To A Wild Rose (E. MacDowell, 1896)

[Martin Jonas]

Edward MacDowell (1896): To A Wild Rose
From "Woodland Sketches", Op. 52, No. 1

This is MacDowell's most famous short piece, a very plain, but beautiful, melody which the composer has marked "With simple tenderness".

This is an old arrangement for fretted instrument ensemble by Jim Hulley, taken from our group's repertoire folders. Played on mandolin, with accompaniment on two tenor guitars and octave mandolin.

1890s Umberto Ceccherini mandolin
Mid-Missouri M-111 octave mandolin
Vintage Viaten tenor guitar
Ozark tenor guitar



Martin

[domradave]

Congratulations on another terrific rendition!

[Martin Jonas]

Here is the scan of our arrangement. The accompaniment parts were copied by hand at one stage and written as 4/4 instead of 2/4, so each quarter note in the accompaniment parts corresponds to an eighth note in the lead part. The guitar part has chord symbols as well as a single-note harmony, so it's really two parts in one -- I have split it into two guitars for my recording. Ignore the "88bpm" tempo marking. That doesn't work for either the 2/4 or the 4/4 version.

Martin

[Martin Jonas]

During the current on-off lockdown, I have been re-recording some of the arrangements that we normally play during our weekly mandolin gatherings. Here is another one I did over the weekend, MacDowell's "To A Wild Rose". For my home video, I have simplified the quartet arrangement to just melody and tenor guitar arpeggios -- keeping it simple is arguably the point of this piece. Also a bit faster than my earlier recording, closer to the composer's indicated 88 bpm.

1890s Umberto Ceccherini bowlback mandolin
Vintage Viaten tenor guitar



Martin
(Back in lockdown in Wales this week)