia de lo indígena con lo hispano y lo moderno. A tres bandas. Mestizaje, sincretismo e hibridación en el espacio sonoro iberoamericano, 37-46.</ref><ref>De Souza Pacheco, J. A. (2022). La construcción de lo andino en el imaginario musical fusión de la banda El Polen en la Lima cosmopolita de la década de 1970.</ref><ref>{{Cite thesis |title=Las agrupaciones en el Perú |last=Auqui Solis |first=Marlene |publisher=[[National University of Education Enrique Guzmán y Valle]] |url=https://repositorio.une.edu.pe/server/api/core/bitstreams/db7e76b9-012a-4efa-ae53-a8f05b7ffbee/content |place=Lima, Peru |language=es |pages=33, 43, 63}}</ref> Archtop instruments are common in American [[folk music]] and [[bluegrass music]]. Flat-backed instruments are commonly used in Irish, British, and Brazilian folk music, and Mexican ''estudiantinas''.

Other mandolin variations differ primarily in the number of strings and include four-string models (tuned in fifths) such as the Brescian and Cremonese; six-string types (tuned in [[Perfect fourth|fourths]]) such as the Milanese, Lombard, and Sicilian; six-course instruments of 12 strings (two strings per course) such as the Genoese; and the [[tricordia]], with four triple-string courses (12 strings total).<ref name=hynds>{{cite web |url=http://www.mandolinluthier.com/history.htm |title=Mandolins: A Brief History |author=Dave Hynds |website=Mandolinluthier.com |access-date=2010-10-31}}</ref>

Design changes in the history of the mandolin have often involved the soundboard (the top). Early instruments were quiet, strung with gut strings, and plucked with the fingers or with a quill. Modern instruments are louder, using metal strings, which exert more pressure than the gut strings. The modern soundboard is designed to withstand the pressure of metal strings that would break earlier instruments. The soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. It usually has one or more [[sound hole]]s in it, which may be round, oval, or shaped like a calligraphic {{serif|''f''}} (f-hole). A round or oval sound hole may be covered with a decorative rosette or bordered with [[purfling]].<ref>''Musical Instruments: A Comprehensive Dictionary'', by Sibyl Marcuse (Corrected Edition 1975)</ref><ref name="grove">''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second Edition'', edited by Stanley Sadie and others (2001)</ref>

== History ==
{{main|History of the mandolin}}
[[File:Luigi Bassi480.jpg|thumb|left|In 1787, [[Luigi Bassi]] played the role of [[Don Juan|Don Giovanni]] in [[Don Giovanni|Mozart's opera]], serenading a woman with a mandolin. This used to be the common picture of the mandolin, an obscure instrument of romance in the hands of a Spanish nobleman<ref name="Sparks3-4">{{harvnb|Sparks|2003|pages=3–4}}</ref>]]

Mandolins evolved from [[lute]]s, a family of instruments in Europe. Predecessors include the [[gittern]] and [[mandore (instrument)|mandore]] or mandola in [[Italy]] during the 17th and 18th centuries. There were a variety of regional variants, but the two most widespread ones were the Neapolitan mandolin and the Lombard mandolin. The Neapolitan style has spread worldwide.

== Construction ==
[[File:Parts of the Mandolin.png|thumb|upright=.65|Anatomy of a bowlback mandolin in schematic drawing]]
Mandolins have a body that acts as a [[resonator]], attached to a [[Neck (music)|neck]]. The resonating body may be shaped as a bowl ([[List of musical instruments by Hornbostel-Sachs number: 321.321|necked bowl lutes]]) or a box ([[List of musical instruments by Hornbostel-Sachs number: 321.322|necked box lutes]]). Traditional Italian mandolins, such as the Neapolitan mandolin, meet the necked bowl description.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://omeka1.grinnell.edu/MusicalInstruments/items/show/256 |title=Mandolin – Neapolitan |author=Roger Vetter|website=Grinnell College Musical Instrument Collection |access-date=September 5, 2015 }}</ref> The necked box instruments include archtop mandolins and the flatback mandolins.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://omeka1.grinnell.edu/MusicalInstruments/items/show/452|title=Mandolin – flat-back
 |author=Roger Vetter|website=Grinnell College Musical Instrument Collection |access-date=September 5, 2015 |quote="a newly developed resonator design pioneered by the Gibson Company with arched top and back boards with f-shaped soundholes, like violin resonators"}}</ref>

[[String (music)|Strings]] run between mechanical tuning machines at the top of the neck to a tailpiece that anchors the other end of the strings. The strings are suspended over the neck and [[Sound board (music)|soundboard]] and pass over a [[Bridge (instrument)#Construction|floating bridge]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?84748-OM-floating-bridge |title= OM floating bridge?|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date= April 20, 2012|website= Mandolin Cafe|access-date=September 5, 2015 }}</ref>{{better source needed|date=September 2020|reason=forum threads are not reliable sources}} The bridge is kept in contact with the soundboard by the downward pressure from the strings. The neck is either flat or has a slight radius, and is covered with a fingerboard with [[fret]]s.<ref name=McDonaldp1>{{harvnb|McDonald|2008|p=1}}</ref><ref name=Britannica>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Mandoline |volume= 17 |last= Schlesinger |first= Kathleen |author-link= Kathleen Schlesinger | pages = 565&ndash;566 }}</ref><ref name= Mandolincaferadiusedfingerboard>{{cite web | title= Radiused vs. flat fingerboard on mandolin?|date= May 3, 2010 | url=http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?61875-Radiused-vs-flat-fingerboard-on-mandolin | access-date= March 28, 2015}}</ref> The action of the strings on the bridge causes the soundboard to vibrate, producing sound.<ref>{{cite book |last=Siminoff|first= Roger H.|date= 2002|title=The Luthier's Handbook |location= Milwaukee, Wisconsin|publisher= Hal Leonard Corporation|page=13 |isbn=978-0-634-01468-0}}</ref>

Like any plucked instrument, mandolin notes decay to silence rather than sound out continuously as with a bowed note on a [[violin]], and mandolin notes decay faster than larger chordophones like the guitar. This encourages the use of [[tremolo]] (rapid picking of one or more pairs of strings) to create sustained notes or chords. The mandolin's paired strings facilitate this technique: the plectrum (pick) strikes each of a pair of strings alternately, providing a more full and continuous sound than a single string would.

Various design variations and amplification techniques have been used to make mandolins comparable in volume with louder instruments and orchestras, including the creation of [[mandolin-banjo]] hybrids with the drum-like body of the louder [[banjo]], adding metal resonators (most notably by [[Dobro]] and the [[National String Instrument Corporation]]) to make a [[resonator mandolin]], and amplifying [[electric mandolin]]s through amplifiers.

== Tuning ==
A variety of different tunings are used. Usually, [[course (music)|courses]] of 2 adjacent strings are tuned in unison. By far the most common tuning is the same as violin tuning, in [[scientific pitch notation]] G<sub>3</sub>–D<sub>4</sub>–A<sub>4</sub>–E<sub>5</sub>, or in [[Helmholtz pitch notation]]: g–d′–a′–e″.

* fourth (lowest tone) [[course (music)|course]]: G<sub>3</sub> ({{val|196.00|ul=Hz}})
* third course: D<sub>4</sub> ({{val|293.66|u=Hz}})
* second course: A<sub>4</sub> ({{val|440.00|u=Hz}}; [[A (musical note)|A]] above [[middle C]])
* first (highest tone) course: E<sub>5</sub> ({{val|659.25|u=Hz}})

The numbers of Hz shown above assume a [[A440 (pitch standard)|440&nbsp;Hz A]], standard in most parts of the western world. Some players use an A up to 10&nbsp;Hz above or below a 440, mainly outside the United States.

[[File:Mandolin fretboard.png]]

Other tunings exist, including ''cross-tunings'', in which the usually doubled string runs are tuned to different pitches. Additionally, guitarists may sometimes tune a mandolin to mimic a portion of the intervals on a standard guitar tuning to achieve familiar fretting patterns.

== Mandolin family ==
<!-- This section is linked from [[List of musical instruments]] -->
[[File:Gibson-mandolin-orchestra.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.25|Clockwise from top left: 1920 Gibson F-4 mandolin; 1917 Gibson H-2 mandola; 1929 Gibson mando-bass; and 1924 Gibson K-4 mandocello from Gregg Miner's collection]]

=== Soprano ===
The mandolin is the soprano member of the mandolin family, as the [[violin]] is the soprano member of the [[violin family]]. Like the violin, its scale length is typically about {{convert|13|in}}. Modern American mandolins modelled after Gibsons have a longer [[Scale length (string instruments)|scale]], about {{convert|13+7/8|in}}. The strings in each of its double-strung [[course (music)|courses]] are tuned in unison, and the courses use the same tuning as the violin: G<sub>3</sub>–D<sub>4</sub>–A<sub>4</sub>–E<sub>5</sub>.

=== Piccolo ===
[[File:Piccolomando.jpg|thumb|right|upright=.5|Piccolo mandolin]]
The ''piccolo'' or ''sopranino mandolin'' is a rare member of the family, tuned one octave above the mandola and one fourth above the mandolin (C<sub>4</sub>–G<sub>4</sub>–D<sub>5</sub>–A<sub>5</sub>); the same relation as that of the [[piccolo]] (to the [[western concert flute]]) or [[violino piccolo]] (to the [[violin]] and [[viola]]). One model was manufactured by the Lyon & Healy company under the Leland brand. A handful of modern intruments makers build piccolo mandolins.

=== Alto ===
The [[mandola]], termed the ''tenor mandola'' in Britain and Ireland and ''liola'' or ''alto mandolin'' in continental Europe, is tuned a fifth below the mandolin, in the same relationship as that of the [[viola]] to the [[violin]]. Some also call this instrument the "alto mandola". Its scale length is typically about {{convert|16+1/2|in}}. It is normally tuned like a viola (perfect fifth below the mandolin) and tenor banjo: C<sub>3</sub>–G<sub>3</sub>–D<sub>4</sub>–A<sub>4</sub>.

=== Tenor ===
[[File:Octave2edit.JPG|thumb|right|upright=.5|A flatback octave mandolin]]
The ''[[octave mandolin]]'' (US and Canada), termed the ''octave mandola'' in Britain and Ireland and ''mandola'' in continental Europe, is tuned an octave below the mandolin: G<sub>2</sub>–D<sub>3</sub>–A<sub>3</sub>–E<sub>4</sub>. Its relationship to the mandolin is that of the [[tenor violin]] to the violin, or the [[tenor saxophone]] to the [[soprano saxophone]]. Octave mandolin scale length is typically about {{convert|20|in}}, although instruments with scales as short as {{convert|17|in}} or as long as {{convert|21|in}} are not unknown.

