Just saw a blurb on this guy on PBS, haven't heard of him before.
Wow! He's done a few albums already, including with a fusion-bluegrass band called Punch Brothers. His disk of Bach pieces, on solo mandolin, is coming out soon; I've preordered a copy.
Sounds like a lot of the pieces he does are violin pieces. The thing that sticks out about Bach is Counterpoint, where two or three single-note solo lines cross and dance with each other, implying but not really playing the chord. This can be done, with difficulty, on a solo violin (because of the curve of the bridge/nut, a violinist can play two notes simultaneous easily; playing more than two requires whipping the bow around the "curve of strings", not doing much for sustain, nor precision).
A mandolin, on the other hand, allows you to hit single notes on different strings with the speed of a violinist's bow, BUT also allows 3 and four notes to be hit simultaneously, with the same sustain; neat! (granted, there's not a lot of "sustain" in the notes of Bach in the first place).
The other things I'm liking about this pairing: first, a mandolin has a very definite "attack" on the notes, as opposed to a violin (pluck versus bowing), lending a more precise feel to the music. Secondly, in its traditional "american" setting, the bluegrass band, a mandolin has one volume: fff! Competing against an acoustic guitar and banjo, even when they're trying to play soft, requires a mandolinist to play "balls-to-the-wall" with no dynamic range. On this solo stuff, the instrument can bark, scream, whisper and whimper; I really like the sound of it!
Chris Thile:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSZ40V0teGM[/youtube]
:music-listening:
Wow! He's done a few albums already, including with a fusion-bluegrass band called Punch Brothers. His disk of Bach pieces, on solo mandolin, is coming out soon; I've preordered a copy.
Sounds like a lot of the pieces he does are violin pieces. The thing that sticks out about Bach is Counterpoint, where two or three single-note solo lines cross and dance with each other, implying but not really playing the chord. This can be done, with difficulty, on a solo violin (because of the curve of the bridge/nut, a violinist can play two notes simultaneous easily; playing more than two requires whipping the bow around the "curve of strings", not doing much for sustain, nor precision).
A mandolin, on the other hand, allows you to hit single notes on different strings with the speed of a violinist's bow, BUT also allows 3 and four notes to be hit simultaneously, with the same sustain; neat! (granted, there's not a lot of "sustain" in the notes of Bach in the first place).
The other things I'm liking about this pairing: first, a mandolin has a very definite "attack" on the notes, as opposed to a violin (pluck versus bowing), lending a more precise feel to the music. Secondly, in its traditional "american" setting, the bluegrass band, a mandolin has one volume: fff! Competing against an acoustic guitar and banjo, even when they're trying to play soft, requires a mandolinist to play "balls-to-the-wall" with no dynamic range. On this solo stuff, the instrument can bark, scream, whisper and whimper; I really like the sound of it!
Chris Thile:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSZ40V0teGM[/youtube]
:music-listening:
