Ensemble music

[demotlj]

I have several people interested in playing Medieval/Renaissance/Baroque/Classical ensemble music. (They're not fussy as long as it's old.) The problem is that we have 2 mandolins, a recorder, a guitarist who would mostly play chordal accompaniment, and someone who wants to try adding a hand drum. Add to that the fact that we are all amateurs and I'm finding it difficult to locate stuff.

I guess what I'm really looking for is easy to intermediate 3 part music playable on mandolins and recorders. (I think we can figure out the chords and drums on our own.) I've looked at Laymusic.org and Free-scores.com and found a few things but most music is either for duets or for 4+ parts. Not a lot of 3 part material.

I'm sure this is not an orthodox mix of instruments but it's what we have and it would be fun to find something that we could try our hands at. Any recommendations for sources of music, free or otherwise?

Laurie

[Linda Binder]

You might want to try Last Resort Music. Lots of music from different eras arranged in a flexible way for a variety of ensembles. Here are some options for groups of three:
http://www.lastresortmusic.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=16&Itemid=90

[Bob A]

Nice site, Linda!

I was going to suggest the Icking Archive, but you'd have to do a bit of digging around and cutting to fit, but at least it's all free for the downloading.

http://icking-music-archive.org/index.php

[dj coffey]

You might want to try Last Resort Music. Lots of music from different eras arranged in a flexible way for a variety of ensembles. Here are some options for groups of three:
http://www.lastresortmusic.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=16&Itemid=90

Check out the Dances from Terpsichore. Sheet Music Plus has the score (http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/pages.html?cart=34454112372131109&target=smp_detail.html%26sku%3DMM.LPMDM11&s=pages-http%253A//www.google.com/search%253Fclient%253Dsafari%2526rls%253Den-us%2526q%253Dterpsichore%252Bscore%2526ie%253DUTF-8%2526oe%253DUTF-8&e=/sheetmusic/detail/MM.LPMDM11.html&t=&k=&r=wwws-err5) written out for recorders or stringed instruments.

There are a lot of recordings of this (check iTunes and Amazon), so your ensemble could easily "jam along" with recordings.

[ahollan]

John Goodin (http://www.contratopia.com/mtopia/mandolinPD2.htm) will keep you busy for awhile.

[JeffD]

Some really fun stuff - Marshall Barron put together some four part Playford tunes in "Early Playford for Early Instruments" two volumes. Very fun to play, and relatively easy to sound wonderful.