# Music by Genre > Orchestral, Classical, Italian, Medieval, Renaissance >  Some videos of my Embergher

## Martin Jonas

I've been playing around with my new webcam and on Good Friday got my 1915 Embergher Tipo A bowlback out to record a few classical and Italian tunes (and a couple of others). These were recorded one after another in a single 1.5-hour session while the kids were asleep, so they are all first or second take, and any mistakes that didn't bring the recording to a screeching halt are still in there. That said, I play all of these tunes reasonably frequently, and I am mostly happy with the sound and my playing. Sound recorded with an old Philips dynamic mic, through a cheap BTech preamp into the line-in socket of my laptop.

I've posted the Italian and other folky ones over in the Celtic/European folk section here.  Here are the more classical ones (bearing in mind that I am not a classically trained player, although I play in an informal ensemble with most of these being in our repertoire).

This is Lara's Theme from Doctor Zhivago (well, maybe not quite classical...):



Puccini's "O Mio Babbino Caro":



This is the popular Serenata by Enrico Toselli (more precisely, Serenata 'Rimpianto' Op.6 No.1), I play the first mando part of our ensemble arrangement:



Finally, here is Liszt's Liebestraum -- or at least the first mando part of our ensemble arrangement.  I think I got this arrangement from Jim Garber some years ago.

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## Jim Garber

Hi Martin:
So nice to see and hear you and your Embergher, my longtime cyber friend. Thanks much for the posts. Lovely tunes. I must take out mine and play some of these.

For those not aware, Martin so very generously helped me to get my Embergher a few years back.

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## trebleclef528

Haven't seen you for years Martin ... but thanks to the wonder of modern technology here you are, nice tunes, lovely mandolin.
Just out of interest, I'm thinking of getting a new web cam... your seems to give an exceptionally clear picture... can I ask what make it is??
Barbara sends you her best wishes, as I do.
ian

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## Martin Jonas

Jim/Ian: Thanks for your comments!  The webcam is a Logitech C300, which is very nice and was only 20 Pounds from Amazon UK (I see it has gone up a bit now).  Fairly widely available.  I haven't tried the built-in microphone; the sound on the clip is with a semi-decent external microphone through a cheap pre-amp.  I think the recording level was a bit high and there is some clipping, and also the tremolo on the E-string sounds a bit screechy which it doesn't in person.  But overall I think the tone of the Embergher has been captured surprisingly well, at least when played back with headphones or decent speaker -- played though my laptop speakers, all clips sound absolutely terrible, much more so than the clips I've recorded with my Gibson.  I think the bowlback tone is more sensitive to sound degradation when recorded than an archtop mandolin, which I suspect is one of the reasons why their popularity declined as the significance of recorded music over live music increased through the 20th century.

I've just listened back to my clips with a day or so distance, and am forced to conclude that Liebestraum really doesn't work without the other orchestral parts, so I have deleted that clip.  I've done a big whopper of a mistake in the middle of Lara's Theme which I completely failed to notice when I recorded it or when I played it back afterwards.  We play Lara's Theme and Aida only very rarely with the group, and it shows -- I am not too fluent on those and the timing goes out of the window in a few places as I stretch for the right note.  Generally, the Italian tunes work better than the classical ones -- partly because they were actually written for mandolin and partly because I have a greater affinity with them, not being by any stretch of the imagination a classical musician.

Martin

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## vkioulaphides

Lovely! Thanks for posting these, Martin. Embergher's Tipo A makes a mockery of such terms as "basic", or "student", or "low-end" mandolin models, IMHO. Ah, these are splendid, SPLENDID little instruments, and they sing with a heart and soul —as does your _own_ playing— that is rarely matched by gilded (read: garish) "high-end" models from the hands of other luthiers. 

One question: do you have Lenzner/Fisoma strings on this mandolin? (I mean the set with plain A-strings.) It _sounds_ like you do, but of course transmission is imperfect, the time is quite late, my ears clogged with other music (as always), etc. Still, I wonder...

Cheers,

Victor

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## Dan Hoover

very nice martin,your Embergher sound's,look's very lovely..i agree that sometimes the mandolin sounds empty without accompaniment,i,myself, really enjoy hearing the mandolin solo..but your vid of Liebestraum sounded fine to me...show's what the mandolin should be played like,sound like..very good teaching tool's for some of us (me) to follow along on..very cool..dan

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## Martin Jonas

Victor/Dan -- thanks for your kind comments, it means a lot to me!  The strings are Optima Goldin polished strings, similar to Lenzners but slightly brighter.  Ralf Leenen recommended them to me as being the closest to original Embergher strings currently on the market (other than handmade strings).  I like their sound, and they settle in a good deal faster than Lenzner/Fisoma strings.

The reason why I took Liebestraum off is that for much of the piece, the lead part simply has a long sustained note, with the point of the piece being the modulation in the harmonies.  No accompaniment means that this is lost and I didn't much like the final result.  I'm glad you did, however, Dan!

Martin

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## Bruce Clausen

Lovely, Martin!  I especially enjoyed the Puccini; it's a melody that stands well on its own.  That's a really fine sound you're getting. Your recording setup seems just right.

Slightly off topic:  anyone here know a North American source for those Optima strings?  Thanks.

Bruce

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## Linda Binder

Lovely!  Such a sweet tone from your mandolin.  Thanks for sharing these videos Martin!
Linda

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## Bob A

It's very good to know that the low-end Emberghers are such truly fine instruments. Well played, as well, in the above examples. 

I'm also interested in a source for the Optima strings, now I've heard them.

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## Martin Jonas

Thanks for the kind comments.  I don't know a North American source for the Optima strings, but I order mine from Germany through SaitenKatalog.de.  They have an English version of their web site and they do ship overseas.  Postage to the US/Canada is 25 Euro for orders under 120 Euros, 15 Euros for orders under 300 Euros and free for orders over 300 Euros.  That cost is partially compensated by the fact that there is no VAT on non-EU orders, and thus you pay 19% less than me.  The direct link to the Goldin set is here.  Ignore the fact that it says "silver steel", they are actually bright bronze ("Goldin" is a German word for a particular bronze alloy used to imitate gold in costume jewellery).  The set is 12.60 Euro (incl. VAT).  Incidentally, I see that Saitenkatalog now also sell the Fisoma "Consort" set at 15.65 Euro (again incl. VAT).  With that shipping cost, it's too pricey for you to order only one set, but if a few of you get together, it may make more sense.

One thing to consider, possibly, is that the Optima set is a bit heavier than the Consort.  That's fine on the Embergher, which is rather sturdy, but you may not be comfortable on more delicate vintage bowlbacks.

