Raffaele Calace

Raffaele Calace (1863-1934) was born in Naples, Italy as the son of Antonio Calace, a successful instrument maker. Raffaele was initially trained to become a musician. At the same time, he discovered the possibilities of the mandolin and soon he became an unequaled mandolin virtuoso. After Raffaele Calace graduated with the highest honour at the Regio Conservatorio di Musica in Naples, his main intention was to give the mandolin a full and honourable place in music. To achieve this, he toured Europe and Japan giving countless concerts on the Neapolitan mandolin and the liuto cantabile. The latter instrument is a mandoloncello kind (known as mandocello in the USA) within the mandolin family that instead of being strung with 4 double strings tuned like the violoncello, was given an extra highest string pair. The tuning of the liuto cantabile (or liuto moderno as it was also named) is: CC-GG-dd-aa-e'e'. It is believed that this bass variant in the Mandolin family was initially created by the famous Neapolitan luthiers of the Vinaccia family in the last decade of the 19th Century and that it was perfected by Raffaele Calace himself. Raffaele Calace made three long-playing records on which he is heard as one of the greatest mandolin virtuosos and an unequaled performer on the liuto cantabile .

Raffaele Calace wrote about 200 compositions that belong to the most beautiful and technically demanding works written for the mandolin. Either concert works for mandolin solo or compositions for mandolin in combination with other instruments like duets with piano; trio combinations with mandola and guitar; the Romantic Mandolin Quartet (mandolin 1 & 2, mandola, and guitar); quintets up to/and Concerts for mandolin solo with Orchestra etc.. Calace also wrote pedagogical works, among which are his highly praised mandolin method and the method for playing the liuto cantabile. The mandolin method was published in 1910 and elaborates on the eighteen-century Italian mandolin tutors by Giovanni Battista Gervasio (±1725 - ±1785), Gabriele Leone (±1725 - ±1790) and others and it clearly shows the development of the traditional Italian playing style. The Calace school can also be seen as a bridge between other modern methods for mandolin as there are for instance those by Raffaele Calace's fellow countryman Silvio Ranieri (1882-1956), a Roman virtuoso who had settled in Brussels and the American-based Italian mandolinist Giuseppe Pettine (1874-1966).

Raffaele Calace and his brother Nicola Calace (1859-1923) were, besides their activities as musicians, also recognized as excellent makers of the instruments of the Neapolitan mandolin family. They introduced improvements in the building techniques and modernized the Neapolitan mandolin by, among other features, enlarging its sound box and - like the Roman master luthier Luigi Embergher - applying a fingerboard that extended over the sound hole to enlarge the range of the mandolin. When Nicola Calace emigrated to the U.S.A. in 1898, Raffaele continued the Calace workshop with his daughter Maria, a gifted mandolin player as well, and his son Giuseppe Calace. Today the Calace atelier is run by Calace's grandson Raffaele Jr.