Double Bass
SKU:
BT.YE0007
Yorke
Edition. Composed by
F. Baines. Book Only.
Yorke Edition #YE0007.
Published by Yorke
Edition (BT.YE0007).
Born in Oxford
in 1917, Francis Baines
was a well-known and much
respected professional
double bass player. He
studied at the Royal
College of Music in
London with Claude
Hobday, where he later
taught. Something of an
eccentric,he immersed
himself in early music at
a time when few people
were taking it seriously.
He owned a beautiful
Amati bass that he had
restored as a violone,
which it probably was
originally, and he was a
regular fixture as
aprincipal player in a
number of orchestras and
ensembles that dedicated
themselves to period
performing, including
those directed by Denys
Darlow, with whom he
broadcast and recorded
frequently.
Besi
des playing
thedoublebass, Francis
Baines was an exponent of
the treble viol and led
the Jaye Consort of Viols
which he founded. He also
played several kinds of
bagpipe and the
hurdy-gurdy. As a
composer he dabbled in
many styles, one of
hisgreatest claims to
fame being that of
writing for the popular
Hoffnung concerts in the
1960s.
He was
the author of a number of
papers about the history
of the double bass,
sometimes arriving at
scholarly conclusionsthat
were colourful, if not
always entirely accurate.
He discovered the
Giovannino del Violone
sonatas, subsequently
published by Yorke
Edition, although today
it is thought that they
were probably not written
for a 16' pitchinstrument
at all. His edition of
the Capuzzi double bass
concerto, published by
Boosey & Hawkes, was for
many years one of the few
solo works available for
the instrument. This,
however, he largely
re-composed because
hethought it could be
improved: towards the end
of his life he confessed
that with hindsight he
probably should have
treated it
differently.
Gro
unds was written in 1969
as a sort of party piece
and was given to
YorkeEdition in support
of a drive to enlarge the
repertoire for the
instrument in a wide
variety of styles. It was
set on the syllabus of
the Associated Board of
the Royal Schools of
Music for many
years.
Francis
Baines died.
