Double Bass Bottesini Elegy

[Richard Simon]

Folks,
A mostly-classical pianist and I (a mostly-jazz bassist) are going to try to collaborate on this piece. I've watched many a rendition and marvel at the mastery revealed therein.

Besides its inherent technical challenges, several factors are making it a tough climb:

- the Ricordi edition I'm working with is written "an octave below where it sounds." Is there a bass solo part written an octave higher?

- are we meant to tune our strings up a whole step? (I know, a dumber question than the first one)

- if the answer to #2 is True: wouldn't that put a lot of scary pressure on the top of the bass? Would "classical" (Solo-gauge) strings alleviate this concern?

- can anyone recommend a book or a video on False Harmonics?

Thank you for your forbearance.

 

[Don Kasper]

- are we meant to tune our strings up a whole step? (I know, a dumber question than the first one)

- if the answer to #2 is True: wouldn't that put a lot of scary pressure on the top of the bass? Would "classical" (Solo-gauge) strings alleviate this concern?

True - you need to purchase and install $olo Tuning $tring$ - they are designed to be tuned "up a Step" to - F#, B, E, A. (You're bass will then sound thinner, brighter and whiny! )
Yes - it would create many scary results! - DO NOT tune non-solo strings (E,A,D,G) up a step - Scary Bad Trouble will ensue.
I'll leave the Bottesini experts to comment on your other concerns.
Good Luck.

 

[Eli Brockway]

You can also find an arrangement of the piece in C, for standard tuning (AKA the piano part is just a step lower, the written bass part is still exactly the same).

 

[Richard Simon]

Thank you both. I’ll look for the version a step down.
It feels a bit sacrilegious - like playing the First Bach Cello Suite in the key of C - but that’s less traumatic than going to $olo $tring$ on a bass that only recently had its top off and an entire hide of glue applied.

 

[Richard Simon]

Don et al:
Thank you.
My first question again:
The Italian version everyone seems to be familiar with “sounds” an octave higher than it’s written. In other words, the first note is written a whole step above the pitch of the open G string, but @sounds@ an octave higher.
That makes for a transposing challenge that makes the tricky piece even harder.

To anyone with the C version: Where is the first note written on the staff?
Thanks again.

 

[Don Kasper]

I don't know from Bottesini, but here is a beautiful YT performance that may answer some of your questions. (Bassist is in Solo Tuning - the first note is a sounding "A" at the first partial of the A String, formerly the G String.

 

[Eli Brockway]

To anyone with the C version: Where is the first note written on the staff?
Thanks again.

From what I remember playing it on my senior recital, the Yorke edition (Yorke Complete Bottesini, Volume 1) is the same-written in concert pitch, rather than sounding down an octave as is the norm for Double Bass written music. So instead of the open G like it looks like, it's the octave up. I'll check once I'm home to make sure.

 

[User4843936]

- the Ricordi edition I'm working with is written "an octave below where it sounds." Is there a bass solo part written an octave higher?

- are we meant to tune our strings up a whole step? (I know, a dumber question than the first one)

- if the answer to #2 is True: wouldn't that put a lot of scary pressure on the top of the bass? Would "classical" (Solo-gauge) strings alleviate this concern?

- can anyone recommend a book or a video on False Harmonics?

Thank you for your forbearance.

With a piano part in C major you can play the piece with the bass tuned G D A E. This edition says it includes piano parts in both C and D major. The bass part is printed an octave above the sounding pitch, as double bass music usually is. First note has the second lowest line of the treble clef staff passing through it.
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Bottesini allegedly used to crank his strings up a tone or indeed a minor third to get them more taut and his bass sounding more brilliant, allegedly. Not recommended for modern strings designed to be tuned only to one pitch. Tom Martin’s epic project can tell you much, much more about all this kind of carry on including his use of hard powdery rosin (again, a more brilliant sound) as well as the rest of Bottesini’s colourful life. Page 4 talks about the set up of Bottesini’s bass. Thomas Martin - In Search of Bottesini

On harmonics, natural as throughout all Bottesini works and false (which you don’t need to be able to do to play the Bottesini Elegy)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Guide-Double-Bass-Harmonics-ebook/dp/B007GYOM3E

 

[Richard Simon]

Great information
Thank you

 

[Richard Simon]

Great information
Thank you

The recital music link shows the bass part in Treble Clef. I have a few other bass solo pieces - like the Bach cello suites - that are written in bass clef, with the higher notes usually shown in what I call 'nether clef,' the lines and spaces that would occupy the empty area between the upper and lower staves of a piano part.
I've asked the British publisher of the Elegy if they might send it as a PDF rather than mailing it. I explained that our current regime has slowed down the delivery of mail, and there's no telling when an envelope from the UK might reach the distant shores of NA.
Thanks again.

 

[User4843936]

The recital music link shows the bass part in Treble Clef. I have a few other bass solo pieces - like the Bach cello suites - that are written in bass clef, with the higher notes usually shown in what I call 'nether clef,' the lines and spaces that would occupy the empty area between the upper and lower staves of a piano part.
I've asked the British publisher of the Elegy if they might send it as a PDF rather than mailing it. I explained that our current regime has slowed down the delivery of mail, and there's no telling when an envelope from the UK might reach the distant shores of NA.
Thanks again.

No worries. Yesterday I was talking with a friend who is doing some arranging as to why there is such observable reluctance to move double bass parts out of the bass clef and into the treble. Historically, it seems like forays into the upper register might well have been as short lived as the dignity of the players who attempted to make them, judging by a few ‘spicy’ older recordings of things like the fourth act bass soli in Verdi’s Otello. Times change, more widespread/greater expectations of left hand technique, nicer editions of more demanding pieces.

Digital editions are often easier to read than those Shostakovich and Prokofiev bass parts that look like someone’s written them with a quill on loo roll...