The Heritage Series series
The history of the double bass features many player-composers who created a wealth of music for bassists of all abilities. Recital Music publish a wide and eclectic range of music by these important figures from the history of the instrument, particularly from the 19th and early 20th-centuries, and more works are in preparation. Some names are well known today, others almost forgotten, but each made a valuable contribution to the repertoire of the double bass and helped create a unqiue repertoire which deserves to be performed.
Frantisek Cerny's Method for Double Bass has been long out of print and these studies with double bass accompaniment make a very useful addition to the educational, even concert, repertoire for the young bassist. There are musical and techncial challenges in equal measure and Book 1 includes seven studies which are ideal for grade 5-7 abilities. Cerny uses a range of keys but few fingerings or dynamic suggestions allowing the student and teacher to create their own original performance.
All seven studies remain in bass clef, venturing no higher than harmonic G - an octave above the top string, and the added accompaniments will help to develop music skills alongside technical improvements. Several of the studies could be played an octave higher than written for more advanced students increasing the relevance of these lyrical and melodic studies.
Frantisek Cerny was a Czech bassist, teacher and composer. He was born on 23 January 1860 in Pardubice and studied at the Prague Conservatoire (1876-82) and in Paris, where he later became a member of the Orchestre Colonne-Lamoureux from 1884-1890. He returned to Czechoslovakia in 1890, when he was appointed Principal Bass of the National Theatre Orchestra in Prague (1890-1900), and it was at this time that he discovered the wonderful Grancino double bass of 1693, later owned by Oldrichs Sorejs and Frantisek Posta.
Cerny was an outstanding teacher and taught at the Prague Conservatoire for 31 years (1900-31) and many of the leading Czech bassists at the beginning of the 20th-century were taught by him. He was not a prolific composer and most of his works were written for the double bass, including a Method (1906), 30 Etudes-Caprices (1923), Technical Studies in Thumb Position (1927), 4 Concertos and ten salon pieces for double bass and piano.
Cerny studied composition with Antonin Dvorak and much of his music reflects the salon style of the late 19th-century. All his works are melodic and appealing, combining the late-Romantic idiom of Dvorak and Brahms, with Czech lyricism and influences, and he makes full use of the solo capabilities of the double bass.
Frantisek Cerny died in Prague on 3 September 1940.
