As I have just mentioned this instructional book in the family trees thread, I thought this might be a good opportunity to post a few pages from it. Here is the title page to start with.
Martin
As I have just mentioned this instructional book in the family trees thread, I thought this might be a good opportunity to post a few pages from it. Here is the title page to start with.
Martin
A nice illustration on the evergreen topic of how to hold a bowlback. All of these pictures are clearer if you save them onto your hard disk before viewing, to bypass the automatic scaling of the cafe.
Martin
Another evergreen topic: right hand attitude and plectrum grip.
And the left hand.
Now for some of the musical examples: an exercise in A major and an arrangement from Weber's "Freischuetz". Incidentally, Alberto prescribes tremolo for all quarter notes and longer, as well as for all legatos and ties.
The rest of the Weber piece.
The last three musical examples in the book, illustrating strisciata (slides). First, "Der Waffenschmied" by Lortzing.
A "whistled polka" by Josef Strauss.
The last page of the book, a mexican folk song.
My last scan: a list of mandolin arrangements of recital pieces that were available at the time of printing.
Very interesting... "Appropriate for self-teaching". I have seen that on other mandolin instruction books. Is that also usual for other instruments?
"The form of the plectrum should be as shown. All other shapes are not practical and cannot produce a good picking action."
Typical German undeviated assurance...
Indeed. He uses that undeviating prescriptiveness throughout the entire book. To be fair to him, other authors, especially from the early 20th century, are similarly prescriptive: Bickford, for example, has very firm ideas on technique as well.
I have no idea whether "A. Alberto" was actually an Italian publishing in Germany or whether it was a nom-de-plume for a German musician who wanted to sound Italian. What is clear is that most of the examples are distinctly German tunes, including many folk tunes, so not much of an Italian flavour there.
Martin
Nice, that he points out the requisite, oval "O" between the (right hand) index and thumb. I have always taken that to be a symptomatic phenomenon of relaxation the opposite, i.e. index and thumb pinched together, appearing to be clear evidence of undue tension and stiffness.
It is not man that lives but his work. (Ioannis Kapodistrias)
Hello,
Well if you worked yourself through the Alberto Method Martin Jonas, your mandolin roots are more Italian than German.
Signor Alberto was as Italian as one can be. And like like Ranieri and Di Pietro etc. etc., an immigrant who tried to make his living abroad.
This ´living´ he found first in Germany where he was active as a guitar and mandolin teacher during the first quarter of the 20th Century.
Unhappy with the political events that took place towards the thirties he left Germany. A decision that was hastened because of a new installed law in the late twenties that forced foreigners to join the German army.
His firm opinion(s) and strong statements about plectrum shape, thickness etc. must be seen in the light of time: quite a number of - in his eyes - inadequate mandolin methods were published by (German) mandolinists in Germany and Alberto felt he had to strongly go against everything he thought was heading in a wrong direction. As can be read in the first editions of his little Mandolin Tutor for self-instruction, one of these wrong developments was (already then) the use of a soft material for a plectrum... #
So this time Plamen, Alberto´s statements have in my ears #probably more to do with Italian temperament and knowledge of the instrument than with #- to quote you - "the Typical German undeviated assurance"...
Near the thirties the story of A. Alberto ends in Germany. Today he is unknown there and people have forgotten that he was one of the pioneers of the Mandolin who teached his pupils and instructed the people who worked with is Tutor(s) to play ànd hold his instrument in the traditional Italian playing style.
The little Mandolin Tutor for self-instruction, mentioned here by MartinJonas, is up to today the most widely spread and reprinted Tutor (translated in more than 5 languages!) in Europe.
Besides this small Tutor there are a much more substantional Mandolin Method, books with Studies and books with compositions of his hand.
Perhaps interesting to know is that he favoured the instruments of the Embergher atelier for his students and that the instrument of his (own) choise was a 5-bis Concert Mandolin build by Luigi Embergher. #
Best,
Alex Timmerman İ
Alex,
Thank you very much for that info! I hadn't realised that the tutor was that widely distributed. Interesting that Signore Alberto was Italian, playing in the traditional Italian style, as there is a striking lack of any Italian tunes (whether traditional or classical) in the tutor. As I said, many of the examples are arrangements of German folk tunes. Indeed, I found a bibliography here that indicates that the first edition (I have the revised second edition) had the title "Volkstümlich bearbeitete Kleine Mandolinen-Schule" (Small mandolin tutor with folk-based examples). This listing also indiates a two-part method by "Francesco Alberti", and another one by "Heinrich Albert", presumably both other people, but not the additional Alberto method referred to by Alex. Regarding Plami's comment on "self instruction", all three Alberto/Alberti/Albert methods are so sub-titled. Looks like mandolin teachers were just as rare then as they are now.
I suspected that Alberto might be an Embergher afficionado -- the diagrammatic illustration of a mandolin in the tutor is very Embergher-esque.
Martin
Hello Martin Jonas,
The more substantial Method by Alberto is much more rare and not easy to get nowadays.
Als for the other two persons you mention I believe they are one and the same person (Heinrich Albert).
The illustration in your edition shows indeed an Embergher mandolin; it is drawing after the photo in the earlier editions of the little tutor. The mandolin on the photo by the way, is an Embergher Tipo N. 3 Orchestra mandolin.
