La Mantovana (Gasparo Zanetti, 1645)

[Martin Jonas]

This is one of the best-known Italian renaissance dance tunes. This 1645 setting for four parts is by Gasparo Zanetti, but the tune is much older.

Arranged by Steve Hendricks:

http://sca.uwaterloo.ca/Hendricks/Shawm/mantovan.pdf

Played on mandolin, two tenor guitars and mandocello.

Mid-Missouri M-0W mandolin
Vintage Viaten tenor guitar
Ozark tenor guitar
Suzuki MC-815 mandocello

While Zanetti called this tune "Ballo di Mantova", this is quite different from Gaetano Greco tune recorded by Hany last week, which is also why I am not posting in his thread -- although they are supposed to be versions of the same tune, I am not sure I hear this.

This is also the source for the tune of the Israeli anthem ("Hatikvah"), and was included in Playford's Dancing Master under the title "An Italian Rant".

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Martin

[JH Murray]

Are the two tenors in the same tuning? What difference in tone do you notice between them? You've got a nice clear mix for this piece. Well done!

[Martin Jonas]

Are the two tenors in the same tuning? What difference in tone do you notice between them? You've got a nice clear mix for this piece. Well done!

Thanks!

Both tenors are in GDAE, and both are fairly small-bodied with slightly shorter scale than most. However, they sound and feel quite different.

The Ozark 3372 has been my main tenor guitar for several years. It has a solid cedar top and a sweet mellow tone and soft strummed chords. The Vintage Viaten "Paul Brett" Signature model is brand new -- it only came out this summer and I got mine last week ("Vintage" is, rather confusingly, the brand name for one of the UK wholesalers, not an indication of age). Solid spruce top, tiny narrow parlour-sized body, quite a bit smaller than the already-small Ozark. Brighter and more aggressive on single note playing than the Ozark, crisp and clean, but not in any way mellow.

I haven't recorded a solo demo of the Viaten yet, but there are commercial demo videos of both instruments on Youtube (albeit not in GDAE tuning), which demonstrate the difference in tone pretty accurately:

1. Ozark 3372:

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2. Vintage Viaten:

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Martin

[JH Murray]

Very different sounds. I can see why you like the Viaten's tone. Have you put different kinds of strings on them to accentuate the differences?