Jeff Denson Contrabass Concert - Intranet

Jeff Denson
Contrabass Concert
ucsd department of music
8 p.m.
Tuesday
Feb. 12, 2008
Mandeville
Recital
Hall

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ucsd department of music
http://music.ucsd.edu

Jeff Denson
DMA Double Bass Recital
Tuesday February 12, 2008
Psy (1989) Luciano Berio
Monody II for Solo Double Bass (1964) George Perle
Reise med Bat uten Bat (1988) Antonio Bibalo
S. Biagio 9 Agosto ore 1207:
Ricordo per un contrabbasso solo (1977) Hans Werner Henze
Kicho (1974) Astor Piazzolla
Luciano Berio (b. Oneglia, Italy, October 24, 1925)
Berio studied composition at the conservatory in Milan
with Giorgio Ghedini and and Giulio Paribeni, as well as later
studying with Luigi Dallapiccola at the Berkshire Music Center in
1951. Through his work he has done extensive exploration into
serialism, electronic music, and aleatory procedures in composition
and performance. From 1963-1972 he lived in the United States
while teaching at Mills College, Julliard, and Harvard University.
Psy for solo double bass was composed in 1989 for the
birthday of a friend, but it remained unperformed until 1993 when
it was premiered in Rome by the Italian double bassist, Carrado
Canonici. From the first note, this short solo piece takes flight with

a dramatic sense of urgency and impact, with an almost unrelenting
onslaught of atonal sixteenth notes. Nearing the end of the piece
you encounter a lyrical oasis; however you quickly find that it was
merely a mirage as you are thrown back into a whirlwind catapulting
you to the piece’s austere finale.
George Perle (b. Bayonne, N.J., 6 May 1915)
Composer, theorist, and educator, Perle received his Ph.D.
from New York University in 1956 as well as having studied
privately with composer, Ernst Krenek in the early 1940’s. He has
a profound interest in the music of the Second Viennese School
(composers Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, and Anton Webern),
which have served as the foundation for his own musical language
in which he calls Twelve Tone Tonality. This theory of twelve
tone composition is described in his book Twelve Tone Tonality
(Berkley 1977).
Monody II for Solo Double Bass was written for (the
former UCSD Professor of Double Bass) Bert Turetzky in 1962.
This piece is a testament to the enormous lexicon of tone color and
sonic possibilities available with the double bass. Perle explores
a host of some of the various extended techniques available, both
arco and pizzicato, on the instrument through his close collaboration
with Mr. Turetzky, and pushes the entire register and dynamic
ranges to their limits. Rhythmically, the piece is written on a free
plane, by dispensing with the use of bar lines the “meter” is dictated
by each phrase independently. The use of temporal and implied
temporal changes exclusively throughout this piece gives it a constant
feeling of unrest. By use of repetition and sudden changes in
metrical grouping (i.e. triplets, sixteenth notes, quintuplets, etc.),
the illusion of a tempo change is presented. This feeling of almost
constant fluctuating tempi, coupled with equally as frequent timbral
and dynamic changes make for an engaging work. Harmonically,
the work is representative of Perle’s own personal take on the
twelve tone system, while every phrase presents all twelve of the
chromatic tones, they are not presented in the strict non-repeating
fashion of dodecaphonic music. From violent to darkly lyrical and

from whimsical to mysteriously whispered, this piece communicates
its message through some of the many possible characters
that can emerge from this massive instrument.
Antonio Bibalo (b. 1922 Trieste, Italy)
Bibalo began studying piano at an early age and later received
his degree in piano performance from the Conservatoire in
Trieste in 1946. He was well on his way of establishing his name
as a concert pianist in Europe when he decided drop his career as a
performer and move to London in 1953 to study composition with
Elizabeth Lutyens, one of England’s pioneers of twelve tone music.
In 1968 Bibalo became a Norwegian citizen and since that time has
been honored with various awards, including being made a Knight
of St. Olave (1st Class) in 1992, and in the same year was awarded
the Lindeman Prize.
Reise med bat uten bat for Soprano og Contrabas (Boat
Journey without a Boat for Soprano and Double Bass) was composed
in 1988 and premiered at the Bergen International Festival in
1989; it was based on a series of four short poems by the Norwegian
poet and playwright, Cecilie Loveid.
(Poems Translated from Norwegian)
Spartan Piece with Garbage-piles and Leftovers
her sport is swimming while she looks at the world
around her she performs a bath the only thing she’s
a master in she’s tackling her nerves comfortably
water breathes pores gurgles her accomplished swimming her
quack quack her boat her longing for Egypt
beyond decay come quickening when all she
knows is water