Incidentally, I have re-uploaded (but not re-linked) the Liebestraum video, which can be seen through my Youtube profile page (as can the Bouree from the Third Cello Suite which I also did not link as I messed up the ending -- I think I started slightly too quick for my stamina on such a relentless piece).

Regarding the quality progression through the Embergher line, I really like my Tipo A, and on the three occasions I got to play high-end Emberghers (Alison Stephens' 5bis and her Pecoraro mandola, and Frances Taylor's 5bis), I was struck by how similar to mine they felt and sounded.  The main difference was that they were a good deal heavier and needed a good deal more hard work and technique to coax a decent tone out of them (but that may have been more that I know my own mandolin much better).

Martin

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## Martin Jonas

I've sat down this afternoon and recorded another few tunes.  I'm getting more used to the hardware now, and this latest round seems to have got rid of the background noises and hums that I had on the previous clips (mostly by getting the microphone further away from the laptop during recording).  I think this batch also by and large works better as solo pieces; where some of the earlier ones sounded a bit thin to my ears without a guitar, these ones seem more self-contained.  I'm still only a hack player, but maybe this is useful for some of you who are at a similar level and who are looking for classical repertoire that is straightforward to play -- nothing technically fancy in these clips -- but nevertheless fun and effective .  If anybody is interested in a copy of the sheet music to any of the pieces, let me know and I'll scan them.

Seeing that this is the place on the Cafe where the bowlheads hang out, I also thought I might take the chance to do a little bowlback tasting: I've recorded some of the pieces on my 1890s Umberto Ceccherini for comparison with the Embergher.  The regulars here in the classical section may remember that I have two Ceccherinis; this one is the more modest one which does not have the patented suspended second soundboard.  My other Ceccherini (with the second soundboard) is on loan to my mother in Germany, so these are the only two bowlbacks I have here at the moment.  I find it interesting just how different the Embergher and the Ceccherini sound, even though both are really nice bowlbacks.  The Embergher is certainly easier to play (I think the Ceccherini could do with a setup), and is more "classical".  I like the Ceccherini on the Italian ballo liscio material; it's just so charismatic.

So, the pieces recorded today are:

1) Hamabe No Uta (Song of the Seashore), by Tamezo Narita.  Quite a popular "light classical" waltz, recorded by the likes of James Galway.  A bit sentimental, but effective on mandolin.  Here is the Embergher version:



I've also recorded the same pieces, with the same recording setup, on the Ceccherini (Youtube link).  The Embergher is noticeably brighter, which is curious, as my _other_ Ceccherini is a very bright instrument.  

2) Gamine, by Joh. Kok.  This is a nice slow waltz by the prolific Dutch composer Johan B. Kok (1889 -1954), who wrote more than 200 pieces for mandolin ensembles and orchestras.  We've discussed Kok before in this thread.  Gamine always reminds me of film music.  Here is the Embergher version:



Again, I have also recorded exactly the same music on the Ceccherini (Youtube link), sounding quite different.

3) To A Wild Rose.  This is the best-known piece by the American composer Edward MacDowell (1860-1908), part of his piano suite "Woodland Sketches", Opus 51, No. 1. I play the lead part of an arrangement of the piece for mandolin ensemble by Jim Hulley. The score gives the instruction "with simple tenderness", and I have tried my best to achieve this.  Played on the Embergher.



4) Humoresque.  This is the Humoresque No. 7 in Gb major (transposed to G major) by Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904), Opus 101, No. 7.  Again, played on the Embergher.



5) Autunno Senza Te.  Back to the Ceccherini for this ballo liscio tune from the Bay Area, written in the 1950s by Peter Tarzia.   I learned this from the album "Silent Fountain" by Matteo Casserini, and from the sheet music in Sheri Mignano's wonderful book "Mandolin Melodies".



6) La Petite Tonkinoise.  A slight cheat as I recorded this last week, not today (hence the background hum which I managed to get rid of today).  I think this tune, best know from Josephine Baker's 1920s version, works very nicely as an instrumental polka on mandolin.  Thanks to Jim Garber for the sheet music!



Martin

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## billkilpatrick

very nice - i think i prefer the embergher's tone over the ceccherini ... but then i listen to the ceccherini and prefer it - must drive you pleasantly nuts.  the changing display of instruments in the background is tantalizing as well ... a bit like clues in a renaissance painting.  bravo!

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## Martin Jonas

Thanks, Bill -- much appreciated.  At the moment, the Ceccherini gets little playing time as it's less comfortable to play, so until I get around to do a setup, the default is the Embergher (which is also a more precise instrument as far as dynamics or tone control is concerned).  My other two quality bowlbacks (the fancier Ceccherini and the Giuseppe Vinaccia) both have very good setups, about as good as the Embergher, but they are both with my mother in Germany.  I may get around to recording them when I go over on holiday in the summer.  I'd be interested to see how the two Ceccherinis compare when recorded -- just on my subjective impression when playing them, they are very different with the plain one having a strong lower register and quite an earthy tone and the fancy one being quite trebly but having an incomparable tremolo on the higher strings.  The Vinaccia is very mellow, almost like a nylon-strung mandolin, but very musical.

The instruments in the background are resonator tenor guitar and waldzither on top of the cabinet and Ajr and Ozark tenor in their cases to the right of the cabinet.

Martin

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## Martin Jonas

I had an unexpected hour to spare this afternoon, and decided to use it by recording the wonderful _Ionian Mandolinata_ by our very own Victor Kioulaphides.

This follows on from this thread from just before Christmas, when Victor very generously made a new expanded five-part arrangement of his mandolinata available for free.  I had been sight-reading the "normal" version once in a blue moon ever since I bought it from Victor a few years ago, but with the full multi-part arrangement we were in a position to try this with the ensemble.  We haven't had much time for rehearsals recently, but everybody has really liked Victor's mandolinata, and I finally got the tunes reasonably fluently under my fingers.  So, I tried to see if I could get a reasonably creditable recording together today.  Despite a couple of minor glitches (no doubt obvious to Victor, everybody else can try to see if they can spot them...), I think this worked pretty well.  Thanks again to Victor for rescuing these tunes from obscurity in the first instance, and for making the multipart arrangement available!



