Classical Mandolin solo Videos on YouTube

[billkilpatrick]

beethoven - "danses allemandes WoO 8" - no. 2 ... sort of ... (le verruche e tutte):

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WmHWb8Aunt4

[vkioulaphides]

Good morning, friends.

To attribute blame where blame is due, "Olden Plucky Thing" was my extemporaneous, and perhaps infelicitous term, NOT Ali's. I was led to it for lack of a better term, period-instrument ignoramus that I am. In other words, I started to write "Baroque mandolin", but that of course is prima facie anachronism; then I had a sudden anxiety attack, wondering whether "period-Neapolitan" might be better, or "18th-century Vinaccia replica", or whatever might be more appropriate.

Olden Plucky Things are SO confusing to me...

That, however, has NEVER prevented me from enjoying them.

For those masterful in semantics: what is the equivalent of a Luddite, yet in reference to one who is fearful/ignorant of OLDER things? "Anachroluddite"? "Paleoluddite"? "Post-Period-Instrument Skeptic"?

Cheers,

Victor

[Jim Garber]

For those masterful in semantics: what is the equivalent of a Luddite, yet in reference to one who is fearful/ignorant of OLDER things? "Anachroluddite"? "Paleoluddite"? "Post-Period-Instrument Skeptic"?

Archaeophobia?

Fearful of old things? Hey, Victor... I thought you were my friend...

[vkioulaphides]

I do make exceptions, Jim...

Juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust kidding!

It's just that, in the immortal words of Popeye the Sailor --one of my favorite philosophers, by the way-- I'm an "inedumacated ignoramutsk" as regards Olden Plucky Things, and I'd hate to get it all wrong, and never live down the shame and indignity, etc., etc.


Cheers,

Victor

[Acquavella]

Wow.....dude! Yeah...what he said. Ah.....

[billkilpatrick]

re: the "danses allemandes WoO 8 - no. 2" video i posted to youtube ...

someone has conferred a singular and forlorn ("poor") star on my attempt at this piece and - hand on heart - i can only concur ... a wooden performance and a terrible rendition (i was so relieved to arrive at even this point that i was way too premature in posting.)

i hope i'm addressing a very small circle of friends ... my left hand is throbbing - i don't know how professional mandolinists can do what they do ... but i WILL do better ... and just as soon as some color returns to the fingernails of my left hand ... i WILL post a better performance of this piece!

[Ali]

I'm highly amused by the above conversation of my "Olden Plucky Thing" - what a great name and TLR (Three Letter Achronym!). I will have to include the OPT topic of conversation in my presentations to audiences - I'm sure it will tickle them too.
Just for the record....that Martin Bowers 1764 Vinaccia copy (which I usually generically refer to as an "18th Century mandolin") has been "officially named" JUNIOR.
Ali

[vkioulaphides]

Oh, dear Bill... those YouTube "reviews" can be cruel. Do not lose heart, my friend! Instead, please take heart in the fact that professional musicians (either individually, or in the context of chamber groups, symphony orchestras, opera companies, etc.) get Thumbs-Down ALL the time. Please bear in mind that a review, either negative or positive, is still subjective and, especially in the case of YouTube, not subject to any peer scrutiny (i.e. as is the case among professional critics), nor does it reflect any expertise (which we at least hope career journalists have).

I, for one, look forward to any and ALL your future video-clips on YouTube. Also... you are surely familiar with the arts-business adage "Even bad publicity is good publicity". More than ever, I am inclined to view your Beethoven clip A.S.A.P.

