Hi Richard and Alex,
What a delightful thread :-)
I'll add a few thoughts though I'm unable to offer any "proof" of my own to substantiate one position or another... just opinions and observations.
I like Richard's word "aesthetic". I think we have to look at these questions not just in terms of projection but in concert with the aesthetic of the music of the time. To my ear (and yes, this is completely subjective), the late 18th century Viennese music (Mozart/Beethoven/Hoffman/Hummel) "sounds" more convincing played with a plectrum on single gut strings than with historically-correct Neapolitan stringing. I personally don't think that it is a coincidence that those instruments (Cremonese/Milanese) are found in Vienna at that time.
In his book "Mandolins of the 18th Century", Stephen Morey uses rising pitch to account for this change. He theorizes that as pitch began to standardize near A-440 around 1800, the brass A-strings on Neapolitan mandolins became difficult to maintain. Interestingly, I have seen a very fancy 18th-century Neapolitan mandolin (with eight peg holes) that sports a nut and tiny bridge that very clearly carried only four single strings. The impressions in both nut and bridge seem consistent with the diameters of gut strings. Though this instrument was clearly built for Neapolitan stringing, it was shortly thereafter modified for a "Cremonese" approach.... it has worn this bridge for a *very* long time.
My own historically-strung 18th-century Neapolitan mandolin (copy), though it projects very well indeed, lacks a certain "evenness" that I think this music requires. As Richard and Alex have explained, each course uses rather different technology (G: silver-wrapped gut with a brass octave, D: twisted brass, A: single brass, E: gut). This sounds great (again to my ear) on earlier Italian/French music that uses lots of string-crossing plectrum effects. The Viennese music, however, seems to call for a quality and evenness of tone that I find all but impossible to extract from the different courses of the Neapolitan instrument. Single gut courses, on the other hand produce (for me) exactly the right effect under a plectrum... a ringing clear tone that is even across the instrument.
I play a later restored Albertini Lombardian instrument, and even though it is built quite heavily, it projects and resonates wonderfully with single gut strings. As I've said here before, though its a little late, it makes a convincing foil for playing Hoffman with a plectrum (sorry Alex, I know we don't yet agree yet on Hoffman).
So... I will shortly need a cherry bark plectrum. Unfortunately, I live in the middle of the New Mexico desert. Can anyone offer advice for making such a thing... or offer a source of cherry bark?
All the best,
Eric
ps - As more subjective support, I'll offer my own Stocking Stuffer suggestion: Caterina Lichtenberg on an album called "Musikinstrumente des Ferdinandeums 4". Yes, Caterina is of the modern German school but she is an extremely musical person. On this 1997 album, she plays a restored "Neapolitan" style mandolin built by Johann Georg Psenner (interestingly from Innsbruck, 1775) joined by a period piano and guitar to play Beethoven, Mozart, and Leonard von Call. The mandolin is not strung in a historically-correct fashion but maybe that's the point. Though I grew tired of many of these pieces years ago, in her hands they are simply wonderful! IMHO (again), this is what this music should "sound" like.
"The effect is pretty at first... It is disquieting to find that there are nineteen people in England who can play the mandolin; and I sincerely hope the number may not increase."
- George Bernard Shaw, Times of London, December 12, 1893
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