Somewhat out of the left field, I've also recorded a set of two fairly obscure renaissance tunes.  I believe the first one is a troubadour tune from Provence, but I don't know its proper name -- I learned it as the tune to the German folk song "_Trag auf meinem Mantel weiss_", written in the 1930s in a self-consciously antiquarian style by Erich Scholz (aka "olka") [1911-2000], who simply credited the tune as "traditional French". The chorus of the song is "tron tron diredi don", which I take in the absence of better information to be the title of the tune used by olka. The second tune is a 16th century Italian song "_So Ben Mi Ch'a Bon Tempo_", and I learned it from Richard Thompson's wonderful arrangement which he has performed widely as part of his "1000 Years of Popular Music" concert program (also available on DVD and CD).



Martin

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## vkioulaphides

> Thanks again to Victor for rescuing these tunes from obscurity in the first instance, and for making the multipart arrangement available!


Very nice, Martin! Indeed, it is _only_ for the above that I can take any credit, and say a hearty "You are very welcome!" to you and to all those who have enjoyed these charming melodies. These are hardly "my" compositions, and some of these songs go back to the early decades of the *19th* century— well before my time ;-) All I did was to rescue them as you say and, at the request of an Athenian friend, make the five-part, _ad libitum_ arrangement that I offered last year to one and all. 

Success can only be measured by the _goals_ we set for ourselves, not by any other, extraneous measure. Based on the warm response of SO many mandolinists around the world to these oh-so-UNbusiness-like editions of mine, I feel deeply gratified to have been "successful", not in wealth or fame (HA!) but in having "preserved and disseminated" —our "Mission Statement", so to speak— a charming music that would have surely gone extinct had not more, young, and world-wide musicians not espoused it as part of their own musical experience.

:-)

Cheers,

Victor

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## billkilpatrick

just clicked on your latest videos and noticed an interesting thing ...  

i find the bowlback the least interesting of my mandolins (i know-i know ... sacrilege) opposed to the warm, woody sound of the others, its tone seems just too thin, too metalic.  and because i'm interested in it, i like the sound of solo mandolin, but face to face, as it were - between me and the computer - solo performances can seem a bit instructional and sparse.

this morning, however, i had to go to another room while listening to your "ballo liscio" recording and the music suddenly became more resonate, more ample somehow - as if i was listening to something from a film, carefully selected for its single voice and direct impact.

hope this makes sense ...

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## Martin Jonas

Thanks, Bill.  Some of this is, I think, that different bowlbacks sound quite different -- for a certain type of repertoire, the thin metallic sound you describe is actively desired (Italian classical players in particular seem to favour it), but personally I try to steer away from it.  I don't think either of the bowlbacks I have recorded come into that category.  Room reverb comes into it, too -- the room I record in is under the roof and has pretty good warm acoustics, but you listening from the next room would have had a good deal of additional reverb from the room your speakers are in, so that would have warmed the sound a bit more.

One thing I've noticed with the bowlbacks more than anything else is the importance of the playback setup.  All my clips sound terrible on laptop speakers, much more so than most other music recordings I've heard online.  But they sound really good (to my ears) through headphones and even more so through the semi-decent desktop speakers I have on my work PC.

Martin

PS: I've just uploaded another 19 tunes to my parallel thread in the Celtic/European Folk forum, all of them Italian ballo-liscio-type waltzes, polkas, marches and tarantellas, recorded on bowlback (three on the Ceccherini, the others on Embergher): link.

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## Martin Jonas

A few more clips recorded this weekend.

1. Athenian Mandolinata (arr. Kioulaphides):  After recording Victor's Ionian Mandolinata a couple of weeks ago, I've now had a go at the Athenian one as well.  These tunes are generally slower than the Ionian dances, and arguably more beautiful, but a bit tricky in the timing.  We tried a run-through with our ensemble last week, and hearing the guitar helped me with getting the timing into my head, although with only two parts, it doesn't work as an ensemble piece because of the lack of a mandola/second mandolin part.  Thanks again to Victor for rescuing these beautiful tunes from oblivion, and apologies for any mistakes which are entirely mine, not Victor's.  I need to practice counting in odd metres -- playing 7/8 time without a guitar to keep me straight is a bit wobbly.

One thing I've only noticed this week is that the penultimate tune is actually the chorus from "La Petite Tonkinoise", written by Scotto in 1905 and a big hit for Josephine Baker in 1930.  So, how did this tune turn up in Athenian folklore?  Did Scotto adapt a Greek theme for his 1905 song, or did the success of the Josephine Baker recording in 1930 result in it being taken up by Athenian street musicians as part of the hits of the day?



2. Plaisir d'Amour/Piacer d'Amor (Jean Paul Égide Martini, 1780):  I've always thought this one is a 20th century popular song, but it was actually written in 1780 by French composer Martini (1741-1816).  This arrangement is the first mandolin part from an anonymous mandolin orchestra arrangement.  I really like the pretty intro and coda bookending the familiar tune.



3.  Largo from Symphony No. 9, Op. 95, Dvořák ("Goin' Home"): Again, the first mandolin part to an anonymous arrangement for mandolin orchestra.  I've tried to stick to the fairly dramatic dynamics indicated in the score, so it starts very quietly.  Of course the compression sabotages the dynamics to some extent, but it still works pretty well.



4. Cinderella Waltz (Elias Howe Jr, arr. Mike Compton): This is NOT the tune of the same name from the soundtrack of the Disney movie, nor is it the Prokofiev composition, but rather this is an Early Victorian parlour waltz, written by Elias Howe Jr (1820 - 1895) [NB: NOT the inventor of the sewing machine of the same name] and published in 1843 by Oliver Ditson Co. The tune was originally written for accordion (a facsimile of the original version is here), but arranged for mandolin, and much expanded and improved in the process, by Mike Compton, who put his arrangement as free tab/notation download on his website some years ago. It dropped off when the website was redone shortly afterwards, which is a pity as this is a very charming arrangement.



5. The Entertainer (Scott Joplin):  A bit of ragtime to loosen up the fingers.  Again taken from our mandolin orchestra arrangement.



6. After The Ball (C K Harris): Sticking with the period, this waltz, written in 1891 by Charles K Harris (1867-1930) was the biggest hit of the late Victorian era, and according to Wikipedia the highest selling piece of sheet music in the history of Tin Pan Alley with over five million sales. A simple pleasant waltz, there isn't much to this arrangement other than the tune, but it's fun (and easy) to play and sounds good.



7. Vilja (from "The Merry Widow"/"Die lustige Witwe") (F. Lehár):  This is the big hit aria from Lehar's operetta.  Another one of our anonymous mandolin orchestra arrangements.



