Experts and excerpts: the application of Giovanni Bottesini's complete method for the Contre-Basse to the preparation of orchestral excerpts taken from the works of Giuseppe Verdi

Abstract

The hypothesis of this paper is that if excerpts are prepared using a contemporaneous method book, then new and interesting results may be realised. Limited to excerpts for the double bass taken from works by Giuseppe Verdi, this paper suggests using Giovanni Bottesini’s treatise Complete Method for the Contre-Basse to address the technical and musical issues encountered in each excerpt. This idea is based in the knowledge that Bottesini was considered the foremost double bass player of his time, including by Verdi, and that the two composers were contemporaries, making Bottesini’s treatise historically appropriate to the excerpts in question. The method laid out here is in two parts: identifying the separate technical and musical considerations in each excerpt, then finding sections of the treatise that may be used to work on each specific issue, or in which Bottesini explains his approach relating to that issue. This approach is not necessarily intended to lead to a performance that is any more or less likely to win an audition than any other. Rather, the point is to create a more informed interpretation, and to find whether anything new regarding interpretation of the excerpts may be learned.