Blog – Page 4

The Sound of the American Mandolin

December 24, 2020December 25, 2020
by Michael Reichenbach

The following video has recently been uploaded to youtube.

2018 North Carolina Heritage Award recipient Tony Williamson is a visionary musician, composer, musical instrument expert, teacher and mentor. He has played stringed instruments, most famously mandolin, for six decades and has been receiving awards and honors for his music for nearly 50 of those years. Never content to rest on his laurels, today Tony continues to perform live and travel internationally and has recordings with fresh new concepts in progress. In this documentary from 1995 Tony goes through the history of the American mandolin and plays quite a few examples of different instruments that demonstrate that history. Check out Tony’s website at www.mandolincentral.com

Tony Williamson starts with the earliest American mandolins – American bowlbacks, cylinder back, Lyon and Healy models. He then shows the whole line of Gibson instruments beginning with very early mandolins built by Orville Gibson. He plays many different instruments – mandolins, mandolas and mandocellos, mandolins with and without a Virzi Resonator and tells many interesting stories about construction, details and players.

A great video that you should not miss!

If you want to hear more music played by Tony Williamson – here is my long playlist:

Additional Information

Interview with Tony Williamson (Mandozine)

Marijke und Michiel Wiesenekker – Compilation – Wouldn’t Listen…

December 2, 2020December 9, 2020
by Michael Reichenbach

Marijke and Michiel Wiesenekker have sent me the following review of their compilation Wouldn’t Listen 2000 ~ 2020 by Rick Bella from the Oregon Mandolin Orchestra.

New album from Marijke and Michiel Wiesenekker

Marijke Wiesenekker and her brother, Michiel, have released a compilation album that samples the
best of 20 years of recording together.

Wouldn’t Listen 2000 ~ 2020 is Marijke and Michiel Wiesenekker’s latest digitalrelease album, featuring a wide-ranging, 21-piece compilation of ear-tickling remakes and originals.

The esteemed Dutch brother-sister duo now based in Wuppertal, Germany, has performed together for 21 years, deftly entwining Michiel’s inventive guitar musings with Marijke’s musical dance on mandolin.

“With this album, we celebrate the 20th jubilee of our duo,” said Michiel. “We have made friends in the U.S.A., Japan, Germany, Italy, Austria, Russia, Finland and Spain, — all connected by the pleasures of making music. Now, it’s time to look back and dress up some of our old favorites with new outfits. We hope you will enjoy the music.”

Started young together

Marijke and Michiel began playing music together as children growing up in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. They both studied at the Music Conservatory in Cologne, Germany, and later thrived in the dynamic music scene percolating in nearby Wuppertal.

After playing together so long, there hardly is a genre of music the duo hasn’t explored — and Wouldn’t Listen touches on most of them. Marijke and Michiel feel at home playing pop and rock, bluegrass, folk, light jazz and classical, performing on a variety of electric and acoustic instruments.

They also sing, with Michiel doing a credible job on growling, American-born blues. On some pieces, Marijke adds sweet, clean harmonies over Michiel’s baritone.

A menu of good listening

Wouldn’t Listen 2000 ~ 2020 serves up a tantalizing mix that draws from earlier albums: Family Life (2020); Saevis Tranquillus in Undis (2016); Baumstrasse 14 (2013); May We Have This Dance (2010); Beresjiet (2008); The Inner Sound & Beyond (2004); and Wouldn’t Listen, the Wiesenekkers’ debut album of 2000:

free sheet music

More Italian Folk Songs for Mandolin – Free Download

November 12, 2020November 12, 2020
by Michael Reichenbach

Years ago I have scanned parts 3 and 4 of a collection of Italian folk songs “Celebri Canti Popolari Itaiani” published around 1900 by Schmidl & Co. in Italy. Now recently I have got part 1 of this collection of Italian folk songs and have made it also available on my website MandoIsland.

You can find all 3 parts on the following page: Celebri Canti Pololari Italiani

I hope that I can get the missing part 2 some time and make it available too. I have collected videos of some of the songs in this first part of the collection.

No. 1 – Addio del Giusti / Addio all’Italia

historical recordings

Gerard Metallo – Curro Cuchares – Free Sheet Music

October 1, 2020November 12, 2020
by Michael Reichenbach

I have uploaded a piece by Gerardo Metallo to the Petrucci Library and to musicaneo. The title is Curro Cuchares. The piano version was already available at IMSLP, I have made a scan of the mandolin quartet version arrangend by F. Kollmaneck.

Biography of Gerardo Metallo

Gerardo Metallo – Real name: Metallo, Gerardo; Pianist, leader and composer (14 February 1871 – 14 July 1946)

Metallo was a composer, conductor and pianist.

He was born in Calabritto, in the south of Italy, but his spent his life in Uruguay, precisely in the city of Montevideo, where he arrived in 1882 when he was only 11 years old.

His compositions were popular at the beginning of the 20th century. I have found some historical recordings of his works.

Video – Curro Cuchares – Historical Recording by Bernard Taylor

guitar & mandolin – 8th – May 1949 on 78 rpm acetate (the uploader of this video switched the names – this is Curro Cuchares, Estudiantina is on the other side of this recording). Bernard Taylor plays exactly the 1st mandolin part of the arrangement by Kollmaneck, so the player might have used just this arrangement.

Playlist Curro Cuchares

I have found recordings including a piano roll and street organ performances. There are several recordings with accordion (Sharpshooters March).