8. Waves of the Danube/Donauwellen (I Ivanovici): Staying light classical and Viennese (well, Austro-Hungarian, anyway -- Lehar was Hungarian and Ivanovici Romanian), this a popular waltz, in the US also known as "Anniversary Song", this being the title of an Al Jolson song set to this tune.  This one comes from one of the old copies of sheet music I got from Jim Garber, and we play it with our ensemble relatively often.  Thanks, Jim!



9. Piccola Bambola: Not sure where this tune comes from -- it's in our repertoire folder, but without composer's or publishing details.  It says "tempo di mazurka" at the top, so I reckon it's an Italian ballo liscio tune, but I may be way off here.  Pretty, though.  Any hints to identify the tune or the composer are welcome.



There are also a few more Italian ballo liscio tunes on my Youtube channel, which I keep out of this thread.

Incidentally, if anybody would like to try any of the tunes I have posted today or earlier, these old arrangements are all anonymous or public domain with a few exceptions (Victor's two and the Mike Compton one, obviously), so please just drop me a PM and I'll send you a scan of the score.

Martin

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## vkioulaphides

> One thing I've only noticed this week is that the penultimate tune is actually the chorus from "La Petite Tonkinoise", written by Scotto in 1905 and a big hit for Josephine Baker in 1930.  So, how did this tune turn up in Athenian folklore?  Did Scotto adapt a Greek theme for his 1905 song, or did the success of the Josephine Baker recording in 1930 result in it being taken up by Athenian street musicians as part of the hits of the day?


I would think the latter, Martin, or rather directly from Scotto. As I write in the preface to *Sentimentalia* (one of GrecoMando's other issues), Athens was --and _is_-- an incredibly cosmopolitan town; it has been so since the 1860's, with influences arriving from around the country, and around the world. Its street musicians (and, through them, its amateur mandolinists, e.g. my great-grandfathers/uncles) would have certainly heard lots and lots of music originally from Parisian cabaret, central European operetta, the Italian popular stage, and countless other sources, popular at the time. 

The Greek lyrics of the song in question speak of a flippant young lad, equally (and, I am sure, just as _sincerely_ ;-) in love with BOTH sisters, Kiki and Koko-- say, do you catch a whiff of The Merry Widow and the revelry at Maxim's? The poor fellow is dreadfully troubled by his dilemma... This smacks of a blatant _contrafactum_, of course, and I make no apologies for that. I included the song because, well... it WAS part of the Athenian repertoire during the _interbellum_ era, and was in fact sung and played (with the appropriate _gusto_ and moral abandon ;-) by my elder relatives.

Thus I have led you, too, down the path of perdition and dissolution... Sorry, Martin. You play these songs very nicely, though, and you seem to enjoy them :-)

Cheers,

Victor

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## Martin Jonas

A few more tunes recorded this weekend (a bank holiday weekend here in the UK):

1. Time to try my hand at one of the few signature compositions for our instrument that I can actually (more or less) play: Beethoven's Sonatina in C Minor (WoO 43a).  A very simple but attractive tune.  I've heard Richard Walz's version, which is lovely, but I'm a bit spooked by his choice of tremolo for a 1796 tune.  I've played it staccato throughout, and to make that work I've increased the tempo a bit compared to Richard.



2. We've had some discussion here in the past about what instrument precisely Beethoven had in mind, and in particular whether it was for an instrument tuned in fourths or in fifths, single or double-strung, gut or mixed stringing.  I've no answers, but I thought it would be fun to try the Sonatina again on my makeshift approximation of a "Brescian", aka my ukulele strung in fifths with Aquila nylgut strings.  I rather like the tone of it for this piece!



3. I've already recorded Plaisir d'Amour before (see above), but I've just stumbled across a Silvio Ranieri orchestration that is quite different from the arrangement we use (in G major and in 6/8, rather than F major and 3/4), but not particularly technically demanding.  So, having an Embergher to hand, I had to try this one out, too.



4. The Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana pops up in all sorts of places, one of them being the Godfather soundtrack.  That makes it fair game for mandolin.  I'm playing yet another first mandolin part from one of the anonymous old arrangements we play in our ensemble.  Fun!



5. Having already recorded Vilja from Lehar's "Lustige Witwe" (Merry Widow), here is the Merry Widow Waltz ("Lippen schweigen"/"Love Unspoken").  



6. Alert readers may have noticed that this list goes from the pinnacles of high culture on a steady slide down towards the lighter popular end, and this one takes us all the way to the Mantovani Orchestra, or more precisely The Lazy Gondolier.  We have a rather good ensemble arrangement of this tune, but as it's in call-and-response format, some of the charm is missing in this solo version.



7. Where better to end than on a Neapolitan song: Io Te Vurria Vasa is another song by Eduardo Di Capua, better known for O Sole Mio.



Martin

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## Martin Jonas

Another small batch from this weekend.

1) Neapolitan Song (Tchaikovski): A minor work by a major composer -- although written for piano (from "Album For The Young" in 1878, this is so clearly a pastiche of mandolin music that it seems more appropriate to play it on that instrument.  The part I play is from a transcription of the piece for solo mandolin with guitar accompaniment by Esther Simon, published in the BMG (banjo mandolin guitar) Magazine in 1952.  The piano original is in E-flat major, but Ms Simon has sensibly transposed it into G major.  Nice piece: starts out as a stereotypical Italian tune and then morphs into something much more like a Russian folk song. 



2) Tears And Smiles (Leopoldo Francia): This is a mazurka written as a mandolin duet by Francia, and reprinted in 1975 in "A Variety Of Mandolin Music", a lovely collection of 36 pieces with an introduction by Hugo d'Alton. I play the first mandolin part as a solo.  Given Francia's association with Umberto Ceccherini, I probably should try this on my Ceccherini, too.  Very delicate tune -- I like it.



3) Mio Dolce Sogno (Giuseppe Vicari): This is a ballo liscio waltz written by Giovanni (aka Juan) Vicari (1905-85), a Columbia recording artist of the 1920s from Little Italy in New York, who later in his life played the mandolin on screen in the wedding scenes in both The Godfather I and II. There is a lot of good info on Vicari (and a download link to one of his 78s) at here. This particular tune is a nice slow waltz (well, I play it slow -- no idea how Vicari played it), and is one of the tunes added to the 3rd Edition of Sheri Mignano's book.



4) Tra Veglia E Sonno (L Canora): A nice mazurka, played from the score at Jim Garber's site  -- thanks, Jim.



Martin

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## Jim Garber

Martin: you are amazing in your prolificity (is that a word?) Keep up the good work. I am impressed.

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## Martin Jonas

> Martin: you are amazing in your prolificity (is that a word?) Keep up the good work. I am impressed.


