Giovanni Battista Maldura and the Invention of the Roman Mandolin

By Lorenzo Lippi and Donatella Melini

THE BOOK. Giovanni Battista Maldura (1859–1905), a renowned musician and tireless entertainer of Rome’s musical life in the second half of the 19th century, was also an undisputed innovator of a new concept of mandolin making, an instrument of which he was recognised as a great virtuoso. The need to restore the legitimate role of the figure of Maldura arises at a time when the mandolin is regaining, after a few decades of oblivion, its rightful place in the musical and cultural history of Italy, finally freeing itself from the stigma of the second half of the 20th century that bound it predominantly, if not sometimes exclusively, to a mostly popular soundscape. This book – written in two voices – brings together Maldura’s two souls: that of a brilliant teacher and musician, and that of a luthier, two souls that were never too far apart.

THE AUTHORS
Lorenzo Lippi has been considered for a long time one of the most esteemed Italian luthier. He started his career mostly involved in building antique instruments and later, for years, also in classic guitars and mandolins. He is deeply experienced as teacher at the “Civica Scuola di Liuteria” in Milan, where, since 1979, he had an active role in training a big part of the current Italian luthiers and also several foreign luthiers. Well known also for his organologic and technologic studies, he is author of several releases; recently he has written some items for the new edition of Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments; he is often invited to give lectures and master class overseas. First Prize and Gold Medal at the “Third International Instrument Making Competition” in Pisogne (Brescia). Several musicians all over the world (Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Italy, France, Austria, USA, Switzerland, China, Korea, Taiwan, Mexico and Greece) perform Lorenzo Lippi’s instruments.


Donatella Melini Researcher (RTDa – sector L-ART/07) at the University of Pavia, she graduated in Disciplines of Music and Performing Arts from the University of Bologna where she later specialized in Renaissance Art History. In 2002, she received an advanced Master’s degree in “Philology of Musical Texts,” from the University of Pavia and in 2008 a PhD in Musicology from the University of Innsbruck. Master luthier, in 2016 she was included in the official national list of restoration technicians of Mic (Italian Ministry of Culture). A scholar of Musical Iconography and Organology she collaborates with the Associazione Liutaria Italiana (A.L.I.) and the Antonio Carlo Monzino Foundation in Milan. Since 2018, he has been a scientific consultant to the National Museum of Science and Technology in Milan for the study and preservation of the Emma Vecla collection of musical instruments.

• Language: English
• Publisher: LeMus Edizioni
• Release date: Feb 2, 2023
• ISBN: 9788831444248

Book preview

Table of Contents

Copyright

About the Authors

Introduction

1. GIOVANNI BATTISTA MALDURA, MUSICIAN AND TEACHER

1.1 The training

1.2 The first concerts

1.3 Maldura teacher

1.4 Maldura protagonist and entertainer of the roman musical life

1.5 Living in London

1.6 The relationship with the baritone Antonio Cotogni

1.7 Maldura capo sminfo and entertainer of the roman artistic circle

2. THE PATENTS, THE FACTORY AND HIS LEAVE

2.1 Maldura and De Santis: the approach to lutherie

2.2 The first Maldura patent

2.3 The break with De Santis and the opening of the Maldura factory

2.4 The Universal Exhibition in Paris

2.5 Activities of the Maldura factory and the instruments and tools that went missing

2.6 The passing of Giovanni Battista Maldura

3. GIOVANNI BATTISTA MALDURA INSTRUMENT MAKER

3.1 The collaboration with De Santis and the first prototype

3.2 The first patent and licensed production

3.3 Starting the factory on his own

3.4 The Maldura 1900s catalog

3.5 The following patents

3.6 The construction style

3.7 The guitars

Addendum

Bibliography & Sitography

© 2022 LeMus Associazione

Lorenzo Lippi, Donatella Melini

Giovanni Battista Maldura and the invention of the Roman mandolin

Translated from Italian by Simona Colombini

First digital edition January 2023

ISBN 9788831444-248 (based on paperback edition ISBN 9788831444-217)

Cover: Maldura caricature from the first page of «Il Cicerone» January 3, 1889.

