Double Bass Dragonetti & Co. today..

[Andy Mopley]

Given advancements in strings, bows, hairs (?), rosin..would Dragonetti , Bottesini be even greater players today? How would they compare to other masters like Bradetich, Dimoff, Meyer, Rabbath, Quarrington and the like? Has the instrument itself remained unchanged to the extent that it would not be a factor?
PS - Not sure if topic belongs here, but if not, moderators please move! Thanks

Regards to all.

 

[Scott Lynch]

To me, this parallels questions about what the great composers of yore like Mozart, Bach, etc. might have written (or made art in general) if they were alive today and had access to today's music technology.

IMO, there's a lot more to progress that simply having the physical tools to accomplish something. One has to have the vision as well. If steel strings, knowledge of contemporary luthierie, etc. existed back then, how else might the world have been different? And how would that have influenced the composers and performers of the day in terms of the art they produced?

 

[eerbrev]

I think Bottesini would be a conductor (that was his dream anyway) and Dragonetti would be unable to get work classically and likely playing something like Jazz instead - not because it's simpler, but because his style of playing and personality would be almost anathema to a modern orchestra. He'd be that wild dude who feels like he barely speaks English because he's in another dimension - but whom you've never seen take drugs - and the only person who understands him is his boyfriend, who is an accountant.

 

[David Potts]

Of just as much interest would be if you could sit Beethoven or Mozart down to hear their music performed on modern instruments by today's virtuosi. They might hate the sound of steel strings or the big modern Steinway piano. Of even more interest would be if Beethoven had access to modern medicine his syphilis and deafness might have been cured. How would this have affected his later compositions? The mind boggles !!

 

[Andy Mopley]

The mind boggles !!

Well, now that the possibilities have been expanded, (thanks all) it certainly does David!

 

[Andy Mopley]

To me, this parallels questions about what the great composers of yore like Mozart, Bach, etc. might have written (or made art in general) if they were alive today and had access to today's music technology.

Perhaps a greater (more accurate?) output would be one thing, I guess..

 

[jj.833]

In another thread, @eerbrev pointed to this book by Korneel Le Compte. It's about vienesse violone, sort of a predecessor to modern double bass. The book is very long, very talkative and very great. I find it fascinating to follow Le Compte's descent from modern bass back through time to something that looks similar, but uses a very different way of musical thinking, which has to be excavated from very little information, and yet is still there. I think that, among other things, he's got a good answer to those 'what if Mozart lived in 60s Chicago' type of questions. Check it out.

 

[PaulCannon]

These were people of their time. If you would simply clone them today, it's unlikely they would even want to be musicians. The attraction to the arts is a cultural one, and obviously our modern culture is vastly removed from those of the 18th and 19th Centuries.

Ignoring that inconvenient fact, yes I suppose it's fair to assume they would be "better" by some metric. The instrument itself and its accompanying equipment are more reliable now, and our access to information, methods, and practice tools is far beyond what was available 100 or 200 years ago.

 

[Happy Steve]

In another thread, @eerbrev pointed to this book by Korneel Le Compte. I

Thank you for sharing the link, jj. The book looks fascinating and entertaining.
aside (not bass related): The author talks of coincidences that can send us on different tangents. Looking at your signature, I will share this one: I just finished reading Richard Fidler's 'The Golden Maze' which is a history of Prague. I had no idea.