Exposition

Approaching a Viennese sound on the modern double bass (2025)

Thomas Debellemanière
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About this exposition

The standards of the double bass repertoire today include works written for the Viennese Bass, a historical instrument which was popular in Vienna in the second half of the 18th century. The instrument gradually disappeared, but a large amount of these works are still performed today on the modern double bass, although it doesn't have the same characteristics which shaped the virtuoso writing of the Viennese concertos. This repertoire relies on specific characteristics of this instrument, and doesn't fit well the modern double bass. My research aims to establish how we, double bassists can best approach a Viennese sound on our instrument tuned in fourths. There are many levers that we can take advantage of in order to approach the sonority characteristics of these Viennese bass concertos: better choice of tonality, adaptation of dynamics to match what would sound naturally louder on the Viennese tuning, velocities and bowings, fingerings which would be typically used with a fretted instrument, sometimes octaviating and compromises between existing editions. Some performance tips could certainly be generalized to all Viennese concertos, while other tips would be detailed for each one.
typeresearch exposition
keywordsVienna, Instrument, 18th century, Instruments and Techniques, double bass
date19/11/2024
published14/07/2025
last modified14/07/2025
statuslimited publication
copyrightyes
licenseCC BY-NC-ND
languageEnglish
urlhttps://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/2460979/2461446
published inKC Research Portal
portal issue3. Internal publication


Copyrights

nameVanhal - Viennese Violone Concerto Mvt 1&2 - Johann Sperger's manuscript
copyrightPublic Domain
licensePublic domain
usagespdf
nameviolone illustration
copyrightKorneel le Comte
licenseAll rights reserved
usagespicture
nameModern copy of a Johan Joseph Stadlmann Viennese Violone, made by Domonkos Gellért (https://gellertbasses.com ) in 2015
copyrightThomas Debellemanière
licenseAll rights reserved
usagespicture
nameMy Viennese bass
copyrightThomas Debellemanière
licenseAll rights reserved
usagespicture
nametemp ditters
copyrightPublic domain
licensePublic domain
usagespicture
nameHaydn no.31 'Hornsignal' (1080p_30fps_H264-128kbit_AAC)
copyrightThomas Debellemanière
licenseAll rights reserved
usagesvideo

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