I composed these simple duets for 2 mandolins in early June 2006 as I was completing the work of transcribing the Eighteen Duettinos for Two Guittars; Two French Horns or Two Clarinetts that were published by William Bates around 1770 in London. As I was playing his charming little pieces I thought it might be fun to write a piece or two of my own in the same spirit. I ended up with six in quick succession.

Bates' duettinos are all very limited in scope, mine are only slightly more adventurous. My goal was to keep the music simple (not usually a big problem for me), to limit each piece to one page of paper in my notebook and to have the first mandolin part carry the whole melody with the second part supplying basic harmonies with lots of thirds. These are all characteristics of the pieces in the Bates set.

I have grouped my 6 pieces into one document and here I supply a PDF version of the notes. (In August of 2013 I changed slightly the metronome markings for nos. 1,2,4,5 & 6.) Although I hold the copyright to these pieces they may be freely copied and distributed for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.

Six Duettinos, Summer 2006 (PDF sheet music)

Six Duettinos, Summer 2006 (Scorch sheet music)

Home recordings of these pieces, made over a number of years using different instruments, microphones and recordings devices, can be heard at my So Many tunes (alphabetical listing) page.