Colascione?

[Simen Kjaersdalen]

I found some very interesting pictures of this instrument called the Colascione, but not much information. History, players, composers, sound, strings... Anyone? Seems to be a kind of mandola, four - six single strings, mostly tuned in fifths.

[Jim Garber]

Looks like some sort of relative to the bouzouki or saz. Most seem to have 3 strings. Small bit of info at this link about lutes:

The long-necked Pandora/Quitra had been common Mediterranean lute previously. The Quitra didn't become extinct however, but continued its evolution, its descendants being Chitarra Italiana, Chitarrone and Colascione, aside from the still surviving Kuitra of Algiers and Morocco.

[vkioulaphides]

Indeed, an Italian relative of the saz, and "cousin" of the Greek bouzouki; I believe it was mostly used in northern Italy, and might have been "imported" as a phenotype by the Venetians, who were of course directly linked by trade-routes with the Eastern Mediterranean. I also recall, vaguely at least, that several present-day Italian luthiers —those with a penchant for period-instrument replicas— do make some lovely, if few in number, colascione models. Tumiati, perhaps?...

Cheers,

Victor

[Simen Kjaersdalen]

Thanks both of you! I've done some more reserch, and found that the London-based lutemakers Stephen Barber & Sandi Harris make a 6-(single) string replica that looks more than nice. (But that price!) The german Karl Kirchmeyr make four and 3 string versions, where the 4-string is tuned as a mandocello, 86 cm string-lenght. He sent me a recording and the sound was like a base-lute. I also found this on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GaWz...x=0&playnext=1

[billkilpatrick]

not hard to understand why there aren't many of these to survive the to-ings and fro-ings of antiquity - barbarians at the gate, sackings, pillage ... itinerant musicians clinging to jostling baggage trains, etc..

[vkioulaphides]

Indeed. In some other, older thread, I had once referenced this, eerily minimalist clip; it also exemplifies the quintaquarta tuning, surviving to our days in the (revived) trichordo, or three-course Greek bouzouki, that was THE bouzouki in the pre-WWII era.

Fascinating interconnections... Phoebos Anogiannakis, curator of the Folk Instrument Museum in Athens and (frequently pontificating) author, calls these long-necked lutes "THE Greek string-instrument across the centuries", relating it to many such types of instruments found across the 11 centuries of Byzantium, and even to the famed relief, attributed to Praxiteles, going back another 4 centuries in pre-Christian antiquity.

But I don't meddle with historians— prickly folks, more often than not. I just sit back and listen. And, if such an instrument did in fact fit in our minuscule, Manhattan apartment, I'd probably have one by now, proto-Hellenic or not.

Cheers,

Victor

[vkioulaphides]

Now... fast-forward, oh... 20-25 centuries or so, and you get this creature of Maestro Tsoulogiannis:

http://trixorda.blogspot.com/2010/10/blog-post.html

By remarkable coincidence, he sent me this link himself, this very morning. As I firmly believe, history is a continuum between what was, what is, and what will be; it is NOT a partition between TupperWare™ compartments, as it is all too often (badly) taught by historians.

Cheers,

Victor

[Simen Kjaersdalen]

And, if such an instrument did in fact fit in our minuscule, Manhattan apartment, I'd probably have one by now

That's the advantage living outside the big cities, I guess... Space is no probem here. Maybe you could make a deal with your neighbour and knock a hole in the wall?

[Tavy]

And, if such an instrument did in fact fit in our minuscule, Manhattan apartment, I'd probably have one by now, proto-Hellenic or not.

Heavens, what a neck! I notice he doesn't actually finger the fretboard at all though!

[vkioulaphides]

His left hand, however, does look poised to finger some ultra-virtuosic passage, way up in the 97th position!

Cheers,

Victor

[MLT]

That is too cool. And given the period it is from, when you weren't playing at the festival, you could use it as your lance during the jousting!

[Margriet]

Here is a youtube video of Italian renaissance music, with mandolinist Mauro Squillante on Colascione. About Colascione it starts after about 2 minutes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9y3NhGVw9U
And here is another one, of the same ensemble
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzsHf32P9-c
Enjoy!
Margriet

[nickgeo]

Viktor -
Forgive my poor Greek; REALLY need to fix that someday......
What is the instrument further-down (its own page at http://trixorda.blogspot.com/2010/08/blog-post_15.html) which is called the "eight-string kithara" (oktoxorde kithara)? Is this choice for a "modern" name intended to imply "cittern-like" here? Thanks.....Nick

[vkioulaphides]

Hello, Nick.

Since I don't know anything more than you do about this instrument, I simply translate below the text that accompanies the images from the site you reference:

A while ago I sent the link of the publication regarding the harp-guitar of Stathopoulos to the creditable website http://www.harpguitars.net

The submission of this information motivated American luthier Paul Fox, with whom I share the same passion for history, to verify and to locate the builder of this interbellum instrument, so famous for its capabilities: the eight-string guitar of Roy Smeck, the talented American musician of that era. (The guitar was stolen in 1930 from the hotel room where Smeck was staying, and was rediscovered by chance at an antique shop in 1994.)

