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Double Bass Bottesini's Grande Allegro

C

Charles Shores

Commercial User
Jul 26, 2005
157
0
39
#1
Hi guys!

I've been working diligently on this piece for about 3 weeks now, and I'm really impressing myself with how much I can learn!

I have a small problem though. On the first page, there is an arpeggio that goes up to the A on 4 ledger lines above the treble clef staff. I first learned it going up then coming back down an octave to keep it on the fingerboard because there is not notation for it to be played as harmonics. I've been thinking that maybe it's just assumed that it should be played using harmonics. Is it illegal to scan a small section of the piece for educational purposes? If not, I'd like to upload it for clarification. Thanks!

There is also another question about the piece, the second page. There is a triplet that goes (C-B-C) then jumps up to the G near the end of the fingerboard then back down to another triplet (Bb-C-Bb)...is it as hard as I'm making it? How much would the judges care if I just played the G in the middle?

Don't worry, I'll have a teacher starting the 9th of September :)

Chad
 
#4
I think I'm reading it correctly, the music says "E-Moll" which, as far as I know is the German notation for e minor. The way I play it now, with orchestral tuning, it is in d minor, so if i tuned it up it would be in solo tuning, and e minor.

I'll just practice a lot.
 
#5
Hi Charles. Bottom of the first page in the Peters Edition right? Bottesini's music can often change significantly from edition to edition but this is the one that I learned. Anyway, thumb on the G#, 1 on the B, 3 harmonic on the D and harmonics from then on. You will probably have to press down a little harder with the left hand on the A since it is such a high partial but the plus side is that you can add a little vibrato by shaking the string if you want. The other option that I have used in the past is to play the high A as a false harmonic on the D string but thats harder to explain. Maybe the next time I'm in North Carolina I can show you... It sounds better on the G anyway. In general don't be afraid to use harmonics in the Bott pieces. It's so idiomatic, that was almost certainly the way he would have played it. Good luck.
 
#6
Thanks a lot! It feels good to be able to play something, but it feels better when someone else plays it the same way.

That's the way I was playing it, except I was closing the D before the shift to the higher harmonics, that sounds easier because I won't have to spend so much time on the D.

Chad
 
#7
Charles Shores said:
I think I'm reading it correctly, the music says "E-Moll" which, as far as I know is the German notation for e minor. The way I play it now, with orchestral tuning, it is in d minor, so if i tuned it up it would be in solo tuning, and e minor.

I'll just practice a lot.
Click to expand...
Oh yeah that's right on the D string you've got a natural A harmonic to party on with. I want to remember that the Dragonetti Concerto ask for this too on the D string so it probably won't hurt you at all to get cozy with it.

You know the E min key got me thinking...that G string natural harmonic arpeggio won't chart an Em chord but the notes would still be scale-legal. Neat, but don't know if this does you any good.

But yeah I shoud be practicing more too LOL
 
#10
Illfavor said:
You're talking about the III chord in E minor, G Major? I hope I'm right, because I'm still really shaky on my theory...
Click to expand...
Well actually my thinking is sort of backwards from yours: for the C major scale, if you start it and end it on the A rather than the C then you are playing an A minor scale too.

So for the E min scale, if you played it starting on G then you'd also be playing the G major scale.

There's several kinds of minor scales and I don't know which one this is (harmonic, natural, or melodic? I think natural maybe) but it's one of them. One of the Mozart excerpts (symph. 40?) that is often used in orchestra bass auditions is a line that charts one of these minor scales perfectly...I think the melodic minor. Anyway neat scale!

Remember the Em scale uses a minor 3rd not major so there's no G#. It'd be a G natural, E-G-B. I don't know too much about the roman numeral stuff yet, so if you told me that G's the III chord for Em then I'd believe you.

O.K. I'll stop before I get myself tangled up in crazy theories and just enjoy those harmonics! :bassist:
 

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