"Mandolin Melodies" by Sheri Mignano Crawford (sheet music)

[Matt Butcher]

I wanted to mention this CD Rom which has around 200 pages of sheet music. It is Italian-American dance band music from the early twentieth century. The author obviously loves this music and has dug out old printed music but also transcribed tunes from band-leaders' notebooks and from recordings. As you'd expect there are waltzes, polkas, mazurkas, tarantellas, and also Latin numbers that were apparently popular with these bands. There's an interesting introduction which talks about performance style and the history of the dances and bands. The music varies in difficulty but there's quite a bit even I can play. As for the mandolins, she says "mandolin and accordion were interchangeable" and the bands used to often include both instruments. The music is melody line plus chord symbols. I got it from a website called "Elderly Instruments" and I thought I'd mention it in case anyone's into that sort of thing!

 

[Deleted member 48]

Thanks for this information. I like this Italian popular music from the late 19th and early 20th century.
There must be thousands of those Italian tunes left in old sheet music books from that period. Great material to adapt for and play on the accordion.

Some early 20th mandolin tunes with guitar are in this also in this list, the sheet music is included:
http://www.justclassicalguitar.com/vpmusicmedia/biblioteca.php

http://www.mandoisland.com/?p=3678

 

[Matt Butcher]

Thanks Stephen, wow classical guitar music looks alien, I've never bothered to look at any before. The mandolin stuff would work fine but I'd have to get someone to tell me the chords. (Or work them out, but trust me it would sound better if someone else told me.). I'm having trouble getting past the cover pages on the mandoisland site. So much music out there.

 

[Deleted member 48]

On the right side of the page is a more direct link to sheet music pieces and mandolin tutors:
Try
http://www.mandoisland.de/

its:
My Mandolin Website MandoIsland (German/English)

When youre on this German webpage, one can click left on the Mandolinenschulen (historic Mandolin Tutorials), and kostenlose Noten (free sheet music pieces).