Olive Blossoms Accordion by Pietro Frosini

[JeffJetton]

BTW, there's a wonderful recording by Luigi Appareti called "Luigi Plays Frosini" where he does a lot of the pieces that are in the "Frosini Highlights" collection. And the good news is that it's all up on YouTube:


Of course you can find a lot of very good interpretations of Frosini on YouTube (the OP's included, of course!), but for some reason I really, really like Mr. Appareti's. He's got a couple of other musicians on there lightly backing him up.

 

[Dingo40]

Thanks for sharing, Jeff!??

 

[Zevy]

Thanks Zevy. For Olive Blossoms, it's mainly the left hand that is giving me issues, but I am slowly getting there. There are a few jumps that are tricky. I hit them more often than not, but I need to keep practicing until I can do it every time.

If you play the intro as Frosini played it, you will have to spend some time perfecting the first line. As my teacher (Charles Nunzio, who was Frosini's student) explained, and as you can hear if you listen carefully to the recordings of Frosini, the opening notes are not just open octaves (as printed in the sheet music), but rather 4-note diminished 7th chords descending in half steps. Here's a clip of myself playing Olive Blossoms. Good luck!

 

[Zevy]

BTW, there's a wonderful recording by Luigi Appareti called "Luigi Plays Frosini" where he does a lot of the pieces that are in the "Frosini Highlights" collection. And the good news is that it's all up on YouTube:


Of course you can find a lot of very good interpretations of Frosini on YouTube (the OP's included, of course!), but for some reason I really, really like Mr. Appareti's. He's got a couple of other musicians on there lightly backing him up.

I love that album. I'm so crazy about it that I have it in vinyl!

 

[JeffJetton]

If you play the intro as Frosini played it, you will have to spend some time perfecting the first line. As my teacher (Charles Nunzio, who was Frosini's student) explained, and as you can hear if you listen carefully to the recordings of Frosini, the opening notes are not just open octaves (as printed in the sheet music), but rather 4-note diminished 7th chords descending in half steps. Here's a clip of myself playing Olive Blossoms. Good luck!

Nice! Not sure why they didn't put that in the sheet music, but it's a great idea and sounds marvelous.

Although it sounds like you're not playing a dim7 on the second-to-last chord (the one right before the E7). Am I hearing that right? Is it a Dm there?

P.S. The bellows work in the second section is another nice touch!

 

[JeffJetton]

Hoo-boy... found what purports to be a record of Forsini playing it on YouTube, and there are indeed some BIG differences between the recording and the sheet music:

As Zevy mentions, it really does sound like he's playing dim7 chords in the intro (with a Dm to E7 at the end).

Also, starting at measure 17 (about 16 seconds into the recording), I'm not hearing the basic "waltz" pattern in the LH that the sheet music has. Instead it's more like a two-against-three Paso Doble sort of thing, same as how the RH divides the rhythm, like this (one line = one measure):

D-bass / Dm / A-bass
Dm / D-bass / Dm
A-bass / Am / E-bass
Am / A-bass / Am

Plus there's some chording at the end of the following descending run, and a whole host of other differences. Quite the eye-opener!

 

[NickC]

Great job Zevy! Beautiful playing, phrasing and bellows work. Very inspiring.
There's a lot going on in this song, and I'm working on getting the basic framework together. I will have to try the intro with the diminished chords. I think it should lay nicely on the CBA.

 

[Zevy]

Nice! Not sure why they didn't put that in the sheet music, but it's a great idea and sounds marvelous.

Thank you. I believe that a lot of Frosini's music was not fully notated by the composer. Hence there are many discrepancies between the recorded and the printed versions.

Although it sounds like you're not playing a dim7 on the second-to-last chord (the one right before the E7). Am I hearing that right? Is it a Dm there?

You are very observant, Jeff!

P.S. The bellows work in the second section is another nice touch!

That's what Frosini does, if you listen closely.

 

[Zevy]

Great job Zevy! Beautiful playing, phrasing and bellows work. Very inspiring.
There's a lot going on in this song, and I'm working on getting the basic framework together. I will have to try the intro with the diminished chords. I think it should lay nicely on the CBA.

It should be relatively easy on the CBA.

 

[ArtMustel]

Bravo Tomoko!

 

[JerryPH]

Are those the complete arrangements or like parts of the songs?

 

[Zevy]

Are those the complete arrangements or like parts of the songs?

Please explain; I don't understand the question.

 

[JerryPH]

The book says "highlights" the music within in are they the complete scores or sections partial cuts of each song that shows some aspect of the piece to work on ?

 

[JeffJetton]

@JerryPH they're full arrangements.

So I suppose the title of the book is along the lines of "out of Frosini's entire oeuvre, these nine pieces are some of the highlights".

 

[Zevy]

The book says "highlights" the music within in are they the complete scores or sections partial cuts of each song that shows some aspect of the piece to work on ?

They are exact reprints of 9 Frosini pieces. They are some of his best compositions, but they could have included others. I guess we should be thankful that this book is in print. One has to fish around on Ebay etc. in order to find more works by Frosini.