sentence-transformers/squad huggingface dataset:
Passage: Beside the introduction of the lute to Spain (Andalusia) by the Moors, another important point of transfer of the lute from Arabian to European culture was Sicily, where it was brought either by Byzantine or later by Muslim musicians. There were singer-lutenists at the court in Palermo following the Norman conquest of the island from the Muslims, and the lute is depicted extensively in the ceiling paintings in the Palermo’s royal Cappella Palatina, dedicated by the Norman King Roger II of Sicily in 1140. His Hohenstaufen grandson Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (1194 - 1250) continued integrating Muslims into his court, including Moorish musicians. By the 14th century, lutes had disseminated throughout Italy and, probably because of the cultural influence of the Hohenstaufen kings and emperor, based in Palermo, the lute had also made significant inroads into the German-speaking lands.

Question: Who introduced the lute to Spain?

Question: What country helped transfer the lute from Arabian to European culture?

Question: Who brought the lute to Sicily?

Question: What court held singer-lutenists after the Norman conquest?

Question: What building has ceeiling painting dedicated to the lutenists?
Passage: There is confusion currently as to the name of the eldest Vinaccia luthier who first ran the shop. His name has been put forth as Gennaro Vinaccia (active c. 1710 to c. 1788) and Nic. Vinaccia. His son Antonio Vinaccia was active c. 1734 to c. 1796. An early extant example of a mandolin is one built by Antonio Vinaccia in 1759, which resides at the University of Edinburgh. Another is by Giuseppe Vinaccia, built in 1893, is also at the University of Edinburgh. The earliest extant mandolin was built in 1744 by Antonio's son, Gaetano Vinaccia. It resides in the Conservatoire Royal de Musique in Brussels, Belgium.

Question: What is there currently confusion over?

Question: Who is said to have ran the first shop?

Question: Where does the mandolin built by Antonio Vinaccia reside?

Question: Where does the mandolin built by Giuseppe Vinaccia reside?

Question: Where does the mandolin that Gaetano Vinaccia reside?
Passage: The transition from the mandolino to the mandolin began around 1744 with the designing of the metal-string mandolin by the Vinaccia family, 3 brass strings and one of gut, using friction tuning pegs on a fingerboard that sat "flush" with the sound table. The mandolin grew in popularity over the next 60 years, in the streets where it was used by young men courting and by street musicians, and in the concert hall. After the Napoleonic Wars of 1815, however, its popularity began to fall. The 19th century produced some prominent players, including Bartolomeo Bortolazzi of Venice and Pietro Vimercati. However, professional virtuosity was in decline, and the mandolin music changed as the mandolin became a folk instrument; "the large repertoire of notated instrumental music for the mandolino and the mandoline was completely forgotten". The export market for mandolins from Italy dried up around 1815, and when Carmine de Laurentiis wrote a mandolin method in 1874, the Music World magazine wrote that the mandolin was "out of date." Salvador Léonardi mentioned this decline in his 1921 book, Méthode pour Banjoline ou Mandoline-Banjo, saying that the mandolin had been declining in popularity from previous times.

Question: What year was the beginning of the transition from mandolino to mandolin?

Question: Where did the mandolin grow in popularity?

Question: When did the mandolin's popularity begin to fall?

Question: Who were two of the promiment players in the 19th century?

Question: What year did the export market for manodlins from Italy dry up?
Passage: Beginning with the Paris Exposition of 1878, the instrument's popularity rebounded. The Exposition was one of many stops for a popular new performing group the Estudiantes Españoles (Spanish Students). They danced and played guitars, violins and the bandurria, which became confused with the mandolin. Along with the energy and awareness created by the day's hit sensation, a wave of Italian mandolinists travelled Europe in the 1880s and 1890s and in the United States by the mid-1880s, playing and teaching their instrument. The instrument's popularity continued to increase during the 1890s and mandolin popularity was at its height in "early years of the 20th century." Thousands were taking up the instrument as a pastime, and it became an instrument of society, taken up by young men and women. Mandolin orchestras were formed worldwide, incorporating not only the mandolin family of instruments, but also guitars, double basses and zithers.

Question: When did the mandolin's poplarity rebound?

Question: What popular group performed at the Paris Exposition?

Question: When was it said that mandolin's popularity peaked?

