Double Bass Original Othello Fingering and Opinions

[letrabass]

Hi all,

I've been playing this excerpt for a long time (ususally out of Schott's compilation), but on a quest of going deeper into it I went to the complete opera bass part on IMSLP and searched for in it's (I suppose) original composer version.
It has lots of indications as to what string to play and even what fingerings to use, so I was wondering if anyone knows where these are from, who decided those were a good idea and if there's any good reason to use them. Some of the choices are somewhat awkward, to me at least!
TIA

Jorge

 

[letrabass]

Well, Christian goes into it in this video!

Apparently they are Bottesini's fingerings.... Go figure!

 

[LouisF]

See the other TB link: Double Bass - 3 strings double bass

I believe there were BOTH 3 and 4 string basses in Verdi's orchestra, with the 4-stringers starting soli and the others coming in (not that that's much help today!) Note for purists: The opera, even in English, is OTELLO; Shakespeare's play is OTHELLO.

 

[LouisF]

Tim Cobb tutorial:

Note: Tim and I use the same mute, from Dennis Roy in the BSO. That is the only thing that's even close to being equal in our bass playing !!

 

[the_Ryan]

Hi all,

I've been playing this excerpt for a long time (ususally out of Schott's compilation), but on a quest of going deeper into it I went to the complete opera bass part on IMSLP and searched for in it's (I suppose) original composer version.
It has lots of indications as to what string to play and even what fingerings to use, so I was wondering if anyone knows where these are from, who decided those were a good idea and if there's any good reason to use them. Some of the choices are somewhat awkward, to me at least!
TIA

Jorge

The original fingerings are very outdated at times with the use of only 1-3 or 1-4 for both half steps and whole steps (plus there's a big typo 2 before , that should say 1st string instead of 3rd), and regarding the bowing I think you'd be very hard-pressed to find a conductor or section who doesn't start the first two gestures down bow and changes to up on beat 2 or beat 3 of the following measure, but excepting those things I think most of the bowings and string indications are still pretty sound. Using more contemporary concepts like 124/134 half steps and the occasional pivot or extension if you're into that, I think one can find a better fingering that's still very much in the spirit of the original.