Double Bass new Koussevitzky concerto edition

[icactus]

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to share that I have put up a new and free edition of the Koussevitzky concerto on IMSLP with the errors corrected from the Forberg, Jurgensen, Zimmermann and Walter editions and piano parts for both orchestra and solo tuning.

Double Bass Concerto, Op.3 (Koussevitzky, Serge) - IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library: Free Public Domain Sheet Music

I didn't include any fingerings and only a couple bowings in the bass part so its clean for people to mark in their own preferences (or their teacher's preferences).

It's free to use and distribute so you can do with it what you like.

Voice grouping in the piano part has been cleaned up so it's easier to figure out which hand should do what and the page turns are friendlier. There are a couple unplayable measures in the piano part with intervals that cannot be reached and aren't meant to be rolled (1st mvt m45-46, opening of 2nd mvt, etc.) so in those instances I have added a tie or a register change for a certain note so the pianist doesn't have to choose a voice to leave out.

If you catch anything that looks in error please feel free to share it with me as I can always revise and upload a newer version.

This piece has always been part of my bass playing life and I used it on all my professional auditions so I decided it was important to take the time to make a proper edition available for others to enjoy. Hopefully no one will ever again have to hand their accompanist a Koussevitzky piano part and say "Good luck"!

 

[groooooove]

it's such a great time to be a musician.

thank you for putting time in to better the bass playing community - this edition will no doubt be utilized by untold numbers of up and coming bass players.

 

[icactus]

Thanks, groooooove - I hope so! To me this is about access. There's a place for fancy paid editions but I hope more people start to think about how they can contribute to a legacy of available music - especially these classics of our repertoire that are out of copyright.

There is also a new bass part of Bottesini Concerto #2 up:
Double Bass Concerto No.2 in B minor (Bottesini, Giovanni) - IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library: Free Public Domain Sheet Music

To make a piano part I would need a scan of the piano manuscript or a printed version published before 1923 which I'm not sure exists...

Finally, I've also finished a free arrangement of the Koussevitzky concerto for solo bass and strings you can find on the same IMSLP page as the new edition.

I can't tell you how many times I heard from a colleague, "Oh yeah - I think so and so did an arrangement for strings. It was pretty good. I forget who or what happened to it. Maybe someone can find it and lend you the parts...." I also came across a couple versions that seemed promising but had love affairs with parallel fifths, parallel octaves, or weird register and voicing choices since it seemed they were hastily put together from the piano reduction.

Enjoy!

 

[stefaniw80401]

Isaac, thanks for the piano part upgrade, my accompanist appreciates it.

As far as the solo bass part goes, tenor clef bugs me. I can read it, but not as instinctively as treble clef.

I've memorized the opening material most editions have in tenor clef, so I don't care so much about that. But, for example, in your new edition, solo bass part, 1st mvmt, mm20-60 -- why can't that ALL be in treble clef? The lowest note is E4 and goes up from there...and notice that you show us that E4 in treble clef in mm39-40 anyways -- and then m58 there is D4 and Bb3. The continuity of the music reading experience is the real issue here.

I don't mind 2 ledger lines above/below in either bass or treble clef, but tenor-clef -- who likes reading ledger lines in tenor clef? Anybody?

Rabbath also loathes tenor-clef.

There, that's off my chest.

 

[Egregious Bass]

To make a piano part I would need a scan of the piano manuscript or a printed version published before 1923 which I'm not sure exists...

This should be what you need:

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So much Bottesini material is already online and ripe for the taking. I've thought about doing a "Bottesini IMSLP day" but been putting it off...

edit: I've uploaded everything related to concertos 1 and 2 to IMSLP now. Hopefully this will clear up any confusion about these two works going forward (but there's still much work to be done regarding his other pieces...)

Double Bass Concerto No.1 in F-sharp minor (Bottesini, Giovanni) - IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library: Free Public Domain Sheet Music
Double Bass Concerto No.2 in B minor (Bottesini, Giovanni) - IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library: Free Public Domain Sheet Music

 

[icactus]

This should be what you need:

Invalid Link Removed

Multimedia viewer

So much Bottesini material is already online and ripe for the taking. I've thought about doing a "Bottesini IMSLP day" but been putting it off...

edit: I've uploaded everything related to concertos 1 and 2 to IMSLP now. Hopefully this will clear up any confusion about these two works going forward (but there's still much work to be done regarding his other pieces...)

Double Bass Concerto No.1 in F-sharp minor (Bottesini, Giovanni) - IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library: Free Public Domain Sheet Music
Double Bass Concerto No.2 in B minor (Bottesini, Giovanni) - IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library: Free Public Domain Sheet Music

This is such a great find! I know I thanked you over on IMSLP but for the record here this is a super valuable library resource and one that I could not find with all my googling.

I will work on transcribing out the piano part and the 1st movement orchestration into a score and parts by the end of the summer or into the fall so we should finally have free access to Bottesini's piano reduction and 1st mvt orchestration.

There are different articulations in the various solo parts so I'm thinking of doing a solo part where the different versions can be toggled like layers or else viewable all at once as if it was a four-part score with each part being a different edition of the solo part so at a glance you could notice the different articulation choices through Bottesini's various versions of the concerto.... stay tuned!

 

[icactus]

As far as the solo bass part goes, tenor clef bugs me. I can read it, but not as instinctively as treble clef.

I've memorized the opening material most editions have in tenor clef, so I don't care so much about that. But, for example, in your new edition, solo bass part, 1st mvmt, mm20-60 -- why can't that ALL be in treble clef?

If you are finding the Koussevitzky edition on IMSLP, I have four different versions of the solo bass part uploaded, one of which is called "No tenor clef version".