The instrument has a variant off the coast of South America in Trinidad, where it is known as the [[Bandol (instrument)|bandol]], a flat-backed instrument with four courses, the lower two strung with metal and nylon strings.<ref name="Winer2009">{{cite book|author=Lise Winer|title=Dictionary of the English/Creole of Trinidad & Tobago: On Historical Principles|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_n82hsbDJBMC&pg=PA50|access-date=5 May 2013|date=16 January 2009|publisher=McGill-Queen's Press – MQUP|isbn=978-0-7735-7607-0|pages=50–}}</ref>

{{multiple image|caption_align=center|header_align=center
 | align = left
| image1 = Beth Patterson at Dublin Ohio Irish Fest 06.jpg
 | width1 = 144
 | alt1 = Irish Bouzouki
 | caption1 =Irish bouzouki played by [[Beth Patterson]] at [[Dublin, Ohio]]'s Irish Fest

| image2 = Musician with cittern, RI Scotish Highland Festival, 2012-06-09.jpg
 | width2 = 160
 | alt2 = cittern
 | caption2 = Musician with cittern, RI Scottish Highland Festival, June 2012

| image3 = Hamburger waldzither.jpg
 | width3 = 90
 | alt3 = waldzither
 | caption3 = A waldzither
}}

The [[Irish bouzouki]], though not strictly a member of the mandolin family, has a reasonable resemblance and similar range to the octave mandolin. It derives from the [[Bouzouki|Greek bouzouki]] (a long-necked lute), constructed like a flat-backed mandolin and uses fifth-based tunings, most often G<sub>2</sub>–D<sub>3</sub>–A<sub>3</sub>–D<sub>4</sub>. Other tunings include: A<sub>2</sub>–D<sub>3</sub>–A<sub>3</sub>–D<sub>4</sub>, G<sub>2</sub>–D<sub>3</sub>–A<sub>3</sub>–E<sub>4</sub> (an octave below the mandolin—in which case it essentially functions as an octave mandolin), G<sub>2</sub>–D<sub>3</sub>–G<sub>3</sub>–D<sub>4</sub> or A<sub>2</sub>–D<sub>3</sub>–A<sub>3</sub>–E<sub>4</sub>. Although the Irish bouzouki's bass course pairs are most often tuned in unison, on some instruments one of each pair is replaced with a lighter string and tuned in octaves, similar to the 12-string [[guitar]]. While occupying the same range as the octave mandolin/octave mandola, the Irish bouzouki is theoretically distinguished from the former instrument by its longer scale length, typically from {{convert|24|to|26|in}}, although scales as long as {{convert|27|in}}, which is the usual Greek bouzouki scale, are not unknown. In modern usage, however, the terms "octave mandolin" and "Irish bouzouki" are often used interchangeably to refer to the same instrument.

The modern [[cittern]] may also be loosely included in an "extended" mandolin family, based on resemblance to the flat-backed mandolins, which it predates. Its own lineage dates it back to [[the Renaissance]]. It is typically a five course (ten-string) instrument having a scale length between {{convert|20|and|22|in}}. The instrument is most often tuned to either D<sub>2</sub>–G<sub>2</sub>–D<sub>3</sub>–A<sub>3</sub>–D<sub>4</sub> or G<sub>2</sub>–D<sub>3</sub>–A<sub>3</sub>–D<sub>4</sub>–A<sub>4</sub>, and is essentially an [[octave mandola]] with a fifth course at either the top or the bottom of its range. Some luthiers, such as Stefan Sobell, also refer to the octave mandola or a shorter-scaled Irish bouzouki as a cittern, irrespective of whether it has four or five courses.

Other relatives of the cittern, which might also be loosely linked to the mandolins (and are sometimes tuned and played as such), include the 6-course/12-string [[Portuguese guitar]] and the 5-course/9-string [[waldzither]].

=== Baritone/Bass ===
{{multiple image|caption_align=center|header_align=center
 | align = left

 | image3 =دندنة.jpg
 | width3 = 110
 | alt3 = Algerian mandole
 | caption3 = Algerian mandole (flatback) from the side

| image2 = Laghouto.jpg
 | width2 = 110
 | alt2 = Greek laouta
 | caption2  =19th- and 20th-century laouta

| image1= Redhead Mandocello by Nevin Fahs (luthier) - 1.jpg
 | width1 = 110
 | alt1 = Mandocello
 | caption1  =Neapolitan styled mandocello built to {{convert|26+3/8|in|adj=on}} scale
}}
The [[mandocello]] is classically tuned to an octave plus a fifth below the mandolin, in the same relationship as that of the [[cello]] to the violin, its strings being tuned to C<sub>2</sub>–G<sub>2</sub>–D<sub>3</sub>–A<sub>3</sub>. Its scale length is typically about {{convert|26|in}}. A typical violoncello scale is {{convert|27|in}}.

[[File:Giuseppe branzoli concert rome.jpg|thumb|upright=.5|right|A mandolone played by [[Giuseppe Branzoli]] during a concert in [[Rome]], 1889]]
The [[mandolone]] was a [[Baroque music|Baroque]] member of the mandolin family in the bass range that was surpassed by the mandocello. It was part of the Neapolitan mandolin family.

The Greek ''[[laouto]]'' or ''laghouto'' (long-necked lute) is similar to a mandocello, ordinarily tuned C<sub>3</sub>/C<sub>2</sub>–G<sub>3</sub>/G<sub>2</sub>–D<sub>3</sub>/D<sub>3</sub>–A<sub>3</sub>/A<sub>3</sub> with half of each pair of the lower two courses being tuned an octave high on a lighter gauge string. The body is a staved bowl, the saddle-less bridge glued to the flat face like most ouds and lutes, with mechanical tuners, steel strings, and tied gut frets. Modern laoutos, as played on Crete, have the entire lower course tuned to C<sub>3</sub>, a [[Reentrant tuning|reentrant octave]] above the expected low C. Its scale length is typically about {{convert|28|in}}.

The Algerian ''[[mandole]]'' was developed by an Italian [[luthier]] in the early 1930s, scaled up from a mandola until it reached a scale length of approximately 25 to 27 inches.<ref name=bendameche>{{cite web|url= http://abdelkaderbendameche.skyrock.com/3226437593-posted-on-2014-07-25.html|title= Mr Abdelkader Bendamèche répond à l'APS au sujet du mandole (Translation: Mr Abdelkader Bendamèche responds to the APS about the mandola)|last= Bendamèche|first= Abdelkader|date= 25 July 2014|website= abdelkaderbendameche.skyrock.com|access-date= 25 July 2017|quote= ABDELKADER BENDAMECHE President of the National Council Arts and Letters, Algiers, 21 July 2014|archive-date= 29 July 2017|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170729174914/http://abdelkaderbendameche.skyrock.com/3226437593-posted-on-2014-07-25.html|url-status= dead}}</ref> It is a flatback instrument, with a wide neck and 4 courses (8 strings), 5 courses (10 strings) or 6 courses (12 strings), and is used in Algeria and Morocco. The instrument can be tuned as a guitar, [[oud]], or mandocello, depending on the music it will be used to play and player preference. When tuning it as a guitar the strings will be tuned (E<sub>2</sub>) (E<sub>2</sub>) A<sub>2</sub> A<sub>2</sub> D<sub>3</sub> D<sub>3</sub> G<sub>3</sub> G<sub>3</sub> B<sub>3</sub> B<sub>3</sub> (E<sub>4</sub>) (E<sub>4</sub>);<ref name=Richards>{{cite book |last=Richards |first=Tobe A. |title= The Musician's Workbook VI, Fretted Instrument Octave Designation Diagram & Charts|url=https://www.stringsbymail.com/TuningChart.pdf |page=4 |quote=Guitar – Standard Tuning E<sub>2</sub> A<sub>2</sub> D<sub>3</sub> G<sub>3</sub> B<sub>3</sub> E<sub>4</sub>}}</ref> strings in parentheses are dropped for a five- or four-course instrument. Using a common Arabic oud tuning D<sub>2</sub> D<sub>2</sub> G<sub>2</sub> G<sub>2</sub> A<sub>2</sub> A<sub>2</sub> D<sub>3</sub> D<sub>3</sub> (G<sub>3</sub>) (G<sub>3</sub>) (C<sub>4</sub>) (C<sub>4</sub>).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oud.eclipse.co.uk/tuning.html |title=Arab tuning |last= Parfitt|first= David|website= oud.eclipse.co.uk|access-date= 29 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160918225902/http://www.oud.eclipse.co.uk/tuning.html|archive-date=18 September 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> For a mandocello tuning using fifths C<sub>2</sub> C<sub>2</sub> G<sub>2</sub> G<sub>2</sub> D<sub>3</sub> D<sub>3</sub> A<sub>3</sub> A<sub>3</sub> (E<sub>4</sub>) (E<sub>4</sub>).<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.thomannmusic.com/thomann_algerian_mondol_10_standard.htm#bewertung|title= Thomann Algerian Mondol 10 Standard|author= <!--Not stated-->|website= thomannmusic.com|access-date= 29 July 2017|quote= tuning: C – G – D – A – E, lower width ca. 35,2cm, body length ca. 54,2cm, total length thomann ca. 104,5cm, height incl. bridge ca. 13cm, height of the sides ca. 10cm, width upper nut ca. 4,4cm, scale length 32,4cm.|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170729123626/https://www.thomannmusic.com/thomann_algerian_mondol_10_standard.htm#bewertung|archive-date= 2017-07-29|url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== Mandobass ===
[[File:Gibson Mandobass and Melody Maiden.jpg|thumb|right|upright=.5|Gibson mando-bass from 1922 advertisement]]
The [[mandobass]] is the bass version of the mandolin, just as the [[double bass]] is the bass to the violin. Like the double bass, it most frequently has four single strings, rather than double courses—and like the double bass, it is most commonly tuned to [[perfect fourth]]s rather than fifths like most mandolin family instruments: E<sub>1</sub>–A<sub>1</sub>–D<sub>2</sub>–G<sub>2,</sub>. These were made by the Gibson company in the early 20th century and were never very common. A smaller scale four-string mandobass, usually tuned in fifths: G<sub>1</sub>–D<sub>2</sub>–A<sub>2</sub>–E<sub>3</sub> (two octaves below the mandolin), though not as resonant as the larger instrument, was often preferred by players as easier to handle and more portable.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mandolin.co.uk/blogs/Mando-Bass_History_101.pdf|author=Ruppa, Paul|title=''American Mando-Bass History 101''|website=Mandolin.co.uk|access-date=29 April 2019}}</ref> Reportedly, however, most [[mandolin orchestra]]s preferred to use the ordinary [[double bass]], rather than a specialised mandolin family instrument. Calace and other Italian makers predating Gibson also made mandolin-basses.

