Jean Gabriel Proper Marie (Gabriel-Marie), 1852-1928: La Cinquantaine (1887) [The Golden Wedding] This is a well-known French romantic composition, originally for cello and piano but also arranged by its composer for many other instrumentations. It's by far Gabriel-Marie's most famous piece and a popular student practice piece for classical musicians as it's fairly easy -- it's a Grade 3 violin piece and as one would expect that means it's also reasonably straightforward on mandolin. Good exercise for tremolo, though, as this arrangement is intended to be played mostly in tremolo, and a lovely delicate melody. I'm playing a 1920s arrangement for two mandolins, originally published in the BMG Magazine. There is no arranger credit on the score. This is yet another piece that was reprinted in 1975 in "A Variety Of Mandolin Music", with introduction by Hugo D'Alton. I think this works rather nicely on mandolin. Fairly straightforward technically, but satisfying to play and the two voices mesh well. Mandolin 1: 1890s Umberto Ceccherini bowlback Mandolin 2: 1915 Luigi Embergher bowlback [MP3=1]http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=112820&d=1390178796[/MP3] On Youtube with a selection of Impressionist paintings from the time of its composition, evocative of the eponymous Golden Wedding celebrations: Martin
Another update: Here is "La Cinquantaine" played using the same arrangement as in 2014, but at a better tempo and smoother playing. Mid-Missouri M-0W mandolin (x2) Martin
That's great! I like both versions.
Thanks, Dennis! Long been a favourite tune of mine. Martin
