Double Bass Let's Talk Marcello

[Steve Freides]

I'm helping a student with the first movement, Largo, of the Marcello Sonata in F major. But all my questions could be about my own performance, too. In no particular order:

http://ks4.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/a/a1/IMSLP539699-PMLP51302-ATTACHMENT-0021.pdf

Can anyone tell me more about this edition? I'm happy to have found it because I'm going to be the accompanist for my student on this at a recital in April. I'm well able, particularly at Largo, to realize a figured bass at the keyboard and that's what I plan on doing. I've looked at the Zimmerman edition of this - I'll be happier creating my own keyboard part.

Is there a manuscript facsimile, on IMSLP or elsewhere? I'd love to see that if there is.

I'm most curious about performance practice suggestions, e.g., because of the style, it seems reasonable to me to perform the repeats with additional ornamentation. I'm also thinking that, in the simple interest of, well, interest, doing the first half mf or f then piano on the repeat, and reversing that order for the second half. Basically start with a bang and end with a bang, if you will.

Tempo - it seems to be nice feeling it in 8, and with a quarter note as slow at 50, very stately at that tempo.

FWIW, the student is a high school senior who, for reasons I've yet to comprehend, starting playing the bass in September and has to do a "senior recital" in April. This piece has been approved for that, and he'll also do some busier Simandl study and the Elephant movement from Saint-Sean Carnival of the Animals.

Thanks in advance for your comments.

-S-

 

[neilG]

There doesn't appear to be a manuscript. This is most likely the first edition.
Sonatas - RISM

My inclination is not to do un-ornamented/ornamented but to do minimal ornamentation in the first pass, and then different/more in the repeat. The loud/soft or soft/loud device always sounds forced to me if done just that way. I'd mix it up and use other ways to contrast the repeats.
So, zero to hero in 8 months? How hard could it be?

 

[Steve Freides]

I found a cleaner copy here:

http://ks.imslp.info/files/imglnks/...x_solos_for_a_violoncello,_op._2_-_PF_155.pdf

My inclination is not to do un-ornamented/ornamented but to do minimal ornamentation in the first pass, and then different/more in the repeat.

Sounds good to me - at the slow tempo this goes at, no ornamentation on the first pass would be too plain. It will be fun to figure out what to do and when.

The loud/soft or soft/loud device always sounds forced to me if done just that way. I'd mix it up and use other ways to contrast the repeats.

Food for thought - I will spend some time with it and see what seems more "organic" in terms of how to play with the dynamics.

So, zero to hero in 8 months? How hard could it be?

I'm his teacher - let's slide a little bit of the credit my way, eh?

My own bass story, probably told here more than once but hey, I'm old, so I tend to repeat myself, repeat myself, goes like this:

When my youngest son was at the end of 4th grade, a few of his friends had picked double bass as their instrument for 5th grade. (All the kids play an instrument here in the 5th grade.) Having played electric bass since college, I'd already picked up a fretless electric a year or two before, to see if playing upright might be in my future, and that had gone very well. I told my wife that my son's friends deciding to play double bass in 5th grade was "a sign" and she raised her eyebrows but nonetheless went along with me buying my first upright bass.

After I'd had my first upright for 3 weeks, a good friend - a bass player who'd accompanied me on my trip to buy my first bass from the now-defunct Ideal Music in NYC - bailed out on a gig my wife had as music director of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" at the local community college, where we were all teaching at the time. My friend was under contract to play in the city during the run of the show but she'd said yes to my wife because she'd had this same contract for a few years and they'd never called her. But this time, they did, so my wife needed a bass player, and my friend recommended me. I'd had exactly one bass lesson by that point, a two hour session at our house where we all just chitchatted until about 5 minutes was left, and then I had a 5-minute bass lesson, after which my friend said, "You're fine, just practice."

My wife insisted that I have at least one more lesson and play some of the charts from the show before she'd agree to me filling in on bass, so we had another two-hour lesson, again talked for most of it, and I played a couple of things at the end of our time, and my friend again said, "You'll be fine." So, 5 weeks after I bought my first upright, I played a week-long run of the show. It was (and still is) mostly pizz, and nothing much out of half or first position, and I did fine.

And that's my story - so, yeah, how hard can it be?

And my then-4th grade son is now 23, so that's how long I've been playing the bass.

-S-