Cuerdas clasicas

[glauber]

I saw these guys yesterday at Brookfield Zoo (IL - USA).

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/225/497435399_89e27db0b2.jpg (http://flickr.com/photos/theglauber/sets/72157600213692220/)

More mandolins, bandurrias and other unusual string instruments than you can shake a stick at. Pretty cool to look at. If you click on the picture, you should be taken to a "Flickr" photo set, where if you poke around you should be able to figure out how to see the images in full resolution, to check out the instruments.

[their Web site] (http://www.cuerdasclasicas.org/en/)


One of their guitar players could have been Saddam Husein's twin brother. It was eerie. I wish i had a better picture of him, but here's the best i can do:

http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/1883/alejandrodimasqo6.jpg

[glauber]

One of the reasons i thought this was cool is i was wondering if it wasn't this kind of "mandolin ensemble" that caused the mandolin craze in the US in the early 20th century.

[glauber]

Treble side (mandolins and bandurrias) - click here (http://img294.imageshack.us/my.php?image=estudiantinake4.jpg) to see larger.

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/8475/estudiantinach5.jpg

[lucho]

glauber from what I remember the original estudiantina called estudiantes españoles or more formally estudiantina Figaro (founded in 1878) started its world tour in 1880 when they went to Paris, somebody from UK brought them to Britain and another folk took them to the States.... From then on to 1886 they continued touring most of the countries in hispanic America finally ending their tour in Buenos Aires in 1886.
Reading and copying from an article I found that this tour included cities in España, Portugal, France, Italia, Austria, Rumania, Russia, Belgium, England, Holland. In the Americas USA, Canadá, Cuba, Puerto Rico, México, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Perú, and finally Chile and Argentina.
More on this estudiantina in my own country Chile in: http://es.geocities.com/notitunas/Bigotitus/lafigaro.html

[Jim Garber]

Here is a typical bandurria orquestra from the early part of the last century.

Jim

[Jim Garber]

There is some discussion of music of Spain on this thread (http://www.mandolincafe.net/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=5;t=43876;).

Glauber, what did that group sound like? I could not find sound files of them on the Web site.

Jim

[glauber]

Jim, they sounded very full. The mandolins carried the melody in tremolo (sometimes double-stop tremolo). Almost everything else was strummed. I was surprised to see the double-bass (expecting a chitarron kind of bass instead), but i could hear it very well. I could only persuade my wife to stay for a couple of tunes. They weren't virtuosistic, but sounded like what you would expect a Mexican troubador sing in our typical Mexican food restaurants here in the US. Slow, romantic, very emotional stuff. I don't know if the 2 songs i heard were typical of their repertory.