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18 Duettinos by William Bates (adapted for two mandolins)

by John Goodin

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about

Sometime around 1770 William Bates published a collection of Eighteen Duettinos for Two Guittars, Two French Horns, or Two Clarinetts.

The "guittar" is listed first on the title page and is most certainly the instrument that is often called a cittern, gittern or "English guitar" today. I would argue that much of the music composed for the "guittar" in the 18th century is fair game for the modern mandolin, especially duets like these and those of James Oswald which have only single notes in each part. Although the tuning of the older instrument is not in fifths (or even fourths) it was strung with wire and is closely related to the bandurria still played today in Spain and the Portuguese guitar still in use in modern Portugal. As is common with 18th century music for this instrument, all of Bates' duettinos are in the key of C major, they all share the same modest range and are full of passages of parallel thirds.

This digital album consists of home recordings of all 18 of the William Bates pieces, adapted for the modern mandolin.

My primary "adaptation" has been to transpose the entire collection down to the key of G major. Of course the pieces are perfectly playable on the mandolin in their original key of C but I prefer the lower range. I also feel that this is more in keeping with the composer's apparent intention to make these pieces easy and convivial.

The complete score, both the original in C major and the version transposed down to G, for this collection is available at this page on my Mandotopia website: www.mandotopia.com/bates/bates18home.htm

credits

released May 14, 2017

Non-state-of-the-art recording occurred from January to April, 2017 at home in Decorah, Iowa. The occasional car, snow blower or lawn mower may be heard in the background. Numerous mistakes may be evident, depending on the listener's standards. Despite these limitations the pleasant nature of these pieces remains evident. Hopefully, listening to a few of these duettinos will inspire the listener to seek out the sheet music and pick up his or her instrument.

Oval hole mandolins were used, a 1928 Gibson A, a recent Collings MT2-O and a 2009 Weber Vintage A; there may have been others.

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John Goodin Decorah, Iowa

John Goodin (1951-2021) played guitar and mandolin for decades. He wrote fiddle tunes and pieces for mandolin orchestra, published music books and recorded several CDs. He performed around the country with the contra dance band Contratopia and locally with fiddler Erik Sessions and the Scandinavian-American band Foot-Notes, among others. ... more

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