Manuel Morais, ed., Cândido Drummond de Vasconcelos: Colecção de Peças para Machete

Manuel Morais, ed., Cândido Drumond de Vasconcelos: Colecção de Peças para Machete

Manuel Morais, ed., Cândido Drumond de Vasconcelos: Colecção de Peças para Machete (1846) (Casal de Cambra, 2003) [Collection of pieces for the Machete]

So, I've been reading John King's research on the early ukulele / pre-ukulele and have especially been interested in two items that he discusses:

1) Collection of duets for machete and guitar originally written in 1846 published in 2003 by Portuguese musicologist Manuel Morais.

2) Manuscripts of machete music by Manoel Joaquim Monteiro Cabràl (ca 1850) that John discovered with his acquisition of his Octaviano João Nunes da Paixão (1812-1874) made machete that he was planning to publish before John passed on (RIP).

The Nalu Music article that discusses these is found here:
http://www.nalu-music.com/notes-of-a-sub-sub-librarian/

There has been another thread on UU that discussess the Cabral manuscript and whether it has been published or will be:
http://www.ukuleleunderground.com/forum/showthread.php?24517-John-King-s-research
Has there been any update on whether Jim Tranquada knows anything about this manuscript?

On the other item, the one published by Morais, I was wondering if anyone on UU has a copy? Has seen a copy? Has seen excerpts? I'm debating whether to put in the effort to track down a copy for myself. If anyone has, I'd been interested in a review.

There is a YouTube channel of a guy interested in traditional Madeiran music that I think has some performances of the de Vasconcelos material that Morais published:
http://www.youtube.com/user/machitz

Anyway, interested to hear from UUers who know anything of these two sets of music.

By the way, John had some photos of the machete and Cabral manuscripts on his old site:
http://www.nalu-music.com/nalu/machete_x.html

Aloha and G'day Infidel,
Thanks for sharing, the late John King was a wealth of knowledge...we miss him dearly and thank him for all he has contributed....Have Fun and Enjoy!! Happy Strummings! MM stan

Fascinating information, thanks for the heads up.

I'd like to see the ms as well - and find out if John's book will ever see the light of publication.

Infidel:

Manuel was kind enough to send me a copy of his book on de Vasconcelos. It not only reproduces all the music, but Manuel provides a detailed account of the techniques likely used to play all the pieces, and a detailed history of the Madeiran machete. The text is in both Portuguese and English. It's a wonderful piece of work.

Jim T.

Thanks Jim,

I might try to see if I can get myself a copy.

Jay Lee

infidel said:

There is a YouTube channel of a guy interested in traditional Madeiran music that I think has some performances of the de Vasconcelos material that Morais published:
http://www.youtube.com/user/machitz

Click to expand...

Correction: That's apparently Manuel Morais himself with the white hair in the videos.

Estudos para Machete (Manuel Joaquim Monteiro Cabral)

Thanks to Jim Tranquada on another UU thread (http://www.ukuleleunderground.com/forum/showthread.php?24517-John-King-s-research), we now know that John King DID publish the Cabral manuscripts of the only Machete method known:

http://en.calameo.com/read/000019422bebb33e32c47
"Um Metodo Desconhecido Para O Machete Madeirense"

However, the images from the calameo online source above is not downloadable and the re-engraved scores and facsimiles of the manuscripts are near impossible to read online. I tried re-copying one of the pieces (Waltz) but it was pretty difficult and I probably made lots of mistakes.

Anyway, here is a list of the major headings that I tried to make out from the two online sources (the calameo site and John's old site http://www.nalu-music.com/nalu/machete_x.html):

[Somehow I cannot see two pages of the re-engraved score on the Calameo site, maybe a poor internet connection on my side.]

[Manuscript 1: 4 leaves; 8 pages incl. title page; sewn; 10-staffs per page]

Page 1:

Estudos para Machete

Arranjados

por

Manuel Joaquim Monteiro MJMCabràl

Page 2:

Signos das Cordas Soltas [tuning of the strings D G B D]

Escalla Chromatica

Escalla Natural

Page 3:

Braço do Machete [neck diagram of all notes]

Salto de 3rd

Page 4:

Salto de 3rd Unidas

Notas Ligadas

Notas Soltas

Trinado

Page 5:

Notas Ligadas [John transcribed this header onto the end of the previous page]

Acordes em Cadencia nos toens mais [Umaiel?]

