Good classical songs

[Dan Voight]

Does anyone have a good repituar or a list of intermediate to advanced classical pieces? I am a music major on the mandolin at the Univ. of Mich. and I am on a search for pieces to blow my peers and professors away http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif next semester in performance class (we perform once a week for every one in the music program). I learned the Bach Giga in Gm a few months ago and I loved that. Anything will help.

You may want to explore the music of Raffaele Calace (1863-1934), an Italian mandolin maker and virtuoso. He also made violins. Here's a characteristic example of his music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALrncsl1lWo

You may also want to post this question in the Classical forum - you'll get no end of suggestions.

[JeffD]

A thread to check out

http://www.mandolincafe.net/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=6;t=43449

[phizban]

The Bach Giga in Gm piece that you've played is a nice piece for mandolin. In fact, any of bach's sonatas and partitas for solo violin are worth taking a look at. You might also consider Bach's Prelude to the Cello Suite (it's originally in G, but you can play it in D and it sounds just as good). If you're feeling adventurous, try Chris Thile's caprice (AKA "When Mandolin's Dream"). Both the Prelude and Thile's Caprice have free tab available for them at Mandozine's TAB archive.

On a completely seperate note, I also go to University of Michigan... are you a music major for Mandolin or another instrument? If UM allows mandolins as the principal instrument for music majors I'd be very interested in hearing that...

[Eugene]

The Stearns Collection at UM doesn't have many, but it has a couple interesting mandolins. If Dr. Lam is still the curator, I have an invitation to speak on mandolins there. Maybe I'll see you there...

On music to play on mandolin, I kinda prefer music written for mandolin. How are you with mandolin-specific techniques: duo style, swept arpeggios, triplet patterns, split strings, etc? If you'd like to explore them, see if you can track down a copy of Neil Gladd's "Three Centuries", perhaps via interlibrary loan. There are also some nice solos in Pettine's 7-volume method, especially the couple volumes regarding duo style (that's available from Ohio State's library). Many of Calace's solos (mentioned above) are a serious workout.

[Eugene]

PS: You should probably avoid calling pieces of music "song" in music school unless they involve singing or a song-like melody named "song" by a composer.

[phizban]

... on a slightly random note, is the Giga in Gm or Dm? Now that I think of it, I believe it's in Dm, unless I'm thinking of the wrong piece lol

[Eugene]

Depends on the giga. The one in the violin partita BWV 1004 is in d minor. Those in the cello suites are often transposed for other instruments in spite of the original keys. Those in more polyphonic works (like the harpsichord works or hypothetical lute suites) span a heap of different keys, but aren't often taken on instruments with limited polyphonic capability.

[phizban]

Ya the one I'm thinking of is in Dm, and in my music book it's spelled 'Gigue', lol.