Double Bass Plainsound Counterpoint

[garrett2]

I was listening to this wonderful recording by Frank Reinicke, primarily to hear the Catherine Lamb piece which is also great, and stumbled onto this marvelous example of what the solo bass can do with extended harmonic technique. To my delight I also discovered that the sheet music has been made available by the composer --not that I can imagine having the technique to play this, but one can dream.

https://www.plainsound.org/pdfs/counterpoint.pdf

Here it is on YouTube (although it definitely should be heard in a better form):

 

[Mark_T]

Lowers / raises the pitch to alter the Pythagorean Thirds 81:64 & 32:27 by a Syntonic Comma to represent the Ptolemaic Thirds 5:4 & 6:5

I know exactly what you mean. Okay I don't. This is really cool and would be fun to play with.

 

[garrett2]

I would really like to know how one trains to be able to play music like this. Do you practice a lot of differently intonated intervals so you get used to moving back and forth between them? Or do you use one scalar sequence as a base and conceive of the micro-raises and lowers in relation to it?

 

[Co.]

I would really like to know how one trains to be able to play music like this. Do you practice a lot of differently intonated intervals so you get used to moving back and forth between them? Or do you use one scalar sequence as a base and conceive of the micro-raises and lowers in relation to it?

All stopped pitches in this piece are directly under harmonic nodes. So the first thing to learn, is a concept of finding these harmonics (think overtones) and making them sound good. Then alternating the harmonics with the stopped notes and getting this harmonic relationship (think undertones of overtones) in your ear.
Then get the double stops in tune.

The best beginner's guide to all this stuff is Mark Dresser's Guts DVD.

 

[Mark_T]

I would really like to know how one trains to be able to play music like this. Do you practice a lot of differently intonated intervals so you get used to moving back and forth between them? Or do you use one scalar sequence as a base and conceive of the micro-raises and lowers in relation to it?

I don't have an answer to your question but if you're interested in this kind of music, I love the music of Ellen Arkbro. She works a lot with tuning systems and drones, and you get interesting harmonic interactions that you don't in tempered tunings. See for example:



Warning, no basses were used in the making of this recording.

 

[Anne Millington]

I love this, but have no prayer of playing it, esp tuning in fifths as I do. BUT I am totally making a copy of the pdf and putting it casually on my stand at our next quintet rehearsal. "Oh that? Just my warmup." or some such...