Orchestra to bring back sound of bygone era
Carol Simmons
Dayton Daily News Reporter
(937) 225-7309
DAYTON - A descendant of the lute and a cousin of the violin, the mandolin's distinctive sound sets it apart from other instruments. But even more important to mandolin aficionado and player Allen Richmond is the instrument's versatility. "That's what makes playing mandolins fun," said Richmond, who along with a small corps of like-minded musicians is reviving a musical tradition not seen -- or heard - in these parts for at least 75 years: the all-mandolin orchestra.
Ubiquitous in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the mandolin orchestra's wide popularity was overshadowed by the Big Band era and the development of Jazz, Richmond said. The lilting and lush gentility of the European-born mandolin orchestra seemed old-fashioned and out-of-step beside the newer, brash American-born sounds.
At the same time, the hand-picked and strummed stringed instrument found a new home within the context of another all-American genre. Kentucky native Bill Monroe, credited as the father of bluegrass music, not only championed the mandolin, but also showed just how lively, bold and exciting it could be.
MICHAEL HITCHCOCK's fingers dance across the mandola's fretboard as he practices.
Michael lives in Yellow Springs.
Richmond was introduced to the mandolin through bluegrass, and he started playing as a 7-year-old in the early 1970s. His love for the instrument remained strong as he went on to college to earn degrees in music composition and conducting from Ohio University School of Music and the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music. As first mandolinist in the Mandolin Society Orchestra of Central Indiana and a member of the Classical Mandolin Society of America's En Masse Orchestra, Richmond started talking to people in the Dayton area about reintroducing the mandolin orchestra experience here.
An original group of eight who started practicing together twice a month in September has grown to a 20-piece orchestra, Richmond said. "It's just been phenomenal, the response thus far," he said. There are reportedly fewer than 20 similar orchestras in existence worldwide.
"It's an eclectic group of people," according to DMO member Susan Jelus, who is also a Dayton-based poet. "Mandolin players are a strange breed - as strange and amazing as the sound of a mandolin orchestra itself." DMO members range in age from the early 20s to 82-year-old Daryl Whiting, a co-founder of the Kettering Banjo Society. Whiting "has a rich and wonderful knowledge of what happened with the mandolin in Dayton over the last 50 years," Richmond said.
DARYL WHITING (left), of Kettering, practices with the Dayton Mandolin Orchestra.
The recently formed group will have its first concert on Sunday. CLIFF FAWCETT,
of Beavercreek, is in the background.
In addition to having a good time playing together, Richmond said the DMO's goal is to bring about "a renaissance to the mandolin sound".
Like the violin family to which it is related, the mandolin has its own family group, which includes the slightly larger mandora or mandola (which corresponds to a viola), the even larger mandocello (violoncello) and the still larger mandobass (double bass). They represent the soprano, alto, tenor and bass ranges within a musical score. The mandolin has been used as both a group and solo instrument in a variety of musical genres over the years, including classical and folk. And because of its parallels with the violin, it can also perform works written for more traditional string ensembles.
As the DMO prepares to make its public debut in a concert Sunday afternoon, the group hopes to illustrate just how versatile the instrument can be. The theme of Sunday's concert is, in fact, "The Versatile Mandolin," and the program includes works by Handel, Mozart, Brahms, Schubert and Scott Joplin, as well as a selection of seasonal holiday tunes. "It's a very diverse program," Richmond said. "We want to make the public more familiar with the mandolin's sound and possibilities."
ALLEN RICHMOND is Music Director and Conductor of the Dayton Mandolin Orchestra.
Saturday, December 4, 2004
Dayton Daily News: Dayton, Ohio
Volume 128, Number 55
Front Page: Masthead
Section E: "Life", Page One