C maior A minor G maior

E minor D maior B minor

A maior F# minor E maior

Page 6:

C# minor F maior D minor

Bb maior G minor Eb maior

C minor Ab maior F minor

Waltz [this is the one I tried to re-copy; sounds all right but I probably made some mistakes]

Page 7:

Danca Campanela

Galope

Page 8:

Rule Britannia

God Save the Queen!

[The second manuscript: single leaf; two pages; 12-staff per page?]

Page 1:

Maraniette Marcha [headers/subheaders are inverted between the manuscript and the re-engraved score]

Page 2:

Ranz de Vaches [duet for two machetes]

I should have done a YouTube search first.

I've found three videos of John performing on his Octavianno Nunes replica machete that I suspect are of music from Estudos para Machete:







However, the uploader did not state the titles of the pieces, so a closer listening and examination and comparison of the playing with the scores could identify the pieces.

I would still like to hear from people who:
1) Have the scans or scores from Estudos Para Machete (Cabral c1850) or the King paper "Um Metodo Desconhecido Para O Machete Madeirense" on the scores.
2) Can identify the pieces in the above three videos and also know whether they are from Estudos Para Machete.
3) Who have tabbed or transcribed either Estudos Para Machete or the King performances in the above three videos...

I tried emailing Manuel Morais but didn't get a reply so assume that he is too busy or didn't get my emails.

Otherwise, I might have to put in a greater effort to transcribe Estudos Para Machete or these three videos. Hmmm...

Jay

And if anyone knows the name of the one he is playing in the middle video, please do post. Thanks.

I believe the piece John is playing in the second video is "Valsa 18." All three videos may be from a recital he gave in Florida. I'll check and see if I have a copy of the program.

Thanks much, that would be great.

That replicas johnplays sounds great and was made by Dave means i believe. I had the original in my house for awhile obtained from King but now it resides in Japan

I've been wondering what the differences are between a machete and a uke. Does anyone care to shed some light on the issue?

Machete tuning: DGBD
Uke tuning: gCEA

For those who are interested,

Colecção de Peças para Machete
can be bought online at:
http://caleidoscopio.pt/en/livros?p...s&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=584&vmcchk=1

and
A Madeira e a Música: Estudos
which contains the paper by John King,
Um Método Desconhecido para o Machete Madeirense
can be bought online at:
http://www.funchal500anos.com/04_detalhe.asp?ano=2008&id=280

I may buy Colecção de Peças para Machete soon but I think I must finish memorising 'Famous Solos and Duets for the Ukulele. King. 2004. Mel Bay' before I even think about buying A Madeira e a Música: Estudos. Or maybe the sequence should be to first memorise Famous Solos and Duets, then get Colecção de Peças para Machete and get half way through that before getting A Madeira e a Música. Yes. That's it.

Jim T. said:

I believe the piece John is playing in the second video is "Valsa 18." All three videos may be from a recital he gave in Florida. I'll check and see if I have a copy of the program.

Click to expand...

Yes. The middle piece is Valsa 18 by Cândido Drumond de Vasconcelos. Here is the same link as above of John playing it:


And here is the Quinteto Drumond de Vasconcelos performing it:

infidel said:

For those who are interested,

Colecção de Peças para Machete
can be bought online at:
http://caleidoscopio.pt/en/livros?p...s&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=584&vmcchk=1

and
A Madeira e a Música: Estudos
which contains the paper by John King,
Um Método Desconhecido para o Machete Madeirense
can be bought online at:
http://www.funchal500anos.com/04_detalhe.asp?ano=2008&id=280

I may buy Colecção de Peças para Machete soon but I think I must finish memorising 'Famous Solos and Duets for the Ukulele. King. 2004. Mel Bay' before I even think about buying A Madeira e a Música: Estudos. Or maybe the sequence should be to first memorise Famous Solos and Duets, then get Colecção de Peças para Machete and get half way through that before getting A Madeira e a Música. Yes. That's it.

Click to expand...

Thank you thank you. Been trying to source this.

Hi Pulelehua,

Which one are you getting? Colecção de Peças or Estudos? Would be interested in knowing how you go with playing the stuff. Also, what instrument setup are you going to use? I'm thinking of getting a soprano uke and restringing it solely as a machete with DGBD tuning. Maybe an anuenue vision 1879 to start with... Let me know especially if you get King's Estudos paper. Might be interested in a trade. I've got nothing much, but maybe you might be interested in Ka'ai 1906 in PDF?

Cheers,

Jay