Thanks, Jim!  It's not all quite what it seems -- these videos are pretty much all the playing time I get (other than our weekly group rehearsals) and thus they are really exercises in sight-reading rather than carefully rehearsed performances.  

I've started making the videos more for myself than anything -- with small children and a time-intensive job I have hardly any practice or playing time these days, and using what time I have to make videos helps me make my playing more goal-oriented, and also gives me feedback on how it actually sounds. I can look at my videos with a bit of distance while in the office and get a better idea of what is good about my playing and what isn't. Quite a few mistakes that seem blatant while playing are actually all but inperceptible in the recording whereas others where I think I just about got away with it sound terribly blatant. Also, for some reason my clips sound much better on the speakers of my work PC than through headphones on my laptop (the laptop speakers are of course beyond the pale).

It's strangely satisfying to have a (semi-)permanent record of playing these tunes, and looking through my sheet music to identify other tunes that might work if played solo is fun too.  The various sheet music I got from you over the years is a great help!

Martin

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## Martin Jonas

It's been a few weeks since my last batch of videos - first because of the World Cup taking up my mando-playing time, then because of a holiday in Germany visiting my parents.

My mother has been looking after two of my bowlbacks for the past couple of years, and we had intended that we swap the Ceccherini she has been playing (which is the fancier one with the suspended second soundboard inside the bowl) for the one I have had at home (the plainer one with a single board).  However, on playing her mandolins I noticed that the Giuseppe Vinaccia needs some luthier attention, and so I have brought that one back to the UK, leaving both Ceccherinis with my mother.

As the playability and tone of the Vinaccia is not affected, I have taken the opportunity to record a few tunes on it before sending it for repair.  So, the following are on my modest maple-bowled 1898 Giuseppe Vinaccia.  It records rather well -- a more mellow tone than the Embergher, and certainly less volume, but very pleasing and complex.  I think it's a good contrast.

1. Speranze Perdute: I am recording this tune on all of my bowlbacks, to allow direct comparison.



2. Tears and Smiles (Leopoldo Francia): Another good comparison with the Embergher version a couple of posts up in this thread.



3. Vilja (Lehar), from The Merry Widow: Another one I have also recorded on Embergher.



Before leaving Germany, I also recorded a couple of clips of the double-top Ceccherini.  These were recorded in the bedroom of our holiday flat, and unfortunately the acoustic was a bit dry and there is a strong background hum because I didn't manage to get the microphone decoupled from the laptop vibrations.  This Ceccherini's main feature is the distinctive tremolo tone in the high register, which has a bell-like purity absent from the Vinaccia and Embergher.  It's also a _very_ loud mandolin, much more so than the Vinaccia, but rather weak in the lower register.  A quite different beast from my other Ceccherini.  All of this is unfortunately not as clearly audible on the recordings I made, because of the sub-optimal setup.  I should get it back to the UK in a few months, and then I can compare better.

4. Speranze Perdute: The obligatory comparison clip.



5. Plaisir d'Amour (Ranieri arrangement): I picked this one to show the tremolo tone on the E-string, to compare with the Embergher version a couple of posts back.  The comparison doesn't quite work because of the recording quality, and because of a not-very-fluent performance turned in by me.



Finally, here is a clip I made a few weeks ago on the Embergher, the ubiquitous "Funiculi Funicula", in a rather nice arrangement I got a few years ago from Jim Garber.



Martin

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## Martin Jonas

Today I got around to recording another two tunes on the Giuseppe Vinaccia, this time ones that I had not yet recorded on the Embergher, and indeed had never played before today.  Both of them are from the wonderful little booklet "A Variety Of Mandolin Music" which also has Francia's "Tears and Smiles".

1. Barcarolle from "Oberon" (Carl Maria von Weber):  A very simple tune, but a lovely melody.  



2. Garden of Roses (Bernardo de Pace): A pleasant waltz from De Pace, with quite effective double-stopping (not all of which I play as smoothly as I would have wanted), but a much easier piece than De Pace's  "Bouquet of Flowers", which is also in this book (and which our own Michael Reichenbach aka Mandoisland has recorded wonderfully on Youtube).  This one is very appealing, too, though.

 

Martin

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## Martin Jonas

> 2. Garden of Roses (Bernardo de Pace): A pleasant waltz from De Pace, with quite effective double-stopping (not all of which I play as smoothly as I would have wanted), but a much easier piece than De Pace's  "Bouquet of Flowers", which is also in this book (and which our own Michael Reichenbach aka Mandoisland has recorded wonderfully on Youtube).  This one is very appealing, too, though.


On listening back to the clip I uploaded on the weekend, I decided that I was playing it too slowly, and not sufficiently musical, so I have replaced the video with a faster and more musical one I recorded this evening.  I think this one is better, although still not as fluent as it could be.  Still, the 12 people who watched the first version may want to have another look.



Martin

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## Martin Jonas

This weekend, I looked at two more tunes from "A Variety of Mandolin Music", recorded on the Embergher.  As with the last batch, I first looked at them when I was picking tunes to record, so these clips are done without much rehearsing -- just a few runthroughs until I managed to get from beginning to end without too many glitches.  These are fun tunes, though, and fairly straightforward (or at least they would be with more rehearsal time):

1. La Cinquantaine (J. Gabriel-Marie):  This tune was written in 1887 by Jean Gabriel-Marie (1852-1928), initially for cello and piano, and is probably the composer's most famous tune (he also arranged it for a few other instrumentations).  Quite a few cello renditions on Youtube, but no other mandolins.  The arrangement in "A Variety or Mandolin Music" has a first and second mandolin part, and is marked "mandolin solo or duo", which I take to mean that the second mandolin part is optional (it's fairly boring in any case).  This is one of the longer pieces in the collection at a bit over five minutes at the tempo I used, but it's a lively enough tune with plenty of variation that it sustains interest.



2. Amor Innocenta (G. Bellini):  This one is a piece for unaccompanied solo mandolin.  The final part (from the change of key back to D major at 1:33 after the G major part) is arranged with copious double- and triple-stopping.  Most of these I've omitted in the interest of playability, but I've kept the most prominent ones.  With a bit more practice time I should be able to play it as written, but for now I stick with this one.  I know nothing else about the piece or the composer, and in particular do not know whether this is an original mandolin composition or an arrangement of a piece written with for a different instrumentation.  This does not appear to have been written by the opera composer of the same surname -- his first name was Vincenzo.  The only other Bellini I know does have the right initial, but Giovanni Bellini was a renaissance painter...  I anybody recognises the tune, please let me know.

