Some time ago I have been asked if I can recommend any mandolin duets. So I started to make some research and look for videos and sheet music for two mandolins.
Duets for two mandolins are not so frequently found as duets for mandolin and guitar. Sheet music for two mandolins is more difficult to find.
The most important artists playing music for two mandolins today are probably Caterina Lichtenberg and Mike Marshall. Carlo Aonzo has played together with Brian Oberlin on some occasions. Mike Marshall has played together with Chris Thiele and with the bandolim players Hamilton de Holanda or Danilo Brito. All Bluegrass mandolin players are used to play melody and chords – so they do occasionally play as a mandolin duo.
Pieces for a melody instrument with accompaniment can be played as a mandolin duet if the second mandolin plays the chords or improvises a second part. In my playlist you can find several examples of this.
Classical Mandolin Duets – A List of the BDZ
On the website of the BDZ (Bund Deutscher Zupfmuskier, association of mandolin orchestras in Germany) you can find several lists of sheet music for mandolin and guitar, including a list for mandolin duet.
sheet music for mandolin and guitar
sheet music for two mandolins.
Playlist – Mandolin Duets
In my playlist of mandolin duets I have collected classical mandolin duets but also mandolin duets with bluegrass, folk or choro. Let yourself be inspired to find interesting music for two mandolins.
Duo Galante – Musik für Mandoline – Playlist
Caterina Lichtenberg and Silke Lisko have recorded an album with music for two mandolins some time ago. This album includes classical mandolin duets from the 18th century and duets from the romantic period (Calace, Munier). The complete album is available at youtube.
You can find many mandolin duets in the old mandolin methods from around 1900. The method by Cristofaro includes so called Recreations for teacher and student. Some great sounding duets can be found in the method by Janvier Pietrapertosa. You can check the free mandolin methods on my website MandoIsland – Mandolin method – MandoIsland.
I have collected links for syllabuses for the mandolin check this: Linksammlung Lehrplan Mandoline
Domra Duo – The Duet Oliver is a duo composed of two domra players. The music played by this duet might give some ideas waht else could be played with two mandolins.
Duet Oliver – Domra Duo
Additional Information
In the Petrucci Library you can also find sheet music for two mandolins, but also music for two violins or two flutes which could also be played with two mandolins:
sheet music for two mandolins in the Petrucci Library (IMSLP)
sheet music for two violins
sheet music for two flutes
You can find most of the available sheet music in the shop of the Trekel publishing company:
Sheet music for two mandolins in the Trekel shop
On the website flutetunes.com you can find free sheet music for flute. This includes more than 600 duets for two flutes:
sheet music for two flutes