General Repertoire for Mandolin Orchestras

The available repertoire for the mandolin orchestra is huge and includes music from virtually every form and style of music, from every period ranging from medieval to modern day compositions. Obviously the current format of the mandolin orchestra is relatively modern and earlier forms of music have to be adapted or arranged from pre-existing manuscripts.

Some music is more appropriate to be played on mandolins than other music and this basic concept also dictates what music has been and continues to be adapted.

Music written specifically for the mandolin orchestra started to appear around the time the mandolin orchestra format began to appear and has continued to this day. In Germany alone there are at least 1,000 mandolin orchestras, Japan has many mandolin orchestras and there are also many in the USA. With so many orchestras there are also composers working to provide the orchestras with new music.

Other Australian composers actively creating music for the mandolin orchestra include George Dreyfus, Richard Charlton and Robert Shulz. Robert in particular has been very integral to the West Australian Mandolin Orchestra as its conductor for many years, a teacher of guitar and mandolin, and a very busy composer with many works to his name. Within the MMO, we have a very talented composer, Michelle Nelson, who is leader of the Guitar section of the orchestra. She has completed her musical studies in Composition at the Conservatorium of Music at Melbourne University and we are extremely fortunate that she has composed several major works for mandolin orchestra in the past few years. Her "Brolga Dances" has been extensively performed in Europe by the Australiasian Mandolin Orchestra in 2006 during their concert tour in Germany and the Netherlands.