The relatively rare eight-string mandobass, or "tremolo-bass", also exists, with double courses like the rest of the mandolin family, and is tuned either G<sub>1</sub>–D<sub>2</sub>–A<sub>2</sub>–E<sub>3</sub>, two octaves lower than the mandolin, or C<sub>1</sub>–G<sub>1</sub>–D<sub>2</sub>–A<sub>2</sub>, two octaves below the mandola.<ref>Marcuse, Sibyl; Musical Instruments: A Comprehensive Dictionary; W. W. Norton & Company (1975). (see entries for ''mandolin'', and for individual mandolin family members.)</ref><ref>Johnson, J. R.; 'The Mandolin Orchestra in America, Part 3: Other Instruments', ''American Lutherie'', No. 21 (Spring) 1990, pp. 45–46.</ref>

== Variations ==
=== Bowlback ===
Bowlback mandolins (also known as roundbacks), are used worldwide. They are most commonly manufactured in Europe, where the long history of mandolin development has created local styles. However, Japanese luthiers also make them.

Owing to the shape and to the common construction from wood strips of alternating colors, in the United States these are sometimes colloquially referred to as the "potato bug", "[[Colorado potato beetle|potato beetle]]", or tater-bug mandolin.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cohen |first1=David J. |last2=Rossing |first2= Thomas D.|editor-last=Rossing |editor-first=Thomas D.
|title=The Science of String Instruments |publisher=Springer |date=January 1, 2001 |pages=77–98 |chapter=Mandolin Family Instruments |isbn= 978-1-4419-7110-4}}</ref>

==== Neapolitan and Roman styles ====
The Neapolitan style has an almond-shaped body resembling a bowl, constructed from curved strips of wood. It usually has a bent [[Sound board (music)|sound table]], canted in two planes with the design to take the tension of the eight metal strings arranged in four courses. A hardwood [[fingerboard]] sits on top of or is flush with the sound table. Very old instruments may use wooden [[tuning peg]]s, while newer instruments tend to use geared [[Machine head|metal tuners]]. The [[Bridge (instrument)|bridge]] is a movable length of hardwood. A [[pickguard]] is glued below the sound hole under the strings.<ref name=tylersparkspaper>{{harvnb|Tyler|Sparks|1996|p=}}</ref><ref name="Sparks115-16">{{harvnb|Sparks|2003|page=15–16}}</ref><ref name=tylersparksearly>{{harvnb|Tyler|Sparks|1989|p=}}</ref> European roundbacks commonly use a {{convert|13|in|adj=on}} [[Scale length (string instruments)|scale]] instead of the {{convert|13+7/8|in}} common on archtop Mandolins.<ref name="mandocafeforumHiin"/>

Intertwined with the Neapolitan style is the Roman style mandolin, which has influenced it.<ref name="Sparks37–38">{{harvnb|Sparks|2003|page=37–38}}</ref> The Roman mandolin had a fingerboard that was more curved and narrow.<ref name="Sparks37–38"/> The fingerboard was lengthened over the sound hole for the E strings, the high pitched strings.<ref name="Sparks37–38"/> The shape of the back of the neck was different, less rounded with an edge, the bridge was curved making the G strings higher.<ref name="Sparks37–38"/> The Roman mandolin had mechanical tuning gears before the Neapolitan.<ref name="Sparks37–38"/>

===== Manufacturers of Neapolitan-style mandolins =====
[[File:Mandolin Player (by Jitze Couperus).jpg|thumb|right|Modern bowlback mandolin manufactured by the [[Raffaele Calace|Calace]] family workshop]]
{{multiple image
| caption_align = center
| header_align = center
| align = left
| image1 = That's my Washburn.jpg
| width1 = 130
| alt1 = Advertisement for American made mandolin
| caption1 = 1897 Advertisement for a Lyon and Healy-made, ''Washburn'' brand mandolin
| image2 = C.F.Martin Tour-14.jpg
| width2 = 154
| alt2 = Martin mandolins
| caption2 = Martin mandolins and [[Harp guitar|harp mandolin]] on display at the Martin Guitar Factory
}}

Prominent Italian manufacturers include Vinaccia (Naples), [[Luigi Embergher|Embergher]]<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Embergher mandolin|date=2004|publisher=R. Leenen and B. Pratt|isbn=9073838312|location=[Place of publication not identified]|oclc=863486060}}</ref> (Rome) and [[Raffaele Calace|Calace]] (Naples).<ref name=mandoglossary>{{cite web |url=http://www.mandolincafe.com/glossary/glossary_15.shtml |title=Mandolin Glossary |website=Mandolincafe.com |access-date=21 December 2014}}</ref> Other modern manufacturers include Lorenzo Lippi (Milan), Hendrik van den Broek (Netherlands), Brian Dean (Canada), Salvatore Masiello and Michele Caiazza (La Bottega del Mandolino) and Ferrara, Gabriele Pandini.<ref name="mandocafeforumHiin">{{cite web |url=http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-63751.html |title=Who are the top classical builders? |website=Mandolincafe.com |access-date=21 December 2014}}</ref>

In the United States, when the bowlback was being made in numbers, [[Lyon and Healy]] was a major manufacturer, especially under the "Washburn" brand.<ref name=mandoglossary/> Other American manufacturers include [[C. F. Martin & Company|Martin]], Vega, and Larson Brothers.<ref name=mandoglossary/>

In Canada, Brian Dean has manufactured instruments in Neapolitan, Roman, German and American styles<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.labraid.ca/ |title=The Latest from the Shop |website=Labraid.ca |date=21 April 2019 |access-date=17 May 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190517222520/http://www.labraid.ca/ |archive-date=2019-05-17}}<br/>{{cite web |url=http://www.labraid.ca/ |title=Hi, my name is Brian Dean. I build classical mandolin |website=Labraid.ca |access-date=16 March 2018 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180630113410/http://www.labraid.ca/ |archive-date=2018-06-30}}</ref> but is also known for his original 'Grand Concert' design created for American virtuoso [[Joseph Brent]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.labraid.ca/grand-concert/ |website=Labraid.ca |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151125035416/http://www.labraid.ca/grand-concert/ |archive-date=2015-11-25 |title=Grand Concert}}</ref>

German manufacturers include Albert & Mueller, Dietrich, Klaus Knorr, Reinhold Seiffert and Alfred Woll.<ref name="mandocafeforumHiin"/><ref name=mandoglossary/> The German bowlbacks use a style developed by Seiffert, with a larger and rounder body.<ref name="mandocafeforumHiin"/>

Japanese brands include Kunishima and Suzuki.<ref name=Japanesebrand>{{cite web|url=http://www.abrsm.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=34734 |title=Mandolin (neapolitan, Round Back, Bowl Back...)|access-date=21 December 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141221183302/http://www.abrsm.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=34734 |archive-date=21 December 2014}}</ref> Other Japanese manufacturers include Oona, Kawada, Noguchi, Toichiro Ishikawa, Rokutaro Nakade, Otiai Tadao, Yoshihiko Takusari, Nokuti Makoto, Watanabe, Kanou Kadama and Ochiai.<ref name="mandocafeforumHiin"/><ref name=Japanesemandmanu>{{cite web |url=http://www.mandolinluthier.com/japanese_mandolin_makers.htm |title=Japanese Mandolin Makers |website=Mandolinluthier.com |access-date=21 December 2014 |archive-date=6 December 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141206083757/http://www.mandolinluthier.com/japanese_mandolin_makers.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==== Other bowlback styles====
{{multiple image|caption_align=center|header_align=center
 | align = right
 |image3= Giovanni Vailati.png
 | width3=140
 | alt3= Giovanni Vailati, blind mandolinist of Cremona
|caption3= [[Giovanni Vailati (musician)|Giovanni Vailati]], "Blind mandolinist of Cremona", toured Europe in the 1850s with a six-string Lombard mandolin.<ref name=bicent3>{{cite web |url=https://www.cremaonline.it/cultura/07-09-2014_Historia+et+imago+Cremae.+La+vita+di+Giovanni+Vailati,+il+Paganini+del+mandolino/ |title=Historia et imago Cremae. La vita di Giovanni Vailati, il Paganini del mandolino: dai caffè cremaschi ai teatri d'Europa [translation: Historia et imago Cremae. The life of Giovanni Vailati, the Paganini of the mandolin: from the cremaschi cafés to the theaters of Europe] |last= Dossena|first=Luigi |date=7 September 2014 |website=cremonaonline.it |access-date=11 June 2018 |quote= ...on December 2, 1852 in Parma at the Regio theater he performed a single string music from his mandolin, on a Lombard-type mandolin inspired by sixteenth-century instruments still unformed and rough. It was a soprano lute, very small, having the semblance of a paunchy half-egg, which he later replaced with a mandolin inspired by Hispanic Bandurria- type models... }}</ref>

 | image2 = London-Victoria and Albert Museum-Musical instrument-02.jpg
 | width2 = 134
 | alt2 = Lombard mandolin with twelve strings (six courses)
 | caption2 = Lombard mandolin with twelve strings in six courses. The bridge is glued to the soundboard, like a guitar's bridge.

 | image1 = Cremoneze mandolin from Bortolazzi.png
 | width1 = 166
 | alt1 = Cremonese mandolin, 1805
 | caption1  =Cremonese mandolin with four strings, from an 1805 book by [[Bartolomeo Bortolazzi]]

 | image4 = Mandolin MET DP169117.jpg
 | width4 = 150
 | alt4 = Genoese mandolin, 19th century
 | caption4  =Genoese mandolin with twelve strings in six courses. The bridge is held to the soundboard by the strings.}}

