Wee reference list

[Eugene]

I gave a little lecture demonstration yesterday as part of the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music's 30th annual Classical Guitar Workshop. It's a popular event that attracts faculty from all over the Americas and both avid amateurs and undergraduate students as attendees. My ulterior motive was to interest more guitarists in actually pursuing mandolin and the "classical" repertoire for the instrument. I distributed the attached as a handout, am likely to continue to distribute it as the opportunity arises, and would appreciate any editorial commentary you fine folk would care to provide.




If any of you happen to be in the Cincinnati, OH area at the time, my duo partner Karl and I will be opening Saturday night's concert at 8 pm with a very brief set of two pieces of romantic-era chamber fluff (by Aperte and Cannas, which I suspect many of you play as well).

[Eugene]

One obvious and unfortunate oversight among methods is Lichtenberg's (relatively) new DVD. I will amend immediately.

[Jim Garber]

Hey Eugene: That is some "wee" reference. I would say more than that, pretty exhaustive. Thanks for posting it.

[Eugene]

Thanks, Jim. The ever-generous Dave Cohen took the time to point out some linguistic carelessness in the original. A slightly edited version is here attached. Obviously, from post-2:30 yesterday, the header material no longer applies.

[Martin Jonas]

Very nice list -- thanks, Eugene. It made me have a quick look online for the mandolin works by Arrigoni. I drew a blank at the usual music score sites, but stumbled upon the Eminor Sonata at a French lute site that I had not previously encountered. I attach it here for future reference.

Mind you, the editor of that score doesn't share your opinion of Arrigoni, saying: "In his surviving music Arrigoni is revealed as a composer of modest ability. His instrumental music is saturated with conventional figuration and organized into shortwinded periods of sequences, voice-exchanges, frequent cadences and literal repetitions of small units. His arias often seem to be constructed of brief, unrelated phrases, which awkwardly return to a few pitches and thus lack directional flow. Perhaps his relative success as a composer was due to his mastery of fashionable stylistic conventions rather than to the real worth of his music."

Martin

[Eugene]

Well, when we're talking mandolin, it's all relative, eh? Certainly, Arrigoni's mandolin works are no more trite than Vivaldi's and certainly not as sophisticated as the one sonata left us by Sammartini . . . but they sound good. Look for the performance of the E minor sonata by Paul O'Dette on the album Capritio by the band Tragicomedia.

[Eugene]

The "other" E minor sonata, that is. Looking over this one, it's not one with which I'm familiar.

[Martin Jonas]

Oh, I see -- I was just checking the time signature to see whether it's the D or the E minor sonata, these being the ones I could find referenced. Looking closer, I think this one is actually in G major, not E minor.

Martin

[margora]

Hi Eugene,

A very nice and carefully done list that will prove very useful for its main purpose. I would suggest adding Marga Wilden-Husgen's, Technical Studies for Mandolin, which are (in my opinion) very important (and widely used). You might also consider adding more contemporary composers as well.

[Eugene]

Thanks, Bob. Which contemporary composers do you feel have a substantial enough body of mandolin repertoire to reference? There are plenty of some obscurity or with a piece or two.

. . . and some pretty serious oversights on my part were Mahler (jheesh!); Cafe's own regular, the most excellent Mr. John Craton (jheesh!); and Crumb. By way of excuse, this was compiled pretty hastily.

[Eugene]

I wish I could delete previous versions to reduce clutter (feel free to do so yourself if you'd like, Scott or moderator du jour). I can't, so here's the latest:

[margora]

"Thanks, Bob. Which contemporary composers do you feel have a substantial enough body of mandolin repertoire to reference?"

On the non-specialist side, I would say Boulez, Carter, Henze (especially), and Krenek. On the specialist side, the list is potentially longer and I shall give it more thought.

