Concerto for Double Bass and Orchestra

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Awards:

• 2024 International Saint-Saëns Competition

• 2024 European Music Awards

• 2024 Erik Satie Competition

• 2025 International Couperin Competition

• Finalist for the 2024 and 2025 American Prize

Program Notes:

More like a symphony with double bass as a hero, this piece takes the listener through the depths of grief, irreverence, playfulness, and finally rejuvenation and purification through fire. The Concerto for Double Bass and Orchestra was the result of several sources of inspiration. Conductor Jonathan Pasternack dreamed up the idea of the creation of a new piece for the Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra to celebrate their 90th Anniversary.

The idea for the concerto for double bass and orchestra was a combination of the desire to add to the repertoire for the double bass and having an incredible double bass player, Stephen Schermer, to premiere it. In deciding the general stylistic approach to the piece, I wanted to create something that would be virtuosic and fun for the bass soloist, engaging and interesting for the orchestra, and expressive and exciting for the audience. It was inspirational to be in contact with both the conductor and the bassist throughout the composing of this piece. Steve's hope was for something lyrical, expressive, with a lot of tension and release, and that also used the full range of the double bass (a lot of bass concertos favor the highest range). This sounded perfect to me.

The Concerto is in three movements: Lachrymae, Scherzo, and Pesante feroce. The Lachrymae is the most serious and dramatic movement. Many composers have written movements called lachrymae or lacrimosa, referring to tears. The first of the three movements is the mournful Lachrymae; both the composer and the bassist for whom this was written had recently lost loved ones, which is represented by the teardrop motif (descending notes slurred in twos). The waves of the complex feelings of grief appear as velvety, lush low notes in the bass, as exquisite melodies in the harp and woodwinds, and in the heaviness of the brass. About a third of the way in, the piccolo shares a duet with the bass, who plays a haunting melody using only harmonics. The other primary motive in this movement is the stubborn melody introduced by the solo bass – it consists of a tiny range of a minor 3rd, with the center note reiterated repeatedly. This movement intensifies at a glacial, constrained rate, ultimately reaching a wailing climax; the orchestra then leaves the bass to mourn alone.

The second movement, Scherzo, reveals an irreverent, teasing side of the double bass. The only sounds are percussion and pizzicato and strumming strings, with castanets, woodblocks, and marimba cheekily mocking the strings in syncopated, rhythmically slippery lines. The harmonies are jazzy and the rhythms hemiolic, bestowing a playful impertinence to the movement. The winds get to take a break, leaving just strings and percussion. All of the strings play entirely pizzicato – they don't use their bows at all. The percussion gets to pull out some of their fun auxiliary instruments – temple bells (or crotales), vibraslap, castanets, and bongos among them. In the middle of the movement, the bass plays a 7-note pattern over the percussion's 3-beat pattern, intentionally feeling loose and ungrounded. In the bass part, you'll hear glissandos and slapping the strings.

The Pesante feroce is the high-energy climax of the piece. Short, driving, accented motives are tossed between the bass and the orchestra. The music is often somewhat dissonant, but always directional. A challenge in composing for bass is balance between the bass and the orchestra. Rather than thinning the orchestra, in this movement, I chose to have them alternate quickly, so the orchestra could play with fullness and energy without covering the bass. The middle of this movement slows to a dark, mysterious scene, with a persistent 4-note ostinato that is traded through the winds, brass, percussion, strings, and harp. Fairly quickly, the music returns to the virtuosic, driving bass themes, pushing toward the dramatic final repetition of the opening statement.