Bull-fighter (The Choice)
the inhuman and gruesome bull-fighter
awaited an answer fame the theater tradition
was it the ritual struggle between him and
the beast he knew that down to his fingertips the noble bull
and blood filled both him and the beast
look at him now! now it seems he’s given
up seeking our regard our confirmation
the foolery he seeks will breed a
bird with no lance no bandarillas by loving
the great brown hide the earthmother before departure
theater is torture
Burial Boat
just before she dies
they bring the dentist to cheer her
he fits her with new teeth she gets to try
43 pairs of italian shoes before deciding on
86 she’s asked to choose between 3 new
wigs one slender one ample and one fairly fitting she’s
asked if she wants young men and dance on board
and light light she always has loved water
and the light’s green darkness
The Kiwi Prince
the night cracked open and revealed
the kiwi prince dance mud-bedecked
and after dancing he caressed his night-bird
in front of his lovesick admirers
where are we going?
(The texts are partially abridged in the score.)

Cecilie Loveid had this to say about her poems: “The work might
just as well be called ‘A Dream-Journey in Four Pictures’ or ‘A
Picture-Journey in Four Dreams.’ Four paintings were the original
inspiration.”
First Poem: Spartan Piece with Garbage-piles and Leftovers
(after a painting by Dominique Gauthier). “Longing for an
original state, water, womanly essence, she rejects routine, she just
wants to float, flee...”
Second Poem: Bull-fighter (the choice) (after a painting by
Jean-Michel Alberola). “[This] represents the struggle between
the womanly and the masculine forces [in her]. Relationship to the
masculine, both in herself and in living men, symbolized by bullfighting.
I’m thinking here of the conflict between Ishtar’s celestial
ox an Gilgamesh. Still an original state, but already with a contemplative,
divided modern conscience.”
Third Poem: Burial Boat (after a painting by Helene Delprat).
“The dance of life on board...the woman knows that she
will die, but she wants to live, to dance. We are floating in the
womanly element, in a boat, but are drawn towards the water itself
underneath.”
Fourth Poem: The Kiwi Prince (after a painting by Patrick
Lanneau). “Now she’s in woman heaven, an exotic erotic land
where the potent Kiwi Prince, a sorcerer, dances.”
The first movement, “Prelude”, begins with a solo bass
cadenza that sets the tone for the movement. From out of nowhere,
like a bolt of lightning before the roar of thunder, bow strikes
string with a sforzando attack and disappears off into the distance
just fast as it had appeared. Returning from whence it came, a
quiet but unrelenting tremolo steadily crescendos from a whisper
to a roar, and once more recesses back into the ether. The cadenza
immediately continues with a series of disquieted, seemingly unanswered
calls, setting the stage for the entrance of the soprano, and
the ensuing drama that unfolds. Here we find the character of the
text and that of the bass contrasting one another (or at least on the
surface); while the text describes the woman in her bath releasing
her tension through the water, the bass represents the world outside

of this context: intense and unpredictable. In the second movement,
“Capriccio”, the bass once again opens the movement up
with a solo intro that sets the tone for the movement. In the “Capriccio”,
the bass personifies the struggle between man and beast:
the gruesome fight between the bull-fighter and the bull. This time,
in the third movement, “Novellette”, the soprano opens the movement
with a short statement and is quickly joined by a somber
accompaniment of quarter notes in the bass. After the initial opening,
the bass changes to a more whimsical, or playful accompaniment.
Much like the text, the bass maintains a constant balancing
of grave and lighthearted content in this movement. In the final
movement, “Nocturne”, the soprano opens with an extended solo
cadenza, of text-less syllables. After the soprano cadenza we hear
an abridged, two-bar reprise of the opening bass cadenza of the
“Prelude”, which leads into the body of the movement. Here the
bass depicts the dancing of the flirtatious Kiwi Prince with a string
of lyrical triplet melodies. When the final question of the text is
posed, “Where are we going?” it is echoed by a repeating triplet
melody in the bass as it crescendos and decrescendos off into an
abyss of longing.
Hans Werner Henze (b. Gutersloh, Westphalia 1 July, 1926)
Prolific composer and conductor, Henze studied composition
at the State Music School in Brunswick (1942-44), and in
1946 studied with Wolfgang Fortner at the Institute for Church
Music in Heidelberg, as well as attending Darmstadt summer
courses studying privately with Rene Leibowitz. Henze’s earlier
work has been compared to the styles of Hindemith, Fortner, and
Stravinsky and later works to reflect influences of Mahler, 19th
century Italian opera, and classical formal procedures.
S. Biagio 9 Agosto ore 1207: Ricordo per un contrabbasso
solo (S Biagio August 9th 12:07pm: Recollection for double bass
solo) was composed in 1977 for Dieter Lange (instructor of double
bass at the Music Academy of Lucerne and an orchestra member
of the Zurich Opera). This piece is one of three compositions by
Henze for the double bass: Concerto for Double Bass and Orchestra
written for double bass virtuoso, Gary Karr in 1964, and