One other general comment: unless I missed it, your handout does not mention the use of the classical guitar in mandolin orchestras. In the contemporary (post-1945) literature for mandolin orchestra, there are many substantial, well written parts for classical guitar, especially by Australian and German composers. This is not the case in the "Golden Age" literature, which used to be the standard repertoire among American groups (the Providence Mandolin Orchestra being an exception), or else guitar wasn't used -- but this is very much changing in the US, and outside of the US, classical guitar plays an integral role in mandolin ensemble music. I am sure you would agree that classical guitarists generally get very little experience playing with a conductor; guitar orchestras help a bit with this but, in my experience,no where near to the extent as is the case with a mandolin orchestra.

[Eugene]

Good points, all. I think those composers you list certainly could be considered to qualify as "major." I only know of one work each for mandolin by Carter and Henze, two by Boulez, and three by Krenek. Am I missing any?

Regarding specialist composers, the field is potentially so large for so marginal an instrument, it's hard to have a good sense for what will persist. One I was tempted to include was Mandonico, but I just don't know the kind of staying power his music will have.

The little handout made very little mention of mandolin orchestras at all, certainly not of instrumentation from the orchestral perspective. Where mandolin orchestras were mentioned, it was only from the perspective of the role of mandolin-related instruments. Still, your point of guitar having a role in such ensembles may be relevant if the goal is to remain outreach to guitarists.

A personal aside: I've tried to get close to Henze, but have never managed to understand the appeal . . . and I actually like long, atonal works. The three-movement work with mandolin--Carillon, etc.--probably constitute my favorite work of those I've heard by Henze, and I'm pretty indifferent about it. Listening to his Royal Winter Music sonatas, it's really hard for me to understand why I should want to hear them. To me, they are overly long and smack of excessive compositional self indulgence.

[margora]

"Listening to his Royal Winter Music sonatas, it's really hard for me to understand why I should want to hear them. To me, they are overly long and smack of excessive compositional self indulgence."

LOL. There you go. IMHO, the Royal Winter Music sonatas are the most important modern works, by far, for the classical guitar (the 1st sonata more than the second). More important than the Nocturnal, and I think the Nocturnal is a very great, very deep work, one of Britten's best in any medium.

Regarding Henze's use of the mandolin, I think there are at least nine of his works that use the mandolin (there is a partial list in Sparks). Boulez, at least two, possibly more. Not sure about Carter, but the relevant piece is superb.

"The little handout made very little mention of mandolin orchestras at all, certainly not of instrumentation from the orchestral perspective. Where mandolin orchestras were mentioned, it was only from the perspective of the role of mandolin-related instruments. Still, your point of guitar having a role in such ensembles may be relevant if the goal is to remain outreach to guitarists."

Your Ohio-area colleague makes this very point in an interview that he gave in the Mandolin Quarterly some years ago.

"Regarding specialist composers, the field is potentially so large for so marginal an instrument, it's hard to have a good sense for what will persist. One I was tempted to include was Mandonico, but I just don't know the kind of staying power his music will have."

True enough, but your list includes Leonardi, Marucelli, Pace, and Pettine and it is hard, IMHO, to argue their music has staying power. Mandonico was not whom I had in mind, either.

[Eugene]

Perhaps too far afield, but I share your opinion of Nocturnal. I think Maw's music of memory is up there too . . . or should be. I'm also quite fond of many of Dyens works, but more for their technical interest than musical.

I think I might remove Leonardi, Marucelli, and Pace. I debated including them and only did because they are either oft recorded (and thus likely to be encountered) or had some prominence in the mainstream in their day. While I appreciate Pettine's prolific contributions, I don't tend to think of his music as particularly substantive. Even the concerto strikes me mostly as a simple stream of romantic-era aesthetic notions.

[margora]

"Perhaps too far afield, but I share your opinion of Nocturnal. I think Maw's music of memory is up there too . . . or should be. I'm also quite fond of many of Dyens works, but more for their technical interest than musical."

"Music of Memory" would be very (very) high on my list too. Roland, btw, has written for the mandolin, and since most contemporary classical guitarists will be very familiar with him, I think you might consider adding him.

