"One man, Laurent Fantauzzi, totally dominated the mandolin scene in Marseilles, throughout this period and beyond. Born in the Neapolitan province of Atina, Fantauzzi was resident in Marseilles for his entire adult life, givign innumerable performances in the city and was soon acknowledged as a top-flight virtuoso. A highly respected teacher, he also ran a shop at 8, rue de Jeune-Anacharsis, catering for mandolinists and guitarists. Amongst his close associates was the luthier Lucien Raymond Olivier Gélas, who built mandolins in his workshop in Marseilles (and also at Mirecourt and Mattaincourt), which were later sold by Fantauzzi, with his personal guarantee. These instruments had a revolutionary design feature to increase the volume of sound -- the 'double table d'harmonie' or second soundboard, parallel to the first -- and were extremely popular with French orchestras, many of whom used exclusively Gélas mandolins." (From: Paul Sparks: "The Classical Mandolin", Oxford University Press, 1995, p. 106f)
Fantauzzi was also the publisher and musical director of the magazine "Le Plectre" from 1903, the author of a very popular Mandolin Method in two volumes in 1910, and from 1920 onwards ran a classical mandolin class at the Conservatoire National at Marseille, the first mandolin course at a music academy in France.
This straightforward and cheerful waltz for romantic mandolin quartet (two mandolins, mandola in G, guitar) was one of Fantauzzi's many compositions, which I have played in his honour on my own "Gélas"-design mandolin for an authentic vintage sound.
Laurent Fantauzzi: "Brunette" (waltz), with score
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