Another family of bowlback mandolins came from [[Milan]] and [[Lombardy]].<ref name=MilaneseLombardic>{{cite web|url=http://www.mandolinluthier.com/Lombardic_mandolin_makers.htm|title=Milanese Mandolin Makers|website=Mandolinluthier.com|access-date=21 December 2014}}</ref> These mandolins are closer to the mandolino or [[Mandore (instrument)|mandore]] than other modern mandolins.<ref name=MilaneseLombardic/> They are shorter and wider than the standard Neapolitan mandolin, with a shallow back.<ref name="Sparks206">{{harvnb|Sparks|2003|page=206}}</ref> The instruments have 6 strings, 3 wire treble-strings and 3 gut or wire-wrapped-silk bass-strings.<ref name=MilaneseLombardic/><ref name="Sparks206"/> The strings ran between the tuning pegs and a bridge that was glued to the soundboard, as a guitar's. The Lombard mandolins were tuned g–b–e′–a′–d″–g″ (shown in [[Helmholtz pitch notation]]).<ref name="Sparks206"/> A developer of the Milanese style was Antonio Monzino (Milan) and his family who made them for six generations.<ref name=MilaneseLombardic/>

Samuel Adelstein described the Lombard mandolin in 1893 as wider and shorter than the Neapolitan mandolin, with a shallower back and a shorter and wider neck, with six single strings to the regular mandolin's set of 4.<ref name="Adelsteinp14">{{harvnb|Adelstein|1893|p=14}}</ref> The Lombard was tuned C–D–A–E–B–G.<ref name="Adelsteinp14"/> The strings were fastened to the bridge like a guitar's.<ref name="Adelsteinp14"/> There were 20 frets, covering three octaves, with an additional 5 notes.<ref name="Adelsteinp14"/> When Adelstein wrote, there were no nylon strings, and the gut and single strings "do not vibrate so clearly and sweetly as the double steel string of the Neapolitan."<ref name="Adelsteinp14"/>

===== Brescian mandolin or Cremonese mandolin =====
[[Brescia]]n mandolins (also known as Cremonese) that have survived in museums have four gut strings instead of six and a fixed bridge.<ref name=mandocafebrescian>{{cite web |url=http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?74060-Plans-of-Brescian-mandolin |title=Thread: Plans of Brescian mandolin... |website=Mandolin Cafe |access-date=September 5, 2015}}</ref><ref name="Sparks205"/> The mandolin was tuned in fifths, like the Neapolitan mandolin.<ref name=mandocafebrescian/> In his 1805 [[Method (music)#Mandolin or mandolin-banjo or banjolin|mandolin method]], ''Anweisung die Mandoline von selbst zu erlernen nebst einigen Uebungsstucken von Bortolazzi'', [[Bartolomeo Bortolazzi]] popularised the Cremonese mandolin, which had four single-strings and a fixed bridge, to which the strings were attached.<ref name=Bortolazzi>{{cite book |last=Bortolazzi |first=Bartolomeo |date= 1805|title=Anweisung die Mandoline von selbst zu erlernen nebst einigen Uebungsstucken von Bortolazzi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oz5cAAAAcAAJ |language=de |location=Leipzig, Germany |publisher=Breitkopf and Härtell|page=1 }}</ref><ref name="Sparks205">{{harvnb|Sparks|2003|page=205}}</ref> Bortolazzi said in this book that the new wire-strung mandolins were uncomfortable to play, when compared with the gut-string instruments.<ref name=Bortolazzi/> Also, he felt they had a "less pleasing...hard, zither-like tone" as compared to the gut string's "softer, full-singing tone."<ref name=Bortolazzi/>
He favored the four single strings of the Cremonese instrument, which were tuned the same as the Neapolitan.<ref name="Sparks205"/><ref name=Bortolazzi/>

=====Genoese mandolin, a blend of styles=====
Like the Lombard mandolin, the [[Genoa|Genoese]] mandolin was not tuned in fifths. Its 6 gut strings (or 6 courses of strings) were tuned as a guitar but one octave higher: e-a-d’-g’-b natural-e”.<ref name=musinswld>{{cite book|editor1-last= Midgley|editor1-first= Ruth|date= 1997|title= Musical Instruments of the World|url= https://archive.org/details/musicalinstrumen00diag/page/188|location= New York|publisher= Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.|page= [https://archive.org/details/musicalinstrumen00diag/page/188 188]|isbn= 0-8069-9847-4|quote= ...six pairs of string, and a wider neck than the Neapolitan instrument...|url-access= registration}}</ref><ref name=GenoaMet>{{cite web |url= https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/180013407|title= Mandolin,19th century Italian|author=<!--Not stated--> |publisher= Metropolitan Museum of Art|access-date= 4 April 2018 |quote=  “mandola o mandolino alla Genovese”, this mandoline has six pairs of gut strings, fifteen rosewood ribs, and mother-of-pearl and tortoiseshell inlays. It differs from other gut-strung mandolins in being tuned an octave higher than the modern guitar (e, a, d’, g’ b-natural, e”) and having a guitar-like peg block}}</ref> Like the Neapolitan and unlike the Lombard mandolin, the Genoese does not have the bridge glued to the soundboard, but holds the bridge on with downward tension, from strings that run between the bottom and neck of the instrument. The neck was wider than the Neapolitan mandolin's neck.<ref name=musinswld/> The peg-head is similar to the guitar's.<ref name=GenoaMet/>

=== Archtop ===
{{multiple image|caption_align=center|header_align=center
 | align = right
| image2 = 1924 Lloyd Loar F-5 (SN75846), Virzi (SN10002) (2010-09-18 00.27.59 by Joseph Brent) clip1.jpg
 | width2 = 124
 | alt2 = 1924 Gibson F-5 mandolin
 | caption2  =1924 Gibson F-5 mandolin, with f-shaped soundholes designed by Lloyd Loar

 | image1 = GibsonF4Mandolin1916.jpg
 | width1 = 139
 | alt1 = Gibson F-4 Mandolin c.1916
 | caption1 = 1916 Gibson F4 with arched and carved top, curled scroll and oval soundhole

| image3= GibsonA4Mandolin1921.jpg
 | width3 = 150
 | alt3 = Gibson A4 mandolin
 | caption3  =1921 Gibson A4 mandolin
}}

At the very end of the 19th century, a new style, with a carved top and back construction inspired by violin family instruments began to supplant the European-style bowl-back instruments in the United States. This new style is credited to mandolins designed and built by [[Orville Gibson]], a Kalamazoo, Michigan, instrument maker who founded the "Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co., Limited" in 1902. Gibson mandolins evolved into two basic styles: the Florentine or F-style, which has a decorative scroll near the neck, two points on the lower body and usually a scroll carved into the headstock; and the A-style, which is pear-shaped, has no points and usually has a simpler headstock.

These styles generally have either two f-shaped soundholes like a [[violin]] (F-5 and A-5), or a single oval sound hole (F-4 and A-4 and lower models) directly under the strings. Much variation exists between makers working from these archetypes, and other variants have become increasingly common. Generally, in the United States, Gibson [[F-hole]] F-5 mandolins and mandolins influenced by that design are strongly associated with bluegrass, while the A-style is associated with other types of music, although it too is most often used for and associated with bluegrass. The F-5's more complicated woodwork also translates into a more expensive instrument.

Internal bracing to support the top in the F-style mandolins is usually achieved with parallel tone bars, similar to the bass bar on a violin. Some makers instead employ "X-bracing", which is two tone-bars mortised together to form an X. Some luthiers now using a "modified x-bracing" that incorporates both a tone bar and X-bracing.

Numerous modern mandolin makers build instruments that largely replicate the Gibson F-5 Artist models built in the early 1920s under the supervision of Gibson acoustician [[Lloyd Loar]]. Original Loar-signed instruments are sought after and extremely valuable. Other makers from the Loar period and earlier include [[Lyon and Healy]], Vega and [[Larson Brothers]].

====Pressed archtops====
The ideal for archtops has been solid pieces of wood carved into the right shape. However, another archtop exists, the top made of laminated wood or thin sheets of solid wood, pressed into the arched shape. These have become increasingly common in the world of internationally constructed musical instruments in the 21st century.

Pressed-top instruments are made to appear the same as carved-top instruments but do not sound the same as carved-wood tops. Carved-wood tops when carved to the ideal thickness, produce the sound consumers expect. Not carving them correctly dulls the sound. The sound of a carved-wood instrument changes the longer it is played, and older instruments are sought out for their rich sound.

Laminated-wood presstops are less resonant than carved wood, the wood and glue vibrating differently than wood grain. Presstops made of solid wood have the wood's natural grain compressed, typically creating a sound that is less full than a well-made, carved-top mandolin.

=== Flatback ===
{{multiple image|caption_align=center|header_align=center
 | align = right
 | image1 = Bandolim1.jpg
 | width1 = 130
 | alt1 = Picture of bandolim
 | caption1  =The bandolim is a Portuguese variant of the mandolin family. Instruments are flat on top and back.

 | image2 = Ozark flatback Mandolin - 2250 Army-Navy Special (by Jim Hutcheson).jpg
 | width2 = 115
 | alt2 = Army Navy Mandolin
 | caption2 = Army-Navy style mandolin
}}

Flatback mandolins use a thin sheet of wood with bracing for the back, as a guitar uses, rather than the bowl of the bowlback or the arched back of the carved mandolins.

Like the bowlback, the flatback has a round sound hole. This has been sometimes modified to an elongated hole, called a D-hole. The body has a rounded almond shape with flat or sometimes canted soundboard.<ref name=McDonaldp16>{{harvnb|McDonald|2008|p=16}}</ref>

The type was developed in Europe in the 1850s.<ref name=McDonaldp16/> The French and Germans called it a Portuguese mandolin, although they also developed it locally.<ref name=McDonaldp16/> The Germans used it in [[Wandervogel]].<ref name=McDonaldp18>{{harvnb|McDonald|2008|p=18}}</ref>

The bandolim is commonly used wherever the Spanish and Portuguese took it: in South America, in Brazil ([[Choro]]) and in the Philippines.<ref name=McDonaldp18/>

In the early 1970s English luthier Stefan Sobell developed a large-bodied, flat-backed mandolin with a carved soundboard, based on his own [[cittern]] design; this is often called a 'Celtic' mandolin.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sobellguitars.com/large-and-small-bodied-mandolins/|title=Stefan Sobell Guitars » Mandolins and Mandola|website=Sobellguitars.com|access-date=25 April 2019}}</ref><ref name=McDonaldp30>{{harvnb|McDonald|2008|p=30}}</ref>

American forms include the Army-Navy mandolin, the flatiron and the pancake mandolins.

