Johan Kok

[Martin Jonas]

I'm taking the discussion on Johan Kok out of this thread, where it is off-topic, into this new thread.

Following Jim's posting of the list of Kok compositions from the Nakano site, I've now looked at our repertoire folder and find we have (and mostly play) the following pieces:

Con Brio (Marcia)
Mascotte (Concert-ouverture)
Katinka (Mazurka)
Toledo (Tango)
Avanti (March)
Joska (Zigeuner-romance)
Monmartre (Valse musette)
Spanola (Valse espagnole)
La Margarita (Tango)
Benjamine (Valse lente)
The Showman (Novelty dance)
Polskaja (Polonaise)
Promenade (Mars)
Las Palmas (Paso doble)
Dancing Doll
No. 1 Excelsior Marsch (Op. 140)
Borodjanka (Russische mars)
No. 2 Suite van Volksdansen (Op. 141)
No. 5 Fialka (Valse russe - Op. 133)
No. 6 Rasluka (Marche russe - Op. 136)
No. 1 Il Mandolino (Marche espagnole - Op. 92)
No. 2 Jong-Apollo (Marsch - Op. 98)
No. 3 Andante amoroso (Op. 100)
No. 4 Bridal-rose (Boston - Op. 99)
No. 6 Fantaisie Rhapsodique (Op. 101)
No. 7 Vroolijk Kerstfeest (Fantasie voor Mandoline orkest - Op. 144)
Gamine
No. 1 Concert-Ouverture No. 12 (Op. 145)
Don Armando (Paso doble)
Segovia (Tango)
Minka (Czardas)
Paraat (Mars)
Cupido (Valse musette)
Amulette (Concert-ouverture)
Rataplan (Marche)
Andrejevna (Valse slave)
Don Jose (Valse espagnole)
Pompadour
Theodora (Overture)
No. 2 Concert Ouverture No. 7 (Op. 82)
No. 3 Gilly-Flower (Boston - Op. 84)
No. 5 Donna Lina (Bolero - Op. 80)
No. 6 Andante Religioso (Op. 81)
No. 8 Palvu - Marsch (Op. 71)
Pizzicato

So, 46 pieces in total. He was really rather prolific, although I should say that most of these are fairly short, maybe three minutes or so, one or two pages for each part. Great fun to play, most of them!

Does anybody else here play any Kok pieces?

Martin

[David Westwick]

I lived in Delft, the Netherlands, during 1998/99, and played in the local mandolin orchestra which was run by the Prins Hendrik's music club. We played a few of Joh. B. Kok's works. I still have a score for "Balalaika-souvenir: Fantasie Russe", for Mandoline 1,2, Mandola, Mandoloncello and Gitaar. I will have to dig out the rest of my "mandolineorkest" music, to see if I still have anything else (but probably just the mandola part).

[John Goodin]

The Louisville Mandolin Orchestra was playing Kok's Benventuo (Concert Overture) pretty regularly back in 1994, just before I left the Falls Cities area. I was able to dig up three programs from the spring of that year where we used it as our opener. We probably played it in Germany during our tour in May of 94 as well. I don't know if it's still in their active book or not but it's a really fun piece where every section gets to make lovely sounds.

John G.

[John Goodin]

I just noticed that the Atlanta Mandolin Orchestra has an mp3 recording of Benvenuto available on their website.

http://www.atlantamandolins.com/Sound/Benvenuto.mp3

John G.

[Alex Timmerman]

Hello all,


A nice topic on an interesting Dutchman.

Johan B. Kok was indeed one of the - or perhaps better - the Dutch pioneer with regard to the mandolin in the Netherlands. In any case he certainly has been the most prolific composer for mandolin (mainly) orchestra music overhere.

Some 8 years ago when The CONSORT played some of his works, I wrote about him in the programme booklet to underline his importance for the mandolin in Holland. This might now also be of interest to you.


I used two books and my own research that led to this short essay about Johan B. Kok:
The first book: ´The Guitar & Mandolin´, 2e edition, is written by #the English mandolin player Philip J. Bone and published in 1954 by Schott & Co. Ltd, London, England (page 190-191, photo of Johan B. Kok on p.193).
The second book: ´Geschiedenis van de Mandoline´ is written by the Belgian guitar- and mandolinist Robert Janssens and publisched in 1982 by Metropolis, Antwerpen, Belgium (Pp. 70, 129 and 156).


Here it is:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~


Johan B. Kok (1889 -1954), a Dutch mandolin pioneer.


