Antonio Riggieri (c. 1780) mandolin duets

[Martin Jonas]

Antonio Riggieri (fl. 1780s): Six Duo a deux mandolines et six sonates a mandoline, Op. 1
Duetto VI

Antonio Riggieri was one of a number of Italian mandolin teachers and composers working in Paris in the late 18th century. Only one of his compositions is played regularly today: a set of variations for solo mandolin titled "La Fustemberg", which is on Youtube in live videos by Ugo Orlandi and by Carlo Aonzo.

However, he has written a lot more than that. There are four scanned collections of his mandolin compositions at IMSLP, mainly duets, handily numbered as Opus 1 to 4 ("La Fustemberg" is for some reason lumped in with Op. 3, but with a separate download). The layout is a bit confusing, in particular in Op. 2 which is a hodgepot of undigested chunks of music. The duets in Op. 1 are clearer and well-enough printed to be played straight off the page.

To get a flavour of these duets, I have picked one to play more or less at random -- the main criterion was that I would be able to play it, as much of this material is rather tricky (at least in GDAE tuning -- I suspect these may have been written for a six-course instrument). This is the sixth duet in his Opus 1, a jaunty giga in 6/8 time with an adagio minor key middle section.

I have played both voices on my Ceccherini bowlback.

Score is at IMSLP:

http://imslp.org/wiki/6_Duos_and_6_S...ri%2C_Antonio)

I have attached the pages for Duetto 6.



Martin

[silverstarling]

Hello and thanks for posting. Did you purchase or download these ?

[Martin Jonas]

Hello and thanks for posting. Did you purchase or download these ?

Thanks! All of Riggieri's original publications are available as free downloads from IMSLP at:

http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Riggieri,_Antonio

"La Fustemberg" is also available in modern editions (free as well as commercial), but as far as I can see the others are all only available as scans of the original 18th century scores.

Martin