Anyway, this does have a certain operatic quality, and is a nicely hummable tune, so I've enjoyed playing it even without knowing anything about it.  My playing is a bit ropy in the G major section (I lose the pulse for a couple of bars), and I've decided to delete the final two bars -- the tune as published resolves to a sustained B flat, which sounds odd to my ears for a piece in D major.  Maybe it's an extract from a larger piece, and this is the lead-in for the next section.



3.Jägerchor (Hunters' Chorus), Der Freischütz (C.M. von Weber, arr. Alberto):  I've owned the score for this piece for longer than any other piece of music I own, but this is the first time I have actually played it.  This solo mandolin arrangement of the Hunters' Chorus from Weber's opera "Der Freischütz" is an etude from an old mandolin tutor, "Kleine Mandolinen-Schule" by A. Alberto, first published in 1913; I have the revised 1929 Edition.  I uploaded a scan of this piece (and a few other pages from the tutor) a few years ago in this thread.  I inherited this book from my grandfather, who bought it in 1941 or 42 from a music shop in Wiesbaden, along with his first ever mandolin.  Why he thought it a good idea to start to learn the mandolin in the middle of a war with three small girls younger than five years in the house, I don't know, and neither do I know whether he ever made any progress with the instrument or this tutor by the time he died in 1948.  After this, both book and mandolin passed to my mother (who is still an active player now, and more than ever since retiring a few years ago), and eventually to me.  So, I feel a connection to both my grandfather and my mother when playing this -- both of them used this tutor, although I'm not sure whether either of them ever got as far as this particular etude, which is toward the back of the booklet.  The arrangement is pretty straightforward, but charming

I've recorded this on both the Embergher and the Vinaccia:

Embergher:


Vinaccia:


Martin

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## Martin Jonas

> 2. Amor Innocenta (G. Bellini):  This one is a piece for unaccompanied solo mandolin.  The final part (from the change of key back to D major at 1:33 after the G major part) is arranged with copious double- and triple-stopping.  Most of these I've omitted in the interest of playability, but I've kept the most prominent ones.  With a bit more practice time I should be able to play it as written, but for now I stick with this one.  I know nothing else about the piece or the composer, and in particular do not know whether this is an original mandolin composition or an arrangement of a piece written with for a different instrumentation.  This does not appear to have been written by the opera composer of the same surname -- his first name was Vincenzo.  The only other Bellini I know does have the right initial, but Giovanni Bellini was a renaissance painter...  If anybody recognises the tune, please let me know.


For what it's worth, I've just noticed that there is actually another Youtube recording of this piece, a webcam recording by a Japanese mandolinist, Kozo Onishi.  He takes it slightly slower, and tremoloes throughout where I play the quavers staccato.  I'm a bit torn as to which way is better -- the tremolo sounds nice for the first minute or so then becomes a bit lacking in texture.  I like the recording, though, and I like the player -- he's pretty good (well, better than me anyway), and he has managed to play the chordal final part flawlessly, with tremolo over the chords.  Onishi calls the piece "Amore Innocenta" and the composer "G. Belloni", but I can't find it under that name either -- there was a composer called G. Belloni, but he was a renaissance composer (1575-1606), and this doesn't sound like a renaissance tune to me.

Nice mandolin, too -- looks like a vintage Vinaccia.



Anyway, both his and my title are presumably wrong -- if it's Italian, it should be "amore innocente", which is actually the title of a Salieri opera.  If it's Spanish, it should be "amor inocente".

Martin

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## Martin Jonas

I have Fliss' newly-aquired 1910 Calace with me for the weekend (strung with Thomastik strings, for a quite different tone), and I've taken the opportunity to take some pictures together with my own flock (uploaded here) and record some videos of the Calace and the Embergher.  These are the results:

1. Speranze Perdute (on the Calace): my standard comparison tune.



2. Aida Mazurka (U Guastoldi): This mazurka is taken from one of the scans of old mandolin music kindly made available by Michael Reichenbach on his website.  Note that this is _not_ the mazurka of the same name that is on Jim Garber's site and on the Rounder "Italian String Virtuosi" CD, but an entirely different and unrelated mazurka by a different composer.  Neither tune appears to have anything to do with the Verdi opera.

On Calace:



On Embergher:



3. Lara's Theme (Doctor Zhivago):  This is the tune at the beginning of the very first post in this thread, but my playing then was pretty wooden, partly because the tempo was too slow and partly because the whole recording process was new to me.  So, I have taken the chance of the Calace being here to make new recordings on the Calace as well as the Embergher, and to delete my earlier clip in favour of the new ones.

On Calace:



On Embergher:



4. Amor Innocenta (or Amore Innocente): See previous post -- I've now recorded this on the Calace, and also tried out how it works all-tremolo (as per Kozo Onishi's video).



NB: On a technical note, most of you will have noticed that my earlier videos are all slightly out-of-sync on Youtube, even though the original video files on my hard disk are perfectly synched.  I've managed to find a workaround to the problem, which involved loading the webcam clips into Windows Movie Maker and immediately saving them again as Moviemaker MWV files.  Uploading these converted files on Youtube resolves the previous problem, so all new clips are now (finally!) in sync.

Martin

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## Martin Jonas

> NB: On a technical note, most of you will have noticed that my earlier videos are all slightly out-of-sync on Youtube, even though the original video files on my hard disk are perfectly synched.  I've managed to find a workaround to the problem, which involved loading the webcam clips into Windows Movie Maker and immediately saving them again as Moviemaker MWV files.  Uploading these converted files on Youtube resolves the previous problem, so all new clips are now (finally!) in sync.


Famous last words, those.  On listening to the uploads with headphones, I noticed that while they are in sync, Windows Movie Maker did something terrible to the audio track, degrading it compared to the original video file.  So, I've deleted all of the clips linked in my previous post and replaced them with the original webcam videos (same as for all my previous postings).  Those sound much better.  Here are the links:

Speranze Perdute (on Calace)

Aida Mazurka (on Embergher)
Aida Mazurka (on Calace)

Lara's Theme (on Embergher)

Amor Innocenta (on Calace)

In addition, I have two new tunes, recorded yesterday on the Embergher:

1. Polka: Una Gita A Spezia (E. Marucelli):  This is another tune learned from the 1899 collection of Italian pieces kindly made available by Michael Reichenbach at his site.  A nice relaxed polka with a good hummable tune.



