Mandolin orchestra
A mandolin orchestra is an orchestra consisting primarily of instruments from the mandolin family of instruments, such as the mandolin, mandola, mandocello and mandobass or mandolone. Some mandolin orchestras use guitars and double-basses instead of, or as well as, the lower mandolin-family instruments.
The stimulus to create mandolin groups often came from travelling mandolinists and teachers. Immigration from Europe to other parts of the world resulted in the concept spreading rapidly, with movements beginning quite early in the US, Japan and Australia. Some indication of the speed of these developments across the globe can be appreciated by the following:
On reviewing the S.S. Stewart's "Banjo and Guitar Journal", later called "Banjo, Guitar and Mandolin Journal", between 1884 and 1900 [7] one comes to a view, at least in the US and Australia, that mandolin ensemble playing evolved within the banjo movement, eventually replacing it as the better ensemble instrument.
Mandolin orchestras were popular in the early 20th century, and many cities and schools had one.
A considerable body of music was created, much of which was simple or popular marches and foxtrots that were easy and fun to play. However, some "serious" music was also created and which requires every bit as much skill to play as anything in the more well-known violin repertoire. Principal among the important composers of such music were Raffaele Calace, Arrigo Cappelletti, Giuseppe Manente and Carlo Munier, who all wrote beautiful and virtuosic music for various mandolin chamber music ensembles (mandolin and guitar, two mandolins and mandola, etc. as well as full orchestras).
After World War I, the mandolin orchestras went into a period of decline in the US. Orchestras continued to exist in Japan, and Germany where they are known as Zupforchester, and also in Italy.
In Canada, new mandolin orchestras were organized in Toronto, Winnipeg and other cities by left-wing immigrants from Eastern Europe.[8][9] Frequently performing in labour halls, these groups were sometimes under government scrutiny, suspected of spreading socialist propaganda.[10] Children's orchestras were also formed in Ukrainian communities.[11]
The New York Mandolin Orchestra continued to perform during World War II.[12]
Interest in the mandolin was renewed as a part of the resurgent interest in folk music in the late 1950s and 1960s. As this music began to be re-discovered, orchestras began to form anew in large cities in the US.
In the modern era, many cities in the US host mandolin orchestras of many years experience; many have libraries of hundreds of compositions. Significant new music continues to be written all over the world by composers including Victor Kioulaphides, John Craton, Annette Kruisbrink, Clarice Assad, Francine Trester and Jeff Hijlkema.