Beyond the Trout Quintet Let it never be said that there isn’t enough chamber music that includes the double bass BY KURT MUROKI

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra principal for 13 players), György Kurtag’s Six Less often heard are gems like the Hindemith bassist Owen Lee maintains that there are Bagatelles, and Vaughan Williams’s Octet, the Lachner Nonet, Lalo’s Deux so many great chamber works out there for Piano Quintet. The list goes on and on.... Aubades, and Mercandante’s Deci­mino I, his instrument, that he’d never be able to performed by the Jupiter Symphony Chamber As a New York City-based bassist who play them all. More than sixty compositions Players. Wonderful new works by Mario has been lucky enough to play lots of cham- are written for the “Trout” formation (piano, Davidovsky, John Zorn, and 101-year-old ber music, I must credit three organizations violin, viola, cello, bass) alone, he points out. Elliott Carter are being performed both by for bringing lesser-known ensemble works And, he goes on, the Classical Period itself the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center with bass to my attention: these are the is an “embarrassment of riches”: and other prominent New York contempo- Marlboro Music Festival; the Jupiter Symphony rary music ensembles. ……countless Serenades and Divert­ Chamber Players, headed by Mei Ying and Yet these are only the tip of the iceberg: imenti by Mozart, to say nothing of his Michael Volpert, who are devoted to inter- The St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble’s bassist four great String Quintets with bass esting and educational programming and John Feeney—a superb musician and a (Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and the three never repeat the same piece twice; and the friend—recently uncovered a multitude of string divertimenti, K.136, 137, and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, ensemble works by Domenico Dragonetti 138). Haydn wrote at least twenty with its fantastic combination of energy, (1763–1846). (Dragonetti, a bassist himself, Divertimenti for two violins and basso. enthusiasm, and devotion to excellence. is said to have thoroughly impressed The 20th century is also limitless: Frequently performed pieces include, of Beethoven by performing one of the mas- there’s the Frank Martin Rhapsodie, course, Schubert’s “Trout,” as well as the ter’s own cello sonatas on his instrument.) Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony no.1, Dvorˇák bass quintet (op. 77), the spectacular Through the intervention of Sir Roger the Schulhoff Concertino, Copland’s Prokofiev Quintet, and the Schubert Octet. Norrington, Feeney obtained a coveted Appalachian Spring (the original version

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, with Edgar Meyer on double bass

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pass to the manuscript room of the British bass. Nemeth says that his main point in Library and, during a week off between making the list was to show that the limited Resources tours, spent days poring over the library’s presence of a bass in chamber music isn’t International Society of Bassists huge collection of Dragonetti manuscripts. due to the lack of music, but to ignorance: www.isbworldoffice.com/ He found the music to be “varied, colorful, “People don’t know that this repertoire is BY KURT MUROKI Chamber Music for Double-Bass entirely unique and well crafted.” Thanks to even out there in the first place.” Nemeth’s www.paulnemeth.com/basschamber.htm Feeney, Grancino Editions will soon publish site represents an ongoing search for these works in an urtext version; and he and unknown and lost works and is also an Year of Collaborative Music www.mtna.org/Programs/ the Loma Mar Quartet have been perform- impressive resource for ensembles, pro- YearofCollaborativeMusic ing and recording Dragonetti string quintets moters, and educational institutions. (for the full Dragonetti story, turn back to Responding to a recent upsurge of inter- Marlboro Music Festival pages 36 to 39 in this issue). est in bass chamber music, the International www.marlboromusic.org/ Like Feeney, bassists tend to be resource- Society of Bassists (ISB) and its current The Chamber Music Society ful; they not only arrange and commission, president, Robert Nairn, has been a driving of Lincoln Center but also quite frequently compose for their force in promoting the double bass and www.chambermusicsociety.org own instrument. In addition to Dragonetti educating musicians and concertgoers in Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players himself, the bassist/composer list includes music for the instrument. One far-reaching www.jupitersymphony.com Giovanni Bottesini (1821–1889), as well as project that will involve chamber music Grancino Editions’ Dragonetti Quintets our contemporaries David Anderson, Peter specifically is the ISB’s partnership with the www.grancinoeditions.com Askim, Jon Deak, Edgar Meyer, Frank Proto— Music Teachers National Association on “The and many jazz bassists, from Steve Swallow Year of Collaborative Music,” during which to Ben Allison. ensemble music—classical, jazz, and other Bassist Kurt Muroki, a native of Maui, Hawaii, Because a great deal of bass chamber genres—will be promoted nationwide. studied at The Juilliard School under Homer R. music is either out of print or very difficult to For centuries, composers have recognized Mensch. He performs with numerous ensembles find, the Internet has become an invaluable the versatility of the double bass. Now, and is on faculty at Stony Brook University, New Jersey City University, and the Bowdoin Inter­ resource for those on the hunt. One out- thanks to the Internet, we are able to find national Music Festival. He thanks the colleagues standing website—created by Paul Nemeth, more and more ways to bring its supportive who have contributed to this article, especially a student at the Juilliard School—lists more and beautiful sound to chamber music Jeremy Kurtz, principal bass with the San Diego than 2,000 chamber works for the double audiences. Symphony.

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