When Was the Mandolin Invented?
The mandolin is a small fretted stringed instrument that developed from the lute in eighteenth-century Europe. Its four pairs, or "courses," of strings, tuned in the violin mode (E, A, D, G), are plucked with the fingers or strummed with a pick.
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Neapolitan Mandolin
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According to the "Oxford Companion to Musical Instruments," the round-backed, teardrop-shaped Neapolitan mandolin emerged in about 1750. Its deep ribbed body is much like that of the medieval lute, and gives the instrument a penetrating lower register.
Portuguese Mandolin
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The interior structure of the flat-backed Portuguese mandolin is similar to that of the guitar, making it easier to play in a standing position. The earliest examples date to the late 1700s.
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American Mandolin
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Beginning in 1902, the Gibson Company's F-series instruments featured exuberant "Florentine" styling dominated by a large body scroll at the upper shoulder. This design, as well as the company's simpler teardrop-shaped A-series mandolin, remains influential today.
Lloyd Loar
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In 1918, musician and acoustician Lloyd Loar (1886 to 1943) joined the Gibson Company and perfected the mandolin's structure to maximize its brightness as well as its depth, using violin-like f-holes, an arched top and a tortoise-shell back.
Bill Monroe
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Loar's Gibson mandolin was adopted in the mid-1920s by Bill Monroe (1911 to 1996), the "Father of Bluegrass," who made the instrument's penetrating tremolando the trademark sound of this emerging style of music.
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