Progressive Quartets for Strings - Bass

ISBN 9780825889530. 9 x 12 inches. Chamber music is an essential part of learning to play an instrument. These versatile quartets are written so that they can be performed by any combination of four string instruments. These arrangements by prominent string pedagogue Doris Gazda will sound full and satisfying with only four players all the way up to a full string orchestra. The selection of music in this collection covers a wide variety of musical styles that will provide hours of enjoyment and performance options. The quartets are progressively organized by level of difficulty as the performers advance in their skills. This is a welcome addition to the repertoire for all string players. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, music lovers gathered in their homes in the evenings to make music. The music they played was typically called chamber music. Sometimes they formed small orchestras. The typical string orchestra had four string parts which were Violin I, Violin II, Viola and Basso Continuo. The basso continuo provided both the bass line of the piece and the indication of the chord structure for each of the bass line notes. Usually the bass line was played by a cello or a bass viol. The chords were played by a harpsichord, lute, organ or harp. In the eighteenth century the small chamber orchestra grew into a more formal performance orchestra. Eventually, woodwind, brass and percussion instruments were added to the orchestral parts and became the symphonic orchestra that we are familiar with today. When any four instruments play together, the sound approximates the sound of the full harmonic structure of an orchestra. It is very satisfying to be able to perform music that can be played by four instrumentalists and yet gives the sound of a much larger group of performers. Progressive Quartets is a collection of new arrangements of favorite pieces from the classical repertoire. It is published for violin, viola, cello and string bass and is arranged so that it can be performed by any combination of four of these instruments. The quartets are placed in the book in order of difficulty and cover a wide range of musical styles. It was a pleasure to compile and arrange this collection. I hope that it will provide you with literature that will be enjoyable to work on and perform with your friends, and that it will add a new dimension to your musical repertoire.