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Thread: Mandocello solo and duo recordings playlist

  1. #51
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    Default Re: Mandocello solo and duo recordings playlist

    Yes, the interspersed bass notes. Nataly Haas was in town last week (with Alasdair Fraser), they played some of those old 1600-1700 Scottish tunes with octave jumps, and interspersed bass notes (Key to the Cellar, etc), and she made those bass notes stand up tall and sing loud on her cello. first time I heard them played properly like that. I have to do same now.

    As for the thomastic strings, I wore out the winding on an A string on my octave. (it did not break, a plain E broke instead. new strings are in the mail from juststrings.com). And they are quite dull. They say "the brightness should be in the playing". So true. Have to work hard to make thomastic strings sparkle. Then when I play a mandolin with bright strings, result is positively dazzling. I use Wegen 2.5mm trimus picks.

    As for the neck, we will know in a couple of weeks what the luthier has to say. I am tempted to order a good one from Nyberg ($$$, he is local here), but then I cannot take it to an Irish bar or busk on the street...

  2. #52
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    Default Re: Mandocello solo and duo recordings playlist

    Quote Originally Posted by Martin Jonas View Post
    I haven't added any new recordings to this thread since March, but here's one I enjoyed playing on the mandocello.

    Georg Philipp Telemann: Partita No. 5 (TWV 41:e1), Aria 4: Siciliana
    First published in "Kleine Kammermusik" (1716).


    IMSLP has two settings for Partita 5: one with just the siciliana and without continuo, and the other in a setting for trumpet and organ by Michel Rondeau. The Rondeau setting has Finale source files for further editing, so I have extracted a performing score for mandolin and mandocello (or alternatively classical guitar) from those Finale files.

    https://imslp.org/wiki/Partita_No.5%...Georg_Philipp)

    Since then, I have noticed that IMSLP also has the complete set of six partitas in a nice typeset PDF with figured bass, which makes my version somewhat redundant:

    https://imslp.org/wiki/Kleine_Kammer...Georg_Philipp)


    Martin
    As always Martin, thank you for not only offering your recordings but the original source material as well. These make fun duets with my friend who plays mandola and mandolin (so reads both clefs). These continuo parts suit my slow aging fingers on my K4 much better than some of the very busy orchestral parts I try to play. Kind of shoots down the old "no pain no gain" maxim.
    I was puzzled by a "corrupt file" warning as I tried to download the IMSLP file: I have seen this the last few times I used IMSLP, although I usually bypass it and download just fine. Wonder if others have seen this.
    Jim

    Dr James S Imhoff
    Boston University
    Oregon Mandolin Orchestra

    1912 Gibson K4 Mandocello; Thomann Mandocello; Stiver F5; American? Bowlback; Martin 00016; Dusepo Cittern/liuto cantabile

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  4. #53
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    Default Re: Mandocello solo and duo recordings playlist

    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Imhoff View Post
    I was puzzled by a "corrupt file" warning as I tried to download the IMSLP file ... Wonder if others have seen this.
    nope, no warnings or problems downloading pdf files from IMSLP. google chrome on mac.

  5. #54
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    Default Re: Mandocello solo and duo recordings playlist

    I forgot to post this seasonal offering here, which I uploaded to Youtube on Christmas Eve -- here is the Largo from Manfredini's "Christmas Concerto", a staple of Baroque-themed Christmas concerts.

    Francesco Onofrio Manfredini (1684-1762):
    Concerto grosso per il santissimo natale, Op. 3, No. 12/2
    II. Largo


    This Christmas Concerto is the best-known piece by the Italian Baroque composer Francesco Manfredini. Although it is scored as a concerto grosso, for the second movement (Largo), the soloists are tacet and the movement is therefore simply scored as a string quartet.

    I am playing the Largo as a mandolin quartet of two mandolins, octave mandolin (mandola) and mandocello -- the mandolins give it a tonality of Christmas chimes!

    1915 Luigi Embergher mandolin (x2)
    Mid-Missouri M-111 octave mandolin
    Suzuki MC-815 mandocello

    Sheet music from IMSLP:

    http://imslp.org/wiki/12_Concertos,_...sco_Onofrio%29


    https://youtu.be/73pCZrOexmA

    Martin

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    Registered User Martin Jonas's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandocello solo and duo recordings playlist

    Another addition to my mandocello playlist:

    Fly Me To The Moon (Bart Howard)

    This is an instrumental version of this 1950s pop standard, recorded in the original waltz time (before Quincy Jones changed it to 4/4 for Sinatra's recording). It also includes the verse, omitted by Sinatra. The leadsheet I used is here:

    http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/at...0&d=1446161279

    Suzuki MC-815 mandocello
    Mid-Missouri M-0W mandolin
    Vintage Viaten tenor guitar


    https://youtu.be/z52bGwS2JTs

    Martin

  7. #56
    Registered User Martin Jonas's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandocello solo and duo recordings playlist

    Here's another Baroque mandolin and mandocello duet, with the mandocello taking the continuo part.

    Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767): Tafelmusik (1733)
    Part III: Oboe Sonata in G minor, TWV 41:g6
    3. Tempo giusto in G major


    This is a movement from the Oboe Sonata in Telemann's Tafelmusik, one of his best-known compositions. It's marked "tempo giusto" in 3/8 time, which should correspond to a fairly swift tempo. However, most recorded versions are quite stately, taking about 90 to 100 seconds (without the Da Capo) which corresponds to about 90-100 bpm.

    The score is at IMSLP, for oboe and figured bass:

    https://imslp.org/wiki/Oboe_Sonata,_...Georg_Philipp)

    I'm playing the oboe part on mandolin and the continuo on mandocello.

    1898 Giuseppe Vinaccia mandolin
    Suzuki MC-815 mandocello

    The piece transfers very nicely to a mandolin and mandocello duet: it's in a friendly key (G major) and sits well within the range. The continuo part can be played without adjustments on mandocello, octave mandolin or guitar. Here are links to my own PDF scores made in Musescore in two versions, with the accompaniment in bass clef (for mandocello) or in octave treble clef (for guitar or octave mandolin):

    Mandolin & mandocello score
    Mandolin & guitar score


    https://youtu.be/1nXCMYAXrvA

    Martin

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    Default Re: Mandocello solo and duo recordings playlist

    William Cornysh (1465-1623): Ah Robin, Gentle Robin

    This is an English renaissance song, in the form of a two-part bass ground played as a canon, with a treble melody line coming in after the first round. The score is at IMSLP:

    https://imslp.org/wiki/Ah_Robin%2C_G...sh%2C_William)

    I'm playing the canonic ground on mandocello and octave mandolin, and the melody on a nylon-strung four-string bowlback mandolin, a reasonable appromixation of a renaissance mandora or soprano lute.

    Suzuki MC-815 mandocello
    Mid-Missouri M-111 octave mandolin
    "Baroq-ulele" nylgut-strung bowlback mandolin


    https://youtu.be/PGdFuBSNWMY

    Martin

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    Default Re: Mandocello solo and duo recordings playlist

    Awesome Martin, I really liked that, nice mix of plectral tonality.
    Stormy Morning Orchestra

    My YouTube Channel

    "Mean Old Timer, He's got grey hair, Mean Old Timer he just don't care
    Got no compassion, thinks its a sin
    All he does is sit around an play the Mandolin"

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  12. #59
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    Default Re: Mandocello solo and duo recordings playlist

    Georg Friedrich Händel (1741): Concerto Grosso No. 12 in B Minor, HWV 330, Op. 6
    III. Aria: Larghetto, e piano (in E Major, transposed to D Major)


    This is the the famous aria (larghetto, e piano) movement of Handel's Concerto Grosso No. 12:

    https://imslp.org/wiki/Concerto_Gros...orge_Frideric)

    We have been playing the Aria movement of this Concerto Grosso with our group for a few years now, and it's great fun. Transposed from E major to D major, and reduced to a trio of mandolin, OM/mandola and mandocello (Handel's second violin part is identical to the first).

    I have uploaded the parts here, with the mandocello part in bass clef and alternatively in octave treble clef for guitar:

    Mandolin
    Mandola/OM
    Mandocello
    Guitar (identical to mandocello part)

    Based on a Mike Magatagan string quartet arrangement from Musescore, which is no longer online.

    As for the recording, I've been playing around with the picture-in-picture features in FFMPEG so that I can include video of me playing all three of the instrumental parts. I recorded the mandocello part first, then overdubbed the mandolin and OM parts.

    1915 Luigi Embergher mandolin
    Mid-Missouri M-111 octave mandolin
    Suzuki MC-815 mandocello


    https://youtu.be/zclD8gbcoeY

    Martin

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  14. #60
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    Default Re: Mandocello solo and duo recordings playlist

    Here two sets of La Folia variations, by two French baroque composers, Lully and Farinel. La Folia (or Folies d'Espagne) was the most widely used theme of the baroque era, with hundreds of sets of variations written by every major or minor composer of the era, and quite a few classical ones as well.

    Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687): Les Folies d'Espagne (1672), LWV 48/IJL 62

    This is Lully's version, arguably the first notable example which set the trend for all that came afterwards. Written in 1672, by commission from Louis XIV, and prominently features in the Lully biopic "Le roi danse" (2000). Lully's score is set for four wind instruments (oboes and bassoons), consisting of the theme plus two variations: one in the treble and one in the bass voice.