==== Tone ====
The tone of the flatback is described as warm or mellow, suitable for folk music and smaller audiences. The instrument sound does not punch through the other players' sound like a carved top does.

=== Double top, double back ===
The double top is a feature that luthiers are experimenting with in the 21st century, to get better sound.<ref name=brent>{{cite web |url=https://www.mandolincafe.com/news/publish/printer_1420.shtml |title=Joseph Brent's Brian N. Dean Grand Concert Mandolin |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=20 November 2011 |website=mandolincafe.org |access-date=29 May 2017 |quote=[He told the luthier:]..."I want to hear the wood, and not the metal." And, "I want it big and dark and loud, like the engine note on a Ford GT." ...I know there are lots of musicians like me who would love the chance to create an instrument that's more geared to the music they're making...It's got a lot of crazy features, like that aforementioned false back... |archive-date=3 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803203557/https://www.mandolincafe.com/news/publish/printer_1420.shtml |url-status=dead }}</ref> However, mandolinists and luthiers have been experimenting with them since at least the early 1900s.

Back in the early 1900s, mandolinist [[Ginislao Paris]] approached [[Luigi Embergher]] to build custom mandolins.<ref name=Speranski>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/TheRussianEmbergher_201501 |title=The Russian Embergher |last=Speranski |first=Victor |date=November 2014 |access-date= 29 May 2017}}</ref> The sticker inside one of the four surviving instruments indicates the build was called after him, the ''Sistema Ginislao Paris'').<ref name=Speranski/> Paris' round-back double-top mandolins use a false back below the soundboard to create a second hollow space within the instrument.<ref name=Speranski/>

Modern mandolinists such as [[Joseph Brent]] and [[Avi Avital]] use instruments customized, either by the luthier's choice or at the request of the player.<ref name=brent/><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?102738-Avi-Avital-and-the-Arik-Kerman-mandolin |title=Re: Avi Avital and the Arik Kerman mandolin |last1=Daniel |first1=Bernie |last2= Garber|first2=Jimi |website=mandolincafe.org |access-date=29 May 2017 |quote=...What is [the luthier] Kerman doing so different from the approach taken by American luthiers...The difference from the German models is that it has the sound holes on the edges and, even more important(?) has a double top.}}</ref> Joseph Brent's mandolin, made by Brian Dean also uses what Brent calls a false back.<ref name=brentfalse>{{cite web |url=https://www.mandolincafe.com/news/publish/printer_1420.shtml |title=Joseph Brent's Brian N. Dean Grand Concert Mandolin |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=20 November 2011 |website=mandolincafe.org |access-date=29 May 2017 |quote=[Brent's instrument has] ...maple sides/false back, spruce true back...It's got a lot of crazy features, like that aforementioned false back... |archive-date=3 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803203557/https://www.mandolincafe.com/news/publish/printer_1420.shtml |url-status=dead }}</ref> Brent's mandolin was the luthier's solution to Brent's request for a loud mandolin in which the wood was clearly audible, with less metallic sound from the strings.<ref name=brent/> The type used by Avital is variation of the flatback, with a double top that encloses a resonating chamber, sound holes on the side, and a convex back.<ref name=israel1>[http://www.thebluegrassspecial.com/archive/2011/jan2011/bordercrossingjan2011.php Artist To Artist: 10 Minutes With Avi Avital.] ''The Bluegrass Special'', January 2011 by Joe Brent.</ref> It is made by one manufacturer in Israel, luthier Arik Kerman.<ref name=mandoKerman>{{cite web| url=http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?102738-Avi-Avital-and-the-Arik-Kerman-mandolin| title=Thread: Avi Avital and the Arik Kerman mandolin| website=mandolincafe.com| access-date=September 3, 2015| quote=This thread digressed into the topic of Avi's Kerman, where it was established that it has a double top and a convex back. … it looks like it is based on the modern German flatback as made by makers such as Seifert, a little deep-bodied. The difference from the German models is that it has the sound holes on the edges and, even more important(?) has a double top.}}</ref> Other players of Kerman mandolins include Alon Sariel,<ref name=israel2>{{cite web| url=http://www.mandolin.org.uk/interviews/sariel.php| title=Alon Sariel interview| website=Mandolin.org.uk| access-date=September 3, 2015| quote=What mandolins do you own? Which one(s) is(are) your favourite(s)? Whoever knows the Beer-Sheva school of mandolin must have heard of the Israeli type of modern mandolins. A mandolin maker called Arik Kerman who lives in Tel-Aviv, invented a formula to make the mandolin in a way for which it has a much of a round and sweet sound, and can easily produce a very soft sound other than the metallic Neapolitan one...| archive-date=April 2, 2016| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160402213428/http://www.mandolin.org.uk/interviews/sariel.php| url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=israel3>{{cite web|url=http://www.alon-sariel.com/repertoire/instrumentarium/|title=Instrumentarium|website=Alon Sariel – mandolinist, conductor, lutenist|access-date=16 March 2018|archive-date=5 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305092522/http://www.alon-sariel.com/repertoire/instrumentarium/|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Jacob Reuven]],<ref name=mandoKerman/> and Tom Cohen.<ref name=israel4>{{cite web| url=http://frusion.co.uk/artists/concert/global/Tom_Cohen.html| title=Concert artists: Tom Cohen| website=frusion.co.uk| access-date=September 3, 2015| quote=The mandolin that Tom plays was built especially for him by Israeli artist Arik Kerman and new instrument is currently being built for, and inspired by him, by internationally-known luthier Boaz Elkayam.}}</ref>

=== Others ===
[[file:Vega cylinder-back.jpg|thumb|right|The bulge on the instrument's back side is visible in this photo of a Vega cylinder-back mandolin]]
{{multiple image|caption_align=center|header_align=center
 | align = left
| image3 = 1930 National Triolian resonator mandolin.jpg
 | width3 = 135
 | alt3 = 1930 National Triolian resonator mandolin
 | caption3  =1930 National Triolian resonator mandolin

 | image2 = Prmntmbful.jpg
 | width2 = 142
 | alt2 = 1926 Paramount Style A Banjo Mandolin
 | caption2 = 1926 Paramount Style A banjo mandolin

| image1 = Howe-Ormes mandolins.jpg
 | width1 = 108
 | alt1 = Howe-Ormes mandolinettos
 | caption1 = Howe-Ormes mandolinettos
}}

==== Mandolinetto ====
Other American-made variants include the mandolinetto or [[Howe-Orme]] guitar-shaped mandolin (manufactured by the [[Elias Howe Company]] between 1897 and roughly 1920), which featured a cylindrical bulge along the top from fingerboard end to tailpiece and the Vega mando-lute (more commonly called a [[cylinder-back mandolin]] manufactured by the [[Vega Company]] between 1913 and roughly 1927), which had a similar longitudinal bulge but on the back rather than the front of the instrument.

==== Mandolin-banjo ====
An instrument with a mandolin neck paired with a banjo-style body was patented by Benjamin Bradbury of Brooklyn in 1882 and given the name ''banjolin'' by John Farris in 1885.<ref name=paper>{{cite web|url=http://blarneystar.com/BANJO_030912X.pdf|title=The Irish Tenor Banjo by Don Meade|website=blarneystar.com|access-date=16 March 2018|archive-date=5 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131005013120/http://blarneystar.com/BANJO_030912X.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> Today ''banjolin'' is sometimes reserved to describe an instrument with four strings, while the version with the four courses of double strings is called a ''[[mandolin-banjo]]''.

==== Resonator mandolin ====
A [[resonator mandolin]] or "resophonic mandolin" is a mandolin whose sound is produced by one or more metal cones (resonators) instead of the customary wooden soundboard (mandolin top/face). Historic brands include [[Dobro]] and National.

==== Electric mandolin ====
[[File:Rory&#039;s Mandolin.jpg|thumb|upright=.5|A solid-body electric mandolin]]
As with almost every other contemporary chordophone, another modern variant is the [[electric mandolin]]. These mandolins can have four or five individual or double courses of strings. They were developed in the early 1930s, contemporaneous with the development of the [[electric guitar]]. They come in [[solid body]] and [[acoustic-electric guitar|acoustic electric]] forms.

Specific instruments have been designed to overcome the mandolin's rapid decay with its plucked notes.<ref name= Gregory>{{cite web|url=http://maestroalexgregory.net/id26.html |title= Heavy Metal Electric Mandolin, inventions |last1= Gregory |first1= Alex |website=maestroalexgregory.com |access-date= September 13, 2015 }}</ref> Fender released a model in 1992 with an additional string (a high A, above the E string), a tremolo bridge and extra [[humbucker]] [[Pickup (music technology)|pickup]] (total of two).<ref name= Gregory/> The result was an instrument capable of playing heavy metal style guitar [[Ostinato#Riff|riffs]] or violin-like passages with sustained notes that can be adjusted as with an electric guitar.<ref name= Gregory/>

