Baroque mandocello solo: Ricercar 1 (D. Gabrielli, 1690)

[Martin Jonas]

Domenico Gabrielli (1651-1690): Ricercari, canone e sonate per violoncello
Ricercar #1 in G minor

This is a solo cello piece by the Italian Baroque composer and cellist Domenico Gabrielli, one of the very earliest solo cello compositions in existence. I am playing it on mandocello, in the original key of G minor.

This is not difficult and fun to play on mandocello -- makes a change from the ubiquitous Bach Cello Suites when it comes to Baroque solo repertoire.

The score is on IMSLP:

https://imslp.org/wiki/Ricercari%2C_...i%2C_Domenico)

Suzuki MC-815 mandocello



Martin

[Jim Imhoff]

Thanks for posting this; contrapuntal music (more than one "voice" at the same time, like a fugue, ricercare, chaconne, or canon) is relatively rare on the bass instruments. I ordered it immediately!

[wildpikr]

Hi Martin,

A couple of nights ago I searched youtube for 'mandocello' and this was one of the offerings among others from your channel. It made me think of a different thread here on the cafe searching for mandocello music...it seems that you have a treasure trove of violoncello music that could be found without too much effort or maybe it's all in knowing where to start searching... thanks for posting.

[Martin Jonas]

Thanks, Mike & Doc!

Doc: There are six more ricercari in Gabrielli's collection, all of them more elaborate than the one I have recorded. It's standard violoncello repertoire, so there are multiple commercial editions, but the IMSLP transcription has a Creative Commons license, so is free to use for all non-commercial uses. In addition to the ricercari, Gabrielli's collection also has a canon for two cellos, which have recorded separately (link).

Hi Martin,

A couple of nights ago I searched youtube for 'mandocello' and this was one of the offerings among others from your channel. It made me think of a different thread here on the cafe searching for mandocello music...it seems that you have a treasure trove of violoncello music that could be found without too much effort or maybe it's all in knowing where to start searching... thanks for posting.

Thanks, Mike. I have had my Suzuki mandocello for a several years, but have used it mainly for basslines and accompaniments. I was prompted to look around for original mandocello music and suitable violoncello pieces to try out by the recent discussions on mandocello history and repertoire initiated by Doc in the CBOM forum. I've recorded about ten mandocello pieces over the past couple of weeks (solo, cello duets or cello/mandolin duets). It's fun and improves my mandocello playing. Also, it brings out the tone of the Suzuki nicely to the fore.

Original mandocello music is pretty rare, but there is a near inexhaustible pool of free violoncello music out there. I like pieces that are available in editable form, e.g. Musescore or Finale, as my bass clef reading is pretty rubbish and I find it easier to transpose into octave treble clef with additional ledger lines for the bass notes. The Gabrielli ricercari are in bass clef at IMSLP, but the Finale files that come with it can be converted to MusicXML using the free Finale Notepad, and then imported into Musescore for editing.

At the moment, I'm having fun with the Offenbach cello duets -- I've just recorded two more of them which I'll upload shortly!

Martin