Even though the instrument is unsigned, Paul Fox attributes the construction of this eight-string guitar to Epaminondas Stathopoulos himself, circa 1923-1924. In the construction of this guitar there is preserved the mould and the decoration of Anastasios' [Stathopoulos'] guitar "The Artist", while the peg-head is embellished by a most Hellenic lion's-head, analogous to the lutes of Stathopoulos.

As Fox writes characteristically, "It's as if someone asked Dalí to build a guitar."

Amazing instruments, amazing history, amazing luthiers who earned with their worth a place in the international history of instrument-building.

Paul Fox' article was published in Vintage Guitars(05-2010), while the relevant internet-link is http://www.harpguitars.net/history/m...th-hg-7-10.htm

---

I hope this sheds some light.

Cheers,

Victor

[vkioulaphides]

Forgive my poor Greek; REALLY need to fix that someday...

And, for those who wish to improve their Greek ... years ago, I established this forum

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GreekEnglishStudyGroup/

where friendly folks, with some (native or learned) knowledge of English, converge to learn modern Greek, ask questions, discuss Greek-language-related matters, etc. I, in my free time (HA!) act as moderator. The group is "by subscription", simply so that we don't get inundated with SPAM, but of course free, otherwise. (Depending on one's browser, the Greek alphabet comes out as gibberish on the forum's homepage, but is perfectly legible in the group-emails that the forum generates in the course of its operations.)

---

OK, back to the mandolin.

Cheers,

Victor

[nickgeo]

....
Amazing instruments, amazing history, amazing luthiers who earned with their worth a place in the international history of instrument-building.
Paul Fox' article was published in Vintage Guitars(05-2010), while the relevant internet-link is http://www.harpguitars.net/history/m...th-hg-7-10.htm
Victor

Thanks so much Viktor. The Vintage Guitars article is like viewing much of attested musical history through a single instrument; like seeing a complete hologram through a fragment of its original glass (love that Stathopoulos mandolin at Epiphone HQ too). This is why I would claim, contra Kioulaphides, that history is not a continuum. Rather, ALL of it is always present with us. Enough philosophy
The signal-to-noise ratio at Mandolincafe is without peer on the net. Really.

[vkioulaphides]

This is why I would claim, contra Kioulaphides, that history is not a continuum. Rather, ALL of it is always present with us.

I'd second that! After all, as a neoclassical composer, both by heritage and by temperament, I personify your point. My own work suggests you must be right.

Cheers,

Victor

[Psyberbilly]

Heavens, what a neck! I notice he doesn't actually finger the fretboard at all though!

Gosh , does anyone know where I can find the 5-string banjo tablature to this ?

[Eugene]

This is another term with a broad application across history. If you download the zip of Federico Marincola's old Lute Bot Quarterly, and check out volume 5, you will find a fine (if somewhat oddly titled) article that touches on some historic incarnations:

Prosser, Pietro. 1999. Accord Mandorae est una quarta altius, quam Galizona. Lutebot quarterly, 5.

However, there were even older three-course incarnations that functioned essentially like a bass guitar in ensemble. There is an extraordinary bass colascione (but in absolutely horrific physical condition) by Harton in MI's Stearns Collection. Rolf Lislevand's Ensemble Kapsberger make frequent use of such a thing.

[vkioulaphides]

In yet another life, I'll strap my colascione across my back, and stroll merrily around, offering minstrel-worthy bass-lines to any who may need such.

Cheers,

Victor

[Eugene]

Ha! I'd pay to see that!

[vkioulaphides]

Oh, but I intend to be quite the pro bono trovatore! You would, of course, be most welcome to actually join, with treble-part of choice.

Cheers,

Victor

[Margriet]

Here is a youtube video of Italian renaissance music, with mandolinist Mauro Squillante on Colascione. About Colascione it starts after about 2 minutes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9y3NhGVw9U
And here is another one, of the same ensemble
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzsHf32P9-c
Enjoy!
Margriet

I saw that both links don't work anymore, they have become private. Here is another one, as long as it works. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cBjQbtBG44

[Simen Kjaersdalen]

So much poetry is written about the violin, the guitar, even the mandolin - but nothing that I've found about our new friend, the colascione. So I tried, and the result was quite good, according to some of those who should know . Well, for what is it worth, here is the (New)Norwegian version:

Når eg blir pensjonist
skal eg selja armbandsuret mitt
kjøpe ein Colascione

Med skyhøg hatteføring
skal eg strutse lukkelig om
på ville vegar

Tilby ei bassline
for dei rotlause
og stivnakka


Even a simple poem is hard to translate. I asked some of my friends, and here is what they came to:



When I retire
I`ll sell my watch
and buy me a Colascione

with my hat high in the sky
like an ostrich I will straddle along
the roads of Crazy and Wild

offering a bass line
to the rootless
and the rigid ones.


The last word in Norwegian means both "stiff-necked" and rigid, and the bird you call the ostrich is in the original woven into the word "straddle" - but I guess all that's hard to get through in English. Anyways, hope you forgive me sharing this little intermezzo!

[brunello97]

A number of years ago we were in Todi, Italy and looking for a pilgrimage church there, designed with centralized plan and sometimes attributed to Bramante. It had been a long, hot, morning already. I asked some nonne walking along the road how we could get to Santa Maria della Colazione. The almost broke down in laughter. My wife said she would do the talking from then on out.

That was a few years before I met Victor. I think it is something he would understand.

Mick