== Playing traditions worldwide ==
[[File:Mandolin Club, Napoleon, Ohio from around 1892 - DPLA - 153ba2c5e31643073f831a6ddf09de8a.jpg|thumb|right|Mandolin Club from Napoleon, Ohio, approximately 1892]]{{Main|Mandolin playing traditions worldwide}}
[[File:Giuseppe Pettine in 1898.jpg|upright|left|thumb|Italian mandolin virtuoso and child prodigy [[Giuseppe Pettine]] (''pictured 1898'') brought the Italian playing style to America where he settled in Providence, Rhode Island, as a mandolin teacher and composer. Pettine is credited with promoting a style where "one player plays both the rhythmic chords and the lyric melodic line at once, combining single strokes and tremolo"<ref name=academicpaper>{{cite journal
 |ref              = {{sfnref|Dickson}}
 |author           = Jean Dickson, University at Buffalo (SUNY)
 |title            = Mandolin Mania in Buffalo's Italian Community, 1895 to 1918
 |url              = http://wings.buffalo.edu/research/anthrogis/oldsite/JWA/V2N2/Dickson-art.pdf
 |journal          = Journal of World Anthropology: Occasional Papers<!-- : Volume II, Number 2 -->
 |volume           = II
 |issue            = 2
 |date = 2006
 |pages            = 1–15
 |access-date      = 2015-03-30
 |archive-url      = https://web.archive.org/web/20150402143811/http://wings.buffalo.edu/research/anthrogis/oldsite/JWA/V2N2/Dickson-art.pdf
 |archive-date     = 2015-04-02
 |url-status       = dead
}}</ref>]]
The international repertoire of music for mandolin is almost unlimited, and musicians use it to play various types of music. This is especially true of violin music, since the mandolin has the same tuning as the violin. Following its invention and early development in Italy the mandolin spread throughout the European continent. The instrument was primarily used in a classical tradition with Mandolin orchestras, so-called ''Estudiantinas'' or in Germany ''Zupforchestern'' appearing in many cities. Following this continental popularity of the mandolin family local traditions appeared outside Europe in the Americas and in Japan. Travelling mandolin virtuosi like [[Carlo Curti]], [[Giuseppe Pettine]], [[Raffaele Calace]] and [[Silvio Ranieri]] contributed to the mandolin becoming a "fad" instrument in the early 20th century.<ref name=academicpaper/> This "mandolin craze" was fading by the 1930s, but just as this practice was falling into disuse, the mandolin found a new niche in American [[country music|country]], [[old-time music]], [[Bluegrass music|bluegrass]] and [[folk music]]. More recently, the [[Baroque]] and [[Classical music|Classical]] mandolin repertory and styles have benefited from the raised awareness of and interest in [[Early music]], with media attention to classical players such as Israeli [[Avi Avital]], Italian [[Carlo Aonzo]], and American [[Joseph Brent]]. In India, the mandolin is played in classical [[Carnatic music]]. The musician [[U. Srinivas]] was perhaps the greatest mandolin player in this style.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Tsioulcas|first=Anastasia|date=2014-09-25|title=Remembering Mandolin Hero U. Srinivas|language=en|work=NPR|url=https://www.npr.org/2014/09/25/351492627/remembering-mandolin-hero-u-srinivas|access-date=2021-11-07}}</ref> Lauded across the world for his virtuosity with the instrument, he died young.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Martin|first=Douglas|date=2014-10-01|title=U. Shrinivas, 45, Indian Mandolin Virtuoso With Global Reach, Dies|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/01/arts/music/u-shrinivas-indian-mandolin-virtuoso-dies-at-45-.html|access-date=2021-11-07|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

== Notable literature ==
=== Western European classical music ===
The mandolin appears sporadically in the Western Euoropean classical music tradition. It was often perceived historically as a folk instrument. Significant composers did write music specifically for the mandolin, but few large works were composed for it by the most widely regarded composers. The total number of these works is rather small in comparison to—say—those composed for violin. One result of this dearth being that there were few positions for mandolinists in regular orchestras. To fill this gap in the literature, mandolin orchestras have traditionally played many arrangements of music written for regular orchestras or other ensembles. Some players have sought out contemporary composers to solicit new works.

Furthermore, of the works that have been written for mandolin from the 18th century onward, many have been lost or forgotten. Some of these await discovery in museums and libraries and archives. One example of rediscovered 18th-century music for mandolin and ensembles with mandolins is the ''Gimo collection'', collected in the first half of 1762 by Jean Lefebure.<ref name=lefebure>{{cite web |url=https://www.ibiblio.org/mutopia/collections/gimo/index.html |title=The Gimo Music Collection |last1=Sandberg |first1=Erik |date=2002 |website=ibiblio.org |access-date=26 September 2016 }}</ref> Lefebure collected the music in Italy, and it was forgotten until manuscripts were rediscovered.<ref name=lefebure/>

[[Antonio Vivaldi|Vivaldi]] created some concertos for mandolinos and orchestra: one for 4-chord mandolino, string bass & continuo in C major, (RV 425), and one for two 5-chord mandolinos, bass strings & continuo in G major, (RV 532), and concerto for two mandolins, 2 violons "in Tromba"—2 flûtes à bec, 2 salmoe, 2 théorbes, violoncelle, cordes et basse continuein in C major (p.&nbsp;16).

[[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]] composed [[Beethoven's mandolin music|mandolin music]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://daniellarson.com/concerts/walz/walz_concert.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100404050854/http://daniellarson.com/concerts/walz/walz_concert.htm|title=Gamut Musical Strings Home Page|archive-date=4 April 2010|website=Daniellarson.com|access-date=21 December 2014}}</ref> and enjoyed playing the mandolin.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mandozine.com/music/dawgtab/bthoven.php |title=DawgTab |publisher=Mandozine.com |access-date=2012-06-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120619031624/http://www.mandozine.com/music/dawgtab/bthoven.php |archive-date=2012-06-19 }}</ref> His 4 small pieces date from 1796: Sonatine WoO 43a; Adagio ma non troppo WoO 43b; Sonatine WoO 44a and Andante con Variazioni WoO 44b.

The opera ''[[Don Giovanni]]'' by [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]] (1787) includes mandolin parts, including the accompaniment to the famous aria ''Deh vieni alla finestra'', and [[Verdi]]'s opera [[Otello]] calls for [[Gusle|guzla]] accompaniment in the aria ''Dove guardi splendono raggi'', but the part is commonly performed on mandolin.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=38-DIohbDOkC |title=Orchestral and Chamber Excerpts by Joseph Brent |publisher=Lulu|isbn=9780615182254 |date=December 2007 }}</ref>

[[Gustav Mahler]] used the mandolin in his [[Symphony No. 7 (Mahler)|Symphony No. 7]], [[Symphony No. 8 (Mahler)|Symphony No. 8]] and [[Das Lied von der Erde]].

Parts for mandolin are included in works by [[Arnold Schoenberg|Schoenberg]] (Variations Op. 31), [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]] (Agon), [[Sergei Prokofiev|Prokofiev]] (Romeo and Juliet) and [[Anton Webern|Webern]] (opus Parts 10)

Some 20th-century composers also used the mandolin as their instrument of choice (amongst these are: [[Arnold Schoenberg|Schoenberg]], [[Anton Webern|Webern]], [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]] and [[Sergei Prokofiev|Prokofiev]]).

Among the most important European mandolin composers of the 20th century are Raffaele Calace (composer, performer and luthier) and [[Giuseppe Anedda]] (virtuoso concert pianist and professor of the first chair of the Conservatory of Italian Mandolin, Padua, 1975). Today representatives of Italian classical music and Italian classical-contemporary music include [[Ugo Orlandi]], Carlo Aonzo, [[Dorina Frati]], [[Mauro Squillante]] and Duilio Galfetti.

Japanese composers also produced orchestral music for mandolin in the 20th century, but these are not well known outside Japan. Notable composers include [[Morishige Takei]] and [[Yasuo Kuwahara]].<ref>
{{cite web
| url=https://mixingaband.com/mandolin-in-japan/
| title=Mandolin In Japan
| date=30 November 2021
| access-date=2021-11-30}}</ref>

Traditional mandolin orchestras remain especially popular in Japan and Germany, but also exist throughout the United States, Europe and the rest of the world. They perform works composed for mandolin family instruments, or re-orchestrations of traditional pieces. The structure of a contemporary traditional mandolin orchestra consists of: first and second mandolins, mandolas (either octave mandolas, tuned an octave below the mandolin, or tenor mandolas, tuned like the viola), mandocellos (tuned like the cello), and bass instruments (conventional string bass or, rarely, mandobasses). Smaller ensembles, such as quartets composed of two mandolins, mandola, and mandocello, may also be found.

==== Unaccompanied solo ====
{{div col|colwidth=15em}}
* [[Niccolò Paganini]]
:Minuet

* [[John Peterson (composer)|John Peterson]]
: Moving Fast Through Autumn Light (2000)

* [[Larry Sitsky]]
: The Three Names Of Shiva (1992)

* [[Silvio Ranieri]]
:Variations on a Theme by Haydn
:Song of summer

* [[Eric Gross]]
: Cadenza No.1
: Cadenza No.2
: Cadenza No.3
: Cadenza No.4
: Cadenza No.5
: Cadenza No.6
: Cadenza No.7
: Cadenza No.8
: Cadenza No.10
: Cadenza No.11

* [[Raffaele Calace]]
:Prelude No. 1
:Prelude No. 2
:Prelude No. 3
:Prelude No. 5
:Prelude No. 10
:Prelude No. 11
:Prelude No. 14
:Prelude No. 15
:Large prelude
:Collard
:Sylvia
:Minuet of rose

* Heinrich Koniettsuni
:Partita No. 1, etc.

* [[Herbert Baumann]]
:Sonatine, etc.

* [[Siegfried Behrend]]
:Sense – structure

* [[John Craton]]
:The Gray Wolf
:Perpetuum Mobile
:Variations from Der Fluyten Lust-hof

* Sakutarō Hagiwara
:Hataoriru maiden

* Takei Shusei
:Spring to go

* Seiichi Suzuki
:Variations on Schubert lullaby
:City of Elm
:Variations on Kojonotsuki of subject matter

* [[Gilad Hochman]]
:Two Episodes for solo mandolin

* [[Jiro Nakano]]
:"Spring has come" Variations
:Prayer
:Fantasia second No.
:Serenata
:Beautiful my child and where
:Prayer of the evening
:Variations on September Affair of the subject matter

* Makino YukariTaka
:Spring snow of ballads

* [[Jo Kondo]]
:In early spring

* Takashi Kubota
:Nocturne
:Etude
:Fantasia first No.

* [[Yasuo Kuwahara]]
:Moon and mountain witch
:Impromptu
:Winter Light
:Mukyu motion
:Jon-gara
:Silent door

{{div col end}}

==== Accompaniment with solo ====
{{div col|colwidth=15em}}
* [[Ludwig van Beethoven]]
:[[Beethoven's mandolin music|Sonatine in C minor, WoO 43a]]
:[[Beethoven's mandolin music|Adagio in E{{music|flat}} major WoO 43b]]
:[[Beethoven's mandolin music|Sonatine in C major WoO 44a]]
:[[Beethoven's mandolin music|Andante and Variations in D major WoO 44b]]

* [[John Craton]]
:Dioces aztecas
:The Legend of Princess Noccalula

* [[Giovanni Hoffmann]]
: 4 Quartet for Mandolin, Violin, Viola, and Lute
: 4 Divertimenti for Mandolin, Violin & B.c.

