Double Bass Tips for Mozart Symphony 40

[CaseyVancouver]

Here we go, Mozart Symphony 40 is on the program!
Fortunately I have two months before our symphony performs it.

Looking for tips and guidance to get this as best as I can.
Bowing transitions from playful Mozart spiccato to smooth, connected on string articulation.

I have a number of helpful bass references for this piece:

Fred Zimmermann’s ‘Contemporary Concept of Bowing Technique’ page 34.

Orin O’Brien’s ‘Notebook’ explains how the heck to use Zimmermann’s book.

Murray Grodner’s ‘A Double Bassist’s Guide’ pages 20,21 and 92.
He states ‘Mozart 40 is not a problem to be resolved by someone who has not studied long enough to develop the level of skills needed for that passage. This passage is a challenge for most of us who played double bass for many years’.
Lol. He also gives some super tips.

Christopher Rose’s ‘Audition Preparation’ pages 55 to 58.

These are good but I need more from players and what they went through to get this piece down (!)

I’ve started a slow daily run through to get the notes familiar, fingerings that may work and bowing exercises. All in preparation for the lightening fast level I should be at in a number of weeks. Whew!

There are a number of good on line solo performances. This one, also posted elsewhere on TB, is worth repeating and wonderful. Dr Mark Morton at the bass!

Tips, guidance and comments all appreciated

 

[foilracer]

Here we go, Mozart Symphony 40 is on the program!
Fortunately I have two months before our symphony performs it.

Looking for tips and guidance to get this as best as I can.
Bowing transitions from playful Mozart spiccato to smooth, connected on string articulation.

I have a number of helpful bass references for this piece:

Fred Zimmermann’s ‘Contemporary Concept of Bowing Technique’ page 34.

Orin O’Brien’s ‘Notebook’ explains how the heck to use Zimmermann’s book.

Murray Grodner’s ‘A Double Bassist’s Guide’ pages 20,21 and 92.
He states ‘Mozart 40 is not a problem to be resolved by someone who has not studied long enough to develop the level of skills needed for that passage. This passage is a challenge for most of us who played double bass for many years’.
Lol. He also gives some super tips.

Christopher Rose’s ‘Audition Preparation’ pages 55 to 58.

These are good but I need more from players and what they went through to get this piece down (!)

I’ve started a slow daily run through to get the notes familiar, fingerings that may work and bowing exercises. All in preparation for the lightening fast level I should be at in a number of weeks. Whew!

There are a number of good on line solo performances. This one, also posted elsewhere on TB, is worth repeating and wonderful. Dr Mark Morton at the bass!

Tips, guidance and comments all appreciated

Hi Casey, I'm no good at sharing links......on youtube I like Maximiliano Domante...search for his Mozart 40. -Al
p.s. He used to be named Maximiliano Igor.

 

[Paps]

Thanks for sharing, some great references there.
Though I doubt I'll ever be playing this, it's still interesting to study these tips.
As you seem determined to play all the notes, I can't advise!!
Just watched Mark Morton playing, he is just fabulous, sound clarity and sound quality! It's a very nice, melodic extract, which always helps.
I must search for someone playing it with French bow.

 

[CaseyVancouver]

Fun fact, I just realized on Lawrence Wolfe’s Mozart 40 presentation the young bassist second from the right is Noah Reitman.
Noah is asst principal bass with our VSO and was my instructor up until Covid 2020. He is also our local 145 AFM President.

This video will not play on my iPad but does on the phone.

Link Removed

 

[the_Ryan]

For the first excerpt (development) my MO for practicing is to start at half tempo, use the same stroke as I would at the goal tempo (so that as I speed up I’m not modifying the stroke, I’m just shortening the space between up and down bows), and practice with a bunch of bowing and LH variations (4 bows per note, 4 starting up bow, 3 bows per note, 2 bows, 2 starting up bow, 3+1, 1+3, etc.) before I bump the tempo up. For the thirds, I would start at half tempo and approach the bow stroke in the same way, but I would instead practice each bar using Zimmerman’s first bowing etude (starting on the lower note and the higher note) and get more comfortable making the counterclockwise motion in the right arm to facilitate the string crossing.

I dunno if you’ve looked at the fourth movement yet, but my strategy for the 1/8 note passages in the exposition and recap is to set the metronome at a 1/4 of the goal tempo and practice shifting early and slowly to make it feel more relaxed. It can also help in those passages to practice isolating the arm and hand movements: to isolate the arm, I keep the positions I’m shifting to and from the same, but I only use my first finger on the G string (e.g. if I was using the 1 4 1 4 fingering for the Bb D C A bar, the notes I would play are Bb C C C); to isolate the hand movements, I stay in one position and use the same fingering as I would if I was also shifting (using the previous example, I would play Bb C Bb G using the 1 4 1 4 fingering).

When I practice these fast passages slowly, I also take care to only move the metronome up a click once I feel comfortable and relaxed at the current tempo.

 

[Carl Hillman]

I think Hal Robinson's The Quad #4 covers Mozart 40. (I don't have it.)

I notice the old, glitchy videotaped excerpts he did at a master class years ago are no longer on YouTube.
That's a shame. Even though the recordings were of inferior quality, I found them to be priceless.