Serenade (which was originally written for cello in 1949 and later
arranged for double bass by Lucas Drew, professor of double bass
at the University of Miami in 1981). S. Biagio 9 Agosto ore 1207:
Ricordo per un contrabbasso is a deeply dramatic and lyric piece
that dances on the edge of tonality; flirting with it, but remaining in
the ambiguity of its atonality. The opening four notes of the piece
pose a melancholic query upon which is immediately repeated two
more times (with slight deviation) in order to insure its establishment
as the central motif of the piece. These four pitches (C, D,
F#, and G#) are the 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 5th scale degrees of a whole
tone scale. This harmonically ambiguous set of pitches helps set
the plaintive and mysterious sentiment of the composition. The
first section of the piece (A) comes to an equally mystifying cadence
on a variation of the opening motif. This opening section
(A) is the only section that repeats in the piece, and by doing so,
Henze plants the seeds of a musical memory that’s roots twist and
turn under the body of the piece until it is finally presented for
“recollection” in its whispered finale. While the composition is
atonal, it holds a hierarchical distinction for certain pitch sets, or
intervallic schemes, such as whole tone segments, major sevenths,
and both major and minor thirds (frequently performed as double
stops).
At the top of the score there is a note to the performer,
which reads, “the author begs his collegues bass players to play
the piece in this normal tuning.” “Normal tuning,” refers to the
standard tuning of the double bass in fourths, from lowest string
to highest string: E, A, D, G. This note is meant to dissuade the
performer from using “solo tuning” (which is where each string is
tuned one whole step higher than the standard tuning: F#, B, E, A);
I can only speculate here that his purpose in making this request
was to capitalize on the darker sound that would be attained when
using this standard tuning, as opposed to the brighter and more direct
sound that occurs when the bass is in solo tuning. In contrast
to the dramatic extremes of dynamic markings in this piece (from
pppp to ffff) there are especially subtle changes in tempi that create
an almost subconscious awareness of an ebb and flow of temporal
movement between the sections.

Astor Piazzolla (b. Mar del Plata, Argentina 11 March 1921, d.
Paris, France 4 July 1992)
Piazzolla spent most of his childhood in New York City
with his family, where he was exposed to jazz and the music of J.S.
Bach. During this time he began to play the bandoneon and tango
music, after his father. In 1937 he returned to Argentina where
he studied composition with Alberto Ginastera, while performing
regularly in night clubs with various tango bands. In 1953,
at the urging of Ginastera, he entered one of his compostions into
a competition and won a grant from the French government to
study composition in Paris, with the legendary French composition
teacher, Nadia Boulanger. Boulanger encouraged Piazzolla to
embrace his experience with tango and allow its influence on him
to shine through in his own compositions. Piazzolla has composed
music for orchestra, various chamber ensembles, and film, but his
writing for his own quintet is perhaps the most well known. His
compositions fuse folkloric Argentine tango, with jazz, classical,
and contemporary music; and with this fusion he is credited with
founding the musical genre: Tango Nuevo. The role of the double
bass in Piazzolla’s music is a versatile one; it requires a high level
of virtuosity with both arco and pizzicato playing (barring this
particular arrangement of Kicho which is to be played solely arco),
as well as strong sense of pulse and time. The bass serves as the
heartbeat of Piazzolla’s music; it sets the time and drives the rhythmic
intensity of the ensemble.
Kicho was composed in 1974 for the original double bassist
in the Astor Piazzolla Quintet, Kicho Diaz. This is a fiercely
passionate piece that showcases not only the propulsive rhythmic
drive that can be created with the double bass, but the singing lyric
voice of the instrument as well. Kicho opens with an extended
solo double bass cadenza that foreshadows the motivic material of
the body of the piece. While this composition is a solo feature for
the double bass, there is a dialog with the piano where the roles
of soloist and accompanist are traded back and forth, creating an
exciting interplay.