Mike's Oud Forums

Manol

Jonathan - 7-5-2005 at 03:33 AM

I have been looking for biographical information on Manol without much luck. I found the following on the internet at a Turkish site, and had it translated into English:

İstanbul Ortaköy'de doğmuştur. Rum asıllıdır, ilk mesleği mobilya
cilacıhğıdır. Daha sonra doğramacılık yapmış ve sonradan çalgı yapımma
başlamıştır (1870). Dükkanı Beyoğlu İstiklal caddesinde idi. Özellikle ud
yapımında kazandığı ün günümüze kadar süregelmiştir. Lavta da yapmıştır. En
seçkin çırakları olarak Bahriyeli Mustafa ve Victor De Kavalla
bilinmektedir. Manol Udları Udiler arasında hala değerim sürdürmektedir.
Manol Ud yapısmm en belirgin görünüş özelliği sırt fletolarında kullandığı
ince ve birbirine bitişik sarısiyah fletolardır. Manol udlarının sırt
fletoları genellikle 19 veya 21 parçalıdır. Bu fletolarda maun ağacı
kullanmıştır.
Yazar Sermet Muhtar Alus (1887-1952), 28. 9. 1947 tarihi Akşam gazetesinde
aynen şöyle yazıyor: "Galata'da tramvay caddesinde, yüz yıllık işkembecinin
iki üç kapı berisinde küçük bir dükkandaymış. Ben pek çocuktum
hatırlamıyorum... Udlarının en ucuzu 5 adet sarı lira, nakışlıları 8-10
lira." İstanbulda ölmüştür.
Ud etiketleri: Manoliden inşa olunmuştur. Galata Sandıkçılar Cd. No. 168.
1907 Zenne Lavta etiketi: Emmanuü Venyos Deraliyyede Galata. Sandıkçılar 168
numaralı. 1876 Zenne Ud etiketi: Manoliden inşa olunmuştur. Der-âliyyede
Galata Sandıkçılar caddesi No: 168. 1915



He was born in Istanbul Ortaköy. He is of Greek descent and he worked shellaking furniture. Later he began building furniture and then got involved in making instruments (1870). His shop was on İstiklal street in Beyoğlu. The fame he earned as an ouds maker is still recognized today. He also made lavtas (lute). His choice apprentices are known to have been Bahriyeli Mustafa and Victor De Kavalla. Manol Ouds are still very valuable ouds. The most characteristic feature in the production of Manol Ouds is the thin yellow-black ribs (slices) used on the back which are glued together. The back ribs of a Manol ouds are generally made up of 19 or 21 slices. Mahogany wood was used in this ribs.
The author, Sermet Muhtar Alus (1887-1952), wrote this in the Akşam newspaper dated Sept. 28th 1947. "He was in a small shop two or three doors this side of the century old "tripe soup" restaurant on the tramway street in Galata. I was very small and don't remember it... The cheapest ouds were 5 yellow lira; the fancy ones were 8-10 lira." He died in Istanbul.
Oud labels: Manufactured in Manoli. Galata Sandıkçılar Cd. No. 168. 1907 Zenne Lute label: Emmanuü Venyos Deraliyyede Galata. Sandıkçılar 168 numaralı. 1876 Zenne Oud label: Manufactured in Manoli. Der-âliyyede Galata Sandıkçılar caddesi No: 168. 1915

Multi Kulti - 7-5-2005 at 05:08 AM

Οne of Manoli apprentices Victor Dekavalas ended up in Thessaloniki,Greece and he continued to make ouds and later bouzoukis...Now Dekavalas family is one of the most well-known Instrument makers in Thessaloniki but they are specialized in Bouzoukis and they dont make good ouds any more...

You can see a brief history of the family (and of course photos of instruments) here http://www.dekavalas.gr/history_uk.htm

Jonathan - 7-5-2005 at 05:12 AM

Thanks, Multi Kulti. I just saw that the other day. It was really interesting that there was family still carrying on the tradition.
I wonder if Manol had any children. Also, I wonder if the shop in Istanbul is still there?

Jonathan - 7-15-2005 at 04:35 AM

If anybody knows of any significant source of info on Manol, in any language, please let me know. I am also curious if there is a way to distinguish those ouds made by Manol himself, and those made simply by the shop. Is this reflected on the label?
Also, "Manolis Venios"--Is this the proper name of the guy, or does it just mean Manol Brothers?
Any help is greatly appreciated.

Jonathan - 7-15-2005 at 04:51 AM

Here is an example of his label that I lifted off of another site (http://www.theodorakis.name is selling this one.) These are too rich for me, but does the "Benioy" just mean "Brothers?" If Manol himself had worked on the oud, would it be labelled differently? Also, that 168 in the lower right corner-- any idea what that means? At first I thought it meant that it was the 168th oud out of the shop, but I have since seen another Manol label with the same 168.
Thanks a lot!
Jonathan

Jonathan - 7-15-2005 at 04:53 AM

Sorry, here is that label:

Jonathan - 7-15-2005 at 04:55 AM

Also for sale by Tasos. Any idea how many ouds came out of Manols shop? Any idea how many are still out there?

Jonathan - 7-15-2005 at 06:57 AM

Actually, I am pretty sure that the 168 is just an address.

Manol Labels

spyrosc - 7-15-2005 at 09:26 AM

The 168 is indeed the Street Address. It is

"Great Galata Street, #168" in Constantinople

The "Beniou" is actually the name "Veniou" in Greek (the Grrek letter "Beta" is actually pronounced "V" - "Veta" in modern Greek).

It says "Construction of Brothers Veniou". Greek nouns (therefore proper names as well) decline based on the position in the sentence (subject, object, etc). So it would be "Manolis Venios" but "Brothers Veniou" (Greek is NOT an easy language).

