Mandolin duets: mazurkas from the Cristofaro Method (1894)

[Martin Jonas]

These are two short mazurkas for two mandolins, added as additional "recreations" to the 1894 US edition of the pioneering mandolin method by Fernando de Cristofaro -- one of ten pieces added at the end of volume one for the American edition which are missing from the original French edition (which is at IMSLP). The original method has 13 "recreations" interspersed between the lessons, and the additional tunes were then numbered as "Recreation" No. 14 to 23 (see attached table of contents).

As far as I can tell, these additional tunes had nothing to do with Cristofaro and were instead arranged (and in one instance composed) by J.C. Macy who appears to have been a staff composer/arranger at Oliver Ditson in the 1890s.

The US Edition is at IMSLP and also (in an identical scan) at:

https://archive.org/details/cristofarosmando01cris

The two mazurkas I have recorded are Recreations Nos. 17 and 21 -- I have extracted the scores as separate PDFs (see attached). Played on two vintage Italian bowlbacks.

Mandolin 1: 1890s Umberto Ceccherini
Mandolin 2: 1915 Luigi Embergher

Erik Meyer-Helmund: Mazurka in B Minor
Arranged for two mandolins by J.C. Macy
From "Cristofaro's Mandolin", Recreation XVII
Published by The Oliver Ditson Company, 1894

This mazurka is included in the book twice: as a solo piece in its original key of B Minor and in this duo arrangement, which is abridged (it's missing the trio section) and transposed to A Minor. This is originally a piano piece, and still played as a student piece -- there are a number of learners' Youtube recordings.



J.C. Macy: "Hermione Mazurka (For Solo, or Two Mandolins)"
From "Cristofaro's Mandolin", Recreation XXI
Published by The Oliver Ditson Company, 1894

This is the one tune credited to J.C. Macy as a composer -- as he arranged several of the other tunes, I suspect that this piece was written specifically for the method. It was also published (in a different key) as a piano piece by the Oliver Ditson Company but only later the same year, 1894.

The tune has, of course, nothing to do with Hermione Granger and Harry Potter -- naming popular dance tunes after women's names was common in the 1890s -- but I took the opportunity to add some Harry Potter-related artwork (some from the books and some fan art) for the slide show.



Martin