* [[Johann Nepomuk Hummel]]
:Sonata in C major Op. 35

* [[Vittorio Monti]]
:[[Csárdás (Monti)|Csárdás]]

* [[Carlo Munier]]
:Spanish Capriccio
:Mazurka for concert
:Waltz for concert
:Bizaria
:Aria Varia data
:Mandolin Concerto No. 1

* [[Raffaele Calace]]
:Mandolin Concerto No. 1
:Mandolin Concerto No. 2
:Mukyu motion
:Tarantella
:Song of Nostalgia
:Elegy
:Mazurka for concert

* [[Silvio Ranieri]]
:Warsaw of memories

* Enrico Marcelli
:Gypsy style Capriccio
:Fantastic Waltz
:Mukyu motion
:Polonaise for concert

* [[Hans Gál]]
:Divertimento for mandolin and harp
:Such as a duo for the mandolin and guitar

* Norbert Shupuronguru
:Serenade for mandolin and guitar

* Franco Marugora
:Grand Sonata for mandolin and guitar

* [[Kurt Schwaen]]
:Slovenia wind Dances such as

* [[Dietrich Erdmann]]
:Sonatine

* [[Mari Takano]]
:Light of silence

* Rikuya Terashima
:Sonata for mandolin and piano (2002)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://gregorio.jp/terashima/composition.html |title=Work list |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=February 28, 2015 |website=Rikuya Terashima |access-date=February 7, 2018 |quote=マンドリンとピアノのためのソナタ (translation: Sonata for Mandolin and Piano) }}</ref>
{{div col end}}

==== Duo and musical ensemble====
A [[duet]] or duo is a [[musical composition]] for two performers in which the performers have equal importance to the piece. A [[musical ensemble]] with more than two solo instruments or voices is called trio, quartet, quintet, sextet, septet, octet, etc.

{{div col|colwidth=15em}}
*Ella Von Adajewska-Schultz (1846–1926)
:Venezuelan Serenade<ref name=Serenata>
{{cite web |url= https://www.discogs.com/es/Quintetto-A-Plettro-Raffaele-Calace-Ensemble-Quadro-Raro-Serenata-Veneziana-With-Mandolin/release/7087478 |title= Quintetto A Plettro "Raffaele Calace" Ensemble "Quadro Raro" – Serenata Veneziana With Mandolin|author=<!--Not stated--> |website= discogs.com|access-date= 30 April 2019}}</ref>

*Valentine Abt (1873–1942)
:In Venice Waters<ref name=Serenata/>

*[[Carlo Acton|Charles Acton]]
:Chants Des Gondoliers<ref name=Serenata/>

* [[Hermann Ambrosius]]
:Duo

*[[Emanuele Barbella]]
:Sonata in D major for Mandolin and Basso Continuo<ref name=Serenata/>

*Ignazio Bitelli (c. 1880–1956)
:L'Albero di Natale, pastorale for mandolin & guitar<ref name=Serenata/>
:Il Gondoliere, valse for 2 mandolins & guitar<ref name=Serenata/>

*Costantino Bertucci
:Il Carnevale Di Venezia Con Variazioni<ref name=Serenata/>

*Pietro Gaetano Boni (1686–1741) 
:Sonate pour mandoline en la, Op. 2 n° 1<ref name=Serenata/>
:Sonate pour mandoline en ré mineur, Op. 2 n° 2
:Sonate pour mandoline en ré, Op. 2 n° 9<ref name=Serenata/>

*Antonio Del Buono
:"In Gondola" Serenata Veneziana "Ai Mandolnisti Di Venezia<ref name=Serenata/>

*[[Raffaele Calace]]
:Barcarola Op. 100 Per Chitarra<ref name=Serenata/>
:Barcarola Op. 116 Per Liuto "A Mio Figlio Peppino"<ref name=Serenata/>

* [[Gioacchino Cocchi]]
:* ''Sinfonia for 2 Mandolins & Continuo'', (Gimo 76)<ref name=gimocoll>{{cite web |url= https://www.mutopiaproject.org/collections/gimo/index.html |title= The Gimo Music Collection |last= Sandberg |first= Eric |website= mutopiaproject.org |access-date= 18 May 2019 |quote=Gimo 76: G. Cocchi, Allegro assai – Largo – Allegro (note: there are two mandolin parts, but they are almost identical)}}</ref>

*[[Jules Cottin]]
:Au Fil De L'Eau<ref name=Serenata/>

* [[John Craton]]
:Charon Crossing the Styx (mandolin & double bass)
:Four Whimsies (mandolin & octave mandolin)
:Les gravures de Gustave Doré (mandolin & guitar)
:Six Pantomimes for Two Mandolins
:Sonatina No. 3 for Mandolin & Violin

* [[Hans Gál]]
:Op. 59a Sonatina for 2 mandolins (1952)

* [[Eric Gross]]
: Hooperisms Op.181 (1991)

* [[Eric Gross]]
: Barbara and Deborah Op.175 (1990)

* [[Eric Gross]]
: Three Mandolin Duets Op.282 (2005)

* [[Eric Gross]]
: Paul and Adrian Op.165(1989)

*Giovani Battista Gervasio 
:''Sonata for Mandolin & Continuo'' (Gimo 141)<ref name=gimocoll/><ref name=acquavella>{{Cite AV media notes |title= Gimo-Samling: 18Th Century Sonatas & Trio Sonatas|url= https://www.bol.com/nl/p/gimo-samling-18th-century-sonatas-trio-sonatas/9200000054979942/|access-date= 18 May 2019 |type= album back cover|publisher= [[Centaur Records]] }}</ref>
:''Sonata per camera'' (Gimo 143)<ref name=gimocoll/><ref name=acquavella/>
:Sinfonia for 2 Mandolins & Continuo, (Gimo 149)<ref name=gimocoll/><ref name=acquavella/>
:''Trio for 2 Mandolins & Continuo,'' (Gimo 150)<ref name=gimocoll/><ref name=acquavella/>
:Sonata in D major for Mandolin and Basso Continuo<ref name=Serenata/>
:Sonata in G major for Mandolin and Basso Continuo<ref name=Serenata/>

*Giuseppe Giuliano
:Sonata in D major for Mandolin and Basso Continuo

* Geoffrey Gordon
:Interiors of a Courtyard (mandolin & guitar)

*Addiego Guerra
:Sonata in G major for Mandolin and Basso Continuo

* Positive Hattori
:Concerto for two mandolin and piano

* [[Sean Hickey]]
:Mandolin Canons (mandolin & guitar)

* [[Giovanni Hoffmann]]
: 3 Duets for Mandolin and Violin
: Serenade for Viola and Mandolin

* Tyler Kaier
:Den lille Havfrue (mandolin & guitar)

* [[Peter Machajdík]]
:Mit den Augen eines Falken for mandolin & guitar (2016)

*Giovanni Battista Maldura
:Barcarola Veneziana Di Mendelssohn<ref name=Serenata/>

*[[Eduardo Mezzacapo|Edward Mezzacapo]] (1832–1898)
:Le Chant Du Gondolier<ref name=Serenata/>

*Heinrich Molbe (1835–1915)
:Gondolata Op. 74 Per Mandolino, Clarinetto E Pianoforte<ref name=Serenata/>

*[[Carlo Munier]] (1859–1911)
:"In Gondola" Ricordi di Mendelssohn<ref name=Serenata/>
:Notturno Veneziano Per Quartetto Romantico<ref name=Serenata/>

* [[Jiro Nakano]]
:Medaka, revolving lantern

* [[John Peterson (composer)|John Peterson]]
: Wired Life (1999)

*[[Giuseppe Pettine]] (1874–1966)
:Barcarola Per Mandolino<ref name=Serenata/>

* [[Hideo Saito (musician)|Hideo Saito]], [[Jiro Nakano]]
:Du edge Martino

*[[Domenico Scarlatti]]
:Sonata in D minor (K77)
:Sonata in E minor (K81)
:Sonata in G minor (K88)
:Sonata No. 54 (K. 89) in D minor for Mandolin and Basso Continuo
:Sonata in D minor (K89)
:Sonata in D minor (K90)
:Sonata in G (K91)

* [[Mari Takano]]
:Silent Light for mandolin & harpsichord (2001)
:Two Pieces for Two Mandolins (2002)

*[[Sergei Taneyev|Sergeij Taneev]] (1856–1913)
:Venezia Di Notte, Barcarola Op. 9 No. 1<ref name=Serenata/>
:Serenata Per Voce, Mandolino E Pianoforte Op. 9 No. 2 Alla Contessa Tat'jana L'vovna Tolstaja<ref name=Serenata/>

*Roberto Valentini (1674–1747) 
:Sonate pour mandoline en la, Op. 12 n° 1
:Sonate pour mandoline en ré mineur, Op. 12 n° 2
:Sonate pour mandoline en sol, Op. 12 n° 3
:Sonate pour mandoline en sol mineur, Op. 12 n° 4
:Sonate pour mandoline en mi mineur, Op. 12 n° 5
:Sonate pour mandoline en ré, Op. 12 n° 6

{{div col end}}

==== Concerto ====
Concerto: a musical composition generally composed of three movements, in which, usually, one solo instrument (for instance, a piano, violin, cello or flute) is accompanied by an orchestra or [[concert band]].

{{div col|colwidth=15em}}

* [[Anna Clyne]]
: ''Three Sisters'', for mandolin and chamber orchestra

* [[Eric Gross]]
: Concerto for Mandolin and Chamber Orchestra Op.141 (1984)
: Concerto No. 2 Op.151 (1986)

* [[Larry Sitsky]]
: Zohar, Sephardic Concerto (1998)

* [[Jane Stanley]]
: The Spirit's Lay Concerto for Mandolin and Orchestra (2000)

* [[Caroline Szeto]]
: Concerto For Mandolin and Chamber Orchestra (1998)

* [[Giovanni Hoffmann]]
: Concerto for Mandolin and Orchestra in D Major

* [[Antonio Vivaldi]]
:[[Mandolin Concerto (Vivaldi)|Mandolin Concerto in C major]],
:Concerto for two mandolinos in G major
:Concerto for two mandolinos, 2 violons " in Tromba"—2 flûtes à bec, 2 salmoe, 2 théorbes, violoncelle, cordes et basse continuein in C major

* Francisco Rodrigo Arto (Venezuela)
:Mandolin Concerto (1984){{sfn|Ficher |Schleifer |Furman |2002 |pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=S02rvzz60rkC&pg=PA47 47–48]}}

* Dominico Caudioso
:Mandolin Concerto in G Major

* [[John Craton]]
:Mandolin Concerto No. 1 in D Minor
:Mandolin Concerto No. 2 in D Major
:Mandolin Concerto No. 3 in E Minor
:Mandolin Concerto No. 4 in G Major
:Concerto for Two Mandolins ("Rromane Bjavela")

