Pergolesi's Siciliana

[crisscross]

If you are looking for a nice and rather easy piece to get you started playing classical stuff, you might try the Siciliana by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi.
It's almost completely in the first position, just one phrase with the high d on the 10. fret of the e-string.
I used tremolo only on the longer notes ending the phrases.
I don't know, whether it was written for violin or oboe, but it also works fine on mandolin.
You can find the sheet music at flutetunes
https://www.flutetunes.com/tunes.php?id=452
or at musescore
https://www.flutetunes.com/tunes.php?id=452
The latter one has a classical guitar accompaniment, though it might be a little different from the one I recorded.
Sorry, I didn't find no tabs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSPQMm2FlFM&index=11&list=PLAJYbvu5WGWCwaIZzpb2SHrFz4eJVL5uO

[derbex]

That is rather lovely, thank you.

[Martin Jonas]

If you are looking for a nice and rather easy piece to get you started playing classical stuff, you might try the Siciliana by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi.
It's almost completely in the first position, just one phrase with the high d on the 10. fret of the e-string.
I used tremolo only on the longer notes ending the phrases.
I don't know, whether it was written for violin or oboe, but it also works fine on mandolin.
You can find the sheet music at flutetunes
https://www.flutetunes.com/tunes.php?id=452
or at musescore
https://www.flutetunes.com/tunes.php?id=452
The latter one has a classical guitar accompaniment, though it might be a little different from the one I recorded.
Sorry, I didn't find no tabs.


That is very nice indeed -- thank you! For completeness, here is the correct Musescore link (you have posted the Flutetunes link twice):

https://musescore.com/user/14258/scores/332851

I think I prefer your arpeggio accompaniment over the chordal backing in the Musescore and Flutetunes scores.

I know (and have recorded) a different Pergolesi piece under that name -- "Siciliana" is also used as an alternative name for "Tre giorni son che Nina", but that does not seem to be related to the piece you have recorded.

I'm not sure it makes much sense to think about "original instrumentation" with Pergolesi: because of his early death he was a highly romanticised figure at the time (and ever since) and lots of music was attributed to him that he probably didn't have anything to do with -- "Nina", for example, is almost certainly not by him. If we can't be sure he actually wrote it, there is little point in worrying about authentic instrumentation.

Martin

[crisscross]

Thanks Martin, thanks derbex.
As far as I know, a Siciliana or Siciliano is originally a movement in a baroque suite in a rather slow 6/8 time.
Bach has composed a well known Siciliano for one of his flute suites.
The Siciliana survived into the classical era though and was quiet often used by the composer for classical guitar Ferdinando Carulli.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH5uH-c3FI8

Tre Giorni son che Nina seems to be a vocal song originally.
I can't hear the typical Siciliana-rhythmin in this song though.
It seems to be a straight 4/4.

[Martin Jonas]

Tre Giorni son che Nina[/I] seems to be a vocal song originally.
I can't hear the typical Siciliana-rhythmin in this song though.
It seems to be a straight 4/4.

Yes, I agree. I remarked on that in my old posting here (https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?103211-Siciliana-(G-B-Pegolesi-c-1730)-for-mandolin-quartet) -- it took me a while to work out that the tune I had with the title "Siciliana" was in fact Nina. There are a number of other places where "Nina" is either titled "Siciliana" or described as a siciliana, e.g. here (http://www.free-scores.com/download-sheet-music.php?pdf=38315), here (https://youtu.be/jhRUho2L7rQ)and here (http://bdh-rd.bne.es/viewer.vm?id=0000154507&page=1).

Martin

[Martin Jonas]

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery -- when I came home last night I had to have a go at this lovely tune, so here is my own recording.

As you have said in the original post, the melody is pretty straightforward, all first position except for two high notes at the 10th and 12th fret. My accompaniment is based on the classical guitar part from the Musescore arrangement linked above. As I don't play classical guitar, I have split it into a tenor guitar part and a separate mandocello bass line, making my arrangement into a trio of mandolin, tenor guitar and mandocello. Played at a somewhat slower tempo than crisscross.

1890s Umberto Ceccherini mandolin
Ozark tenor guitar
Suzuki MC-815 mandocello

xIGw5rVZ0gM

Thanks again for pointing me towards that tune!

Martin

[crisscross]

Your arrangement comes out nicely. Martin!
Now, we have two mandolin versions of that tune on Youtube!

[crisscross]

I just learned that Pergolesi has written a Concerto in B flat major for Violin, that is also played on mandolin. Here is Jacob Reuven playing the first movement on his Kerman mandolin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHbuyyOW0S0

[Jim Garber]

Very nice! That is a sweet tune. I also prefer the arpeggio guitar accompaniment. Just curious, though. Why did you label the video in Russian?

[crisscross]

Thanks, Jim, glad you llike it.
As for the Russian, I also have a russian lullaby, Bayushki Bayu, which gets lots of views.
One reason might be, that in addition to latin characters, I wrote the title in cyrillic characters.
So I thought, that this little trick might help raise the popularity of the Siciliana as well...

[Jim Garber]

Wow. You and Martin are cranking out this music. Impressive output. I have to get my multi-track chops back together.

Post the link to the lullaby.

[crisscross]

Here's the link to the lullaby: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zReO5HAeS9c&index=2&list=PLAJYbvu5WGWCwaIZzpb2SHrFz4eJVL5uO
I have to say, I'm not very proud of it, I leave it more as a kind of oddity.
It has some mando-action though...