2. Sonatina No. 1 (Bernardo de Pace):  Another piece by de Pace from the Hugo d'Alton endorsed 1975 book "A Variety of Mandolin Music".  This is just the first mandolin part from what is originally a trio for two mandolins and one guitar, so there's bits missing, but it's fun to play!  Marked "tempo di gavotta", it has a pleasing simple formality that is quite different from the other two de Pace pieces in the book (Garden of Roses and Bouquet of Flowers), which are much flashier and more elaborate.



Martin

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## Martin Jonas

Another weekend, another few tunes.  I've been playing around with some of the wonderful scans of old French mandolin albums that Michael Reichenbach has recently uploaded at his web site Mandoisland.de.

The first two clips are from an album of arrangements for solo mandolin by Janvier Pietrapertosa fils (who I know nothing about).  Most of the pieces seem to be from popular tunes of the day, and although the arrangements are described as "for solo mandolin", they don't have much in way of harmony notes or double-stopping.  These two pieces are a bit of an exception:

1. "Spring Song" (Mendelssohn): Easily the most famous piece in the album, this version has the piano original nicely reduced to a single mandolin melody line.  I've decided to ignore much of the specifc mandolin markings in the score -- I play all quavers as single-stroke, whereas the score is very specific that some are to be played staccato and some tremolo.  I tried that, but it was clearly too much tremolo, swamping the delicate melody.  Once I decided to leave the tremolo to the longer note, it sprung to life and I'm quite pleased with how this has come out.



2. "Ciao (Valzer"): The score for this waltz gives no author for the piece, just describes it as "Célèbre Valse Italienne".  I don't know just how "famous" the piece was back then, or indeed whether it is still well-known today, as the title "Ciao" is rather too generic to give decent hits on a search.  Whatever its origin or fame, it's a very pleasant waltz and works well solo.  Fairly easy, too.



Martin

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## Martin Jonas

A few tunes from this weekend, with a bit of a variety in styles:

1. Dancing Doll (Johan Kok):  This one is a delightful little tune by Dutch mandolin pioneer Johan Kok (1889-1954), who wrote lots of wonderfully-arranged pieces for mandolin orchestras and ensembles and provides the backbone of our ensemble's repertoire.  There's a lot of background info on Kok provided by Alex Timmermann in this thread.  Also in that same earlier thread, Ralf Leenen was kind enough to post a link to an MP3 of a home recording of "Dancing Doll" he made in 1994, multitracking two mandolin and two mandola parts himself, with guitar backing.  That MP3 is still on Ralf's site, but as it's not linked from the main site, here is the direct link:

Ralf Leenen Dancing Doll MP3

My playing is of course not up to Ralf's standard, and my clip is missing the second mandolin, mandola and guitar parts, but it's a fun tune nevertheless and quite straightforward to play.  I note that Ralf varies the tempo a bit more than I do, which isn't in the score (except for the "_molto rall_" at the very end) but suits the piece, and I should probably do the same.



2. Tarantella dell '600: I've been playing around a bit with the tunes in the recentish (and very nice) Mel Bay book "Traditional Southern Italian Mandolin & Fiddle Tunes" by John T La Barbera.  I'll link only one of the tunes from it here (there are a few more in my Youtube channel), as it straddles the (somewhat arbitrary) line between traditional folk and early/renaissance music.  John's notes say "This tarantella is from the 1600's and has three different secitions which repeat until the final coda. Its origins are probably from Puglia, however it appears in an anonymous manuscript of 'piezas para Clave', founding in the Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid (MS.M 1250 Fondo Barbieri)."



3. Bouree, Third Cello Suite (J.S. Bach):  A bit of cliche tune, but it just sits so nicely on mandolin.  I've previously recorded it (badly) on the Embergher and I'm planning to redo that clip soon, probably on the Vinaccia as its tone has a great affinity to baroque music.  The Vinaccia is with the luthier at the moment (expected back later today), so in the meantime I went even more pseudo-baroque and recorded it with my closest approximation of a lute/renaissance mandolino, namely my Kala ukulele retuned to fifths (GDAE) tuning.  Better playing, I think, than on the earlier Embergher clip.  I leave out the repeats to bring the clip down a bit in length.



4. Avec Que La Marmotte (Beethoven, Op. 52 No. 7): I hesitate to call this a classical piece at all -- I actually learned it from a German campfire songbook, and it's a folky little song with a pleasing melody which I'm playing plain and unadorned from that songbook.  However, notwithstanding its modest form, it's the result of a collaboration between _the_ two biggest hitters of German high culture, Goethe and Beethoven.  I say "collaboration", but it was a bit one-sided -- Goethe wrote the words to the song for one of his very earliest plays in the 1770s, and Beethoven picked them up and set them to music many years later.  It is said that Goethe couldn't stand Beethoven, so he may not have been too pleased to be honoured in that way.  Incidentally, the French title phrase is the repeated tagline in the poem, but the rest of the words are all in German -- this is not a French song.

In keeping with the campfire origin of my source, I play this on my "campfire" mandolin: a Mid-Missouri M-0W.



5. The Entertainer (Joplin): Coincidentally to Linda's thread on this piece, I had just the previous day recorded another clip of it, to go with my earlier Embergher recording.  This one is on the retuned Kala ukulele, and it's the shortened version from our ensemble repertoire, as mentioned in my reply to Linda's post.



6. Garden Of Roses (Bernardo De Pace): I have uploaded this nice little waltz before, played on my Vinaccia.  I was curious how it may sound on an F5, so I recorded a clip on my 1980s Washburn M3SW (as good an excuse as any to get this one out -- I've been neglecting it lately).  Quite a bit of contrast in tone, and I rather like it.



Martin

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## Martin Jonas

Last weekend, I was playing around with some early and baroque music, following a discussion of Bach's bourree from the lute suite in E minor in the Song-Of-The-Week social group Link).  So here are a couple of tunes I've enjoyed playing (no Embergher this week -- the thread title is turning into a bit of a misnomer).

1. Bourree in E Minor (BWV 996):  Here is the bourree also posted over in the SOTW group.  Played from the Icking Archive version for guitar (Link), but leaving out the bass notes (which I couldn't find a good way of playing on mandolin).  A chance to practice my somewhat rusty trills.  Played on the Vinaccia, which I have just got back from the luthier.



I've also recorded a second video of the same tune on my GDAE-tuned ukulele -- with the original being written for lute, this may be closer to the composer's intentions.  Trills are a bit more awkward on single strings, though...

Bourree on GDAE ukulele

Speaking of lute, I've just come across a lovely Youtube clip of the Bourree on its original instrument:

Bourree on lute

2. The Short Mesure Off My Lady Wynkfylds Rownde (Anon, ca. 1520): This is a renaissance keyboard piece from around 1520, from a manuscript in the British Museum (R. App. 58).  I play this from a transcription available free at the Icking Music Archive (Link).  The treble voice of the keyboard transcription sits well on mandolin.

