Italian Mandolin Heroes in America by Sheri Mignano Crawford

Description: Summary and Advance Praise: Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE Italian Mandolin Heroes in America By Sheri Mignano Crawford My book mainly covers Italian mandolin music publishers (and later, accordion publishers) in America between 1890 and 1930. With rare exceptions, publishers were multi-instrumentalists who specialized in mandolins. Italian sheet music publishing survived in spite of the monolithic publishing companies that dominated in the early 20th century. For that reason alone, Italian immigrants were courageous and heroic in challenging established music publishers. I maintain that the ballo liscio dance genre is on the cusp of classical and folk. It resides in that hybrid state where an advanced mandolinist is challenged and a beginner can find satisfaction and reward. These Italian music publishers drew on the most professional, musically-gifted composers to create their mandolin trio music catalog. The earliest signs of success were seen in Philadelphia where G.B. De Stefano decided to publish dance music using the mandolin trio. He abandoned the courtly line-dancing and inspired the major Italian publishers in Manhattan who emulated him. Some of De Stefano’s composers went on to publish in Brooklyn, and finally, in Manhattan where the mandolin trio format excelled. Pietro Tesio and Ottavio Pagani represent the most prominent publishers in the dance tradition. At some point, the mandolin sheet music business traveled to Providence where mandolinists like Pettine were self-publishing. At some point between the two major world wars, the mandolin sheet music demise was countered by the rising popularity of the the accordion. When that happened, the Italian dances crossed over into the accordion repertoire. That story of how the Italian dances leaped across the United States (via Steubenville) and landed in the San Francisco Bay Area is why I wrote these individual biographical narratives. It concludes with Italian accordion publishers in the Bay Area. My workshop shows how each Italian music publisher sustained the popularity of ballo liscio dances and how those dances were transformed by the accordionists who standardized the repertoire What you might have missed as a result of conflicting schedules during the convention or due to your absence at the convention, was the exciting news that after many years of discovery, research, and tenacious investigation, my new book reveals never-seen-before photographs of Italian mandolinists, dating back to 1889. The music publishers come to life and for the first time, you see the actual faces behind Italian music publishing: De Stefano, Giovanni Conterno, Gaetano Leone, Rosario Catalano, O. Di Bella, Antonio Grauso, Pietro Tesio, Ottavio Pagani, Mauro V. Cardilli, Theresa Quinto Costello, Antonio Paolilli, and Biagio Quattrociocche among many other cameos. You learn about the composers whose melodies fortified the dance catalogs for so many publishers. Composers such as Pietro Forte, Louis Canoro, Joseph Gioè, Joseph Tarantola, Santi Tafarella and many others. In the end, accordionists learned from mandolin sheet music publishers and absorbed the dance music. Eventually accordion sheet music completed the cycle by having its music made available in mandolin catalogs for mandolinists. The shared repertoire resulted in a unified dance catalog of Italian village dances. Much of the sheet music remains in public domain (having been published before 1924). I invite you to visit my forum thread at Mandolin Café where you can access each of the major and minor Italian music publishers. Mandolinists and guitarists can explore the exciting world of Italian dances: the complex tarantella, the revolving waltz, the quirky mazurka, the symphonic march, Latin dances and much more. To get an overview of the book as a slide show, please visit my YouTube channel or copy this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZABM2zfGH88 To download public domain sheet music, please visit Mandolin Cafe online and join the forum thread titled “Drop Box Now Available.” You will find the latest Index (27pp) and be able to download thousands of dances. Italian vintage recordings are available in mp3 format and can easily be downloaded, too. The sheet music and recordings provide the foundation to the history of Italian village dance music. HERE ARE THE REVIEWS THAT APPEAR INSIDE THE BOOK. Italian Mandolin Heroes in America Oh Lordy! You’ve DONE IT! Sheri Mignano Crawford’s monumental book on the history of the Italian immigrant musicians of the late 19th Century gives us a deep dive into their lives, their struggle in a new land, their musical business acumen and the beautiful music they have give us. She shows this through the lens of our beloved instrument, the mandolin. It is the history of the Italian mandolin, but it is also a great American immigrant story. Thank you, Sheri for your inspired work. My own paternal great-grandfather Albert Marciariello came to Pennsylvania in 1885 from a small village outside of Naples, Roccaromana, in Caserta. To be taken back in time through your wonderful book has been like walking in his footsteps. After I had been playing bluegrass mandolin for just a couple of months I found out that my own grandfather played the mandolin as a young boy and was most likely ordering sheet music from many of the publishing houses and musicians mentioned in your book. Thank you for your thoughtful and complete research. We will treasure it. Mike Marshall, Grammy-nominated Mandolin Virtuoso What an amazing time to be alive as a mandolin player! Now, thanks to Sheri’s book, musicians can experience what it must have felt like to stroll along the streets of little Italy in the early 1900s. We can pop into Antonio Grauso’s factory to audition a guitar or a Neapolitan mandolin. No longer do we need to imagine what must have been like to take a lesson from a virtuoso such as Maestro Stellario Cambria For the first time, we glimpse the incomparable knowledge of Italian musicians who introduced mandolin composition, performance, and instrument building to America. Mike Guggino, Mandolinist, Grammy Award-winning bluegrass band, Steep Canyon Rangers These biographies offer insight into the vibrant lives of extraordinary Italian musicians, and they contain an amazing collection of little known intimate details that shaped their public persona. The array of musical accomplishments among these hearty Italian immigrants reveals much about how they succeeded in America. For the first time, we are introduced Italian-born mandolinists such as Paolo Bolognese and Giuseppe Pettine and other neglected musicians whose roots were in the Bel Paese. Mandatory reading for every mandolin player, essential for Italian Americans, and a must for everyone else! As my dear mother would have said: “…ben fatto, Sheri!” Achille Bocus, Conductor, San Francisco Mandolin Orchestra Readers and historians will be impressed with the author’s preservation of the important historical interrelationships between the key persons engaged in accordion and mandolin manufacturing and music publishing during a very important era of Italian dance music in America. By all academic standards, this book will assuredly go down in history as a significant documentation for future generations. The detailed, methodical research required for a book of this type reflects “true” scholarship by thoroughly researching and reconstructing obscure, but important, historical facts from hundreds of years ago. You are to be honored by future generations for your devotion and pursuit of this project. Edwin Davison, co-author, Golden Age of the Accordion As a lifelong mandolinist performing in various mandolin orchestras, I found these biographies utterly fascinating and illuminating. Little did I realize the impact these mandolin-playing music publishers, like Pietro Tesio, had on the mandolin reper- toire, especially as programmed on concerts I’ve played. Finally, I can get to know these forgotten mandolinists and read about their sacrifices, their hopes and dreams. They were definitely heroic in bringing the tradition of the Neapolitan mandolin and its great music to America. Matt Vuksinich, Mandola and Mandolin Aurora Mandolin Orchestra and Silver Strings Ensemble

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Location: Boyes Hot Springs, California

End Time: 2024-11-30T14:21:46.000Z

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