Cheers,

Victor

[Ali]

Take heart Bill......some miserable person has gone and given ALL four of my videos 1 star ratings! I'm guessing its the same person on each rating.....oh well....... can't please everyone......so if I can get FOUR "one star" reviews.....I think you're doing rather well with only ONE!!
And as a very wise colleague of mine says "when you set foot on stage, there is only one person you are really aiming to please....yourself....." .......and I did! So there we go!
Keep playing Bill, and keep enjoying it!
Ali

[vkioulaphides]

To digress (somewhat) from this or that individual performance, yet staying on the topic of classical mandolin videos in general, two, opposing observations:

I find that the strongest point of mandolinists is agility, brilliance; coming, however, from a background in bowed instruments, I also find the corresponding weak point to be a disregard for duration, an almost universal "unnecessary haste": once (most) mandolinists pick a note, they seem to be in a dreadful hurry to move on, for fear that the music altogether will die away, along with the admittedly rather short sustain of our beloved instrument.

This, however, is based on a false musical premise. To argue from the opposite extreme, organists (for whose instrument I have also composed extensively, albeit in an earlier stage of my career) have this most mind-numbing, phrase-killing, momentum-deadening habit of OVERsustain-- for the obvious reason that they can, as long as today's modern, electrical blowers will pump air through the pipes to eternity and beyond. But that, of course, also leads to occasionally rather.. *ahem*... not quite optimal music-making.

So, I wish mandolinists would just slow down, smell the proverbial roses, and afford the music they so lovingly play a bit more "breathing space". For example, one of the many, MANY reasons Ali's playing is so wonderful is that she does... just that! In her hands, the music "sings", as it should. Au contraire, I can think of --but will not name, for diplomacy's sake -- several other, often world-class mandolinists with breathtakingly impressive technical equipment, dazzling fingers and dizzying right hands, whose playing sounds nonetheless mechanical, motoric.

Remember, friends: composers --at least those worthy of the name-- hum their own tunes before they write them down; they don't finger them, on ANY instrument, until later. As an interpretive performer, you want to get in "on the ground floor" of the creative process. NObody hums like a typewriter in the hands of a skilled typist!

[Arto]

A dummie´s question about YouTube comments: I can write and have done that (I love you Ali...), but how do you give ratings?

Arto

[billkilpatrick]

thank you both, very much. i really wasn't looking for a "hug" but i appreciate your comments ... i'm still going to do another - better - take on the piece, however.

a "poor" rating for your performances, ali, indicates that whoever is doing the rating hasn't a clue - very spiteful indeed and for what reason i do not know.

victor - i'm more or less forced to play slowly; 60-something year old digitals and a late start demand it - but your observation is correct, even if it suits me v-e-r-y well.

i once read a disparaging comment someone made after listening to a lengthy display of blistering, mandolin technique: "i was waiting for the music to begin."

[Acquavella]

I think it is absolutely insane that someone has given Ali a low rating! :-( Absolutely rubbish!!! That definitely smells of someone being spiteful or jealous. I can't get enough of the Bach performed on "Junior" What a tremedous sound and musicality. I must have watched all videos at least four times or so.

Bill - I thought your playing was quite nice & musical. I enjoyed it. Screw them...whoever is leaving #### ratings. Some people can't see past the tricks and flashing lights. Shame.

[vkioulaphides]

"I once read a disparaging comment someone made after listening to a lengthy display of blistering, mandolin technique: "i was waiting for the music to begin."

I can imagine that. In another YouTube comment, an unkind (Italian?) critic wrote, "Mandolinisti, quando diventerete anche musicisti?" He/she, too, must have heard lots and lots of notes, but precious little music.

The point, of course, is precisely what I was talking about in my comments above: frantic speed doth not much music make. Yet this point, of course, can, and should be made more kindly than it is in those occasionally spiteful responses on YouTube.

Carlo Aonzo himself, in one of his N.Y. Workshops, once looked at us with his unique mix of a half-smile and devilish wink after our valiant (but only, ah... partly successful) attempt at playing some piece or other. "Not bad", he said, trying to restrain the half-smile from bursting into a belly-laugh. "For mandolinists, that is." Then, patiently turning back a few pages in his conductor's score, he added, "Now, for musicians..."

So, criticism good; nastiness, bad. I hope my comments are understood as they were meant, i.e. as being of the first sort.

Pick another merry tune, Bro. Bill!