This tune is the opening track on one of my favourite albums of all times: "The Bones Of All Men" (1998) by Philip Pickett (head of the New London Consort and musical director of the Globe Theatre) and Richard Thompson, with the classic Fairport Convention rhythm section (Simon Nicol, Dave Pegg, Dave Mattacks). A great great album, and a very catchy tune that's fun to play! (Wikipedia album link).

The album has another one of the 10 anonymous keyboard pieces from that British Museum manuscript, "My Lady Careys Dompe" -- another great piece, but a bit trickier to play on mandolin.  I'm working on it, but struggling with the fact that the second half is notated at twice the speed than the first leaving either the first half too slow to bring out the lovely melody or the second half too fast for me to play cleanly.  Maybe I'll get it straight next weekend.

In the meantime, here is My Lady Wynkfylds, played on Mid-Missouri M-0W:



Again, I've also recorded it on the GDAE uke:

My Lady Wynkfylds on ukulele

Martin

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## Martin Jonas

I haven't put anything in this thread for a little while, as most of my recent recordings are more in the folk or early music field rather than classical.  However, I made two new recordings today of pieces from one of my favourite books: "A Variety Of Mandolin Music", a collection of 36 Victorian and Edwardian mandolin pieces (re-)published in 1975 by Clifford Essex in London, with an introduction by Hugo d'Alton.  Both of these pieces were written for unaccompanied solo mandolin, so just for a change there are no missing harmony parts or backing tracks:

1. L'Automne (Bert Bassett): This particular piece is a gavotte written by one Bert Bassett, of whom I know nothing except that he was the editor of the BMG Magazine (where most or all of the pieces in the book had originally appeared in print) sometime in the 1920s or 1920s. Nice piece, though -- fun arpeggios.



2. Moonlight On The Thames (Bernardo De Pace): Another De Pace piece (like "Garden Of Roses" and "Sonatina No. 1", which I've recorded before), with a very nice chordal accompaniment.  My playing is a bit halting in the final section, but by and large I think the chords work pretty well.



Martin

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## brunello97

Thanks, Martin! Nice stuff as always. L'Automne particularly welcome on a chilly fall evening.

Mick

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## Martin Jonas

Thanks, Mick.  Yes, the Bassett gavotte is both effective and relatively easy to play.  The De Pace piece is technically more difficult, especially trying to sight-read it and getting the fingering for the chord shapes ready in time.  Most of the shapes are (mercifully) straightforward and the same progressions crop up repeately, except for the final section where suddenly there are different chords.  There's that nasty screach when you don't quite fret all the strings cleanly, but when it all works out suddenly the beauty emerges (well, it will be with a bit more polishing).

Martin

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## Martin Jonas

Another two rather obscure pieces recorded tonight: these are both short pieces for solo mandolin, from a collection of pieces arranged by Janvier Piétrapertosa Fils, published in Paris around 1900 (there is no date given) under the title "Mandoline-Album".  I suspect they are original to this collection -- I can't find any other references to them.  My thanks to Michael Reichenbach, who has found this album and has put a full scan for download at his website www.mandoisland.de

1. "Frisson d'Amour" (H. Waïss, arr. Piétrapertosa): A nice lilting piece in 6/8 time, sub-titled "Pensée Musicale de H. Waïss".  Fairly straightforward to play.



2. Rose Effeuillée (B. Holzer, arr. Piétrapertosa): Quite a lively piece with forceful stresses and double stops, and fun to play.  This is simply sub-titled "Mélodie de B. Holzer".  I get my fingers in a twist a bit in the chord progression at the very end, but I think I just about have them on the right frets in time...



Martin

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## Martin Jonas

Another two solo pieces from the Piétrapertosa collection over at Mandoisland.de:

1. Barcarolle d'Amour (L Raynal, arr. Piétrapertosa): A fairly straightforward tune with the typcial easygoing vibe of a barcarolle, although strictly speaking only the opening and closing section are in barcarolle (6/8) form, sandwiching a waltz-time middle section.



2. Rondeau des Petits Pages (E de L'Hervilliers, arr. Piétrapertosa): Being a rondo, I probably should play this faster than I do (although there are no tempo markings), but I kept it slowish in order to keep the fretting and tempo clean and steady.  Quite a lively piece anyway.



Martin

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## Martin Jonas

I recorded another piece from the Pietrapertosa collection yesterday -- I really like that album, just about every piece is at a reasonably approachable technical level and they all work just fine as solo pieces.

This one is called "Pavan Elisabeth", credited to a composer called "Ph. Kauffmann".  There is a second, and broadly similar, piece by Kauffmann in this album, called "Canzonetta", which suggests that he was engaging in somewhat retro composing styles.  Another charming piece, I find.  Slight deviation from the printed score right at the end, where I misread a phrase.



Martin

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## Martin Jonas

I haven't posted anything to this thread for a while, and strictly speaking this post doesn't quite match the title of the thread, as these are not on my Embergher, but I don't want to start too many different video threads so I'm keeping them together here.

I recently got the fancier of my two Umberto Ceccherini bowlbacks back from my mother, who instead borrowed my Giuseppe Vinaccia.  So, I took the opportunity to record a couple of Neapolitan songs on it -- appropriate in time and space to the instrument.  This one has the suspended second soundboard and it makes for an interesting tone.  Pretty loud, really, and very responsive with a bright sharp attack.

Here is "Ciribiribin", written in 1898 (around when the mandolin was built) and perhaps more associated with the swing era and trumpet solos:



And here is "Rosamunda" -- well, that's the Italian name for the tune, the English one is "Beer Barrel Polka" and the German one is "Rosamunde".  Either way, it's actually a Czech tune originally called "Modřanská polka".



For contrast and compare (and to make this post match the thread title somewhat), here is a video of Ciribiribin I recorded last year on the Embergher.  Same arrangement otherwise:



Martin

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## Martin Jonas

A couple of Embergher videos recorded last week:

1. Serenade Espagnole (H. Chatau, arr. Piétrapertosa).  This is another tune from the great selection of French romantic solo pieces from around 1900 arranged by Piétrapertosa, posted by Michael Reichenbach at his Mandoisland website.  A fairly short pseudo-Spanish composition with lots of period charm.



2. Tango des Roses / Song of the Rose (Schreier-Bottero).  Tango is always fun on mandolin!



Martin

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