"I think I might remove Leonardi, Marucelli, and Pace. I debated including them and only did because they are either oft recorded (and thus likely to be encountered) or had some prominence in the mainstream in their day. While I appreciate Pettine's prolific contributions, I don't tend to think of his music as particularly substantive. Even the concerto strikes me mostly as a simple stream of romantic-era aesthetic notions."

The fundamental musical problem with almost all music for mandolin written in the first half of the twentieth century (or ca. 1900) is that it was 50-100 years out of date when it was written (the obvious exceptions being Schoenberg and a few others). Music can be written "out of period" and survive (Calace is a good example in the mandolin world), but it is the exception rather than the rule. Contemporary music for mandolin makes use of modern composition idioms -- it is "of period" -- and for that reason, IMHO, the best of it is more likely to survive.

Among the many relevant contemporary composers, I would lobby for adding Yoshinao Kobayashi to your list (his music is certainly among the most frequently performed by the best young players in Europe). His music has the same overall quality and structural integrity of Neil Gladd's (whose pieces I like a great deal and have performed) but there is more of it. Also of the same quality is Pedro Chamorro. For historical reasons, you might list Gal and Sprongl.

[Eugene]

. . . and the Tansman passacaglia in spite of its unabashedly retro approach.

[margora]

Addenum: to the above I would add that the great problem of the mandolin during the first half of the twentieth century was that it had no Segovia to champion it. Segovia brought the classical guitar into the 20th century, initiating its transition into the musical mainstream. In the United States, classical mandolinists kept playing the same music, year after year (a good example is Munier, "Capriccio Spagnulo". It is astonishing how frequently this piece was played. It is the mandolin's version of "Asturias" or "Recuerdos"); there was little interest in engaging the wider musical world, certainly not composers.

Also: Anton Webern is a possible addition to non-specialist composers.

[Chris Berardi]

Forgive my ignorance, but what are specialist composers and non-specialist composers?

[margora]

A non-specialist composer would be someone from outside the mandolin world (typically well outside), like Mahler or Henze, or Benjamin Britten in the case of the guitar, who included the mandolin in a composition. A specialist composer would be a composer-performer, like Kuwahara or Calace. The distinction is more of a continuum than a sharp divide. An example from the guitar world would be Manuel Ponce, who is known today mostly for his works for classical guitar, but who wrote much other non-guitar music.

[Eugene]

The fundamental musical problem with almost all music for mandolin written in the first half of the twentieth century (or ca. 1900) is that it was 50-100 years out of date when it was written (the obvious exceptions being Schoenberg and a few others). Music can be written "out of period" and survive (Calace is a good example in the mandolin world), but it is the exception rather than the rule. Contemporary music for mandolin makes use of modern composition idioms -- it is "of period" -- and for that reason, IMHO, the best of it is more likely to survive.

Frankly, Barrios (not to mention so many other early 20th-c. guitar specialist composers) is of the same cloth, and guitarists eat that stuff up like it's the candy that it figuratively is. I don't think mandolin is so different.

Among the many relevant contemporary composers, I would lobby for adding Yoshinao Kobayashi to your list (his music is certainly among the most frequently performed by the best young players in Europe). His music has the same overall quality and structural integrity of Neil Gladd's (whose pieces I like a great deal and have performed) but there is more of it. Also of the same quality is Pedro Chamorro. For historical reasons, you might list Gal and Sprongl.

Good additions. Gal and Sprongl are some of those I debated, but there is just so little of it for mandolin that I'm aware to have been recorded. I believe both were pretty prolific, but you don't come across their names with as much frequency as I'd expect for the volume of output. I suppose regarding them, I'm still feeling of the wait-and-see camp.