[Jim Garber]

Here's a CD cover from a sale on German eBay that would be at home playing "Olden Plucky Things".

[Ali]

This is turning into a nice conversation. I have always described myself as a musician who happens to play the mandolin! Victor's point entirely I think! I love that quote about waiting for the music to begin! Don't take any notice of Chris's comments about my playing....he's biased!! :-)
Jim....to rate something...all you have to do is hover your curser over the stars....it'll tell you what each star rating means as you hover and then you just click on which "star" you want. So if you want to give a 4 star rating - you click on the 4th star! Easy!
Thanks for all the nice comments guys. Off to practice now!
Ali

[vkioulaphides]

As for the reason(s) why anyone could have "given ALL four of [Ali's] videos 1 star ratings", here's one: once a jackass, always a jackass.

Cheers to one and all pluckers, olden and not.

Victor

[el cro]

Well, if you desperately want to rate some videos, try these.
These are videos from the concert by the orchestra resulting from the "1st Plectrum Orchestra Training", here in Madeira last month. Not solo, but anyway...

Waltz of the Flowers - Tchaikovsky
Palladio (1st Mov.) - Jenkins
Albinoni's Adagio
Intermezzo "Mesto Pensiero" - Calace
Air - Bach
Impressioni Orientali - Calace
Plink, Plank, Plunk! - Anderson

And just a snippet from the rehearsal

Enjoy!...

Élio

[billkilpatrick]

here's another attempt at "country dance no. 2" by beethoven:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MUjL6D_wFs

... mach zwei!

[billkilpatrick]

Well, if you desperately want to rate some videos, try these.
These are videos from the concert by the orchestra resulting from the "1st Plectrum Orchestra Training", here in Madeira last month. Not solo, but anyway...

Waltz of the Flowers - Tchaikovsky
Palladio (1st Mov.) - Jenkins
Albinoni's Adagio
Intermezzo "Mesto Pensiero" - Calace
Air - Bach
Impressioni Orientali - Calace
Plink, Plank, Plunk! - Anderson

And just a snippet from the rehearsal

Enjoy!...

Élio

well done! i especially liked the leroy anderson piece ... kept waiting for the sound of a typewriter!

[Manfred Hacker]

Better late than never.

Alimandolin1,
Being a linguist, I have to chime in here regarding your "Three-letter Achronym" OPT.

An acronym is a WORD composed of the first letters of the words in a phrase, especially when this is used as a name. An example of an acronym is NATO which is made up of the first letters of the `North Atlantic Treaty Organization'.

An acronym can be pronounced as a WORD.
OPT is an abbreviation.
Sorry for being a nit-picker. I am not good enough to contribute any mando content, so ........
Linguistically,
Manfred

[Jim Garber]

An acronym is a WORD composed of the first letters of the words in a phrase, especially when this is used as a name. An example of an acronym is NATO which is made up of the first letters of the `North Atlantic Treaty Organization'.

An acronym can be pronounced as a WORD.
OPT is an abbreviation.

Sorry, Manfred, to nitpick the nitpicker, but OPT may be an abbreviation but it is also pronounceable -- is that a word? I must be careful. Doesn't that also make it an acronym?

[Acquavella]

Who cares!! It doesn't matter whether it's an acronym, abbreviation or a word. That's not the point nor is it relevent to any of the conversations in regards to people's hard work. Personally, I think it is extremely petty that you (Manfred) have chosen to use this forum to correct people on English grammar. The point was that Ali has a beautiful instrument and we are all admiring it. Case shut. How dare you correct one of the mandolin world's top musicians, in this petty way and on this forum. Sad!

[vkioulaphides]

If it helps return the conversation to appropriate mando-topics, I could opt out.

Cheers,

Victor

[billkilpatrick]

third and final attempt at this piece:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ORu68TycwwM

i understand beethoven wrote 12 of these WoO dance pieces and 12 minuets (WoO 7) ... other than "pleeeease, stop ..." - any requests?