Mandolin Duos from around 1900

[crisscross]

Since mandolin duos seem to be all the rage in this section of the forum, I also want to recommend an edition, although you have to pay to get it.
Astute music offers a collection of 25 duos from the turn of the century, edited by Barbara Pommerenke-Steel.
https://www.astute-music.com/store/p...und_1900_.html

The book contains 25 original compositions for mandolin duo composed around 1900. The selected music shows the breadth of mandolin music from the period with its techniques and rich harmonies.
Each piece is supported by footnotes which give some suggestion on the performance or technique of the piece.
The level of the pieces ranges from beginner plus to intermediate plus and many are included in the syllabus for Graded exams published by London College of Music and Victoria College of Music.

Composers are di Cristofaro, Branzoli, Janvier Pietrapertosa Fils, Vittorio Monti among others.
The last piece I played was "Petite Pavane" by Pietrapertosa.
I replaced the second mandolin with my classical guitar though.
I like the fact, that pieces start at beginner plus level.
You don't have to be Raffaele to enjoy them.

[Jim Garber]

I never quite understood why the word duo is used for duo-style (a solo player) and duet (two players). Thanks for posting this tho. I do like both duo-style (when I have no friends) and duo playing (when i can find someone to play with).

[Jim Imhoff]

In the classical world, a duo would be two performers, a duet would be a piece for two performers. Mandolin "duo-style" is unique to the instrument, I believe--the tremolo/arpeggio thing, sounding like two players. Which I don't even come close to playing.

[Jim Garber]

In the classical world, a duo would be two performers, a duet would be a piece for two performers. Mandolin "duo-style" is unique to the instrument, I believe--the tremolo/arpeggio thing, sounding like two players. Which I don't even come close to playing.

Ok, and yet the Astute book is titled, "Mandolin Duos from around 1900." That title by your definition should indicate two people about 117 years old each playing together.

Astute means, of course, here that a duo is a piece for two performers (a duo) to play together. As I noted, this is pretty confusing tho I suppose we know what they are talking about. And I have also seen some sheet music for duo-style called a duo as well. Oh well...

[crisscross]

Doc James is right of course, but as Jim points out, the words Duo and Duet are sometimes used different from their original meaning.
Over the Christmas Holidays, I tried another DUET by Janvier Pietrapertosa Fils.
Before I got this sheet music book, I had never heard of him, so I looked him up in Wikipedia.
He has written a mandolin method, one for mandolin and banjolin and has composed and arranged for the mandolin.
There's a book with 20 pieces transcribed for mandolin by him, that you can download at Mandoisland:
http://www.mandoisland.de/noten2010/...l#.WkVWRDcxnIW
Most pieces seem to be for solo mandolin, but there are some nice duets, that Martin Jonas has recorded:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzd9lttHLPU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXQmXZYLgoM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlKSLZsPJNo

The piece I played is a Cakewalk. The second mandolin plays mainly double stops and three note chords, so I arranged it for classical guitar. The basic rhythm is a syncopated figure, that I tried to vary a bit in articulation.