20th century rep
 

Hi everyone -

I'm curious to see what 20th century DB solo rep you all work on, or have your students work on. I'm not looking to find terribly difficult pieces.

I'll start with the Romance from Lt. Kije suite (Prokofiev). I'm learning it from the O. Zimmerman "String Bass Solos" (unsure of title) book.

One of my personal favorites is the Hindemith Sonata. I just like the range. I think most of the new repetoire written for bass in the last 100 years is the "golden age" of bass music.

Brian

I haven't worked on many contemporary pieces but here are a couple I can think of off the top of my head:

-Hindemith Sonata
-Psy by Berio
-Ranjbaran Ballade for Unaccompanied Bass
-Fryba Suite


There are also the Koussevitzky pieces which are more in a Romantic style than a modern style.

And there are the contemporary concertos, which are probably some of the hardest rep out there like Tubin and Schuller

Solo Pieces?
 

I have a Simandl Tarantella. Ring any bells?

Wow, I didn't realize Simandl wrote any 20th century music, Ken. :cool:

Actually, I'm kind of interested in this Tarantell, though (I think I'm turning into kind of a Simandl fetishist, as I go through more of his etudes for the fourth or fifth time - it'll probably pass.)

More 20th century works for DB, anyone?

Simandl..
 

http://www.billbentgen.com/bass/players/simandl.htm

He died in 1912 so it's just touching the 20th century. I will look at the Tarantella and see if it has any dates or Edits mentioned.

EDIT(3/4/06): Ok, this was edited by Fred Zimmerman. The piece is Opus 73. I have no clue when it was actually written, sorry.

also; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Mahler

I'm doing Mahler I at the end of this month and I have the solo..

Also for Solo the new piece called Harbison that's being performed around the country. That's a modern piece if I ever heard one!

Just Google it. Plenty to find on the 'net.

Generally when people say "20th century music" they are referring to music that is obviously diffrent from romantic period music that was still being written into the 20th century. Even composers such as Prokofiev, Mahler and Strauss who continued to write into the 1900's wrote some or all of their music in the romantic style.

For music that can uncontestably be considered 20th century we have to look to composers like Berio, Schuller, Tubin, Henze. Berio's Psy is a great peice but Stefano Scondanibbio prepared a transcription of Berio's Sequenza XIV (for cello) which some bass players and non-bass players (!) consider better than the original.

Cool, Ken - Make sure you link us to the reviews!!

That piece is great, btw - When are you playing it?

Reviews?
 

I am playing it on the 30th. I never see any Reviews unless someone shows them to me that lives in the Area. I am in a different Township than where we we play and not much of a Newspaper guy anyway.

Yeah, Ken, the "reviews" comment was sort of an inside oke (way inside, like inside my own head). I've just spoken to other bassists who get to play that solo, and it always seems to be a big point - they're nervous about the reviews.

But really, I do love that piece, and I'm sure you will kill it. Unfortunately, I will be in New England, not PA, otherwise I would be planning to show up.

So, will you be playing it up the g-string? I talked to one guy last year who decided to cross strings for that solo.

Up the G?
 

Well, I have played it all ways so far being up, across and a combination of the two. If I use a Bass with a 'D' neck 41-42" S.L., I will play it up the 'G' only as I get more expression and better vibrato that way. If I play it on my Storioni Bass, across might be the better way to go as the Bass is very even sounding but I need a 'taxi' to get back from the lower octave 'A' on the 'G'-string...lol ..(44 1/4" S.L.)..

At the moment I am back to playing my Martini (41 3/4 S.L.) as the Gilkes just went out for sale. I am liking it more now than I did a year ago as it is settling in nicely being here in USA now for almost 3 years. Most of that time it was either getting repaired, modified or being shown for sale. Now I am playing it until my Hart/Fendt is completed and will see then if I stick with it for awhile or put it back up for sale later in the year. The Ebay thing I do with these Basses is mostly promotion for my DB/Bow biz as I don't expect much to come from it directly.

Back on topic
 

At a masterclass yesterday I heard three pieces by Rabbath - one emulates a flamenco guitar, another an Irish fiddle, another and indian raga. These are very cool, I don't know their title off of the top of my head. Does anybody know any more about these pieces, or anything similar?

Titles
 

I went home and looked at my notebook last night - the Celtic sounding one was called "Breeze"; the flamenco (pizz and strummed) was called "(something) d'Espagna" (I know, even when I consult my notes I can't get the names straight); another one with a low drone was called " Iberian Peninsula"; the last (the indian raga-style one) was something like "Puchidas" (although I certainly got that title wrong).

Anyone know these pieces? I thoroughly enjoyed all of them, and would like to work on some of this rep . . .

Anyone know of more stuff like this for double bass with or without accompaniment?

All of those pieces are the in the Rabbath's Solos for the Double Bass (http://www.liben.com/rabbathsolos.html). Those pieces are a lot of fun, and some are fairly approacheable. Others are pretty difficult, but not impossible.

There are lots of Rabbath students at college. The mandolinny one is called Ode D'Espagnol, I know the sitar one and they are popular with students at College. You can hear it played by one of our students if you like, PM me and I'll send you the link (I don't have his permission to link to it in the public domain!!). Not my personal taste but very popular with others.

I played two movements from Robert Gibson's Soundings, written in 2001.

Some suggestions
 

I also played Soundings for bass quartet its a great piece If you can find 4 people who count. If not It will be a disaster. Some good modern solo composers are Frank Proto, Francois Rabbath, Mieczyslaw Weinberg(listen to joel Quarrington , David Anderson, and Heinz Holliger(Listen to Edison ruiz). Two great concerto pieces from the 20 century
are Nino rota, Divertimento Concertante(listen to Edicson),and Eduard Tubin concerto(Listen to Edicson). None of these are as good as Hindemith(Listen to Rinat ibragimov) . Heres a link to Edicsons channel below

http://www.youtube.com/user/doublebassVenezuela

Listen to Joel
https://www.****ekta.com/en/album/Garden-Scene.571.html

Listen to Rinat ibragimov http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg8Ntyi_6H8