Amadeo Amadei: Minuetto e gavotta

[Martin Jonas]

Amadeo Amadei (1870-1935): Minuetto e gavotta
I. Minuetto - 0:00
II. Gavotta - 2:35
Revised by Jiro Nakano (1902-2000)

This is one of many pieces by the Italian "Golden Age" classical mandolin composer Amadeo Amadei, from the town of Loreto in Marche. Amadei's compositions are now mainly played by Japanese and Korean mandolin orchestras. This is a short suite of two dance movements, which I am playing as a mandolin quartet (two mandolins, mandola and tenor guitar).

The score is from the Nakano archive, and indeed says it has been "revised" by Jiro Nakano himself -- as I do not have Amadei's original score, I don't know what precisely Nakano's contribution was. This is one of a handful of pieces from the archive that was transcribed in 2009, so the score is a crisp computer-generated PDF rather than an old fuzzy photocopy. I will upload the PDF next week -- it's on my office computer.

1890s Umberto Ceccherini mandolin
1915 Luigi Embergher mandolin
Mid-Missouri M-111 octave mandolin
Vintage Viaten tenor guitar



Martin

[Martin Jonas]

The score is from the Nakano archive, and indeed says it has been "revised" by Jiro Nakano himself -- as I do not have Amadei's original score, I don't know what precisely Nakano's contribution was. This is one of a handful of pieces from the archive that was transcribed in 2009, so the score is a crisp computer-generated PDF rather than an old fuzzy photocopy. I will upload the PDF next week -- it's on my office computer.

As promised, here are the parts for the Amadei "Minuetto e gavotta", from the Nakano archive in good transcriptions made in 2009. Pity there are so few of these transcriptions, as they're certainly a lot easier to read than many of the old scans!

Martin

[Rob MacKillop]

Very nice. Thanks for the video and the scores. Nice playing too.

Strange ending!

[Martin Jonas]

Very nice. Thanks for the video and the scores. Nice playing too.

Strange ending!

Thanks, Rob - much appreciated!

I know what you mean about the ending. No idea whether it was Amadei or Nakano who notated it like that, but it seems odd. There are two live recordings on Youtube, one from a Korean orchestra and one from a Japanese one. I think the Japanese one is nicer, but notably neither of them end like the score: they finish on two strong chords in bar 52 of the gavotte, without the final chromatic run of the first mandolin or the rest in bar 53.

Martin