PARTITIONS GRATUITES : 2 VIOLONS (DUO)
- BASS

Composed by Jordan Eismeier. For contrabassoon and string quartet. Level 5. Duration 7 minutes. Published by Imagine Music

(For Violin, Viola, Violoncello, Contrabass, And Piano). By Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (1939-). For Violin, Viola, Cello, Double Bass, Piano. Premiered August 2011 by La Jolla Music Society; Kalichstein-Laredo-Robins on Trio; Michael Tree, Viola; Harold Robinson, Double Bass. Contemporary. Performance score. Duration 22 minutes. Published by Theodore Presser Company

(String Quartet and Double Bass; or Chamber Orchestra Set of Parts (String Quartet and Double Bass)). By Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791). Edited by Wolf-Dieter Seiffert. Henle Music Folios. Softcover. 44 pages. G. Henle Verlag #HN1005. Published by G. Henle Verlag

Arranged by William Ryden (1939-). Collection for 2 cellos/basses. 24 pages. Published by Belwin.

By Louis Spohr (1784-1859). Arranged by Schwenke. For clarinet (violin 2), violin, viola, cello, double bass ad lib. and piano. Facsimile Editions - Winds, Strings and Piano. Unusual instrumentation, but enjoyable to play and perform. Fine arrangement of Spohr's Octet. Schwenke was a masterful arranger. Classical

Cello and Double Bass

SKU: BT.YE0088

Composed by Collins. Book Only. Yorke Edition #YE0088. Published by Yorke Edition (BT.YE0088).

Double Bass and Cello (1985). 'Pleasantly atmospheric'. Daily Telegraph, London. A show work, written for The Manchester Bass Week, not too difficult but immediately pleasing.

Grade: Moderate.

Composed by Mark Andre. For Violoncello and Contrabass. Modern. Score. Duration circa 12 minutes. Edition Peters #EP12972. Published by Edition Peters

Trombone, Cello

SKU: BT.YE0001

Composed by Gioachino Rossini. Book Only. Yorke Edition #YE0001. Published by Yorke Edition (BT.YE0001).

It was a chance visit to a second hand bookshop in Nottingham that set me on the trail of Rossini's now well-known Duetto for cello and double bass. But the story begins earlier than that. In the 1960s I was studying the double bass at the Royal College of Music with Adrian Beers, who was at that time principal of the English Chamber Orchestra, on the front desk of the Philharmonia Orchestra, and a member of the Melos Ensemble of London (then one of the leading ensembles of the world). I was working on the 'Dragonetti Concerto', as most young players do, and I wanted to find out a bit about it. My teacher said he thought the autograph manuscript might be in the British Library,which was all the encouragement I needed to secure a pass to the Reading Room so I could go and see for myself.

There, sure enough, I found a large collection of Dragonetti's autograph manuscripts, together with other bound volumes relating to his life. The papers had been lovingly collated and annotated by Vincent Novello, one of Dragonetti's closest friends, then deposited in the library before his departure to Italy in 1848, two years after Dragonetti's death. One of the volumes included a lot of letters about various engagements and music festivals, copies of orders for strings Dragonetti wanted from Italy, details about paintings he wanted to buy, and numerous invitations to private functions. The manuscript of the 'Dragonetti Concerto', of course, wasn't among the papers â?? we now know it to have been written by Edouard Nanny a century or so later.

One name that came up regularly in the documents was that of Sir George Smart. Smart had been a violinist in Salomon's orchestra and had played for Haydn at his London concerts in the 1790s. As a child he had learnt much about music from his father, who had in turn been present at many of Handel's rehearsals when he was preparing some of his major works for the first time. Smart was also a fine keyboard player, becoming organist of the Chapel Royal in 1822. As a conductor.