[Eugene]

Addenum: to the above I would add that the great problem of the mandolin during the first half of the twentieth century was that it had no Segovia to champion it. Segovia brought the classical guitar into the 20th century, initiating its transition into the musical mainstream. In the United States, classical mandolinists kept playing the same music, year after year (a good example is Munier, "Capriccio Spagnulo". It is astonishing how frequently this piece was played. It is the mandolin's version of "Asturias" or "Recuerdos"); there was little interest in engaging the wider musical world, certainly not composers.

I have a love-hate relationship with the memory of Segovia. There is no denying that his campaign of self-promotion rewrote the history of the guitar, and nobody can blame the guy for the public's idolization. However, the repertoire for guitar was dictated by his taste for a generation to follow to the utter neglect of everything else. He disliked baroque music for guitar (or didn't want to swim through its alien notation systems and techniques), denied romantic-era music for guitar even existed, so he invented bodies of repertoire from entire compositional eras through transcription. Composers who should have held a prominent position in guitar history (like Bartolotti), who were nicely representative of an era's idioms (like Mertz), or who generated repertoire of some quality (like Regondi) were lost to collective memory until only very recently because Segovia didn't like it or couldn't play it . . . or perhaps because it wasn't overtly Spanish. His tastes were also pretty solidly old-fashioned. Even new compositions that he commissioned and/or elected to champion were nothing like the cutting edge being pushed forward by the serialism movement, etc.

Bringing it back home to "Mandolin" Cafe, there were guitarists and mandolinists who overlapped with Segovia, of course, but who again were forgotten in the wake of Segovia's popularity . . . and as you've pointed out, if anything, the tastes of that era's professional mandolinists were even more retro than Segovia's.

By the way, I enjoyed some social beverage with Stanley Yates and a number of other fine folk after a concert he gave in Cincinnati last night. After a long discussion about the sorry state or classical guitar and the inability of professional guitarists to engage in outreach to students and the masses, he did profess his love for Royal Winter Music (ironic, eh?). I don't think that's the work I would choose to introduce my grandmother to guitar.

[Eugene]

Roland, btw, has written for the mandolin, and since most contemporary classical guitarists will be very familiar with him, I think you might consider adding him.

I'm not familiar with Dyens' mandolin music, and I've actually spent a fair amount of time discussing music (and a little discussing mandolin) with him. Can you reference specifics? Is it published? If Bogdanovic is included, there would be no reason to not include Dyens.

[mandopops]

I'm enjoying eavesdropping in on this conversation.

Please continue, don't let me interrupt.

[margora]

"Frankly, Barrios (not to mention so many other early 20th-c. guitar specialist composers) is of the same cloth, and guitarists eat that stuff up like it's the candy that it figuratively is. I don't think mandolin is so different."

LOL. Again, a difference of opinion, we can agree to disagree. Over the past year I have spent a lot of time studying all of the Calace preludes, with the aim of having one or more in my performance repertoire (at the moment, I have #2 in my fingers). The Calace preludes are, IMHO, VASTLY superior musically to virtually anything else composed for mandolin at the time. Nothing in Munier compares remotely in quality. Furthermore, I have played a great deal of the extant American literature for mandolin -- Abt, Siegel, and so on. Not only does none of it compare with the Calace preludes, none of it, sadly, is worth learning. There are pieces that do compare, but only a small number -- Rocco's "Serenade" and Milanesi's "Sarabande e Fuga".

Back when I played only classical guitar, I kept a number of Barrios pieces in my performance repertoire -- La Catedral, Mazurka Appasionata, Waltz #3. Barrios, IMHO, is far superior to the other early 20th century guitarist-composers (or, for that matter, the 19th). There have always been detractors going back to the late 1970s when John Williams made his famous LP (preceded by many years of concerts in which he played only Barrios, something he never did with any other composer, guitarist or otherwise), among them Duarte. But at the end of the day Barrios continues to figure prominently. You can argue that this reflects the parochialism of the guitar world -- the failure to notice other, allegedly equally compelling composers from the actual 19th century (Mertz, Regondi, whomever) -- but the alternative hypothesis is that market test (I am, after all, an economist). The same can be said for Calace among mandolinists.