Double Bass What music are you working on?

[Carl Hillman]

I am digging into Dragonetti’s Twelve Waltzes again, focusing on 1 & 3. They have always felt awkward and I want to get them to feel right this year. I take a long time with rep. like this since there is no performance deadline. I pulled them out with a few other this to decide what to have on the stand for the next few months. I was going to put them away after my first run through them, but then I saw this again:

Interesting that he goes with the period bass and bow, but metal strings (Spiros?).

 

[P. Aaron]

My go-to was always the Brandenburg concertos, but that ship has sailed. Lowering the bar to re-learning all my scales. Getting old is harder than I envisioned. Just picking up the bass is difficult.

A Dragonetti piece was forced on me for an audition in my youth and I absolutely hated it. Maybe if I could of selected another one.
What do you consider his best? He just didn’t resonate with me like the usual suspects. Awkward sums him up to me.

As a semi-pro musician, most of the stuff I play live is music I'd never have learned for myself, even for recreational playing. We love to pursue the "how'd he do that...?" riffs and songs but, learning the wallpaper pop and common, almost cliche'd music seems tiresome but familiarity helps and we find common structures within them that can make it a bit easier.

Having to learn music for assignment or any musical endeavor can be a grind but, even if one struggles through it, sufficiently gutting any musicality the piece has as you learn it, is helpful.

For the numerous hours I've spent playing through (struggling) with music I'll never play live nor well, I still get nuggets that I incorporate in the band's live shows. My bandmates perhaps notice, likely not. The audience, eh; maybe.

 

[Brilee]

This is an interesting thread. As I've been reworking Dittersdorf in the last month, I have realized that it's cute, but not great for me. I find Capuzzi a much more satisfying piece from that era, but I'd like to have one other Classical period concerto to work on that's meaty, so I'm switching to Vanhal, which I never attempted before. I'm finding it to be a lot more interesting musically than Dittersdorf. There are more good lines in Vanhal, beyond just tricks with noodling on Viennese tuning that end up being strange and still not satisfying with modern tuning.

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

I am working on the music for a double recording project involving the same original suite scored for Jazz Quartet (side A) and String Quartet plus bass/piano (side B). I performed it both ways this past year with the composer on piano, and both iterations were fantastic! Jazz quartet records this Saturday, String quartet at the end of the month.

 

[Mark_T]

I spent a long time trying (and failing) to make sense of the Bottesini elegy. But finally, I figured out how to make it work for me. It's still in need of some polish, but I'm finally at the point where I can use it as an expressive vehicle rather than simply a challenge to be met.

My goals for this year are to work to the point where I could take a sub audition for a minor professional orchestra, and to maybe play a small recital. To the first point, I've pulled out a few excerpts that I've never worked on before (Mozart, Strauss) and started in on the first page of the Bottesini concerto.

When I left for Christmas vacation, I made a recording of the elegy - with plenty of flaws (some wobbly intonation and harmonics that didn't speak, plus at the very end I flubbed some notes). With some hesitation, I present it here. Obviously it's not great, but it's a big step for me, and I think the problems that are left there are entirely fixable with a little time and attention. Also, the piano is coming from a canned YouTube video, so it would be easier to work some of those things with a Real Human Being.

 

[Alexis Duntov]

I am working on the music for a double recording project involving the same original suite scored for Jazz Quartet (side A) and String Quartet plus bass/piano (side B). I performed it both ways this past year with the composer on piano, and both iterations were fantastic! Jazz quartet records this Saturday, String quartet at the end of the month.

That’s a very cool idea!

 

[neilG]

...... tricks with noodling on Viennese tuning....

The late, great cello professor at the school I teach at used to ask, before a jury, if the bassist was going to play "one of those harmonic concertos".