Good morning across the pond and good evening on this side. This was undoubtedly the most difficult piece I have ever done. A patient teacher who gave me a nudge every time I said.."I don't wanna !! " The timing with the chords and the triplets were my nemesis but after a few months..I guess I'm a slow learner I finally got it. Also I had other tunes with John on the go. My saving grace was - it's short ! So I hope you enjoy it. Thanks MC friends.
Well done Ginny good work - and a treat to hear Emory Lester playing backup too.
That sounds lovely, Ginny -- well done! I recorded this piece as well back in 2017, using my tenor guitar for the cello part and my Embergher bowlback for the violin part. The score I used is here: https://www.flutetunes.com/tunes/boc...assa-calle.pdf 1915 Luigi Embergher mandolin Vintage Viaten tenor guitar Martin
Yay Ginny! Really nice to see you posting and it looks like a lot of work went into that one. Lovely, well done. Don’t think I’ll do this one for the moment though, the rhythm is quite complicated. I’m still going through my ‘simple rhythm metronome zoning out’ phase. (Love it) Maybe later I’ll get a lesson with Chris Thile and the two of us can do a version for Song of the Week. How would you guys like that then?! Icing on the cookies! COME ON LOVELY LURKERS LET’S HEAR SOME BEGINNERS!
Ha Ginny, they should have used that in the movie. That would have taken the bite out of Steward Killick's rant "Here we go again, scrape-scrape, screech-screech, and not a tune you could dance to..."
The piece isn't all that complicated once you've listened to it a few times and you can hum along in your head -- it falls under the fingers pretty nicely. Really fun tune! The Boccherini original has a very specific guitar rhythm (strummed cello, in the original, as can be seen in the movie), which is what I've played in my recording. However, it's really a folky piece which gives some leeway for personal interpretation. Emory's rhythm part on Ginny's recording differs quite a bit from the notated rhythm, so I wouldn't feel too constrained by the dots. Also cool because the original instrumentation is for cello and violin, but both with the instruction "imitando la chitarra" (imitating guitar). In my book, a cello and violin imitating guitars sounds an awful lot like mandolins. The other intriguing instruction on the score is "con mala grazia", i.e. "not gracefully", which in this case is best interpreted as indicating a folksy, informal style. Or, as somebody suggested here, "play drunk". Martin
Thank you for the comments. David, Emory only plays back up for me because he is a gentleman who will not put the focus on himself - he is a star in his own right - I am merely the lucky student. Martin, you have been playing a lot longer than me - so I did not find this falling under my fingers easily especially trying to nail the notes and triplets, in time, at a faster pace than I was prepared for. I got the notation from somewhere else and Emory and I played from that score. Simon, I will be back to normal stuff soon...(although I do have one in the wings that is a bit different. hmm...Did you see the clue I gave you for this tune? "Wives and sweethearts".....the rest of that is..."may they never meet" - a toast at dinner on the ship. Off to my lesson now to plod onward to something new but normal.
Ginny, my comment was meant in response to Simon saying "Don’t think I’ll do this one for the moment though, the rhythm is quite complicated", encouraging him to give it a go. Bertram's response slipped in between, so it looks like I'm responding to you rather than to Simon. No slight intended -- your playing is excellent on this! Needless to say, so is Emory's, who is indeed a brilliant player. I should have worded this more gracefully -- apologies! Martin
Such a good piece of work from you both, Ginny, and as you say, a stage up in the comfort stakes. This is a tune you would not have tried a year ago, so you must be delighted with the progress you have been making and the wide variety of genres you are playing in now. Great stuff!
Martin, it's Ok. Whenever we play or post it all comes out a bit differently - which is the beauty of MC. Thank you. Thanks John..I'm still liking what you and I do.
Great version Martin, I really like the tone on your mandolin, it sounds really authentic. -and the drawings too.
Nice tone on those mandolins!
Thanks, Simon! The Embergher does have a very distinctive tone, a certain ancient nasal quality fundamentally different from most modern mandolins. Although mine is the most modest student model made by the workshop, it does share this inherent character with the fancy soloist models. All artwork in my video is by Francisco Goya -- Goya and Boccherini were artists at the Royal Court in Madrid at the same time and although I suspected that they knew each other when I made that video, I have only recently found positive evidence of this: there is a Goya painting of the family of his patron, the Infante Don Luis, which includes a portrait of Boccherini amongst the assembled associates of Don Luis, along with a self portrait of Goya himself. See here for a discussion of the painting. Martin
I like the history lesson from Martin who always seems to know the background of his songs. I, on the other had, just thought Russell Crowe looked cool in those tight white pants and poofy blouse. Also evidenced in 'Celtic Rain' by Mike Oldfield whose picture was him half-naked sitting on a mountain.
