Trio a due mandolini e basso (Gimo 359, c. 1750)

[Martin Jonas]

Anonymous: Trio a due mandolini e basso
From the Gimo Manuscript, No. 359, c. 1750
I. [Untitled]
II. Largo
III. Allegro

This is one of the 19 Italian mandolin compositions found in the Gimo Manuscript, a great collection of music collected in Italy during the first half of 1762 by the young Swede Jean Lefebure.

This is the only piece without a named composer in the manuscript -- the other 18 pieces are variously by Barbella, Gervasio, Cecere, Cocchi, Giuliani, Gabbelone and Ugolino, all of which were active in Naples around 1750. Chances are this Trio is by one is by one of these late Baroque/early Classical era Neapolitan mandolin composers as well.

There are two online sources for this piece: a scan of the original manuscript at IMSLP (which I have used for the video, more or less synced to the music) and a very nice PDF transcription at Mutopia, both by Eric Sandberg:

http://imslp.org/wiki/Trio_a_due_man...28Anonymous%29
http://www.mutopiaproject.org/collections/gimo/

I have played all three movements of this trio on two mandolins (one nylgut-strung, one steel-strung) and mandocello:

"Baroq-ulele" nylgut-strung mandolin
Mid-Missouri M-0W mandolin
Suzuki MC-815 mandocello



Martin

[Beanzy]

I'm amazed at how many pieces you've covered with your recordings Martin.
This one is particularly interesting in that it just seems so like 159 that I'd have no problem with anyone attributing it to Barbella just on stylistic grounds alone. Obviously the manuscript could be a copyists handwriting so that being the same wouldn't really mean much.

Thanks

[Beanzy]

That was meant to be GIMO 150 I referred to, but my stylus must have under shot and hit the 9.

[Martin Jonas]

That was meant to be GIMO 150 I referred to, but my stylus must have under shot and hit the 9.

Thanks Eoin. I think Gimo 150 is Gervasio. Barbella's trio is Gimo 18, and that one does have some stylistic similarity to 359. The entire Gimo collection is a gem, and quite a few of them (including this one) are technically pretty accessible.

Martin

[Beanzy]

I get totally flummoxed as they're all Gimo, but it's a great collection in which to get totally lost.
In our trio we've done 18 & 150 so far and I've found them a great way of getting us to knit together, because they're both accessible but also because the sum is more intricate than the parts, so you get more out and the basso gets a decent role in most too. I'm thinking they must keep you on your toes trying to weave the multitrack together.

[Martin Jonas]

Speaking if the Gimo collection, I've just come across a short chapter on Lefebure's Grand Tour to Naples and his connection to the earliest days of the Neapolitan mandolin in this book extract on Google Books:

Sweden in the Eighteenth-Century World: Provincial Cosmopolitans

Interesting read. The author suggests that Lefebure met Gervasio and that the other pieces were collected through the Gervasio connection as they appear to be in the same hand as Gervasio's copyist.

Martin