Double Bass Orchestra Part Written in Octaves

[JamieParkinson]

Hi,

I've recently started playing in a local Youth Orchestra and it's going fairly well - I think they're just excited to have a double bassist - but some of the parts really confuse me: most (but often not all) of the notes are written in Octaves, in ways which would be vastly impractical/impossible to actually play as octaves and fairly frequently with the bottom note being as low as a Bb (below E).

Why is this and what should I be playing?

Thanks!

 

[iiipopes]

Before you started playing with them, did they by chance have something like a tuba or piano that was playing the lines occasionally? Those instruments read concert pitch, while conventional orchestra parts are written an octave above actual pitch, so if they're both there, you'll see low notes that don't seem to make sense. I have parts like this in my jazz band, so either UB, EB or tuba can play them. Talk to your director about it to see which notes in which parts are actually what you're supposed to play.

 

[Andrew McGregor]

Is there a 'div' written on the part where that starts? If there is, that's short for 'divisi', which means divide the section in half, half up and half down. If there's only you, play the bottom line.

It is also possible you might have a combined cello/bass part, and the markings may say that the basses play the upper line so everyone is in the same octave; there are various ways of notating that, and you might have to ask the conductor what is supposed to happen. Or post what you see near the first time the octave split happens in the part and someone here may be able to decipher it.

 

[bassics1975]

Band music often contains a part marked "bass" but may not be specific to your instrument. These parts are typically written for any concert pitch bass instrument. The octaves just offer options for notes that fall outside of the formant range of a particular instrument.

 

[JamieParkinson]

Thanks for the advice! I guess I'll just play the top note. In some of the scores I've noticed the bottom note is sometimes as low as an F *below* low E. Odd. These parts are notated for 'C Stringbass'. No divisi on it either.

Will make sure to ask the conductor.