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Double Bass modern classical: recomendations?

V

velvetkevorkian

Aug 23, 2004
1,405
1
40
Glasgow, Scotland
www.myspace.com
#1
i made my dad a cd of modern(ish) stuff i quite like, which i've yet to have any feedback on, but i'm already thinking of vol.2, as well as stuff i need to get. on the first cd i put: steve reich- 6 pianos; some bits from the rite of spring; berg's violin concerto, 1st movt.; gorecki's 3rd symphony, 1st movt.; the finale from philip glass' 2nd symphony; "swans migrating" from rautavaraa's cantus arcticus, and a john cage prepared piano sonata. anyway, to the point- what else could you recommend in this vein? i like symphonic/orchestral stuff a lot more than anything chamber-ish, but any suggestions as to what i can subject my old man to next would be appreciated :)
cheers!
kyle
 
#2
Adagio for Strings- Samuel Barber

Symphony No. 2- Howard Hanson, this may be my favorite symphonic Piece of all time, it also happend to written for Interlochen.

Appalachain Spring by Aaron Copeland. I love this one as well, it flows so well.

Cello Concerto-Korngold. This is an amazing Cello Concerto that is so complex it's scary. Hell of an orchestral part as well.

Overture to the School of Scandel- Samuel Barber

Symphony No. 2-Sibelius

The Planets-Holst

Symphony No. 8- Dvorak


This is a start. The New Music Genre is so vast and so amazing its hard to keep up. Hope this helps.

EDIT:: How on earth could I forget Stravinsky. Man, was I high? Rite of spring is a start though.

Adams-Nixon in china, more specifically the Chairman Dances.

Shostakovitch-ANYTHING. I love Symphony's 5,6,9,12. 6 Is my favorite, followed by 5. This is Kind of new music, but its amazing nonetheless.
 
#3
I definitely recommend anything by Barber. There's a CD with the St. Louis Symphony that has a lot of his chamber and orchestral works.

It's also impossible to ignore Stravinsky in the 20th century era. I see you've already got some of Rite of Spring on there, but the Firebird suite and Petrushka are really cool too.

Bartok is an interesting exploration.

Short Ride in a Fast Machine by John Adams is also pretty cool. I haven't listened to a lot of his other compositions, but I particularly like this one.

If you're looking for something really modern, I'll plug a recording of a piece my orchestra (Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra) did this November. It's called "Metropolitan" by Jonathan Newman. It won an award last year from the American Composers Organization, and we performed the world premiere.

Here's a link to the recording:

Invalid Link Removed

It's pretty groovy. :cool:

Scott
 
#4
It looks like you put together a very broad sample for your pops on vol.1. If you wanna stick with orchestral works try out some of these:


Ligeti's Atmospheres or Lontano

Any of the Sibelius symphonies

The Dutilleux Cello Concerto, though any of his orchestral works are fine works and fascinating listening.

Shoenberg's piano concerto

Something by Bernstein maybe. He wrote lots of good music in many different styles.

For something that is really dense and a hard nut to crack but rewarding to try to understand would be something by Elliott Carter. Maybe the Piano Concerto or Clarinet Concerto or Concerto for orchestra.

Allan
 
#6
Check out some awesome modern double bass pieces!

Nino Rota - Divertimento for double bass and orchestra
Eduard Tubin - Concerto for double bass and orchestra
Einojuhani Rautavaara - "Angel Of Dusk" Concerto for double bass and orchestra
Hans Werner Henze - Concerto for double bass and orchestra & 9 Agosto Ore 1207 for solo double bass
Iannis Xenakis - Theraps for solo double bass & Roscobeck for cello and double bass
Behzad Ranjbaran - "Dance Of Life" for violin and double bass
Alfred Schnittke - Hymn No.2 for cello and double bass
Christian Wolff - Look She Said for solo double bass & Jaspers for violin and double bass
Emil Tabakov - Motivs for solo double bass

That's just off the top of my head. There's so many more that I could list if I went through my CDs. I also highly recommend the three volumes of Bjørn Ianke's modern double bass CDs and the pieces on them. Tons of great stuff on those discs.
 
#7
I would suggest looking into the works of George Crumb, Penderecki, John Adams, and other contemporary composers. Crumb's Ancient Voices of Children is a true masterpiece. Penderecki's St Luke Passion and John Adams' Transmigration of Souls are truly great works. If you like large ensembles then check out Crumb's Star-child. It is for four orchestras. Very cool stuff.
 
#14
the_other said:
if you like that gorecki / rautavaraa thing y'ought check out

gavin bryars:
- string quartets
- by the vaar (a bass concerto ... written for charlie haden!)
Click to expand...
oooooh i never knew bryars wrote a bass concerto. this i must track down. ordered the rautavaraa concerto, the penderecki passion, more gorecki and something else i forgot:ninja: plus whatever i find about town:smug: cheers for the suggestions guys.:)
 
#18
Since you're getting so many serious suggestions here, I'll just go ahead and be the oddball. Check out BB Wolf by Jon Deak. You can find a very good video recording of Jeff Bradetich playing it on Invalid Link Removed. Also, check out Failing: A Very Difficult Piece for Solo String Bass by Tom Johnson. You can find a free recording at http://kalvos.org/ra/johns6mf.ram. I think you need RealPlayer to listen to it. Too bad it's just a stream, and you can't download it. I think the performance is of Robert Black, but I have no evidence to prove this, except that I know he recorded it on a CD. Both are extremely good recordings of insane modern pieces from classical roots. Anyway, as strange as they are, check them out. You won't be sorry.
 
#19
+1 on 'Failing.' It's one of the great pieces and very funny without being jokey, if you follow me. I think the Robert Black recording on Bang on A Can Vol. 1 is the only one out there.

Since we're getting into the arena of really dense bass music, I'll throw these out: Iancu Dumitrescu's "Medium II," a solo bass piece written for Fernando Grillo, as well as any of his other chamber music with Grillo performing. It's a bit like Buddhist chant / Scelsi / droney stuff crossed with industrial noise music.

Grillo is also the player that Xenakis' 'Theraps' was written for, and his own solo album 'Fluvine' is realy good. You won't hear anything like it - guy does more with one open string than you'd think is possible.

Incidentally I read in Double Bassist a while ago that Gavin Bryars has written another, more 'legit' bass concerto since 'By the vaar.' Actually premiered by Duncan McTier up in your neck of the woods, VK. Don't know if it's been recorded yet.
 

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