My Beautiful Mandolin Friend

[Andy Boden]

I recently downloaded Nigel Gatherer's 'Tune of the Week' booklets and was particularly struck with his tune 'My Beautiful Mandolin Friend' (Book 1 No. 11) which he wrote in honour of Alison Stephens.

I found it to be a gentle, mournful tune and decided to arrange it.

My arrangement is for Mandolin, Oboe, Violin, Cello, Guitar and Bass. I have kept it quite simple, sticking faithfully to Nigel's melody and harmony, as any complication would, I feel, detract from the simple beauty of the piece.

For those who are interested, the mandolin is a Paul Shippey electric; the guitar is a Tanglewood SJ-5 electro acoustic; the Bass was played using a Roland synth unit with a Godin LGXT midi-controller guitar and the oboe, violin and cello parts were produced using a Yamaha Tyros 2 keyboard.

The arrangement is available here with Nigel's permission. I hope you enjoy it.

http://soundcloud.com/andabouk/my-be...andolin-friend

[JeffD]

Great job. That was beautiful. That was the first I heard the tune so compliments to Nigel as well.

Music is good in this way, evoking moments, or individual people, or the nature of a personal connection, transcending the literalness and specificity of written language.

[John Kelly]

There is a thread for this tune posted by Martin Jonas on the Song-A-Week group back in November 2010, under the heading "My Beautiful Mandolin Friend - For Alison Stephens" It is a really lovely tribute to one of the country's finest classical mandolin performers who died so tragically young.