On The Hills Of Manchuria

  1. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    Ilya Alekseevich Shatrov (1879-1952): На сопках Маньчжурии / On The Hills Of Manchuria
    Arranged for mandolins by Evelyn Tiffany-Castilgioni.


    This popular Russian waltz was written in 1906 to commemorate the Battle of Mukden in the Russo-Japanese War, in which the composer fought. Lyrics were added later by Stepan Skitalets, and the waltz became very popular as an orchestral piece and later a folk tune. There are lots of recorded examples on Youtube, in a vast variety of styles and tempi (slow dirge to fast Viennese waltz). Peter Ostroushko recorded a very nice mandolin version.

    The original key was E-flat minor, but my mandolin version is in G minor, using parts of a mandolin quartet arrangement by Evelyn Tiffany-Castiglioni, from her "Big Book For Mandolins for the Year 2015", available from Amazon (NFI). I am using her second mandolin part and chord progression.

    Mid-Missouri M-0W mandolin (x2)
    Vintage Viaten tenor guitar.



    Martin
  2. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    A very lovely tune, Martin, and you play it really well here.
  3. Christian DP
    Christian DP
    Sounds very good Martin, I'm a big fan of your Mid Missouri, but for this particular tune. maybe a 4-string domra would also sound fine.
    Anyway. nice waltz superbly played!
  4. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    Thanks, John and Christian. It's fun to play, and very nicely arranged by Evelyn in her book. We haven't tried this tune out with our group yet, but we should probably give it a go if and when we next meet (virus permitting) as it's very much up our street.

    I don't have a 4-string domra (and it's always a bit of a mystery to me how Russian/Ukrainian players get such a smooth tremolo out of the single strings), -- I did try out a bowlback initiallly, but it seems to work better on the Mid-Mo. I do intend to mix up instruments a bit more again as it's all been Mid-Mo lately. My rate of recording will need to slow down a bit though, as I'm back at work after the holiday from tomorrow.

    Martin
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