Boulder on the Tracks

 

Boulder on the Tracks (mp3) (pdf)

Back in August of 2014 (I think) we indulged in sleeper accommodations on the Amtrak Cardinal for a trip out East to visit some of the kids. Not long after entering the scenic New River Gorge portion of the route our train came to surprise halt, luckily not the kind of emergency braking where everyone goes flying. Our friendly attendant explained that there had been a mudslide ahead and there was a boulder blocking our way. (Our rock was not as large as the one pictured above, maybe half that size, but it wasn't something you would want to drive your train into.)

This was the start of a Grand Adventure involving backing up carefully, waiting hours for engines to come from Charleston, WV to bring us back, boarding buses, having our bus break down in the mountains on the interstate highway, waiting hours for a replacement, driving through the night and, finally, being deposited in Charlottesville, VA around 4 a.m., where we rented a motel room to sleep for four hours until our connecting train would arrive the next morning. The ride had been very pleasant until the unplanned stop and we had an uneventful return on the Capitol Limited a few days later.

This tune may have started around that time but I know for sure that it appears in a 2017 notebook. I made a number of changes to it this year and finally recorded it today. Just the melody three times through; first on mandolin, then with octave mandolin added, finally with guitar playing the tune also on the third time. I took it at a relaxed tempo but it can go really fast if you prefer that approach.

Yew Sunday - CMSA 2020 - Telemann

 

Yew Sunday (mp3) (pdf)

Telemann - Con Tenerezza - TWV 41:D3 (mp3) (pdf)

It's been a busy few weeks, despite the ongoing 2020 Troubles.

Last weekend was the amazingly inspiring online version of our annual Classical Mandolin Society of America convention. This all volunteer organization put together an impressive program of workshops, concerts, meetings and Zoom hangouts that convincingly simulated the real thing. I got to visit with old friends without catching anything or infecting anyone. I learned quite a bit and played a lot of mandolin.

I was especially honored that CMSA chose my mandolin orchestra piece "Heavens On Earth" as the material for this year's virtual en masse orchestra. We all practiced in advance, had a sectional workshop on Sunday and then "performed" the piece together in real time by playing along with a video. Even though we weren't in the same physical space it sure felt to me like we were playing together. The plan is for everyone to submit videos of themselves playing along, post-convention, and a technical wizard will compile these into one of the giant Zoom videos that you see online.

One of the highlights of any CMSA convention are the open mic performances. This year people video recorded themselves, or their groups, and we all got to watch the concert from the comfort of our homes. I was able to be a part of two open mic performances: 

My friends in the Minnesota Mandolin Orchestra invited me to join them in a recording of "Epilogue", a beautiful piece by Enrique Granados, arranged for mandolin orchestra by MMO conductor Lon Hendricks. I was especially happy to see that my old friend Marilynn Mair was also a guest member of the group for this video.

In addition I was invited to join in with my old friends, and regular open mic favorites, the Mandobabes in creating a video performance of my own piece "Halfway Home." Everyone played beautifully and made my piece look and sound great. All in all a wonderful convention experience.

I finally made some time this morning to do a little recording. First I recorded a short piece from Telemann's sonata no. 4 of his Sonate Metodiche collection. This is a great bunch of music and I have a nice, sturdy hardcover book of the whole set. This particular piece doesn't appear in either of my Mel Bay published Telemann collections (there is so much great Telemann music to choose from) but I've been playing this almost every day for the last month. I created a 2nd mandolin part from the original bass line of the piece.

I recorded "Yew Sunday" back in the spring in a video but here I am finally getting around to re-recording it with guitar backup. In fact, just for fun, I used two guitars playing basically the same thing. As always, I hope you enjoy the music!

October Snow

 

October Snow (mp3) (pdf)

Snow in October is not uncommon around here. You can see from the photo above, taken on October 26, that we only had a light dusting this year. Up in the Twin Cities, however, they had some serious snow around the same time.

In any event, this prompted me to write a simple jig in F. Hope you enjoy it.