In the park the other day I played the gigue from Victor's "Suite for Ali" on my Fender Mandostrat solid body electric mandolin - with full heavy metal distortion - through my VOX amp - to a crowd of maybe a dozen trapped audience.
It was marvelous.
The gigue has cycles of "joyful bursting out" followed by "restrained energy" followed by another "bursting out". Kind of a pulsation or a more like a rocking back and forth between potential and kinetic joy. (Musical descriptions are never very good.) Anyway, I took full advantage of this, and with the dynamic range and the effects available in an all electric set up, and considerable liberties with the tempo, I made a pretty dramatic performance.
It really worked. I took it from classical to a more mannerist style. Nothing subtle or left for the audience to do.
I don't think I converted anyone to classical music, or the mandolin for that matter, but it was a lot of fun and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Went well with the burgers and beer.
One of the beautiful things about music is you can take a piece and totally mess with it - put a mustache and sideburns on the Mona Lisa, without affecting the original, which is still available for others (more talented) to interpret in a more restrained or perhaps appropriate way.
A shout out to Victor for this lovely and very playable piece.
Oh, and another revelation - I enjoyed it so much I forgot to be nervous. Not a common experience for me trying to play more classical pieces.
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