Johan B. Kok was born in Amsterdam on the 1st of March in 1889 and died in 1954.
He was educated as a musician and only after his graduation as a professional violinist he devoted his free time to the guitar and the mandolin.
The Amsterdam music publisher Seyffart issued J. B. Kok´s first published compositions for mandolin orchestra in a special music album. It was such a success that five more of these were published in the next two years. #
Around 1920 he also wrote a two-volume tutor titled ´Populaire Mandoline School´ (64 pages) that was edited by Cor B. Smit´s Music shop in Amsterdam.
From that time onwards Johan B. Kok was commissioned many times to write compositions for mandolin orchestra.

As an active mandolinist Kok worked together with other musicians to give the first performance of Daniël Ruyneman´s (1886-1963) Hiëroglyphen, a work for 3 flutes, 2 mandolins, 2 guitars, harp, clocks, celesta and piano. He also performed with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orkest (Koninklijk Concertgebouw Orkest) under the direction of Willem Mengelberg (1902-1984) in a. o. Mahler´s 8th Symphony ´Veni Creator´.

In 1930 J. B. Kok founded the ´Radio Mandolin Orchestra´ with whom he, as conductor, gave more than 150 concerts. All of them being broadcasted ´live´ by Radio Hilversum, Holland.
During the years 1940-1945 Johan B. Kok wrote a new mandolin tutor known as: ´De nieuwe mandoline-school´. This 100-page volume was published (± 1946) by the XYZ Publishing House in Apeldoorn (Netherlands) and had because of its popularity, several reprints. #It is still to be found for sale at music shops in the Netherlands.

Johan B. Kok was not only active as a teacher, composer, conductor and as a jury member; he also established a special conductor course (for those who wanted to be trained as conductors for plucked instrument orchestras) that from the very first classes in 1930 up to this day still exists as the study class for candidate conductors of the Dutch Union for Mandolin Orchestras (the NVvMO - het Nederlands Verbond voor Mandoline Orkesten).
Furthermore he was one of the initiators who in Hilversum (±1945-46) set up the ´Gids voor Mandoline and Guitar´, a periodical that was created to inform the Dutch mandolin and guitar players and that soon became the official magazine of the NVvMO (the Dutch Union of Mandolin Orchestras). In 1957 the name of the magazine changed in what it still is called today ´Mandogita´.

As a conductor he not only gave concerts at home, he also travelled abroad. One such an event was the trip to Luton (England), which he undertook with the Dutch Excelsior Mandoline Orkest in 1951. Here he met Miss Irene Bone, the musical director of the Luton Mandolin Band and the daughter of the well-known author Philip J. Bone of the book ´The Guitar & Mandolin´, to whom he had dedicated his Concert Overture ´Lutonia´. #Philip J. Bone later wrote in his book that this composition was performed at a public concert where both orchestras were combined together. The British Federation of Mandolinists and Guitarists (BMG) invited J.B. Kok several times later.

His experience as a conductor of mandolin orchestra’s also led to jet another book; his ´Leidraad voor Mandolinespelers en Orkesten´(1955?) still serves as a source for those who are interested in conducting a mandolin orchestra and how to set up such an ensemble/orchestra, work and perform with it. #

Johan B. Kok wrote more than 200 compositions. Many are played and known by mandolin players all over the world.
Some of his most favourite compositions (and of course one should see this in its time) are the ´Andante Grazioso´, ´Elegie´, ´Veritas Vicit´, ´Rapsodie´, ´Con Tenerezza e Passione´, ´Tredici´, ´La Festa Splendora´, ´Balalaika Souvenir´, ´Torrebellino´, ´Greetings from Holland´, ´Donna Carla´, ´La Frisonette´, ´Dorpsfeest´ ´Spagnolino´ and to close with ´Vita Mandolinistica´.


This all made Johan B. Kok in the world of the mandolin a distinguished person of international importance.


Alex Timmerman 1998 ©.



Photo: Johan B. Kok.

[Linda Binder]

I'm listening now to the Atlanta Mandolins live recording of Ben Venuto. #Very nice. #It really does sound like music that would be a good fit with the Milwaukee Mandolin Orchestra. Thank you Alex, for the essay. #I was completely unaware of J. Kok and his considerable contribution to mandolin music. #I'm glad of what I learned today.
--Linda

[Martin Jonas]

Thanks, Alex, for the essay: so far all I knew about Kok was a short passage in Sparks' Classical Mandolin. Strange that although we have 43 Kok tunes in our repertoire, this includes not a single one of those listed by Alex as "most favourite". I know what Alex means by saying that one should see these pieces in their time, as there is a somewhat dated feel to some of them, but they're fun anyway.