Question: What instrument was the mandolin confused with during the 1880's?

Question: What were formed worldwide that incorporated the mandolin famiy of instruments and other instruments as well?
Passage: The second decline was not as complete as the first. Thousands of people had learned to play the instrument. Even as the second wave of mandolin popularity declined in the early 20th century, new versions of the mandolin began to be used in new forms of music. Luthiers created the resonator mandolin, the flatback mandolin, the carved-top or arched-top mandolin, the mandolin-banjo and the electric mandolin. Musicians began playing it in Celtic, Bluegrass, Jazz and Rock-n-Roll styles — and Classical too.

Question: When was the second decline of mandolin popularity?

Question: Why was the second decline in popularity not a strong as the first?

Question: Who created the rasonator mandolin?

Question: What are two types of new mandolins the Luthiers created?

Question: What types of music did musicians begin to play the mandolins in?
Passage: Like any plucked instrument, mandolin notes decay to silence rather than sound out continuously as with a bowed note on a violin, and mandolin notes decay faster than larger stringed instruments like the guitar. This encourages the use of tremolo (rapid picking of one or more pairs of strings) to create sustained notes or chords. The mandolin's paired strings facilitate this technique: the plectrum (pick) strikes each of a pair of strings alternately, providing a more full and continuous sound than a single string would.

Question: What happens to mandolin notes when plucked?

Question: Do mandolin notes decay faster or slower than larger string instruments?

Question: What is tremolo?

Question: What parts of the mandolin faciliate the tremolo technique?

Question: What is a plectrum?
Passage: The Neapolitan style has an almond-shaped body resembling a bowl, constructed from curved strips of wood. It usually has a bent sound table, canted in two planes with the design to take the tension of the 8 metal strings arranged in four courses. A hardwood fingerboard sits on top of or is flush with the sound table. Very old instruments may use wooden tuning pegs, while newer instruments tend to use geared metal tuners. The bridge is a movable length of hardwood. A pickguard is glued below the sound hole under the strings. European roundbacks commonly use a 13-inch scale instead of the 13.876 common on archtop Mandolins.

Question: What kind of style does the Neapolitan mandolin have?

Question: How many strings does the Neapolitan mandolin have?

Question: What are the Neapolitan mandolin made of?

Question: What sits on top or is flush with the sound table of the Mandolin?

Question: How long is the scale commonly used on European roundbacks?
Passage: Another family of bowlback mandolins came from Milan and Lombardy. These mandolins are closer to the mandolino or mandore than other modern mandolins. They are shorter and wider than the standard Neapolitan mandolin, with a shallow back. The instruments have 6 strings, 3 wire treble-strings and 3 gut or wire-wrapped-silk bass-strings. The strings ran between the tuning pegs and a bridge that was glued to the soundboard, as a guitar's. The Lombardic mandolins were tuned g b e' a' d" g". A developer of the Milanese stye was Antonio Monzino (Milan) and his family who made them for 6 generations.

Question: Where did the Lombardic family of bowlback mandolins come from?

Question: What do the Lombardic mandolins resemble more than modern mandolins?

Question: What differences do the Lombardic mandolins have from the Neapolitan mandolin?

Question: How many strings do the Lombardic mandolins have?

Question: Who was the developer of the Milanese mandolin?
Passage: Samuel Adelstein described the Lombardi mandolin in 1893 as wider and shorter than the Neapolitan mandolin, with a shallower back and a shorter and wider neck, with six single strings to the regular mandolin's set of 4. The Lombardi was tuned C, D, A, E, B, G. The strings were fastened to the bridge like a guitar's. There were 20 frets, covering three octaves, with an additional 5 notes. When Adelstein wrote, there were no nylon strings, and the gut and single strings "do not vibrate so clearly and sweetly as the double steel string of the Neapolitan."

Question: Who described the Lombardi mandolin as wider and shorter than the Neoapolitan mandolin?

Question: How many strings do the regular mandolin's have?

Question: What was the Lombardi Mandolin tuned to?

Question: How many frets did the Lombardi have?