Associazione LeMus / LeMus Edizioni

via delle Germane 11 – 10015 Ivrea (TO)

www.lemusedizioni.com – [e-mail]

Facebook @LeMusEdizioni - Twitter @EdizioniLemus - Instagram lemusedizioni- Telegram @lemusedizioni- YouTube LeMus Edizioni

LORENZO LIPPI has been considered for a long time one of the most esteemed Italian luthier. He started his career mostly involved in building antique instruments and later, for years, also in classic guitars and mandolins. He is deeply experienced as teacher at the Civica Scuola di Liuteria in Milan, where, since 1979, he had an active role in training a big part of the current Italian luthiers and also several foreign luthiers. Well known also for his organologic and technologic studies, he is author of several releases; recently he has written some items for the new edition of Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments; he is often invited to give lectures and master class overseas. First Prize and Gold Medal at the Third International Instrument Making Competition in Pisogne (Brescia). Several musicians all over the world (Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Italy, France, Austria, USA, Switzerland, China, Korea, Taiwan, Mexico and Greece) perform Lorenzo Lippi’s instruments.

DONATELLA MELINI Researcher (RTDa – sector L-ART/07) at the University of Pavia, she graduated in Disciplines of Music and Performing Arts from the University of Bologna where she later specialized in Renaissance Art History. In 2002, she received an advanced Master’s degree in Philology of Musical Texts, from the University of Pavia and in 2008 a PhD in Musicology from the University of Innsbruck. Master luthier, in 2016 she was included in the official national list of restoration technicians of Mic (Italian Ministry of Culture). A scholar of Musical Iconography and Organology she collaborates with the Associazione Liutaria Italiana (A.L.I.) and the Antonio Carlo Monzino Foundation in Milan. Since 2018, he has been a scientific consultant to the National Museum of Science and Technology in Milan for the study and preservation of the Emma Vecla collection of musical instruments.

Lorenzo Lippi • Donatella Melini

GIOVANNI BATTISTA MALDURA AND THE INVENTION OF THE ROMAN MANDOLIN

Logo LeMus Edizioni

Introduction

This contribution intends to reconstruct the figure of Giovanni Battista Maldura (1859-1905), a renowned musician and tireless entertainer of the Roman musical life in the second half of the 19th Century as well as an undisputed innovator in the context of a new luthier conception of the mandolin (see LIPPI 2014a), an instrument of which he was recognized – even internationally – as a great virtuoso. The need to restore the figure of Maldura to its legitimate role, arises at a time when the mandolin – after a few decades of oblivion – is regaining its rightful importance in the musical and cultural history of our country, finally freeing itself from the stigma of the second half of the 20th Century that tied it predominantly, and sometimes exclusively, to a mostly popular soundscape. In addition to the musical repertoire, in recent years, a significant study campaign has also been launched in the more specialized lutherie field, which allowed to clarify the mandolin technical-constructive characteristics and the contribution of the various Master luthiers who have dedicated over time mastery and inventiveness to the mandolin.

This is a two-voice volume, in order to bring together the two souls of Giovanni Battista Maldura: the brilliant teacher and musician and the luthier, two souls that – as will be seen – were never too far apart.

* * *

The musical life in Rome in the second half of the 19th Century was characterized by a liveliness and multiplicity of contrasting aspects. On the one hand, obviously, the seriousness of sacred music and the formal representation of musical events, on the other an assorted and intense musical activity, definitely more lively, that livened up salons, theaters, colleges, streets and districts – and which often had as protagonists the same circle of papal and aristocratic nobles and their bourgeois entourage – who knew how to adapt well – in the aftermath of the Porta Pia breach in 1870 – to the renewal of the city that became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. The pulse of the Roman musical artistic activity of this period is well evidenced by the large number of places assigned to it, suffice to say that between 1871 and 1898 eleven theaters were built from scratch and of these, only three no longer exist today.[1] Musical entertainment involved the daily life of the city at every level and was accompanied by a rich and varied panorama of crafts and skills underlying it: from luthiers and all kinds of instrument makers, to printers of music and chamber programs, from specialized newspapers and musical journalists, instrument or singing teachers, professional musicians, amateurs and sympathizers, symphonic, band and fanfare conductors and so on. Leafing through the pages of the famous