Bethlehem On the Ohio (Mandolin Orchestra version 2001)

by John Goodin (2001)

Bethlehem On the Ohio (Mandolin Orchestra version 2001) is an arrangement for mandolin orchestra of a tune I wrote sometime back in the 1980s after playing a one-off gig with some good friends at an outdoor festival in the lovely little village of Bethlehem, Indiana. I have a photo somewhere of us sitting under a tent playing tunes only a few yards from the mighty Ohio River. This mandolin orchestra arrangement of the basic tune has been played by a number of mandolin orchestras and recorded by the wonderful Baldwin Fretworks Mandolin and Guitar Orchestra. There are no dynamic markings in the score. My idea is to encourage performers to take liberties with the piece and try different approaches. I think of the tune as being a hornpipe and having a slightly dotted rythmn but it works fine if the eighth notes are played straight. Please feel free to print as many copies of the score and parts as necessary for the use of your group. My hope is that you will enjoy playing this music and that you will convey that enjoyment to your audiences.

As you can see I am presenting this sheet music under a Creative Commons License. My intention is to make it clear that you can use the written music for any non-commercial purpose as long as proper attribution is given. I would, however, very much like to know of any performances of this music for my records.

John Goodin, February, 2007


Bethlehem On the Ohio (Mandolin Orchestra version 2001): PDF title page

PDF score
Mandolin 1, PDF
Mandolin 2, PDF
Mandola (CGDA, alto clef), PDF
Octave Mandolin, PDF
Guitar, PDF
Mandocello, PDF
Bass, PDF


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.

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Created on February 21, 2007 : last updated on November 26, 2013