    Most performances on Youtube are expanded orchestral settings, but mine follows the Lully score exactly, with the four original wind parts played on three mandolins plus mandocello. The first solo variation is taken by the first mandolin, the second solo variation by the mandocello (starting at 1:20 in the video). Recorded by laying down the bass part first on mandocello, then adding the mandolin parts on top.

    The score is from IMSLP:

    https://imslp.org/wiki/Les_folies_d%...Jean-Baptiste)

    Suzuki MC-815 mandocello
    1915 Luigi Embergher mandolin (x3)


    https://youtu.be/nwRbZMLlciA

    Michel Farinel (1649-1726): Faronell's Division On A Ground
    Published in "The Division Violin" by John Playford, 1684


    The first version published in England was this set of theme plus 10 variations written by the fairly obscure French violinist Michel Farinel. From Playford's Division Violin (a great book!), to a very simple repeating ground pass pattern.

    I am playing the complete set of variations on mandolin, as a duet with the ground bass played on mandocello.

    The score is at IMSLP (but note that the ground bass is missing two bars, clearly a transcription error by the uploader):

    https://imslp.org/wiki/Faronells_Div...rinel,_Michel)

    1915 Luigi Embergher mandolin
    Suzuki MC-815 mandocello


    https://youtu.be/Wk-bIiPR9lc

    Farinel's variations are particularly good fun to play on mandolin. Interesting, varied, and sympathetic to the mandolin.

    I attach the IMSLP scores for easy reference.

    Martin
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails IMSLP527552-PMLP853482-Lully-Les-folies-d-Espagne.pdf   IMSLP282365-PMLP458226-05-divisions_on_la_folie---1-violin.pdf  

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  16. #61
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    Default Re: Mandocello solo and duo recordings playlist

    Here is another treatment of the La Folia theme by another of the Baroque big hitters, JS Bach.

    Johann Sebastian Bach (1742): "Aria: Unser trefflicher lieber Kammerherr"
    From: "Mer hahn en neue Oberkeet" (Peasant Cantata, Bauernkantate), BWV 212


    Unusually, Bach used the Folia as musical accompaniment to a vocal aria in his Peasant Cantata from 1742, a song with the single line lyric "Unser trefflicher lieber Kammerherr ist ein kumpabler Mann, den niemand tadeln kann" ("Our wonderful lovely baronet is a jolly man about whom nobody says anything ill"). Don't ask.

    Bach's instrumentation was violin, viola, soprano voice and continuo. My recording is based on a 1964 arrangement for mandolins by Siegfried Behrend, originally as a Coda to Behrend's own Folia variations "Betrachtung über einen altspanischen Tanz".

    Behrend transposed Bach's aria from B minor to D minor (the more usual Folia key), which allowed him to give the violin and viola parts to the first and second mandolins, with the soprano part (one octave down) given to the mandola. Other than this, the setting is effectively the same as Bach's, which is at IMSLP in a very nice 1975 Urtext edition:

    https://imslp.org/wiki/Mer_hahn_en_n...ann_Sebastian)

    For my recording, I am playing the continuo part on mandocello and the vocal line on octave mandolin, played with tremolo for a different tonalty. Thus, I have recorded the piece as a mandolin quartet (two mandolins, octave mandolin, mandocello).

    I started by recording the (quite tricky) mandocello part, then overdubbed the other three parts on top, vocal line last.

    1890s Giuseppe Vinaccia mandolin (x2)
    Mid-Missouri M-111 octave mandolin (mandola)
    Suzuki MC-815 mandocello


    https://youtu.be/isjFk6DMPqA

    Martin

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  18. #62
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    Default Re: Mandocello solo and duo recordings playlist

    I always appreciate your posts, and your interesting scholarship and source notes. I did not know Bach had added to the innumerable settings of this ground.
    Jim

    Dr James S Imhoff
    Boston University
    Oregon Mandolin Orchestra

    1912 Gibson K4 Mandocello; Thomann Mandocello; Stiver F5; American? Bowlback; Martin 00016; Dusepo Cittern/liuto cantabile

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  20. #63
    Registered User Martin Jonas's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandocello solo and duo recordings playlist

    Thanks, Jim. I think many aren't aware of Bach's Folia adaptation because it has a different genre from most of the others and because it's part of a larger piece, the Peasant Cantata (which is quite famous in its own right).

    This gives me an excuse to post a link to one of my favourite Youtube clips, a greatly expanded arrangement of this aria conducted by Leonardo García Alarcón:

    https://youtu.be/t8-7LDY7syo

    Martin

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