Research assistance?

[shlomo]

I was wondering if anyone here could assist me, or lead me in the right direction on a couple of matters. The first deals with a line of Bottesini tutelage that I am told I belong to. The line goes through a student of his with the last name of Gambrini, who taught a D'Angelis. My problem is that I'm curious firstly with their full names, and secondly with who they were. Are there any means at my disposal to research this?

The second question deals with a photocopy I have of an exercise attributed to Luigi Rossi. I'm curious as to whether Rossi actually published a book of exercises (or a method even) and if so, which the page I have presumes, do any full copies exist?

I'm aware that I could be barking up the wrong tree with this, but I figure it better than not barking at all and being no better for it. Any assistance would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[reedo35]

Originally posted by shlomo

The second question deals with a photocopy I have of an exercise attributed to Luigi Rossi. I'm curious as to whether Rossi actually published a book of exercises (or a method even) and if so, which the page I have presumes, do any full copies exist?

Luigi Rossi was Bottesini's teacher for his years at the Milan Conservatory, so I have no doubt that he probably wrote out some excercises for his students
(This was before Simandl was the Bible of Double Bass . I can't say for sure whether or not he actually published them, or someone may have compiled them into a book, but it is possible. Perhaps Bottesini used them himself in the Bass Method Book that he published.

[shlomo]

I have a copy of Bottesini's Method which was made by Carl Fischer. I've since talked with people at Fischer and they have no record of publishing the work, which isn't surprising since they have no *publication* records for string music prior to 1935-7. The telling part is that they have no record of obtaining copyright which means that it must have been published before 1906, which is when international copyright went into effect. My deduction is that, since Bottesini's Method was published in London, someone at Fischer decided to take it back here and reprint it, since there were no restrictions on doing such things.

That being said, the copy I have is probably as close to the original as I'll get in English. The exercise I have isn't in it, nor does it fit the structure of Bottesini's book. See, the exercise starts off showing ten different bowing variations (being primarily a bowing exercise that also happens to melodically take you through about six major keys and has you hit every note on the neck at least once), and technical bowing studies are in the Bottesini Method only once.

The page I have is definitely a photocopy of a print. At some point I'll even scan and include it. It has a page number (57) and an exercise number (44). I'm just slightly curious if it truly is attributed to Rossi, and if so, if there's more where it came from, because that one page has been the best warmup set I've ever seen. I'm aware of Rossi teaching Bottesini, and in fact this page, a certain looseness of bow grip and a resultant sound that is rich in harmonics are the full sum of my legacy as it stands. I'm just looking for more.

While I'm thinking of it, does anyone know a good source for antiquarian music books? The internet is still rather thin on the subject, especially when you know what you want...