Thoughts on bass

The minutes leading up to Hayley Manning's graduation recital had me perplexed. There were a string of bassists and a tabla setup. Ben and Kyle on each side of the stage with a tabla player between. Geoff and Brendan were down the back on bass, something I only realised later. At the starting time, Hayley arrived upfront to play a freeform melody by Francois Rabbath against a low-E drone from the other basses. They left and Hayley introduced the next works as more conventional. Misek Sonata no.1 Amaj and Koussevitsky Concerto F#maj, both played with piano accompaniment. These are not trivial works and F# is not a trivial key. I was in awe of Hayley's thumb positions, harmonics, long scales and the like. Technical challenges abounded and she did them justice. Then the final work, Anderson Capriccio no.2, a contemporary bass work played solo, with a "flurry of rhythms notes that display the full raw power and potential of the double bass as a solo instrument" (from the program notes). How apt: this one worked for me as a bass solo piece. It got me thinking of the role of bass. The Rabbath was effective, where the bass was being itself. The Misek and Koussevitsky were impressive, but I kept feeling the piano just said more and more interestingly with its handfulls of notes as chords and arpeggios and that easy dexterity, so why the solo bass? But the Anderson was my favourite, toying with the low pitch, the upper reaches, the grandiosity with clumsiness that is the string bass. In parallel, it reminds me of my readings in Bass Player mag, where they continually rile against overplaying, perhaps clumsily, by repeating that the bass is there to make others sound good (!). I guess they mean that its role is essentially accompaniment, especially by spelling rhythm or groove. The Anderson took a prime role for the low end and made it interesting, not least by using rhythm, but mostly this observation is right in my book. Play less, play neater, play with awareness of others. It's harder than it sounds and it's not an impediment or limitation. Nothing makes drive like a bass line, in funk or in classics. With instruments, it's horses for courses. So congratulations and thanks to Hayley for her graduation and her thought provoking recital.

Hayley Manning (bass) played Rabbath, Misek, Koussevitsky and Anderson for her graduation recital in the Larry Sitsky room at ANU. Support was from Kylie Loveland (piano accompanist), Kyle Ramsay-Daniel, Brendan Keller-Tuberg, Ben Drury and Geoff Prime (basses) and Yash Vyas (tabla)

Last schooldays

Given work, I don’t attend many recitals, but I got to Rohan Dasika’s classical, licenciate recital. He played Bach, Bottesini and an intriguing-sounding modern piece called Failing. The Bach was his Cello suite no.3 played in Gmaj (rather than the original Cmaj). The bass is large and unwieldy, its range is limited and the fingering limits how and what can be played, so it’s a different exercise and an obvious challenge. I didn’t envy Rohan chasing up and down the fingerboard, but it was a valid technical exercise and I enjoyed it although I found it harder to follow than it would have been on cello. The Bottesini was his Concerto no.2 for double bass in Amin and it was much more fitting to the instrument. Bottesini was a bass virtuoso and his works for the bass are key to the repertoire and apparently this is his key standard work for the bass. I seen several Bottesini clips on YouTube but never heard a live performance. This was much more apt for the instrument. Lyrical, effective use of the full range of the instrument, lots of harmonics and playing to the extremes of the fingerboard, rich tones down low and rising arpeggios and a nice interplay with the accompanying piano. The last piece was anything but out of place for Rohan’s recital. Tom Johnson’s Failing: a very difficult piece for solo string bass has the performer speaking while playing and talking about this very activity: easy at first, then getting harder; will he fail, or choose to fail and then essentially succeed; don’t all performances involve some failure. The accompanying music moved from lyrical to devilishly chromatic and the speaking moved from reading to improvised. Only Rohan will know where or how he failed (he certainly didn’t fall in a heap) but it suited his zany virtuosity. Great fun and much enjoyed. I have no idea how this performance would go over with examiners. The works were challenging. I noticed some technical slips and his face was variously mobile with pleasure and pain, but this was intriguing and engaging and entertaining and even humourous and for a solo double bass concert, I can only imagine that is exceptional. Well done, Rohan. Rohan Dasika (double bass) presented his third year recital. He was accompanied by Kylie Loveland (piano) for the Bottesini.

While in the building, I also caught the week-long lunchtime performance called Elevator #1. It’s percussion on a 36” concert bass drum in the lift at the Music School. I only heard the first few minutes and beats, written as crochet-rest-repeat, played with one mallet, then adding a second. The lift went up and down; the doors opened; visitors entered and left; it was loud. I was hearing the drum later, down a corridor, presumably when the lift door opened. I expect it’s a valid comment on the changes at the school (sounding all the world like a funeral procession at the start). I would like to hear the development over an hour, even over the week, but my ears wouldn’t be up to it. This is a small space and the big skin and beater is a loud combination. But it’s worthy and I’m glad I’ve seen it, if only for a few minutes and only in the earliest moments of musical development for that day. Austin Bucket composed and conceived the piece and William Jackson (percussion) performed it.