Question: How many octaves did the Lombardi cover?
Passage: In his 1805 mandolin method, Anweisung die Mandoline von selbst zu erlernen nebst einigen Uebungsstucken von Bortolazzi, Bartolomeo Bortolazzi popularised the Cremonese mandolin, which had four single-strings and a fixed bridge, to which the strings were attached. Bortolazzi said in this book that the new wire strung mandolins were uncomfortable to play, when compared with the gut-string instruments. Also, he felt they had a "less pleasing...hard, zither-like tone" as compared to the gut string's "softer, full-singing tone." He favored the four single strings of the Cremonese instrument, which were tuned the same as the Neapolitan.

Question: Who popularised the Cremonese Mandolin?

Question: What was Bartolomeo Bortolazzi's popular mandolin method?

Question: How many strings did the Cremonese Mandolin have?

Question: Did Bortolazzi like playing the new wire strung mandolins?

Question: What did Bortolazzi say about the sound?
Passage: At the very end of the 19th century, a new style, with a carved top and back construction inspired by violin family instruments began to supplant the European-style bowl-back instruments in the United States. This new style is credited to mandolins designed and built by Orville Gibson, a Kalamazoo, Michigan luthier who founded the "Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co., Limited" in 1902. Gibson mandolins evolved into two basic styles: the Florentine or F-style, which has a decorative scroll near the neck, two points on the lower body and usually a scroll carved into the headstock; and the A-style, which is pear shaped, has no points and usually has a simpler headstock.

Question: When was a new sytle of carved top and back construction mandolins created?

Question: What was the new sytle of mandolins inspired from?

Question: What sytle did the new style of mandolins supplant?

Question: Who founded the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co, Limited?
Passage: These styles generally have either two f-shaped soundholes like a violin (F-5 and A-5), or an oval sound hole (F-4 and A-4 and lower models) directly under the strings. Much variation exists between makers working from these archetypes, and other variants have become increasingly common. Generally, in the United States, Gibson F-hole F-5 mandolins and mandolins influenced by that design are strongly associated with bluegrass, while the A-style is associated other types of music, although it too is most often used for and associated with bluegrass. The F-5's more complicated woodwork also translates into a more expensive instrument.

Question: What shape sounds holes do these styles of mandolins have?

Question: Where are the soundholes located?

Question: What mandolin is associate with Bluegrass music?

Question: What style is associate with other types of music?

Question: Why is the F-5 mandolin more expensive?
Passage: Numerous modern mandolin makers build instruments that largely replicate the Gibson F-5 Artist models built in the early 1920s under the supervision of Gibson acoustician Lloyd Loar. Original Loar-signed instruments are sought after and extremely valuable. Other makers from the Loar period and earlier include Lyon and Healy, Vega and Larson Brothers. Some notable modern American carved mandolin manufacturers include, in addition to Kay, Gibson, Weber, Monteleone and Collings. Mandolins from other countries include The Loar (China), Santa, Rosa (China), Michael Kelly (Korea), Eastman (China), Kentucky (China), Heiden (Canada), Gilchrist (Australia) and Morgan Monroe (China).

Question: What style of Gisbon Mandolin was largely replicated?

Question: When was the Gibson F-5 largely replicated?

Question: Who supervised the Gibson F-5's replication?

Question: Who are the other makers from the Loar period?

Question: Who were notable modern American mandolin manufacturers?
Passage: The international repertoire of music for mandolin is almost unlimited, and musicians use it to play various types of music. This is especially true of violin music, since the mandolin has the same tuning of the violin. Following its invention and early development in Italy the mandolin spread throughout the European continent. The instrument was primarily used in a classical tradition with Mandolin orchestras, so called Estudiantinas or in Germany Zupforchestern appearing in many cities. Following this continental popularity of the mandolin family local traditions appeared outside of Europe in the Americas and in Japan. Travelling mandolin virtuosi like Giuseppe Pettine, Raffaele Calace and Silvio Ranieri contributed to the mandolin becoming a "fad" instrument in the early 20th century. This "mandolin craze" was fading by the 1930s, but just as this practice was falling into disuse, the mandolin found a new niche in American country, old-time music, bluegrass and folk music. More recently, the Baroque and Classical mandolin repertory and styles have benefited from the raised awareness of and interest in Early music, with media attention to classical players such as Israeli Avi Avital, Italian Carlo Aonzo and American Joseph Brent.

Question: What instrument does the mandolin share the same tuning of?

Question: Where was the mandolin primarily used?

