gliere tarantella

gliere tarantella for double bass

if you don't know the piece (face it, no one does) watch this really valiant attempt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6eQ27euuvc

what can i say about the piece. at my level it's about one of the best pieces - probably the best - i can decently manage. it's got good melodies, some attempt at weaving a bass accompaniment line around the (pno) melody (that ultimately ends in failure in performance)... very nice romantic russian thing. there's an inescapable pathos about it that's quite unavoidable. the middle section melody is filled with a deep heartfelt yearning - i think it's the held-over notes that do the trick.

but the main reason why it evokes pathos is something you can't realise till you've actually played the piece. i need to elucidate, it's quite a simple but profound point.

i mean, it's absolutely hopeless trying to get a bass to carry a melody. when you actually get down to the brute-force string sawing wrestling with 4 thick steel cables to try valiantly to express a deep emotional torment, there's actually a deep emotional torment going on in you right at that moment, founded on this simple premise:

what in the name of fuck am i doing this for? the harder i try the more it sounds like shit anyway.

making a double bass play a melody as ornate as that is simultaneously the highest honour, the greatest challenge, the worst torture, and the cruellest irony. that's where pathos lies.

that's what was going through my mind when i played it at my lesson today (first lesson in 5 months!). lol ms yeo was rather impressed, and that takes some doing. =D she usually lets rip about making a good sound and slow practice but woah none of that this time. immense relief.