# Bach on the Bass!



## PostMinimalist

Here's a link to me playing the Allemande from the 3rd cello suite.

Fergus plays Bach.


----------



## Weston

Not a sound I am used to hearing solo. It has a lot of rich harmonics/overtones. It makes me wonder why more double basses were not traditionally used in string quartets to give a little more body.

Do you have to use tuning like a cello, or can this be done on the standard EADG?


----------



## PostMinimalist

Standard orchestral tuning. Joel Quarington uses cello tuning but he is nuts and God both at the same time!

The reasons basses don't figure in more chamber music are:

1. They are buggers to play in tune.
2. They are not really members of the violin fsamily having sloped shoulders, traditionally flat backs and are tuned in fourths.

There are some great works with bass in small ensembles but they are very few.
Beethoven septet
Schubert Trout quintet
Spohr nonet 
Dvorak Serenade (not the string orchestra piece)
Schubert octet
Neilsen Quintet
Schoenberg chamber symphony

and others...
FC


----------



## Margaret

post-minimalist said:


> Here's a link to me playing the Allemande from the 3rd cello suite.
> 
> Fergus plays Bach.


Oh my gosh, that sounds so different. I couldn't tell if I liked it or not because I'm still kind of freaking out over it. To hear one of my all time favorites for one of my favorite instruments played on a double bass..... It's like the time I heard one of the Bach cello suites transcribed for the piano, though at least this is still on string.


----------



## Margaret

post-minimalist said:


> Standard orchestral tuning. Joel Quarington uses cello tuning but he is nuts and God both at the same time!


Ignorant question to you who play a double bass.....

What's the difference in tuning?


----------



## Weston

post-minimalist said:


> There are some great works with bass in small ensembles but they are very few.
> Beethoven septet
> Schubert Trout quintet
> Spohr nonet
> Dvorak Serenade (not the string orchestra piece)
> Schubert octet
> Neilsen Quintet
> Schoenberg chamber symphony


There's a major Beethoven piece I don't have?  I don't have nor have even heard this septet. I remember reading or hearing that Beethoven was friends with a well known vituoso contrabass player, so this makes sense that he would use it in a chamber work.

Now I'm on a quest.


----------



## PostMinimalist

The Beethoven Septet is op. 20 if that's any help.

@Margaret
Yes, transcriptions can be odd things if you are used to the original. But what are we bassists to do? Our repertoire is so small that transcriptions make up a major part of it.
I hope you mean: 'like' the idea of Bach on the bass and not the playing!
Cheers
F


----------



## PostMinimalist

He was mates with Domenico Dragonetti.


----------



## PostMinimalist

Margaret said:


> Ignorant question to you who play a double bass.....
> 
> What's the difference in tuning?


Bass tuning is a strange subject. For a start the instrument is tuned traditionally in fourths EADG unlike cellos, violas and violins. Secondly there is a system of solo tuning whereby the soloist will tune his bass a tone higher F#BEA in order to make the sound brighter. This turns the bass into a transposing instrument in D. The piano parts ar in D major when the bass part is in C major. Some players adopt other systems like JQ who tunes in fifths fo cello transcriptions. I use the standard orchestrsal tuning and transpose the piano acconpaniments down a tone if they are for solo tuning.
I hope that clarifies things.
FC


----------



## Margaret

post-minimalist said:


> Bass tuning is a strange subject. For a start the instrument is tuned traditionally in fourths EADG unlike cellos, violas and violins. Secondly there is a system of solo tuning whereby the soloist will tune his bass a tone higher F#BEA in order to make the sound brighter. This turns the bass into a transposing instrument in D. The piano parts ar in D major when the bass part is in C major. Some players adopt other systems like JQ who tunes in fifths fo cello transcriptions. I use the standard orchestrsal tuning and transpose the piano acconpaniments down a tone if they are for solo tuning.
> I hope that clarifies things.
> FC


I'm sitting here thinking thank god I read "Classical Music for Dummies." Yes, that did clarify things thank you.


----------



## sam richards

Very good. I liked it.


----------



## PostMinimalist

That's relieving coming from someone who looks remarkably like the composer!
Thanks
FC


----------

