Serenata

[Bill Stokes]

Pursuant to yesterday's question about scoring for mandoliola and the excellent help I got here, I knocked out an arrangement of Toselli's "Serenata" for Classical mandolin quartet. (Hope I got this right.) I tried to upload the thing to IMSLP, but that will have to be done some other day.
I'll put this stuff in a dropbox: a PDF version https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23891475/Serenata.pdf, and an mp3 https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23891475/SerenataGB.mp3

The 1st and 2nd mandolin parts are designated correctly in the score. I suppose "mandola" should instead be "alto mandola" or "mandoliola." Octave mandolin is called "violins 2" and I forgot to put in 8vb. Mandocello is Cello. If anybody uses MuseScore, Sibelius or Finale, and wants a copy of this to play around with, let me know and I'll send you the .xml file.

The mp3 was generated by Garage Band, so the instruments are acoustic guitars, with a cello instead of mandocello. The violins2 track was muted, obviously. While not authentic, the sound is better than a museScore mp3.

Any feedback, suggestions or corrections will be gratefully received.

Bill

[margora]

I played through the mandolin parts. It is a nice arrangement.

Two small comments (a) it is 8va, not 8vb (b) you may wish to notate, say with a wavy line, where you would like tremolo and where not. When I read through the mandolin parts I naturally used tremolo for dotted quarter and higher.

[Bill Stokes]

Tremolo; yes! That is very much in character for an Italian thing like this. Thank you.

But unless I'm confused (a distinct possibility) the 8va indicates the octave above. I'm pretty sure that 8vb denotes an octave below.

I'm using MuseScore, until I find time to learn Sibelius 7. I found tremolo marking, but this still needs work. Latest version, page 1.

Thanks for taking the time to look at this, and comment.

[margora]

8va treble refers to music that is written an octave higher than it sounds. That is what you want here.

[margora]

P.S. I looked at the revised score. Put a little "8" under the center of the clef for the violin 2 part (i.e. the octave mandolin part) and delete the "8vb" text. The little 8 below the clef indicates that the music is supposed to sound an octave below where written.

[Bill Stokes]

Thank you, Robert. That makes sense.
I need to spend time with some authentic sheet music for classical mandolin quartet, because I'm intrigued with the possibilities. Guess I'll need to order some; I'm not finding much online for free.

Off topic: We're just back from Montreal Jazz Fest. Sensational.

Bill