Giuseppe Pettine

Giuseppe Antonio Luigi Pettine was born on 13 February, 1874 in the town of Isernia, Italy. Young Giuseppe started to study the mandolin with Camille Mastropaolo at a very early age. After the Pettine family emigrated to the USA in 1889 and had settled down in Providence, Rhode Island, Giuseppe was soon regarded as a child prodigy of the mandolin because of his great concert appearances.Fact|date=July 2008 The family had settled down in Providence, Rhode Island and it is from here that his impressive career as a concert mandolinist, teacher and composer would start. It is because of these skills, the passion for the mandolin that Raffaele Calace (1863 - 1934) dedicated his 1st Mandolin Concerto op. 113 to his fellow countryman and friend Giuseppe Pettine.

Pettine is probably best remembered as the mandolinist of and composer/arranger of many composition for The Big Trio Reprise, a trio formed by the guitarist William Foden, the banjoist Frederick Bacon and Giuseppe Pettine on mandolin, but with the publication of his mandolin method in 1896 he also became renowned as a nationally teacher of the Italian mandolin technique. With his talent as a teacher and his comprehensive 6 volume tutor for the mandolin he created a fine school of American mandolinists among whome William Place Jr. (1889 - 1959), known as ‘Americas Greatest Mandolin Virtuoso’, and Alfonso Balasone (Albert Bellson, 1897 - 1977) are only two to mention here. Even today the Pettine method is still regarded as one of the most comprehensive works for mandolin ever published.

Besides these activities Pettine was also concerned with the development and production of fine mandolins. For this he worked in close cooperation with the well known VEGA musical instrument manufacturers company in Boston (MA) creating ‘The Giuseppe Pettine Special’ model. A wonderful soloist mandolin modelled after the modern Neapolitan mandolin designed by the celebrated Vinaccia luthier family of Neapels.

As a composer he greatly contributed to the mandolin repertoire with original music for solo mandolin and mandolin in combination with other instruments. His most substantial and outstanding composition is undoubtedly his published 3-movement concerto titled ‘Concerto Patetico’ for mandolin and piano accompaniment. This concerto also exists in an unpublished incomplete version made by Pettine himself for solo mandolin and an orchestra consisting of wind and plucked instruments. The orchestra parts were written for 1st and 2nd mandolin, mandola, mandoloncello, bass, tenor banjo, flute, piccolo flute, clarinet in A, bassoon, horn in F and timbales.

One of Pettine’s finest compositions for solo mandolin is his ‘Fantasia Romantica’, a substantial work in which he emphasizes the wonderful possibilities of the instrument by including seldom-heard harmonics, both natural and artificial, chord arpeggios and virtuosic scale passages.

Pettine also was concerned with the development and production of fine mandolins. He worked in close cooperation with the well-known VEGA musical instrument company in Boston, Massachusetts, creating the ‘Giuseppe Pettine Special’ mandolin, a wonderful soloist model after the modern Neapolitan mandolin designed by the celebrated Vinaccia luthier family.

Pettine died in 1966, but his great contribution for the mandolin lives on and still is influential in spreading the enthusiasm for the mandolin in the world.

George C. Krick (1871- 1962), a well known guitarist, mandolinist, writer and contemporary of Pettine, wrote the following about the latter and his activities: "‘The man who undoubtedly has contributed more than anyone else to the American literature of the mandolin, is Giuseppe Pettine’ "and" ‘His concert repertoire includes many of the great violin concertos and original compositions and his concert tours have taken him from Maine to California. Amongst his numerous compositions the Concerto Patetico, for mandolin and piano, is his greatest contribution to mandolin literature’."

Bibliography

R. Janssens: Geschiedenis van de Mandoline, Antwerpen, 1982.

G. C. Krick: Internet site of the FMI (www.federmandolino.it)

P. Sparks: The Classical Mandolin, Oxford 1995.

A. Timmerman: CD Booklet 'Fantasia Romantica' Sebastiaan de Grebber, 2006.

R. Walz: Giuseppe Pettine 1874-1966, Plectrum FMI, Italy, 2004.

M. Gioielli: Giuseppe Pettine, il leggendario mandolinista isernino, 'Utriculus', X, n. 37, 2006, pp. 29-36. [http://www.maurogioielli.net/UTRICULUS/Mauro.Gioielli,Giuseppe.Pettine,il.leggendario.mandolinista.isernino,«Utriculus»,n.37,gen.mar.2006,pp.29-36.pdf]