We have a (not very good) recording of Kok's Avanti here. It's a rather brief and simple, but nice tune, which makes a nice uptempo opener. The tune that was most popular with the audience in that concert was his "Gamine" but this fell foul of a recording equipment fault.

Martin

[Martin Jonas]

I thought it might be of interest in this discussion to show some examples of Kok's music. I've scanned the first mandolin parts for three of my favourite pieces of his and have put them in my web space.

Here are:

Andante Religioso
Joska
Gamine (Page 1, Page 2)

As Kok died less than 70 years ago, these are still in copyright although I'm not sure the copyright is currently being exercised. So, I'm only posting one part to give a flavour of the pieces, which of course only really work when all parts come together, especially Andante Religioso with its mandola lead middle section. Nevertheless, these parts should give you a flavour of the man and his style and Gamine at least is quite a nice tune to play without accompaniment. For some reason, it always makes me think of the film music to the Lord Of The Rings!

Martin

[Embergher]

At the Youth-orchestra (in the early 1980s before I joined La Napolitaine) we used to play "Dancing Doll", which we all liked a lot. I made a home recording of it in 1994 ... here it is:
DANCING DOLL (Johan B. Kok)
(mandolin1&2: Embergher N°6-1958/mandola 1&2: Embergher N°2-1904/guitar: René De Bondt 1989/Recorded: 22/05/1994)

[Martin Jonas]

That sounds lovely, Ralf. Dancing Doll is one of the ones we do, and although it's not one of the regulars, by coincidence we had a run-through of it at rehearsal only two days ago.

Martin

[Embergher]

Johan B. Kok with his mandolin posing for a picture in his method.
(Looks like a traditional Neapolitan way of holding the mandolin)

[David Westwick]

Between 1993 and early 1996, I played with Mandolinata, a small mandolin orchestra based in Montreal, directed by Johanna Hebing, who I believe played for a while in the Hilversum Radio Ochestra that Alex mentioned in his progam notes. Since Johanna is Dutch, and grew up in the Dutch mandolin orchestra tradition, it isn't surprising that her group played a few Kok pieces. In addition to Balalaika Souvenir (which I mentioned earlier in connection with the Prins Hendrik's Mandoline Orkest in Delft), we played "La Festa Splendora", "Fredici (overture)" and "L'Ile Enchante" by J.B. Kok. At least, those pieces are in my Mandolinata music book -- alas just the mandocello parts. I don't remember what those pieces sounded like, and staring at the cello lines isn't triggering any memories.

The parts that I have were initially hand written, I assume by (the late) Walter Shepper, in bass clef. Judging by the score that I have for Balalaika, the published cello and dola parts would have been written on a single, treble clef staff, and sounded an octave below the notated pitch. This is at odds with the mandocello parts that I have seen from North American souces, that use either bass clef (more recent) or treble clef transposed 2 octaves (more common at the turn of the last century). I guess Walter decided to cut is mando-cello players a break, and give them a familiar looking part.

[Jim Garber]

Here again, transferred from the other thread, is the list of Kok compositions on the Nakano site:

Balalaika souvenir
Benvenuto
Candida
Caroline
Con Anima
Con brio
Concert ouverture no.10
Continental souvenir
Dorpsfeest
Elegie
En voiture
Fantasie ouverture
Jeunesse
Juliska
La festa splendora
La Frisonnette
L'ile enchantee
Las Ninas de Sevilla
Lutonia
Marianne
Mary
Moderne Klanken
Mozart Fantasie
Petronella
Petrowa
Rhapsodie
Romance
Sempre desto
Sempre vivo
Sonatine
Suite
Torbellino
Tredici
Veritas vincit
Vita mandolinistica
Concert ouverture
Ons eerst concert
Apollo Marsch
Avanti crescendo
Il Mandorino

I am not sure which are for mandolin orchestra.

Here is the first line of the score of Balalaika from the Nakano site. It does look like the 'cello/mandola (which would be the US equiv of octave mandolin part) is written in treble clef.

Jim

[violmando]

The Dayton Mandolin Orchesta and the Miami VAlley Mandolin Quintet have played a few Kok works as well, since our director, Allen Richmond, owns copies of quite a few: we've done Don Armondo, Joska, and Rataplan, and I think I might be missing one. They always become both audience and player favorites! Yvonne

[Daymando]

'Don Armando' and 'Rataplan' are both on our Creole Belles CD. Like Yvonne says, very audience- and musician-friendly material.

