Mandolin orchestra - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A mandolin orchestra is an orchestra consisting primarily of instruments from the mandolin family of instruments, such as the mandolin

Mandolin

A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...

, mandola

Mandola

The mandola or tenor mandola is a fretted, stringed musical instrument. It is to the mandolin what the viola is to the violin: the four double courses of strings tuned in fifths to the same pitches as the viola , a fifth lower than a mandolin...

, mandocello

Mandocello

The mandocello is a plucked string instrument of the mandolin family. It has eight strings in four paired courses, tuned in 5ths like a mandolin, but is larger, and tuned CC-GG-dd-aa . It is to the mandolin what the cello is to the violin.-Construction:Mandocello construction is similar to the...

and mando-bass or mandolon. Some mandolin orchestras use guitars and double-basses instead of, or as well as the lower mandolin-family instruments.

Orchestra composition

A mandolin orchestra is an ensemble of plucked string instruments similar in structure to the string sections of a symphony orchestra. There are first and second mandolin sections (analogous to first and second violins); a mandola section (analogous to the viola section); mandocelli (analogous to the violincelli), classical guitars, and a bass section originally of mando-basses but nowadays more likely to be acoustic bass guitar or double bass.

The classical guitar section is very important and many orchestras are more accurately described as mandolin and guitar orchestras. Many orchestras also include a percussion section.

Most mandolin orchestras are community based and are supported by a core of professional musicians and teachers with a passion for plucked string instruments and music. They are found in nearly all major cities in the western world, as well as Japan, Korea, and South America.

History

Mandolin orchestras first formed in the last quarter of the 19th Century as plucked string instruments were rediscovered after their near disappearance caused by the popularity of 19th Century romantic music and inability of plucked string instruments to interpret this musical style. By 1880, the development of the tremolo as a technique (first appearing in Italian folk music) was complete and may have been the impetus for the re-emergence of the mandolin.

The stimulus to create mandolin groups often came from travelling mandolinists and teachers. Immigration from Europe to other parts of the world resulted in the concept spreading rapidly, with movements beginning quite early in the USA and Japan and Australia. Some indication of the speed of these developments across the globe can be appreciated by the following:
- The first German mandolin clubs formed in the 1890s, at first completely dependent on Italian music.
- In January 1913, the German magazine "Die moderne Hausmusik" reports 200 mandolin clubs of mandolin and guitar players in Northern Germany.
- The 1899 Banjo, Mandolin and Guitar Music Festival held in Philadelphia, USA lists a festival orchestra of 130 members comprising 43 mandolinists and featured the American mandolinist Joseph Edward Pettine.
- The third Banjo, Mandolin & Guitar Festival was held in Sydney, Australia on 27 August 1896, organised by Walter Stent - the word "mandolin" appearing in the title for the first time.
- In Sydney, Australia Walter Stent was “active in the early part of the century (ie very early 1900’s) and organised possibly the first Mandolin Orchestra."
- In 1918 the Gisborne Mandolin Orchestra formed in Gisborne, New Zealand by George Moore (1883–1962) and wife Barbara (1885–1963).

On reviewing the S.S. Stewarts "Banjo and Guitar Journal", later called "Banjo, Guitar and Mandolin Journal", between 1884 and 1900 one comes to a view, at least in the USA and Australia, that mandolin ensemble playing evolved within the banjo movement, eventually replacing it as the better ensemble instrument.

Mandolin orchestras were very popular in the early 20th Century and every city and town and many schools had one. It shows the importance of music as a creative pursuit for the people and communities of this era, and the strength of this should not be underestimated.

A considerable body of music was created, much of which was simple or popular marches and foxtrots that were easy and fun to play. However, some "serious" music was also created and which requires every bit as much skill to play as anything in the more well-known violin repertoire. Principal among the important composers of such music were Raffaele Calace

Raffaele Calace

Raffaele Calace was an Italian mandolin player and composer.He was born in Naples, Italy as the son of Antonio Calace, a successful instrument maker. Raffaele was initially trained to become a musician. At the same time, he discovered the possibilities of the mandolin and soon he became an...

, Arrigo Cappelletti, Giuseppe Manente and Carlo Munier

Carlo Munier

Carlo Munier was an Italian mandolinist who advocated for the mandolin's acknowledgement among as an instrument of classical music...

, who both wrote beautiful and virtuosic music for various mandolin chamber music ensembles (mandolin and guitar, two mandolins and mandola, etc. as well as full orchestras).

After World War I, the mandolin orchestras went into a period of decline until interest in the mandolin was renewed as a part of the resurgent interest in folk music in the late 1950s and 1960s. As this music began to be re-discovered, orchestras began to form anew in large cities in the US.

While there was a decline in interest the US, orchestras continued to exist in Japan, Germany where they are known as Zupforchester, and also in Italy.

Nowadays, many cities in the US host mandolin orchestras of many years experience, many proudly boasting libraries of hundreds of compositions. Significant new music continues to be written all over the world for by composers as Victor Kioulaphides, John Craton

John Craton

John Douglas Craton is an American classical composer. His works have been performed throughout the United States and Europe. While his compositions cover a diverse range, he is best known for his operas and works for classical mandolin.-Biography:...

, Annette Kruisbrink

Annette Kruisbrink

-Life:She studied the guitar with Pieter van der Staak at the conservatory of Zwolle and attended masterclasses by Leo Brouwer, John Mills, Toyohiko Satoh. She is an autodidact on the flamenco guitar and vihuela...

, Clarice Assad

Clarice Assad

Clarice Assad is a classical and jazz composer, arranger, pianist, and vocalist.A native of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Clarice Assad has performed professionally since the age of seven. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Chicago College of the Performing Arts, in Chicago, IL, and a Masters...

, Francine Trester and Jeff Hijlkema.

Works for mandolin orchestra

Composer	Title	Publisher
Betty Beath Betty Beath Elizabeth Margaret Beath nee Eardley, is married to author/illustrator, David Cox. She is an Australian composer, pianist,and music educator . She was born in Bundaberg, Queensland, and began piano lessons at the age of three. She studied with Frank Hutchens at the Sydney Conservatorium and...	Lament for Kosovo
Bernard van Beurden (b.1933)	Le silence du moment (2003)
John Craton John Craton John Douglas Craton is an American classical composer. His works have been performed throughout the United States and Europe. While his compositions cover a diverse range, he is best known for his operas and works for classical mandolin.-Biography:...	The Legend of Princess Noccalula
	Danseries Anciennes
Jeff Hijlkema (b.1971)	Perpetua Melomania
Victor Kioulaphides (b. 1961)	Concerto per orchestra a pizzico
	Sinfonia a pizzico
	Broadway `79 2 mandolins and mandolin orchestra
Annette Kruisbrink (b 1958)	Dreamtime (1997)	Vogt & Fritz
Annette Kruisbrink (b 1958)	Gone with the Wind (1999)	Vogt & Fritz
Yasuo Kuwahara (1946-2003)	Song of the Japanese Autumn
Chiel Meijering Chiel Meijering Chiel Meijering is a Dutch composer. He studied composition with Ton de Leeuw, percussion with Jan Labordus and Jan Pustjens, and piano at the Amsterdam Conservatory of Music.... (b.1954)	Spötterdämmerung (1997)	Donemus
Francine Trester	Three Movements for Mandolin Orchestra (2006)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.