Greetings,
Alex
OK, Alex, let this be the Italian temperament. Unfortunately it resulted in a similar to the "typical German undeviated assurance" wrong confidence. You know better, than me, how many different shapes of picks were widespread in this time. And it`s about the shape (Form und Gestalt) und not about the (soft) kind of the material.
Martin, as I said, I have seen this "Appropriate for self-teaching" on other mandolin instruction books. My question was, is this to be met on let`s say violin, piano, flute, etc. instruction books? It might be the reason, that you mention - the lack of mandolin tutors. I think, it`s because it`s easier (and much more possible to learn to play the mandolin by-yourself) than to learn the piano.
Thank you both for your comments!
Good luck!
Hi Plamen,
Yes, in the later published edition like the one of MartinJonas is, Alberto took out the sentence inwhich he pointed out that plectrum made of a soft material were not good. #
Most likely done so because of selling reasons or/and adviced by his German publisher.
This is why I said in my previous post here (quote my post on Jan. 19 2005, 17:01): As can be read in the first editions of his little Mandolin Tutor for self-instruction, one of these wrong developments was (already then) the use of a soft material for a plectrum... #
Greetings,
Alex
PS. There are tutors to learn to play violin, piano, flute etc. without a teacher, but the bulk of these we find mostly to be written for plucked instruments like the Mandolin and Guitar. Instruments that are second by similar tutors for the Cittern, English Guit(t)ar, Banjo, etc.
Not so much because the instruments are easy to play (in my opinion (and in particular the Mandolin) they belong to the most difficult group to play well), but more so because they are cheep.
Hi Plamen et all,
Here´s a detail of page 10 in Alberto´s revised (second edition even!) Tutor. This was published in Leipzig in 1913.
Already than...
Best,
Alex
Interesting. My 1929 edition says "revised edition", but doesn't specify how many previous ones there were. I had assumed that the "Volkstümlich bearbeitete Kleine Mandolinen-Schule" edition referenced above was the original one, but from your last post that's wrong. The first paragraph of the 1913 page is identical to the 1929 page, but the highlighted second paragraph was omitted later.
The German speakers here (plami, Alex, Victor and I) seem to be amongst ourselves at the moment, so maybe I should translate that page to bring in the others. It says (with original emphasis):
One can certainly see Plami's point about assertiveness (or Alex's about Italian temperament), but this advice on plectrum grip may give some scope for discussion, especially as it is utterly omitted in the 1929 edition, and as most other methods and many contemporary teachers emphasis the perils of an overly tight grip much more than those of an overly loose one. Did he change his mind? Did he find that too many of his pupils went to the opposite extreme on reading this advice?Originally Posted by
Martin
Hello, Alex!!!
Thank you very much for your effort! I think the reason, that you mentioned about the self-teaching books regarding different instruments is also much possible, even solid.
About the pick... It might be my bad English perhaps (someone help), but once again I was speaking about the shape, the form of the picks and not about the material, that they should be made of. The specification (explanation) in the second edition concerns the kind of the material. My disagreement is connected with the explicit statement, that a pick should have the shape, showed in the tutor, because with a pick of any other shape a good picking action cannot be achieved. That`s what I cannot agree with. You know how different in shape the picks were in that period.
Good luck!
Plami,
I think it's that Alberto had firm (and possibly belligerent) opinions on shape, material, firmness and grip, and makes this clear in the 1913 edition. However, only the shape can be readily demonstrated by a picture, and that's why that absolutist statement appears next to the illustration in the 1929 edition. Even with the omitted final paragraph, the 1929 edition still says "the plectrum must be made from polished tortoiseshell, preferably thick rather than thin", so it is clear even in the less dictatorial version that he dismisses a large proportion of that wild and wonderful variety of picks that existed in that period.
I think by now, most instructors have come around to the concept that everybody has to find his own choice of ideal plectrum and that nothing is to be gained by bein overly prescriptive. That was clearly not Signore Alberto's attitude.
Martin
Exactly, Martin!!! Thank you!
Today you and Alex remind me of a Bulgarian beginner mandolin instruction book with pictures, that I have seen few years ago in the National library. I cannot say when, (may be tomorrow, may be next week), but I`ll go there again and will try to show it to you.
Plamen
On page 1 of HIS method, Calace writes:
"La vera flessibilità dev'essere nel polso." The real flexibility ought to be in the wrist (i.e. not in a flimsy, flaccid pick). This dictum follows a longer sentence, describing how the pick ought to be rigid, INflexible. I believe that is totally in line with the broader, Italian tradition, as are Calace's comments on shape, thickness, beveling, etc.
My own, perhaps equally dictatorial view: Of course! #But I cannot be accused of undemocratic sentiment, since I claim to teach/influence nobody other than my inept, recalcitrant self.
As for authors of instrumental tutors, well... the bibliography is replete with "The Only True Method...", "The Authoritative Tutor...", "The One Veritable Source..." etc. type of texts. In our present-day sensibilities, we may find that sort of posture pretentious, autocratic, downright obnoxious; at the time when these texts were written, however, such language was broadly interpreted as a sign of moral/intellectual commitment to what the author believed to be The Great Truth of the Matter. Times change...
It is not man that lives but his work. (Ioannis Kapodistrias)
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