Bells of Night

[Mark Levesque]

I've also been playing "Bells of Night" all day.
If any of you play this piece, do you use a first finger barre in the tremelo section for the 2nd fret E & B notes or are they usually fretted with the 1st and 2nd fingers while stretching the 4th finger to reach the G or G# alternate note on the D string?

Thanks again,
Mark

[Eugene]

I have the score, but haven't read through this for a great long time. #In similar passages, I tend to favore partial barres more than most mandolinists given my guitar-like stance and the relatively parallel orientation of my fingers to frets.

[margora]

I play this piece. Generally I fret the B (2nd string) with the first finger, and the E (3rd string) with the middle finger, i.e. I do not use a barre, although that certainly is an alternative. The fingering I use in this passage is the same that I imagine Evan Marshall would use, were he to play this piece.

[Jim Garber]

Since I am playing this game at home...
for some reason, I cannot figure out the part you folks are referring to. How about a bar number of section marker?

Thanks
Jim

[Mark Levesque]

Hi Robert
Yes, that's actually what prompted my question is I recalled a Evan Marshall article in MQ on the way he fingers Duo-Style.

Jim, I am refering to bars 2,7,10 and 14 of the Lento, D Major section

[Jim Garber]

Generally I fret the B (2nd string) with the first finger, and the E (3rd string) with the middle finger
Bob:
are you sure you use those fingers and not the reverse? It would make the change in the 3rd measure kind of strange.

My tendency would be to use a barre of the two. On violin you would use just one finger but my fingertips are a little too narrow to press down all four strings.

Jim

[margora]

Jim, my fingering is exactly as described. This is a standard technique in duo style; I use it quite a lot. You can certainly use a barre in this instance, but there are others where the approach I am taking would give a more legato result. AGain, this is described by Evan Marshall in various articles on duo style.

[GLMarkham]

Hello all. I'm new to mandolin having played the violin for 18 years but my arthritis has ruined my right (bowing) hand so purchased a nice J Bovier folk mandolin and am enjoying getting back into music.

I love the Bells of Night piece played by Chris Acquavella and some of you mentioned you have the score. Can you tell me where to obtain that score so I can learn it at some point.

Thanks much.

[margora]

"Can you tell me where to obtain that score so I can learn it at some point?"

There is a copy at the Nakano website but the site is no longer accessible (or at least I cannot get to it, maybe Jim Garber can).

Otherwise, there is a version edited by Gertrud Troster that it is her Technique on Eight Strings, Volume 2, available from www.trekel.de

There is also a version published in one of the issues of the Mandolin Quarterly; offhand I don't recall which issue (I'll have to check at home). MQ is no longer published but are sometimes available on Ebay.

[GLMarkham]

Thank you

[Martin Jonas]

"Can you tell me where to obtain that score so I can learn it at some point?"

There is a copy at the Nakano website but the site is no longer accessible (or at least I cannot get to it, maybe Jim Garber can).


The Nakano site closed down on 1st January, but as they'd given several months' notice, I managed to get most of the files off it first. As it happens, all the files are actually still online at an online storage site -- all you need is the HTML indexes to get the links.

Unfortunately, although I have (I think) all of the indexes, I can't find this piece -- the site is organised by composer, and there is no entry for Luigi Paparello in the "P" index. Any idea where else this may have been on the site?

Martin

[Jim Garber]

Here it is... enjoy!

[Martin Jonas]

Thanks, Jim -- your mastery of the Nakano site is clearly better than mine!

Martin

[Jim Garber]

I don't think it was on the Nakano site. I got it from a Japanese mandolin player who posted a number of pieces on his site. I also think it is in Neil Gladd's book Three Centuries of Mandolin Concert Solos which is out of print but Neil says he is working on a new and revised edition.

[Acquavella]

Hello,

I barre my first finger across the 2nd fret; use my third finger for the G#. I used to use Robert's fingering on wider fingerboards but wasn't really possible or needed on the Embergher. Cheers.

To GLMarkham - Oh, thank you so much!

Chris....

[Jim Garber]

Hey, Chris... just so you know: the prior discussion above dates back to 2005. Thanks for the fingering comment anyway.

[margora]

"I also think it is in Neil Gladd's book Three Centuries of Mandolin Concert Solos which is out of print but Neil says he is working on a new and revised edition. "

Not in the Gladd book. I am starting at the table of contents as I write this.

[Jim Garber]

Oh well... I was going from my sieve-like memory.

[GLMarkham]

Jim, I can't thank you enough. I've been traveling solid since my original post (with my new mandolin in tow) so did not see this till just now. I have been trying to write tab for this by listening to it note by note. You just made my nights much more restful. Regards.

[GLMarkham]

Chris, just now saw your reply. Thrilled to hear from you. I listen to your new Praeludium CD constantly. When I make enough progress learning I hope to sign up for a series of Skype lessons with u. Right now I'm pretty rough and find myself literally having to re-learn how to even read music. I'll get there though. Thanks for the mention.