PRELUDE by VICTOR KIOULAPHIDES on Youtube.
Hi all,
Today I want to congratulate Victor and his family and I do that with a little video gift playing his wonderful ‘Prelude’; the first of five ‘dances’ belonging to the ‘Suite for Ali’.
It was composed for 'our own' Alison Stephens, who premiered the Suite at the Dartington Festival in 2009. The composition is intended by Victor as a tribute to all the great masters of the High Baroque and meant to be performed either on the (octave) mandola (GDAE) or on the mandolin.
And since the (octave) mandola was the instrument of Ali’s choice to perform the Suite with, I choose the Liuto moderno to play it. Also because I like to play the 'Prelude' very much and the Liuto moderno ánd really like to bring that seldom heard instrument under the attention of more interested people.
So, here is the ‘Prelude’ played on a Liuto moderno; one of the largest instruments of the mandolin family.
For those who are unfamiliar with the instrument, here is some more info: The Liuto moderno is a large plectrum played instrument with five double metal strings developed around 1890 in Italy as the tenor/bass mandolin of the Mandolin family. Most likely developed by Pasquale Vinaccia, a descendant of the famous Vinaccia luthier family of Neapoli, and the one responsible throughout the 19th Century for numerous innovations related to the construction of the existing instruments ánd the development of new instruments for the mandolin family. The tuning of the Liuto moderno is in fifths and – except for the highest string pair – the same as that of the Mandoloncello (CC-GG-DD-AA); the highest string pair is tuned another fifth higher, to EE. The Liuto moderno unites with its tuning both the (octave) mandola and the mandoloncello in itself. And that is, apart from the fact that it is such a wonderful piece, the main reason why I like to play this particular music on the Liuto moderno. No alterations needed, right at pitch and as it was intended to sound.
The Liuto moderno, also known as the Liuto cantabile, seen in the video was made in 1925 by the sons of Giuseppe Puglisi Reale. It was build in the so-called Roman style that differs from the ‘Neapolitan’ way of building because of its V-shaped neck; radius fingerboard, bridge design and sideway placed tuning mechanics at the slotted headstock.
The Liuto moderno is strung with five pairs of metal strings. In this case the strings used here are custom made by the German String Makers Firm FISOMA. The highest pair is made of plain steel, while the other four string pairs are all bronze wound over a plain steel core. The Luito moderno was, like the Mandoloncello, mainly used to play the tenor parts in Mandolin orchestras. These orchestra models developed into large sized instruments. The repertoire does however list the Liuto moderno as a solo instrument as there are the fine solo compositions and an unequaled method by Raffaele Calace (1863 – 1934). The music is written down in the treble clef for the four highest string pairs and in the bass clef for the lowest (5th) string pair. Orchestra parts are mostly notated entirely in the bass clef, although occasionally the treble clef is used. Raffaele Calace, as a virtuoso on the Liuto moderno, was also responsible for the popularity of the instrument in Italy ánd abroad. Besides being a composer and performer Raffaele Calace ‘managed’ a musical instrument atelier of great fame that still exists today.
And it is because of his research and insight into the construction of the larger instruments of the mandolin family that a Liuto cantabile with a smaller egg-shaped sound corpus with a long neck was developed. Raffaele Calace can therefore be seen as the person who perfected the Liuto moderno by creating a model designed especially for soloists to play the solo repertoire. That is why we have two main Liuto moderno models; the large orchestra model and the more manageable soloist version.
Unfortunately, and in my opinion entirely unjustified, the popularity of the Liuto moderno vanished after World War II, as was the case with the Chitarrone moderno, the Mandoloncello and the Alto mandolin (Mandoliola). Their role in mandolin orchestras and plectrum quartets was taken over by respectively the Double bass, the Spanish guitar and the (octave) Mandola. This video hopes to show that in our modern time the Liuto moderno, with its own sound, still has a role to play. Both, as a soloist instrument and as an instrument in an orchestra or ensemble strength.
Thanks Victor and to all, Enjoy!
Best, Alex.
PS. To learn more about Victor Kioulaphides and his compositions, please visit his website:http://home.earthlink.net/~vkioulaphides/
To download pdf’s and soundfiles of music for mandolin – including the ‘Suite for Ali’ – composed by Victor Kioulaphides for free, please visit this web page at Jim Garber's Paperclip website: http://www.paperclipdesign.com/vk/
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Originally Posted by vkioulaphides
A universal gem: PRELUDE by VICTOR KIOULAPHIDES on Youtube.
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