instrument families revisited

When I discussed instrument families in August 2021, I used a wikipedia pic of recorders from sopranino to bass. As it happens, I now have all five sizes myself, so I guess it's time to revisit the issue with a new photo:

Bass: Thomann; tenor: Yamaha; alto: Triebert; soprano: Moeck; sopranino: Yamaha - the tenor came from the Allegro shop many years ago, all others from flea markets. All have baroque fingering, in addition I also have my old school recorder and a Moeck alto in German fingering.

I also may need to revise my preferences. I have warmed to the tenor recorder since the last blog entry and now use it for certain tunes at sessions, and I love my new bass recorder, so the trend is towards bigger instruments in that family (does anybody have a sub-bass to sell?). In the strings department by contrast, I have taken to to the violin and now also have a viola and a double bass in the room, so I'm spoilt for choice. Oh, and I've also found a low whistle, so families are growing all around thanks to fleamarkets, charity shops and gumtree.

double bass revisited

I had double bass lessons with a rented instrument between age 16 and 20, but haven't had access to a bass since. When it emerged that Cowley Orchestra owns a bass in need of rehousing, I offered to look after it, so now, for the first time in nearly 40 years, I get the chance to play bass on a regular basis.

First impressions: this thing is bloody big and heavy - I must conclude that the instrument I played way back when was a small size version. I am told 3/4 basses are now quite commonly used even in serious orchestras, but they are only a few centimetres shorter. So it is quite possible that the music school rental instruments were 1/2 sized ones. There wasn't a choice of size, I remember they had a whole row of identical ones. The big one also takes some serious amounts of energy to play, so I'm only doing something like ten minutes a day right now.

I don't want to confuse my cello-sightreading brain by reading bass, so I am on the lookout for easy tunes that I know already and that sound nice in the bass register. A first example is the German carol Maria durch ein Dornwald ging, of which I have made a very rough video, just as a first impression of the sound of this bass:

inspired by the Berliner Blockflöten Orchester who do it much better, of course.

For something a bit more lively, Bella ciao would be an option, but watch this space. Might try an ironic rendition of Silent night too. And unless a real bass player steps up to use this instrument at orchestra, this month may well mark the beginning of a bass period in my zodiac of instrument obsessions introduced last month.

all about the bass

It emerged recently that Cowley Orchestra owns a double bass, which had been lent out to members of another orchestra and forgotten about. Now it has been returned and as I vaguely remember I had double bass lessons for a few years, forty years ago, I offered to host it until we’ve figured out what to do with it. Conceivably, if any bass player came to Oxford without a bass, they could borrow it and hopefully play with us on Wednesdays.

So, well, the instrument looks like this (adding bass-holder to the many uses of a cajón):

and it came with a whole bag of sheet music and learning material like this one copyright 1949:

Some of these are marked and dated by Captain E. W. Geidt who lived in Bradmore Road, North Oxford, with dates between 1957 and 1961. I am told that he used to move the double bass around in a wheelbarrow and that his daughter also played with Cowley before my time, so either of them appears to have donated / bequeathed the instrument to us. The internet seems to think EW stands for Edward Wollaston, but as these are also the middle names of the eponymous ethics advisor to a disgraced former prime minister, we’ll just have to call the bass “the Captain”.

The instrument looks in good shape for its age, and appears to be well made and still solid throughout. There are even purfling-style inlays running up its neck which look like a luxury feature to me:

I am not quite happy with the bow though, which appears to be breaking up:

and the frog is too small for the German-style bow hold which I prefer. The green book shown above calls this style the Bottesini bow and the kind I used way back when the Dragonetti bow, adding that the latter "is not much used in this country."

Other accessories that came with it include a very lovely home-made wooden spike holder:

as well as five packs of rosin probably dating from as many different decades, guarded by a dead beetle (could be a maybeetle/cockchafer, not sure?):

I tried playing a few lines of the Simandl etudes which I played a lot back in the days, but realised it’s pretty exhausting, so I guess I won’t try to play this at orchestra …

Here it is then, waiting for a more energetic player and just about fitting in the cello corner (the cello found space in a different corner):