P. Kellach Waddle: Brought to You by the Letters P & S: Fantasy Sonata for unaccompanied double bass

About the Composition

Commissioned by David Heyes for 40@40, a project to commission forty new pieces for double bass to celebrate Recital Music’s 40th birthday in 2026, Brought to You by the Letter P & S is a monumental and amazingly inventive suite of six movements for unaccompanied double bass. Each piece is rhythmically charged, brimming with energy and drive, exploiting the amazingly colourful and powerful middle range of the instrument.

The movements can be played singly or as a suite, and this is music which offers musical and technical challenges aplenty for the intermediate bassist. Alongside music of a dramatic and compelling nature are episodes of lyrical intensity and charm, creating a work of tremendous contrasts and character.

Table of Contents

1. Scarpia’s Dark Dreams: Fantasie-Satz on a motif by Puccini
   2. Satz after a Motif from Smetana’s Macbeth
   3. The Vampire was Unsure if the Black Dots that Emerged from the Pepper Shaker Were as Black as Your Conscience.
   4. The Salt From Your Lying Tears Burned the Vampire’s Roses With Their Toxicity
   5. Adagio after G. Puccini’s Chrysanthemums
   6. Perpetuum Mobile on a theme from Smetana’s String Quartet No.2 (Movement 1)
   

“Yours truly is often described as an " extra" kind of fellow. This is often quite relevant when I am enjoying gathering ideas for yet another commission for one of David Heyes and Recital Music's wonderful consortiums. For example, per the Da Vinci consortium, I couldn't just pick ONE artwork to compose about, I had to have the inspiration of seven works involved and therefore wrote a whole 7-movement sonata!

Much the same notions were involved when David commissioned me to write a solo piece for the Recital Music 40th anniversary that also commemorated important dates of both Puccini and Smetana. Once again, I chose not to compose just one single movement, but an entire 6-movement sonata utilizing not only themes from these two composers for inspiration but the first letters of their last names!

Irony more often than not plays a very huge role in my work-- so I decided the title of the whole sonata would actually have something as wholesome as Sesame Street referenced in its format, though this sonata is very, very dark.

Per the initial letters of Smetana and Puccini, the P and S also reminded me of Salt and Pepper, thus inspiring the dark third and fourth movements. The opening movement is based on iterations of the three "Scarpia" chords that open Tosca, and the fifth and only truly lyrical movement is based on motives from Puccini's lovely string work, Chrysanthemums. Rounding out the 6 movements are the final perpetuum mobile, based on a motive from Smetana's String Quartet No. 2, and the second movement, based on Smetana's rather obscure incidental music to Macbeth. A final irony about this work is that while my sonatas of this type usually have wholly independent material, many of these movements share just a bit of musical bits and pieces in terms of my own motives that appear along with the given themes of the 4 Puccini/Smetana inspired sections.

As always, a huge thank you to David for the commission - I am always overjoyed to write these kinds of pieces when he asks, and a Happy 40th Birthday to Recital Music!” [P. Kellach Waddle, June 2026]

About the Composer

P. Kellach Waddle enjoys an active career as a composer, orchestral and chamber music bassist, solo bassist, conductor, writer, and concert curator. His prolific output as a composer now numbers over 760 includes pieces for every standard orchestral instrument except timpani.

His output features hundreds of solo and chamber works as well as concertos and works for large orchestra and chorus, and he is especially known for his large and ongoing contribution to the repertoire of his own instrument, the double bass, as well as continuing to write a significant amount of double reed music and saxophone music

Waddle’s music has been heard in 39 states in the USA, in dozens of foreign countries, also featured more than 20 times on NPR and in venues from Carnegie Hall to the White House. His many accolades as a composer include an Austin Critics’ Table award for outstanding new composition of the year, three citations as possible finalist for The Pulitzer Prize, four nominations as State of Texas Musician of the Year, and ten nominations for The American Prize, nine as a semi-finalist and one as a finalist.

P. Kellach Waddle has held many festival and professional orchestra positions throughout, including his current position as a tenured member of the Austin Symphony Orchestra (Texas), which he won in 1992.

As a soloist he has been a featured recitalist at many International Society of Bassists conventions where he has been hailed as “…one of the most thrillingly creative bass soloists in the world” and “…Waddle may be a bass virtuoso instead of being a pianist… yet still with all of these luxurious harmonies and melodies… PKW may very well be our American Rachmaninoff…”

Waddle’s diverse career includes his prolific work as a writer. He was a full-time entertainment journalist for 16 years, is an industry renowned TV historian having published over 3000 articles, and is also an award-winning poet. He worked in private casinos as a licensed table games dealer and roulette croupier and holds seven degrees (2 Bachelor's, 3 Minors, and 2 Master's) from Cincinnati Conservatory, Rice University, and The University of Texas at Austin.