Handel: Sarabande in D Minor (La Folia), mandolin quartet

[Martin Jonas]

Georg Friederich Händel (1685-1759): Suite in D Minor for harpsichord (HWV 437)
3. Sarabande

This is Handel's treatment of the "La Folia"/"Folies d'Espagne" theme, originally for harpsichord, but widely played on strings (e.g. in the movie "Barry Lyndon"). My arrangement is for mandolin quartet (two mandolins, mandola and mandocello), adapted from a string quartet score I found at:

https://musescore.com/user/12962736/scores/2769921

1898 Giuseppe Vinaccia mandolin (x2)
Mid-Missouri M-111 octave mandolin
Suzuki MC-815 mandocello

All art by Antoine Watteau.



Martin

[Gelsenbury]

That's a lovely arrangement, Martin. The counter-melody is really nice.

[Martin Jonas]

That's a lovely arrangement, Martin. The counter-melody is really nice.

Thanks, Dennis.

I mixed the parts using headphones where they sound fine, but playing back on speakers I find that the mandocello and OM parts are a bit low. To bring out that bass melody a bit more, here is an alternative remix (just uploaded to the Cafe, I won't change the Youtube clip). Try out which you prefer. It may depend on your listening environment.



I also attach two PDFs of the arrangements (in bass clef for mandocello or octave treble clef for guitar, with the low D lifted an octave to bring it into range), altered to fit onto two pages for easier performance. May be worth a try for informal quartet playing -- it's straightforward to play and very effective.

Martin

[Gelsenbury]

I can see what you mean about the second version being bassier. I like both. My slight preference would be for the original, but then I'm listening on earphones too right now. I'm sure you're right in saying that it depends on equipment and environment.

Thanks for the score. I'll give this a try, maybe at Easter.