-Allen.

[stevenmando]

love the piece Dancing Dolls ,went to a music store to see if I could get it but they did not have Johan Kok in there book ,any sugestion where I could find the score thanks.

[Martin Jonas]

Steven -- I don't think any of Kok's music is in print. You can get some pieces from the Nakano site, as posted by Jim. That doesn't include Dancing Doll. I have the first mandolin part, and can send it to you if you send me an e-mail or PM. The other parts are in the ensembles repertoire folders, so I would have to go and collate them.

Martin

[Martin Jonas]

The bits of Dancing Doll that I have are now on my web site:

Page 1
Page 2

Martin

[jacky]

Martin, I already have the mandolin and guitar version of Dancing Doll and have great fun playing it as a duet. However, it would be even more fun to play as a trio. Would you be able to let me have the 2nd mandolin part?

[Martin Jonas]

Jacky --

I don't have the 2nd mandolin and mandola parts in my folder, so I would need to get them from the appropriate players at the next rehearsal. I'm out with a knee injury a the moment, so this may take a little while.

Martin

[Martin Jonas]

Here again, transferred from the other thread, is the list of Kok compositions on the Nakano site:

...
Con Brio
...
Apollo Marsch
Avanti crescendo
Il Mandorino

Having now had a look at the Nakano site, I've found that these last four items are actually scans of entire albums of music, with several pieces each. Three of these four albums are in our repertoire as listed in the first post in this thread, and between them, they account for most of the pieces listed by me, but not by Jim. There are still a few that we have that are not at Nakano, among them "Dancing Doll", "Rataplan" and "Gamine".

"Con Brio" contains (in the form of a hand-written manuscript, strangely, as we have the same pieces in the same order in neatly printed form):
Con Brio
Katinka
Toledo
Avanti
Joska
Spanola

"Apollo-Marsch" contains (we don't have this one):
Apollo-Marsch
Alison
N.E.G. Marsch
Serenata Giocosa
La Lune Sereine
Trinette
Causette
Les Jeunes Debutants
Mansette
Au "Dancing"

"Avanti-Crescendo" we already have in exactly the same form. It contains pieces by other composers as well as Kok:

Avanti-Crescendo (Koldijk)
Concert Ouverture No. 7 (Kok)
Gilly-Flower (Kok)
Les Menestrels Joyeux (Henricchi)
Donna Lina (Kok)
Andante Religioso (Kok)
Conviction Intime (Polman)
Palvu-Marsch (Kok)

"Il Mandolino" is also a mix of different composers, which we also already have in the same form:

Il Mandolino (Kok)
Jong-Apollo (Kok)
Andante Amoroso (Kok)
Bridal-Rose (Kok)
Otar-Bey (Joline)
Fantaisie Rhapsodique (Kok)
Bonsoir Marion (Joline)
Nicolette (Joline)

Martin

[Martin Jonas]

Martin, I already have the mandolin and guitar version of Dancing Doll and have great fun playing it as a duet. However, it would be even more fun to play as a trio. Would you be able to let me have the 2nd mandolin part?

Jacky --

I borrowed the 2nd mandolin/mandola parts at our rehearsal yesterday, and put them here:

Page 1
Page 2

Martin

[Daymando]

Bonsoir Marion (Joline)

What is (generally or specifically) known about J. Joline -- anyone? I've checked my resources at hand and have come up with nothing about (assuming him. Bonsoir, Marion is the only piece we have in DMO's library at present, but I'd like to find more literature, and more about J. Joline.

-Allen.

[Martin Jonas]

We have four of Joline's pieces in our repertoire, but three of them are from that same album of pieces that's listed above, together with five pieces by Kok, i.e. "Bonsoir, Marion", "Nicolette" and "Otar-Bey". The first two of these we do play occasionally (indeed, we played both yesterday at rehearsal) and they sound nice and are pleasant to play, if not particularly memorable. The other piece we have is "La Nina Morena", which I don't think has had an outing since I've joined the ensemble.

Martin

[David Westwick]

The other piece we have is "La Nina Morena", which I don't think has had an outing since I've joined the ensemble.

I played "La Nina Morena" with the Prins Hendrik's Mandolineorkest in Delft in 1998/99. You might want to pull it out at a rehearsal and read through it. As I recall, it was a crowd pleaser (at least at that time/place).