The Louisville Mandolin Orchestra was formed in 1988 under the leadership of Mike Schroeder. I saw an article in the Louisville Courier Journal and began driving to rehearsals from Bowling Green, Kentucky that summer. I was an active member of the group from that point until we moved to Iowa in the summer of 1994. I have occasionally been able to play and record with the LMO since that time and I have many friends from those early years. Without the LMO I would probably have never written music for mandolin orchestra or enjoyed the decades of pleasure I have received from being a member of the Classical Mandolin Society of America.
I was honored to be commissioned by the LMO to compose a new piece for the group to help celebrate their 25th anniversary in 2013. Schroeder's Idea was the result. The title was obvious to me and I had great fun putting the piece together.
One of the first pieces that the LMO worked on in 1988 was The Avignon Suite by Fried Walter. I refer to its opening notes in my own piece and, again, at the close. We spent many, many hours working on Walter's music and I hoped to remind by LMO friends of those fond memories. (Of course, many of the newer members of the 25th anniversary version of the group were probably unfamiliar with the piece.)
I was especially honored when my friends included Schroeder's Idea as the first track of their It's All Goodin 30th anniversary CD project. You can stream (and purchase, if you choose) that recording from the LMO's Bandcamp page here.
I have decided to make PDF copies of the score and parts for Schroeder's Idea freely available for download here under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Generic License linked below. Feel free to make as many copies of the score and parts as are necessary for your orchestra.
If you find Schroeder's Idea to be a good addition to your repertoire and you feel inclined to make a donation in support of my work you can use the PayPal Donation button below. Again, this is not required, I just hope that you enjoy the music. I would, however, love to hear about any performances of the piece. PDF copies of concert programs are especially appreciated.
Published by Rosie and Earl Music (ASCAP)
John Goodin, March 16, 2021
Created on February 25, 2021