Double Bass Verdi Requiem Agnus Dei solo

[LouisF]

Coming up! Any insights would be helpful. My instinct is to do it all on one string with moderate (and hopefully tasteful) portamento.
Thanks
Louis

 

[LouisF]

One answer to my own question (scroll down a couple of links once you click on):

Barry Lieberman

 

[neilG]

Although you are the only double bass playing, it is NOT a solo. All the strings, chorus, clarinet and bassoon are playing this in unison. Portamento, tasteful or otherwise, may stand out if nobody else is doing it. Take you cue from the cello section. Just be one of them, down an octave.

 

[LouisF]

Point taken, but I believe what Ettore calls here a "gentle" portmento might be used by all the strings and singers in the phrase. We'll see next Monday. Thanks

 

[bengreen]

If you're talking about the shift from the C# to the A, I think the phrasing and dynamics you have marked argue against it.

C#'s the end of one phrase, A the beginning of the next. Portamento between them puts a connection where you're indicating a breath.

Pretty passage. Enjoy.

 

[LouisF]

Thanks, Ben. I agree crossing strings in 22; Not all conductors take the breath before the A, but I will probably keep it simple until I hear what the singers are doing.

 

[LouisF]

Neil & Ben
Just out of curiosity - and because you are both more experienced than I, what would you call Barry's approach to the #C-A shift, if not a "gentle" portamento (because it just may be semantics)? Thanks very much. (Also, notice how he phrases the G at the end of the phrase as a strong pick up). Interesting... to be continued. Thanks

 

[bengreen]

Just for my own taste as a listener as much as a player, portamento falls under the category of embellishments which call attention to the player more than the music. Kind of a "hey, look at me!" Used with taste and restraint, yeah it can be lovely. But the line between appropriate and excessive is pretty thin.

And it's not just classical. When I listen to American Idol sort of pop music, the fluttery "expression" is so over the top that if there's tunes hiding somewhere in all of it, I can't find them. When I revisit the Rock music I grew up with, the bands that still move me are the ones that kept things fairly clean.

*****************

Oops, sorry. Hadn't clicked on the "Barry" before. For the leap it's lovely in itself as a "solo" solo, but he's doing a completely different phrasing and dramatic take on the music than your part and the YouTube performance you included indicates. I still like NeilG's advice. But thanks for the resource. You do manage to dig up interesting tutorials.

 

[LouisF]

Ah... the joys of the Internet... and of being retired!
Still I totally agree with you on the American Idol "vocalizations" and the excessive self indulgence of a lot of solo playing.
Thanks!

 

[CaseyVancouver]

Lieberman always explains things well.

 

[neilG]

Neil & Ben
Just out of curiosity - and because you are both more experienced than I, what would you call Barry's approach to the #C-A shift, if not a "gentle" portamento (because it just may be semantics)? Thanks very much. (Also, notice how he phrases the G at the end of the phrase as a strong pick up). Interesting... to be continued. Thanks

That interval doesn't need or deserve a portamento and it's possible to do it without one. I call his approach awful.