Question: When was the mandolin considered a fad?

Question: Who contributed to the idea that the mandolin was a fad?

Question: When did the mandolin craze end?
Passage: Phil Skinner played a key role in 20th century development of the mandolin movement in Australia, and was awarded an MBE in 1979 for services to music and the community. He was born Harry Skinner in Sydney in 1903 and started learning music at age 10 when his uncle tutored him on the banjo. Skinner began teaching part-time at age 18, until the Great Depression forced him to begin teaching full-time and learn a broader range of instruments. Skinner founded the Sydney Mandolin Orchestra, the oldest surviving mandolin orchestra in Australia.

Question: Who played a key role Australian mandolin movement?

Question: When did the Australian mandolin movement begin?

Question: When was Phil Skinner awarded an MBE?

Question: What was Phil Skinner's birth name?

Question: At what age did Phil Skinner begin playing music?
Passage: The Sydney Mandolins (Artistic Director: Adrian Hooper) have contributed greatly to the repertoire through commissioning over 200 works by Australian and International composers. Most of these works have been released on Compact Disks and can regularly be heard on radio stations on the ABC and MBS networks. One of their members, mandolin virtuoso Paul Hooper, has had a number of Concertos written for him by composers such as Eric Gross. He has performed and recorded these works with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. As well, Paul Hooper has had many solo works dedicated to him by Australian composers e.g., Caroline Szeto, Ian Shanahan, Larry Sitsky and Michael Smetanin.

Question: Who is the director of the Sydney Mandolins?

Question: How many commisions of Sydney Mandolins have their been?

Question: On what media was most of these work released?

Question: What radio stations can they be heard on?

Question: Who has had many Concertos written for him?
Passage: In the early 20th century several mandolin orchestras (Estudiantinas) were active in Belgium. Today only a few groups remain: Royal Estudiantina la Napolitaine (founded in 1904) in Antwerp, Brasschaats mandoline orkest in Brasschaat and an orchestra in Mons (Bergen). Gerda Abts is a well known mandolin virtuoso in Belgium. She is also mandolin teacher and gives lessons in the music academies of Lier, Wijnegem and Brasschaat. She is now also professor mandolin at the music high school “Koninklijk Conservatorium Artesis Hogeschool Antwerpen”. She also gives various concerts each year in different ensembles. She is in close contact to the Brasschaat mandolin Orchestra. Her site is www.gevoeligesnaar.be

Question: What is an Etsudiantinas?

Question: Where were the Estudiantinas active in during the early 20th century?

Question: What groups remain today?

Question: Where is Gerda Abts well know in?

Question: Where is Gerda Abst a professor mandolin?
Passage: Prior to the Golden Age of Mandolins, France had a history with the mandolin, with mandolinists playing in Paris until the Napoleonic Wars. The players, teachers and composers included Giovanni Fouchetti, Eduardo Mezzacapo, Gabriele Leon, and Gervasio. During the Golden age itself (1880s-1920s), the mandolin had a strong presence in France. Prominent mandolin players or composers included Jules Cottin and his sister Madeleine Cottin, Jean Pietrapertosa, and Edgar Bara. Paris had dozens of "estudiantina" mandolin orchestras in the early 1900s. Mandolin magazines included L'Estudiantina, Le Plectre, École de la mandolie.

Question: Prior to what age did France have a history with the mandolin?

Question: Where in France did the mandolinists play?

Question: When did the mandolinists stop playing in Paris?

Question: Who were the players and composers during this time?

Question: What years was considered the Golden Age of Mandolins?
Passage: On the island of Crete, along with the lyra and the laouto (lute), the mandolin is one of the main instruments used in Cretan Music. It appeared on Crete around the time of the Venetian rule of the island. Different variants of the mandolin, such as the "mantola," were used to accompany the lyra, the violin, and the laouto. Stelios Foustalierakis reported that the mandolin and the mpoulgari were used to accompany the lyra in the beginning of the 20th century in the city of Rethimno. There are also reports that the mandolin was mostly a woman's musical instrument. Nowadays it is played mainly as a solo instrument in personal and family events on the Ionian islands and Crete.

Question: What Island is the mandolin a main instrument in Cretan Music?

Question: When did the mandolin appears on Crete?

Question: What was one of the variants of the mandolin that was used?