What's interesting about the labels is that, although in the Greek it says "Brothers Veniou" in the Turkish right above it it says "Manolidan" (Manolis or Manol). Incidentally the name Manol or Manolis is actually Emmanuel.

Spyros C.

Dr. Oud - 7-15-2005 at 09:28 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Jonathan If anybody knows of any significant source of info on Manol, in any language, please let me know.

You might send a message to John Belezikjian, he owns some Manols and may have more information.
http://www.dantzrecords.com/contactjohn.html

Jonathan - 7-15-2005 at 09:37 AM

Thanks, Dr. Oud and Spyrosc. I am just curious how the shop worked. If Manol had a hand in all of the ouds, or just some ouds. It seems that the ones that I have seen that have been attributed to Manol himself have been the really ornate ones. Although I do not know how that attribution is made.
John Bilezikjian is a great idea. I am pretty sure Kyvelos would know a lot about this, too, so I guess i will give those two a try. Thanks again.

oudmaker - 7-15-2005 at 11:39 PM

Jonathan
I used to have a Manol dated 1915 bearing a label with a stamp on the lower rigth corner in Ottoman writing. And I have been told that those ouds bears labels like this are made by Usta himself. Assuming our info about him that he lived 1945 - 1915 is correct then He must be 70 years old when he made this particular oud. My first Usta Murat Sumbuloglu of Kadikoy Istanbul told me that Manol made over 2000 ouds!! Murat usta was trained by Uskudarli Mustafa usta who was Manol's apprentice and I also heard Hadi Usta saying that He (Hadi Usta) was trained by Hamza Usta who was known also a apprentice of Manol. Hadi Usta's son Engin still has one of Manols's mold in his shop.I have a picture of it. Now as you can easily understand that Manol had lots of people working for him in his shop. Those 3 of them; Hamza, Mustafa and Victor were known as KALFA which means that they were experienced workers who can oversee the works of others in Manol's shop. Although He is a legend even He can not make over 2000 ouds by himself Can He ??
Regards
Dincer

Jonathan - 7-16-2005 at 03:37 AM

Thanks a lot, Dincer. 2000 is a much higher number than I ever thought. It is hard to get a sense of how many are still out there going by what you see in America, because there are simply so few old ouds here. There are so few ouds here, new or old, actually. If he made 2000 (or, rather, if the shop made 2000), then certainly you would think that there still have to be several hundred of them still out there.
The amazing thing is, if he made 2000, the quality control coming out of that shop must have been unbelievable. I have never heard of anybody describe a Manol's sound as anything less than superb. I only had the chance to play one once, and I it was a very simple one that probably was not by the master himself, and yet the tone was incredible. You could not help but wonder where the magic was. The soundboard? The braces? In appearance, it was so similar to a milliion other ouds. A little lighter in weight than a lot of modern ouds, but otherwise very similar.
I appreciate your answer. It gives me a clearer pictue of things.
With warmest regards,
Jonathan Varjabedian

Jonathan - 7-16-2005 at 03:48 AM

Anopther Manol label, but this one looks like the number 6 is written on the right side. Maybe this is a code suggesting who did the work. I have no idea.

Jonathan - 7-16-2005 at 03:55 AM

sorry, here it is

Jonathan - 7-17-2005 at 02:44 PM

The other thing I am curious about is if the label and shop came to a close after Manol himself died in 1915. There must have been a lot of skilled craftmen in there, so it would be hard to believe it just stopped. But, did the Manol name for the ouds stop with his death?

JC1907 - 7-20-2005 at 07:35 AM

My oud instructor Osman Nuri Ozpekel back in Istanbul owns a Manol oud that has a date of 1898 or 1899 stamped in it I believe. Very nice instrument. It's actually the manol oud that originally belonged to Yorgo Bacanos which even makes the oud more valuable.

I was one of the few lucky students that he let us play it during lessons at his home. I think he is not using it anymore for lessons which I can understand.

He played Yorgo Bacanos' Nihavend Taksim on the oud followed by Resat Aysu's Nihavend Saz Semaii at a concert.

Very historical...

Regards,

Jonathan - 7-20-2005 at 02:01 PM

JC1907--did you ever take a picture of the oud? It would be a cool thing to see

JC1907 - 7-20-2005 at 03:06 PM

Jonathan, you know I didn't take a picture of it... However, I am about to travel to Turkey in 10 days and I am thinking I should take a picture of it. I don't know if that oud is the one on the cover of the Yorgo Bacanos cd. It's certainly an amazing instrument. I had the chance to play it numerous times at his home. In fact, when I was performing in a concert for the first time on oud, I played that oud. I played Huzzam Saz Semaii by Udi Nevres Bey, a taksim into Nihavend and played Resat Aysu's Nihavend saz semaii. I was a little nervous. It was a little surprise part in my classical turkish music concert on piano. ( I am originally a pianist for 22 years now).

My instructor O.Nuri Ozpekel joined me with yayli tambur in that part of concert.

Multi Kulti - 7-20-2005 at 03:36 PM

Jc1907 is there a chance for anyone to contact with mr Ozpekel to arrange one-two lessons with him? I want to go for a couple of weeks in Istanbul and i have in mind to visit some good players for instructions and experience...

If yes could you give me the contact details of him?

Thank you in advance

Nikos

ps. you can send email nikolaos.rondelis@gmail.com

Jonathan - 7-21-2005 at 07:38 PM

Saw this on David Parfitt's site. This one also has what appears to be a 6 handwritten on the label. Any thoughts? Perhaps it is a G. Or, perhaps a Greek or Turkish letter. I have no idea, and I may be the only one who cares. Again, in Turkish, this one says it is by Manol. I am guessing that they all say that (except for the early handwritten labels).