The mandolin is a beautiful, strange, difficult instrument, tuned like a violin but with a flat, fretted fingerboard and eight strings instead of four. Played with a plectrum, it is capable of ...
More than virtually any other instrument, the mandolin stands for different things depending on time and place. In the 18th century it was the preserve of the wealthy in salons across Europe; by the ...
Americans were once mad for mandolins. Yet today, most have disappeared. We visit one of the remaining mandolin orchestras, which is celebrating its 90th birthday. Mandolin fever swept the United ...