Greetings Stuart,
Interesting, but I'm away from appropriate reference here in the day-job
office. I do have a pretty extensive collection of recordings made with
early mandolins. I'm pretty certain the only I have of music by a Merchi is
on modern instruments; a trio in D for two mandolins and basso continuo and
a duo for two guitars in D by Giacomo (b.1726) appears on Circolo
Mandolinistico Italiano by Ugo Orlandi and the Citta di Brescia orchestra on
the Nuova Era label. Those works are very pleasant, but not particularly
remarkable.
That first wave of tremendous mandolin popularity, especially
in Paris, ran ca. 1760-1790.
Interesting. There must have been a lot of pre-revolutionary plucking
going on in those times (1760ish-1789) in France:- all the 'cistre ou
guitharre allemande' publications and a fair number of guitar
publications - and were there many mandolin publications too?
And each of them - guitar, cistre, mandolin - were often in combination
with a violin (also the mandolin being a substitute for one) which is a
bit curious too.
Stuart
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