A lively and enjoyable work aimed at the good intermediate bassist. It utilises much of the range of the double bass, including high harmonics, but is still accessible to anyone of about Grade 8 standard. This is a useful introduction to the upper reaches of the instrument and is fun to study and perform, also very accessible for an audience. The accompaniment is simple and supportive and this new edition offers an 'old classic' for young bassists of the 21st-century.

Popularised by Gary Karr in his Children's Concerts, this has much to commend it to students and teachers alike. There are effective technical challenges for anyone looking for something a little different and this is also available in editions for double bass quartet or double bass and string quartet. This edition includes piano accompaniments for both solo and orchestral tunings.

Who was Lorenziti? There is little biographical information about him and few surviving works. It is likely that the Gavotte was written by Edouard Nanny (1872-1942), the revered Professor of double bass at the Paris Conservatoire for more than 20 years, but in the style of a previous age. Whatever the truth, this is a lively and enjoyable work which offers much to performers and audiences alike.

Edouard Nanny was an important French double bassist and teacher, also composing and transcribing many works for double bass. He was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye on 24 March 1872 and he studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Professor Verrimst, also teaching there from 1920-1940.

He performed often as a soloist, also working as an orchestral bassist with many orchestras such as the Paris Symphony Orchestra, Concerts Lamoureux and the Orchestra de l'Opera Comique, and in 1901 he founded the Henry Casadeus Society of Old Instruments, chaired by Camille Saint-Saens, and intended to revive the works from the past centuries.

Nanny's Method for double bass is still in print, over 90 years since its first publication and both volumes contain a wealth of excellent technical studies and exercises which are as relevant today as they were in the 1920s. His other volumes of studies are mostly out of print and Recital Music plan to reprint some of his orginal works for double bass, transcriptions and educational music to keep alive the name of Edouard Nanny into the 21st-century.

Edouard Nanny died in Paris in 1942.

Grade 8 - Trinity-Guildhall
DipLCM in Performance

Performance Level: 8