Why the Bass?

     As one friend put it, "Because it's there."  And in a way, that was one reason I got started on it;  it was lying dormant in the corner of the band room in junior high.  (See Blog Entry:  Fiddles, Little and Large)  But once I started to play the bass, I fell totally in love with the deep tone.  No matter that I rarely got to play the melody in the orchestra, I loved being the bottom of the whole orchestral sound.  To me, the basses of an orchestra give the whole wash of sound its third dimension.  Ever see the Hitchcock movie Vertigo?  Whenever Jimmy Stewart's character (who is afraid of heights) looks down from a great distance, he sees a telescoping special effect, which suddenly seems to be in three dimensions.  That is what I picture when the basses enter the scene in orchestral music.  When, for instance, the strings are playing without the basses, it sounds very lush and beautiful, of course.  But when the basses enter, an octave below the cellos, it's as if  the ground suddenly opens up and the rest of the orchestra is floating above a deep chasm.  The very best composers are to me, the best orchestrators, as well.  To skillfully use the full range of sound available, all the way from the bottom, with the basses and low brass,  up to the very top with the piccolo, triangle, and cymbals, or the full orchestral palette, is a true gift.

     Speaking of tonal colors:  I love the combination of cellos and basses, for instance  in the Recitative from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.  The recitative, played by the cellos and basses in unison, one octave apart, is a foreshadowing of the upcoming baritone singer's solo.  It does sound quite vocal, like a men's chorus singing with all its heart and soul.  The passage is very dramatic and one of my favorite places in the entire repertoire.  And to think Beethoven wrote the entire symphony after he became  completely deaf.  Makes one realize what a true genius he was!

     The bass also serves as a rhythm instrument, and that part is also fun and rewarding to play.  The pizzicato, or plucking of the bass is the most resonant of all the bowed string instruments.  It is deep and vital, like the beating of a heart.  And many times, it is used to depict just that.  It is usually the bottom of the harmonic structure of the orchestra as well;  it is the very foundation of the orchestral sound.

     I also love that the bass sound resonates so deeply within our very beings.  The better the concert hall, the easier this is to accomplish, in my mind.   One of my favorite places to play, aside from our own Davies Symphony Hall, is Symphony Hall in Boston.  There, to me, the bass response is unsurpassed by any hall, except maybe the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria.  One has just to touch the string, and a fat, juicy whoosh of sound practically explodes from the instrument.

      Back to San Francisco.  We have a very nice hall with good bass response.  It wasn't always that way.  About 17 or 18 years ago, the hall was totally redone inside to improve the acoustics.  The hall before that, made the listener feel as if the orchestra were playing behind a veil.  Nothing was clear or three-dimensional.  Thankfully, the Board took this seriously and raised the  money necessary to remedy the situation.  We now have a very fine hall that truly embellishes the sound of the entire orchestra.  Come and check it out.  You won't be disappointed!