Chamber Music

Comment

Comment by Jacob Litoff on February 10, 2010 at 8:24pm

The Schubert Octet is one of my favorite pieces of chamber music to play. I keep looking for some other repetoire for that combination of instruments that would be just as much fun to play but I haven't found much. Any ideas?
I've also fallen in love with Turina's 'Scene Andalouse' for solo viola, string quartet, and piano.
Martinu's "La Revue de Cuisine" for trumpet, clarinet, bassoon, violin, cello and piano is a third piece of chamber music I greatly admire.

Comment by Greg Cahill on January 27, 2010 at 1:47pm

Interesting comment in the next Strings magazine by John Feeney, principal bassist with the Orchestra of St. Luke's, in which he laments that Chamber Music America heavily promotes quartets but not quintets, despite the fact that there are many great string quartets out there. Yet, as you say, there's a tendency to transcribe these bass parts for cello, perhaps because there are more cellists available. But still . . . let's not forget the special strengths that bass bring to these parts as they were written.

Comment by Paul Grantham on January 27, 2010 at 8:10am

I discovered this when I started working on Schubert's A Major Quintet (Trout), which is one of the most widely performed pieces that has a bass part. I did a quick check of Amazon for a recording of it. Amazon lists 35 recording of the piece. I was only able to find five versions that used a bass. The rest used two cellos. (My count may be off because it isn't always easy to identify the instruments from the artists.)
When I tried to find a local group to play the piece with, the only one I found said they were using two cellos, rather than a bass.
I know my experience is very limited but I had the impression this is common. Again, I don't have much actual experience in this area.

Comment by David B Teague on January 26, 2010 at 5:48pm

Comment by Jeremy Kurtz 21 hours ago
oops--sorry, I misread your question. Just curious--which pieces have you heard where a 2nd cello has substituted for a bass part? I haven't actually run into that as much . . .

I have seen double bass transcriptions of the 2nd Cello part for both the Brahms sextets. I can give you details if you wish, but Kenneth Harper did a transcription of the double bass part for the B flat Sextet and Anthony Scelba did a transcription of the C major (the Great) sextet. I played the first movement of the C major and it works very well, even if you don't play the cello 1 and cello 2 duet "in the rosin".

Comment by Jeremy Kurtz on January 25, 2010 at 8:28pm

oops--sorry, I misread your question. Just curious--which pieces have you heard where a 2nd cello has substituted for a bass part? I haven't actually run into that as much . . .

Hopefully some of those other leads (ACMP, local orchestras, etc) will help to dig up some other musicians. If you're close to a relatively big city, you could even put up a post on craigslist under the "musicians" section--you might find some other like-minded people who want to read great music.

Comment by Paul Grantham on January 25, 2010 at 6:20pm

Thank you all for you helpful resources. I realize there many scores that have bass parts in chamber ensembles. Actually my question was about why those bass parts are usually played by adding a cello, not by a bass, even in recordings of the pieces. I am looking for a group that I might join to play those bass parts. Any advice on finding them?

Comment by Monica Hesse on January 25, 2010 at 5:51pm

Thanks for that posting Jeremy, I am sure that helps!

Comment by Jeremy Kurtz on January 25, 2010 at 5:41pm

Hi Paul,
there are actual hundreds and hundreds of chamber music pieces with bass out there! You can see a recent post about it here:
http://doublebassblog.org/2010/01/chamber-music-and-the-bassist-part-i-the-great-chamber-music-search.html

Also, you can go directly to this site to see listings of pieces--very helpful! --
http://www.paulnemeth.com/basschamber.htm

-Jeremy

Comment by Monica Hesse on January 25, 2010 at 5:29pm

Paul, you know that there are a lot of pieces that are for the cello that the upright bass can provide. You just have to sell yourself (I suppose) as if you were a cellist that plays the bass!

Comment by Paul Grantham on January 25, 2010 at 7:18am

As a bassist, I don't get much chance to play chamber music, even though I love it. Those few scores that include a bass are often actually played by a second cello. I am curious if there is a reason for this...other than people don't like this big piece of furniture in the ensembles? (smile)

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