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Double Bass question for classical double bassists

L

lucas vigor

Inactive
Sep 2, 2004
2,209
22
Orange County, Ca,
#1
Hi guys, can anyone direct me to a good resource for sheet music? I am looking for orchestral scores, and the first one I want to try is Mozart's Symphony #25. I think I may have already found it here:

http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/Symphony-in-G-minor-No-25/2440099

But I notice that it says it is also for cello....Ok, I am a newby to orchestral BASS, so does that imply that the parts were doubled originally, and that either bass or cello can play them?
 
#6
It's odd, but I cannot seem to find what I am looking for. I dimly remember (from when I was a kid taking violin lessons) that there were yellow sheet music books....and yet, I can't find any of them?

I am willing to purchase, not necessarily looking for free downloads,

.the one link that had the free sheet music as PDF files was good, but lacking a good printer I cannot do 25 pages doublesided on 11 X 17 paper. But it had some good beethoven's...

What do pro orchestra doublebassists use? What resource?
 
#7
The Zimmerman series was pretty much the standard for Orchestral Double Bass. Complete works of Beethoven, Brahms, Bach, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, Mahler, Mozart, and symphonic excerpts for almost every required piece for orchestral auditions.
BTW, if you select "fit to page" in the printer options, it works just fine on on standard 8.5 x 11 paper.
 
#10
#12
lucas vigor said:
Do you have the original site? I would love to grab Beethoven's 5th and 9th as well!
Click to expand...

Try rooting around in this shorter version of that same URL, which has umpteen indices, each one with lots more. Must be 1000s of pieces in the sub-indices and sub-sub-indices here. Seems to go on forever:
Invalid Link Removed


Edit: Forget the above. I finally found the website's main webpage. There are thousands of scores here:
http://imslp.org/

On this page are the website's links to the Beet symphonies:
http://imslp.org/index.php?title=Category:Beethoven,_Ludwig_van&intersect=Symphony

Quite a website. HOWEVER - You might want to read up on the website's FAQ's regarding whether these scores are in the public domaine in which countries:
http://imslp.org/wiki/IMSLP:FAQ
 
#14
I have been able to get a really good start, especially using some of these websites. In my regular practice rotation are Mozart 25 through 32, Bach "passion of st. michael", "sheherazade", "1812" overture and so many others! I am having a blast!


But one question that is driving me crazy is, why is so much stuff for bass tuned so low? Did they have c-extensions or low B strings even back then?

For example, the opening chorale section for Bach's "Passion" is ok so far, but the closing section (famously used for the opening of the Scorcese movie "casino") has way too many notes below E....why is this? Did they use drop tuning?
 
#15
lucas vigor said:
But one question that is driving me crazy is, why is so much stuff for bass tuned so low? Did they have c-extensions or low B strings even back then?
Click to expand...

Big subject for discussion. Sometimes the basses had the low notes, other times bassists routinely played the low notes an octave higher. Sometimes the basses only went down to A. Sometimes it wasn't written for bass at all. Sometimes the notes weren't written low, but now that we have extensions or B strings we play them low anyway because the cellos do or we infer the composer wanted the low notes.

I've read both editions of Paul Brun's book and Planyevsky's book on the Baroque Contrabass Violone, and the only thing I know for sure is play the low notes if you have 'em unless the conductor yells at you.
 
#16
Thanks Bill. I am probably going to have to transpose the parts myself. I have been able to more or less sight read the lower notes, but it is very hard....and easy to get lost! I figure I will probably just add the octave notes directly to the score. It's really only on part 78 (the finale) of the "passion" that I will need to do this.
 

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