Question: Who reported that the mandolin and the mpoulgari were used to accompany the lyria?

Question: The mandolin was reported to be popular among what sex?
Passage: Many adaptations of the instrument have been done to cater to the special needs of Indian Carnatic music. In Indian classical music and Indian light music, the mandolin, which bears little resemblance to the European mandolin, is usually tuned E-B-E-B. As there is no concept of absolute pitch in Indian classical music, any convenient tuning maintaining these relative pitch intervals between the strings can be used. Another prevalent tuning with these intervals is C-G-C-G, which corresponds to Sa-Pa-Sa-Pa in the Indian carnatic classical music style. This tuning corresponds to the way violins are tuned for carnatic classical music. This type of mandolin is also used in Bhangra, dance music popular in Punjabi culture.

Question: Many adaptations of the instruments were done to cater to what type of music?

Question: What is the mandolin usually tuned to for Indian music?

Question: There is no concept of what in Indian music?

Question: What is another popular madonlin tuning?

Question: These mandolin are used in a popular dance music called?
Passage: Though almost any variety of acoustic mandolin might be adequate for Irish traditional music, virtually all Irish players prefer flat-backed instruments with oval sound holes to the Italian-style bowl-back mandolins or the carved-top mandolins with f-holes favoured by bluegrass mandolinists. The former are often too soft-toned to hold their own in a session (as well as having a tendency to not stay in place on the player's lap), whilst the latter tend to sound harsh and overbearing to the traditional ear. The f-hole mandolin, however, does come into its own in a traditional session, where its brighter tone cuts through the sonic clutter of a pub. Greatly preferred for formal performance and recording are flat-topped "Irish-style" mandolins (reminiscent of the WWI-era Martin Army-Navy mandolin) and carved (arch) top mandolins with oval soundholes, such as the Gibson A-style of the 1920s.

Question: What types of instruments do irish player prefer?

Question: Why is it said that the Italian style can't hold their own session?

Question: Which type mandolin had a tendency not to stay in the player's lap?

Question: Which mandolin was preferred for formal performances and recordings?

Question: What was the Irish style mandolin reminiscent of?
Passage: Noteworthy Irish mandolinists include Andy Irvine (who, like Johnny Moynihan, almost always tunes the top E down to D, to achieve an open tuning of GDAD), Paul Brady, Mick Moloney, Paul Kelly and Claudine Langille. John Sheahan and the late Barney McKenna, respectively fiddle player and tenor banjo player with The Dubliners, are also accomplished Irish mandolin players. The instruments used are either flat-backed, oval hole examples as described above (made by UK luthier Roger Bucknall of Fylde Guitars), or carved-top, oval hole instruments with arched back (made by Stefan Sobell in Northumberland). The Irish guitarist Rory Gallagher often played the mandolin on stage, and he most famously used it in the song "Going To My Hometown."

Question: Who are some of the famous Irish Mandolinists?

Question: Who are popular fiddle player and tenor banjo player?

Question: What was John Sheahan and Barney Mckenna's band called?

Question: Who made the instruments used by the Dubliners?

Question: What Irish guitarist played the mandolin on stage?
Passage: Antonio Vivaldi composed a mandolin concerto (Concerto in C major Op.3 6) and two concertos for two mandolins and orchestra. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart placed it in his 1787 work Don Giovanni and Beethoven created four variations of it. Antonio Maria Bononcini composed La conquista delle Spagne di Scipione Africano il giovane in 1707 and George Frideric Handel composed Alexander Balus in 1748. Others include Giovani Battista Gervasio (Sonata in D major for Mandolin and Basso Continuo), Giuseppe Giuliano (Sonata in D major for Mandolin and Basso Continuo), Emanuele Barbella (Sonata in D major for Mandolin and Basso Continuo), Domenico Scarlatti (Sonata n.54 (K.89) in D minor for Mandolin and Basso Continuo), and Addiego Guerra (Sonata in G major for Mandolin and Basso Continuo).

Question: Who composed the Concerto in C Major Op 3 6?

Question: Who placed it in his 1787 work?

Question: What two artists created four variations of the Concerto in C Major Op 3 6?

Question: Who composed the La conquista della Spagne di Scipione Afriacano il giovance?

Question: When was Alexander Balus composed?