* Gerardo Enrique Dirié (Argentina)
:''Los ocho puentes'' for four recorders, mandolin and percussion (1984){{sfn|Ficher |Schleifer |Furman |2002 |p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=S02rvzz60rkC&pg=PA167 167]}}

* [[Johann Adolph Hasse]]
:Mandolin Concerto in G major

* [[Leopold Kozeluch]]
:Concerto for piano, mandolin, trumpet and double bass in E{{music|flat}} major

* [[Giovanni Battista Pergolesi]]
:Mandolin Concerto in B{{music|flat}} major

* [[Giovanni Paisiello]]
:Mandolin Concerto in E{{music|flat}} major
:Mandolin Concerto in C major
:Mandolin Concerto in G major

* [[Johann Nepomuk Hummel]]
:Mandolin Concerto in G major

* Armin Kaufmann
:Mandolin Concerto

* Dietrich Erdmann
:Mandolin Concerto

* [[Herbert Baumann]]
:Mandolin and the Concerto for Strings

* [[Brian Israel]] (1951–1986)
:Concerto for Mandolin (1985)
:Sonatinetta (1984)
:Surrealistic Serenade (1985)

* Makino YukariTaka
:Mandolin Concerto

* [[Julian Dawes]]
:Mandolin and the Concerto for Strings

* Tanaka Ken
:"Arc" for mandolin and orchestra

* Vladimir Kororutsuku
:Suite "positive and negative"

* [[Avner Dorman]]
:Mandolin Concerto

* [[Gilad Hochman]]
:"Nedudim" ("Wanderings") Fantasia-Concertante for mandolin and string orchestra (2014)
{{div col end}}

==== Mandolin in the orchestra ====
Orchestral works in which the mandolin has a limited part.

{{div col|colwidth=15em}}
* [[Domenico Cimarosa]]
:Opera ''La finta parigina''

* [[John Craton]]
:Opera ''The Curious Affair of the Count of Monte Blotto''

* [[Michel Corrette]]
:Concerto for orchestra  ''[[25 Concertos Comiques (Michel Corrette)|25 Concertos Comiques]]'': ''Concerto nr 24 in C major "La Marche du Huron"''

*[[Jonathan Dove]] 
:Opera "The Adventures of Pinocchio" (2007)

*[[Lukas Foss]]  
:Symphony No. 2 "Symphony Of Chorales" (1958)

*[[André Grétry]]
: ''[[L'Amant jaloux]]'' (Paris, 1778)<ref name=mednotes>{{Cite AV media notes |title= Mandolin Music, Beethoven, Hummel|year= 1969|url= https://archive.org/stream/mandolinmusicsou00sciv/mandolinmusicsou00sciv_djvu.txt |access-date= 24 May 2019 |first= Joseph|last= Braunstein|publisher=[[Nonesuch Records]]|location= New York}}</ref>

* [[George Frideric Handel]]
:Oratorio  ''[[Alexander Balus (George Frideric Handel)|Alexander Balus]]''

* [[György Ligeti]]
:Opera ''Le Grand Macabre''

* [[Bruno Maderna]]
:Opera ''Don Perlimplin, ovvero il trionfo dell'amore e dell'immaginazione''
:Violin concerto (1969)
:Suite aus der Oper "Hyperion" (1969–1970)
:"Amanda"/Serenata VI
:"Composizione in tre tempi"

* [[Gustav Mahler]]
:''[[Symphony No. 7 (Mahler)|Symphony No. 7, Song of the Night]]''
:''[[Symphony No. 8 (Mahler)|Symphony No. 8, Symphony of Thousands]]''
:Symphony ''[[Das Lied von der Erde|Song of the Earth]]''

* [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]]
:Opera ''[[Don Giovanni]]''<ref name=mednotes/>

* [[Giovanni Paisiello]]
:[[The Barber of Seville (Paisiello)|The Barber of Seville]]<ref name=mednotes/>

* [[Willem Pijper]]
:Opera ''Halewijn''
:''Romance sans paroles''
:Symphony No. 2
:Symphony No. 3

* [[Sergei Prokofiev]]
:Ballet music ''[[Romeo and Juliet (Prokofiev)|Romeo and Juliet]]''

* [[Ottorino Respighi]]
:Symphonic poem ''[[Roman Festivals (Respighi)|Festivals of Rome]]''

*[[Antonio Salieri]]
:[[Tarare (opera)|Tarare]] (Paris, 1787)<ref name=mednotes/>

* [[Rodion Shchedrin]]
:Ballet music ''[[Anna Karenina (ballet)|Anna Karenina]]''

* [[Arnold Schoenberg]]
:Opera ''[[Moses und Aron]]''
:''[[Variations for Orchestra (Schoenberg)|Variations for Orchestra]]''

* [[Niccola Spinelli]]
: Opera ''[[A basso porto|A Basso Porto]]'': ''Intermezzo for mandolins and orchestra''

* [[Igor Stravinsky]]
:Ballet music ''[[Agon (ballet)|Agon]]''

* [[Giuseppe Verdi]]
:Opera ''[[Otello]]''

* [[Antonio Vivaldi]]
:Oratorio  ''[[Juditha triumphans (Vivaldi)|Juditha triumphans]]''

* [[Anton Webern]]
:''Five Pieces for Orchestra''

{{div col end}}

== See also ==
{{div col|colwidth=15em}}
* [[List of mandolinists]]
* [[List of mandolinists (sorted)]]
* [[List of string instruments]]
* [[Stringed instrument tunings]]
* [[Pandura]]
* [[Quintola]]
* [[bouzouki|Greek bouzouki]]
* [[Bluegrass mandolin]]
* [[Mandola]]
* [[Octave Mandolin]]
* [[Mandocello]]
* [[Mandobass]]
* [[Cittern]]
* [[Domra]]
* [[Irish bouzouki]]
* [[Portuguese guitar]]
* [[Pasquale Troise|Troise and his Mandoliers]]
{{div col end}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

* {{cite news |last=Adelstein |first= Samuel|date=8 June 1893 |title= The Mandolin, One of the Sweetest Stringed Instruments|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1989799/the_san_francisco_call/|url-status=live |newspaper=The Morning Call |location=San Francisco|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150315074902/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1989799/the_san_francisco_call/ |archive-date=15 March 2015 |access-date=15 March 2015}}
* {{cite book|last=Bone|first = P J.|date=1954|edition=2nd|title=The Guitar and Mandolin: Biographies of Celebrated Players and Composers|location=London|publisher=Schott}}
* {{cite book|last=Dumbrill|first = Richard J.|date=1998|title=The Archaeomusicology of the Ancient Near East|location=London|publisher=Tadema Press}}
* {{cite book |date=2002 |editor1-last=Ficher |editor1-first= Miguel |editor2-last=Schleifer |editor2-first= Martha Furman |editor3-last=Furman |editor3-first=John M. |title= Latin American Classical Composers: A Biographical Dictionary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S02rvzz60rkC&pg=PA47 |location=Lanham, Maryland |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn= 9781461669111 }}
* {{cite book|last=McDonald|first=Graham|date=2008|title=The Mandolin Project|location=Australia|publisher=Jamison, A.C.T., Graham McDonald Stringed Instruments|isbn=978-0-9804762-0-0}}
* {{cite book |last= Sparks|first=Paul|date= 2003|title= The Classical Mandolin|location= Oxford|publisher= Oxford University Press|isbn=9780195173376 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Tyler|first1=James|author-link1=James Tyler (music) |last2=Sparks|first2=Paul|date= 1989|title= The Early Mandolin|url=https://archive.org/details/earlymandolin0000tyle|url-access=registration}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Tyler|first1=James|author-link1=James Tyler (music) |last2=Sparks|first2=Paul|date=1996|title=The Mandolin: Its Structure and Performance (Sixteenth to Twentieth Centuries)| journal=Performance Practice Review | volume=9 | issue=2 | pages= 166–177| doi= 10.5642/perfpr.199609.02.05|doi-access=free}}
* {{cite book |last1=Woll |first=Alfred |title=The Art of Mandolin Making |location= Welzheim|publisher= Mando|date= 2021}} [https://en.edition-mando.de/ Edition MANDO – Edition MANDO Verlags-Bestellung]

== Further reading ==
'''Chord dictionaries'''
* {{cite book
 | title = Hal Leonard Mandolin Chord Finder
 | first = Chad
 | last = Johnson
 | location = United States
 | publisher = Hal Leonard
 | year = 2003
 | isbn = 978-0-634-05422-8
}} A comprehensive chord dictionary.
* {{cite book
 | title = Mandolin Chord Book
 | first = James
 | last = Major
 | location = United States
 | publisher = Music Sales Ltd
 | year = 2002
 | isbn = 978-0-8256-2296-0
}} A case-style chord dictionary.
* {{cite book
 | title = The Mandolin Chord Bible: 2,736 Chords
 | first = Tobe A.
 | last = Richards
 | location = United Kingdom
 | publisher = Cabot Books
 | year = 2007
 | isbn = 978-1-906207-01-4
}} A very comprehensive chord dictionary.

'''Method and instructional guides'''
* {{cite book
 | title = Complete Mandolin Method
 | first = Mel
 | last = Bay
 | location = United States
 | publisher = Mel Bay
 | year = 1987
 | isbn = 978-0-87166-763-2
}} Instructional guide.

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Mandolins}}
{{EB1911 poster|Mandoline}}
* [http://themandolinworld.com/Homepage.html The Mandolin World]
* [https://www.youtube.com/@themandolinworld/videos Mandolin YouTube Channel]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20190112134709/http://www.accademiamandolinisticapugliese.it/ Accademia Mandolinistica Pugliese (Puglia-Italy)]
* [http://www.mandoisland.de/mandolinenschulen-timeline.html List of mandolin method books from 1629 to present]
* [http://mandolin.music.coocan.jp/names.html List of composers for the mandolin with more than 1900 names. Includes mandolin solos, ensembles, concertos, chamber music, and bluegrass. Japanese website, but needed parts are in English]
* [http://mandolin.music.coocan.jp/classics.html Works for orchestras that contain small parts for mandolin. Japanese website, but needed parts are in English.]
* [http://mandolin.music.coocan.jp/works-in-English.html Works for mandolin or with major parts for mandolin.]
* [http://www.mutopiaproject.org/collections/gimo/ 19 works from Italian composers, during the mandolins first rise, copies from manuscript into modern notation.]
* [https://mandolinarchive.org Classical Mandolin Archive - Hundreds of mandolins photographed and described.]

{{Mandolin family instruments}}
{{Authority control}}

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