Stefano Dall'Ora writes:"Sometimes I feel the need to compose for no other reason but the sheer pleasure of writing. There may be no commissions, no concerts looming, no deadlines to meet: on these happy occasions it's just the music itself which somehow has the urge to come out.

This is exactly the case with my "Johann Sebastian Bass" trio. A few summers ago I was enjoying a brief vacation in the Dolomites, the beautiful mountain region in North-eastern Italy. One day, while I was trekking through those breathtaking landscapes, a melody began to resonate in my mind (a side effect of the lack of oxygen, maybe?); it sounded like the beginning of a Bachian baroque theme, complete with embellishments. I quickly noted the theme down on a piece of paper and later that evening, back in my apartment, I resolved to try and write a prelude based on it, half as a joke, half as a bet with myself.

The owner of the house I was renting in the Dolomites, fellow bassist Franco Feruglio, is a close friend of mine; he teaches double bass at the Conservatorio di Udine (Italy), and for years we've been exchanging bass music for our teaching duties and ourselves. So I thought of him and his students, and said to myself : "Why not write it for a double bass ensemble, then?" I figured that three basses were the minimum required to make it work properly; then it occurred to me that after the prelude I needed a fugue to complete the form. That proved to be the trickiest part: the prelude almost wrote itself, but as every classically trained composer knows, the composition of a fugue is like a chess game, in which every tiny single move has lots of sudden musical consequences scattered all over the score. It requires constant control by the writer and a deep knowledge of viable alternative solutions to escape deadlock; all the more for someone like me, who isn't usually requested to compose mock-baroque incidental music...

Eventually I managed to reach the final double bar alive. Specialists may argue about the purity of style here and there, but please remember it's only a Divertissement, initially intended just as a musical gift for a dear friend of mine. Why not think of this trio as the only surviving page of an early work of Bach's: the long-lost "Well Tempered Double Bass (Das Wohltemperierte Kontrabass, that is)"?

"Johann Sebastian Bass" was first performed in public on August 4th, 2012 at JCE Network Festival in Bertinoro (Forlì - Cesena, Italy) by Giuseppe Ettorre, Alessandro Serra and Roberto Parretti.

Born in Varese, Italy Italian double bassist Stefano Dall'Ora has had a busy career as a performer and recording artist covering the spectrum from classical music to jazz. He graduated in 1982 with full marks from the prestigious Conservatorio 'Giuseppe Verdi' di Milano under the guidance of Giuseppe Russotto, and later with Franco Petracchi in Fiesole, Italy.

He has appeared as Principal Bass with a number of symphony and chamber orchestras such as the Orchestra da Camera di Brescia, Orchestra Sinfonica Haydn di Bolzano e Trento and Orchestra del Pomeriggi Musicali di Milano and has worked in many countries with leading soloists such as Mstislav Rostropovic, Gidon Kremere and Krystian Zimerman.

Stefan Dall'Ora has performed twice at Carnegie Hall (New York) with the Origines Trio (voice, classical guitar, double bass). He is a member of the Arke String Quartet and in 2007 they recorded, with the famed Indian percussionist, Trilok Gurtu, the CD 'Arkeology' which was voted one of the best World Music recordings of the year by several international music magazines.

Stefano Dall'Ora currently teaches double bass at the Conservatorio 'Giuseppe Verdi' di Como.