English translation of Leone's method (1785)

[Joe Bartl]

For the Classical folks, I have just furnished a transcription (Word) of the 1785 (?) English translation of Leone's method. Attached is a pdf of the transcription. It should prove most interesting to folks interested in technique.



Happy New Year, folks!

--mandogio

[August Watters]

A wonderful contribution, thank you! May I suggest you upload the translation to IMSLP?

A few observations:

The Leone method documents specific and delightful ways of playing the mandolin — some of which did not appear in subsequent generations of mandolin methods. For this reason, Leone’s work often sounds fresh today and gives us tools for inventing new, more modern sounds for the mandolin. I have often borrowed Leone’s picking ideas, in particular, in composing new, contemporary mandolin music.

Leone’s picking patterns are carefully prepared and use several different techniques such as alternate picking, reversed alternate picking, and glide strokes. He insists we prepare picking with each piece, but I believe we can learn to improvise picking patterns using these same tools.

An interesting difference in approach, from modern technique: Leone says the wrist should be held two inches away from the bridge (the Calace method says a similar thing), so I take that to mean Leone used bent-wrist technique such as that later described in the early American methods of Bickford and Pettine, and recently in Marilynn Mair's method. Mair and Richard Walz are the standard-bearers of this technique, while most of us (except the gypsy jazz guitarists) have gone to a flatter wrist technique. Unfortunately Leone says the motion comes from "the wrist," without clarifying the role of forearm rotation. Nice to see that detail was a point of misunderstanding, even back then!

There are some differences in terminology that have caused confusion before, worth noting: Leone uses “trill” to mean what we would call tremolo: rapidly repeating one note. He suggests however that we don’t overuse this idea, and suggests we favor other ornaments to extend long notes. Leone uses “cadence” or “shake” to mean what we would call “trill,” alternating two pitches quickly. There is also other terminology here different from what we use today, but Leone explains himself clearly.

One of my favorite ideas from this method is the use of split-string technique (please see the top of page 19 of the translation). Today we usually think of this as a special effect, difficult and rarely used, but Leone presents us with simple ideas for playing double-stops on a single course, and triads on just two courses. The real trick to making this easier, I think, is to prepare the fingernails so that they are very short and just the right shape to grab just one string.

There’s much helpful information in the book “The Early Mandolin” by James Tyler and Paul Sparks, not only on understanding the Leone method, but also other 18th-century mandolin methods including Corette, Denis and Gervasio. Just like today, all teachers don’t always agree, so “The Early Mandolin” gives a good overview and goes a long way toward helping us to understand 18th-century performance practice — how the music was interpreted — when we want to get closer to the composers’ intentions.