Why Is a Tenor Ukulele Called a Tenor?

ukantor said:
Ed1 said, "the pitch of all three sizes is usually the same"

It is today. As noted above, it wasn't originally.
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Yep, I read your first post and thought that might be it - until Chris wrote that he read a uke book written in 1910 that was written for C6 and that not until the 20's or so did the D6 start up. So, I'll keep both ideas in mind as I learn more.

BTW, I'm not much of a tenor player, but tuned one of my tenors to Bb6 and found I like it (both sound and playability) and will keep it there. I never thought of doing this before your post.
 
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That's good to hear, Ed1. It's never made much sense to me that you would have three different sizes of ukulele and tune them all the same. I'll bet the violin, viola and cello are all tuned differently. Of course, anyone can (and should) tune their instrument to suit themselves. It's all about the music.

John Colter
 
lakesideglenn said:
Actually, the called them tenors because back in the 20’s and 30’s, they cost around ten or eleven dollars. ‘Elevenor” would sound too awkward, hence the name “tenor”.
Hope this helps!
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Now that actually makes more sense to me than all these other attempts to explain it. :)

I'm actually waiting for a answer to the question what defines a ukulele. Surely Bill can answer that one.
 
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Ukantor is spot on. The different scales work better with different tunings. That's what most of the really great players of the 20th century did. Roy Smeck, George Formby, Cliff Edwards, Sid Laverents, Lyle Ritz. I could go on!

Tenor ukes are much more interesting with their proper voices. I would not keep mine if it had the same tuning. I still might not. Soprano is the essence of a ukulele.
 
A small addition to the confusion: the names tenor and alto originally didn't refer to different pitch ranges, but to their function in ensembles or choirs: tenor is Latin for 'he who holds' the melody, alto for 'he who does the other melody'. Soprano 'goes on top', and bass(-o) 'goes below', so those are pitch-related from the start.

It always struck me how recent the name 'soprano' is - I believe it's from the late 1950s, before that they were just ukuleles.

C.F. Martin, who invented the 'concert ukulele' branding (for a ukulele they already had featured in their catalogue for several years as a four sting taropatch!) had a habit of naming guitar models after the room size they would be fit to play: parlour, concert, auditorium... Lyon and Healy were first and foremost builders of concert harps, so it's easy to see where their marketing departement found the 'tenor' denomination for a uke that could hold a melody in a group.
 
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ukulelekarcsi said:
A small addition to the confusion: the names tenor and alto originally didn't refer to different pitch ranges, but to their function in ensembles or choirs: tenor is Latin for 'he who holds' the melody, alto for 'he who does the other melody'. Soprano 'goes on top', and bass(-o) 'goes below', so those are pitch-related from the start.

It always struck me how recent the name 'soprano' is - I believe it's from the late 1950s, before that they were just ukuleles.

C.F. Martin, who invented the 'concert ukulele' branding (for a ukulele they already had featured in their catalogue for several years as a four sting taropatch!) had a habit of naming guitar models after the room size they would be fit to play: parlour, concert, auditorium... Lyon and Healy were first and foremost builders of concert harps, so it's easy to see where their marketing departement found the 'tenor' denomination for a uke that could hold a melody in a group.
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That's pretty interesting! I don't know why it did not occur to me that guitar sizes were named to fit their performance spaces. Except parlor, that one's more obvious and commonly used. Though it does seem like an unamplified guitar would struggle to fill a concert hall or auditorium. And excepting parlors, the other sizing conventions aren't as universally used amongst different builders--I sometimes wish guitar makers had as much size/scale-length naming consistency from brand to brand as there is with ukuleles.

I don't know whether it was Martin or someone else who came up with the dreadnought designation, but I'm guessing those were named for shape and large size rather than performances at sea. Too bad all guitar sizes didn't follow the names of ship sizes.
 
:biglaugh:
snowdenn said:
That's pretty interesting! I don't know why it did not occur to me that guitar sizes were named to fit their performance spaces. Except parlor, that one's more obvious and commonly used. Though it does seem like an unamplified guitar would struggle to fill a concert hall or auditorium. And excepting parlors, the other sizing conventions aren't as universally used amongst different builders--I sometimes wish guitar makers had as much size/scale-length naming consistency from brand to brand as there is with ukuleles.

I don't know whether it was Martin or someone else who came up with the dreadnought designation, but I'm guessing those were named for shape and large size rather than performances at sea. Too bad all guitar sizes didn't follow the names of ship sizes.
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I believe that the dreadnought designation was chosen when one of the testers said “Dang! It feel like I’ve got a battleship under my arm!” :biglaugh:
 
Looking through "The Ukulele: A History" gets me closer to when the tenor was first created and named, but not why the name was chosen and by whom or what group. Lots of great information though:

Originally, Martin Style 1, 2, and 3 mahogany ukuleles cost for $10, $15, and $25 respectively; the 5-K model cost $50 in 1921. A larger concert ‘ukulele was introduced in 1925 and an even larger tenor ‘ukulele in 1928

Lyon & Healy introduced the tenor ukulele in 1923, advertising it as having “double the volume of the ordinary ukulele.”

The original standards draft of 1926 had the tenor string length as 14.5 to 15.75 inches.

Leonardo Nunes trademarked the name “Radio Tenor” in 1926, claiming he first used the name in 1925.

I'll call Martin and Kamaka to see if they might have some historian there who might know the why. Both were around before the 1926 standards were set.
Edit #1 - I spoke with Chris Kamaka who said his dad just talked about the body sizes and the sound as smaller to bigger, just like the voices would be higher to lower. That's probably what some of us have been guessing all along. However, I'll wait to see if I can get someone at Martin to give his or her opinion once they are completely open.
 
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Bill1 said:
If you really want to get into the issue of definitions, check out the "Ukulele" heading in the wikipedia. Ignore the text in the "read" tab and go straight to the "view history" Tab. Then surf the names and edits of the "editors" telling us the history of the ukulele and definition of terms. They are very active at the moment. Names like "violininstinct" "just plain bill" (not me) "uke 243" "matthewvanitas", even "materialscientist" who is active changing the history of our climate on other pages as well. It is fascinating to read about these entities (I think some may be teams of more than one person) and how they hope to change history, and how they hope to nail competing ukulele making companies. What ever we do here on UU as far as defining history is going to be gazzumped by what they are editing into the wikipedia.
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So now you got me scared that due to my Wikipedia addiction my thoughts have been manipulated by a Wikipedia editor conspiracy for years. I always thought that Wikipedia was a solid source of information where faulty data were swiftly fixed by a group of contributors. Though I tend to see the corporate marketing spoo as what it is I have to admit that I never bothered to check the qualifications or potential intentions of Wikipedia editors. Who can we trust, if anyone?
 
merlin666 said:
So now you got me scared that due to my Wikipedia addiction my thoughts have been manipulated by a Wikipedia editor conspiracy for years. I always thought that Wikipedia was a solid source of information where faulty data were swiftly fixed by a group of contributors. Though I tend to see the corporate marketing spoo as what it is I have to admit that I never bothered to check the qualifications or potential intentions of Wikipedia editors. Who can we trust, if anyone?
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"There's no one left but thee and me. And I'm not sure of thee."
—Attributions are mixed.
 
hello, I asked Kamaka Inc. if they know where the name "concert" came from, they kindly answered me "No one really knows why, but that's what Sam Kamaka Jr. called that model." If someone has more information let me know, thanks
 
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