Joseph Rico – The famous Neapolitan Composer

Joseph Rico (1876-1957) was a composer from Napoli at the beginning of the 20th century who is famous for his slow waltzes. But he has also published a series of collections for the mandolin. I do possess 5 books with compositions for the mandolin by Joseph Rico and I have just made a video with one of the pieces.

When I played through one of the books a piece named Schottisch Indiscrète was the one that I liked immediately. A Schottisch is a dance similar to a Poka, and is also seen as a predecessor of the Ragtime. I have added photos of the mandolin books by Joseph Rico in my video.

La Mandoline en France – Joseph Rico – Schottisch Indiscrète

Eternel Souvenir – Joseph Rico – Romance Sans Paroles

One of the most famous compositions by Joseph Rico is the slow waltz J’ai tant pleuré, which was very successfull in 1907. This composition is also contained in one of the mandolin books that I own. There are several videos of the original versions of this song at youtube.

Bérard – J’ai tant pleuré – 1907 (Belle Epoque)

J’ai tant pleuré (J. Rico)
(Valse Chantée)
(avec accompagnement d’Orchestre)
Mr. Bérard
de l’Eldorado, Paris

Disque Odéon, chanson n° 60518
ca. 1907

Encore une chanson d’Adolphe Bérard, mais j’aime beaucoup ce chanteur. D’abord parce qu’il a une voix qu’on reconnait tout de suite, et aussi pour les chansons qu’il chante. Ici, c’est une chanson mélodramatique, une valse typique de la Belle Epoque, et un énorme succès en 1907 (à un tel point que 50 plus tard, “J’ai tant pleuré” était encore enregistré par Réda Caire et André Dassary!). Cette valse a été enregistré par Dickson, mais la version enregistré la plus connue est sans doute celle de Bérard, qui date de 1907/1908. Un des succès de Bérard dans son registre “chanteur de charme”. L’autre face du disque est aussi un succès, c’est “Gaby”, encore plus mélodramatique!

Marjal “J’ai tant pleuré”

Valse Belle époque crée par Dickson en 1907. L’interprétation de Marjal est plus récente (!!!) bien entendu. Des infos sur Marjal??? Dur dur…. sinon qu’il a beaucoup enregistré les tubes des autres.

Now a modern version of this song by a singer who calles himself Wanderratten – maybe a little bit to fast:

J’ai tant pleuré pour toi

In 2003 a CD with compositions by Joseph Rico was produced, a CD that I like very much. On the homepage http://www.josephricomusic.com/ you can listen to examples from this CD and find more information about Joseph Rico.

Joseph Rico is also connected to the Rico company which is the biggest producer of reeds for saxophone and clarinet today, he sent high quality reeds from France to the USA where his brother had started to sell reeds in the USA.

Links about Joseph Rico

Homepage: http://www.josephricomusic.com/

Informationen about Joseph Rico: http://www.delabelleepoqueauxanneesfolles.com/Rico.htm

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