Christopher Field: Czech Dances for unaccompanied double bass

About the Composition

Czech Dances features six colourful and engaging solo for unaccompanied double bass. Primarily in the orchestral register of the double bass and aimed at the intermediate bassist, lyrical melodies contrast music of rhythmic energy and drive, creating a suite which is both audience and player friendly.

“When David Heyes kindly invited me to compose a suite of pieces for inclusion in his project commemorating the great Czech double bass virtuoso, František Pošta, I turned to the internet for inspiration. There, I was delighted to discover a wealth of archival recordings illustrating the wonderful lyricism and artistry of Pošta’s playing in a wide range of music. This gave me the idea of writing a set of dances with a Czech flavour. By way of reminiscence, I fell in love with the infectious nature of Czech dance when, almost seventy years ago, as a member of the bass section of the London Schools’ Symphony Orchestra, I was bowled over by the rhythmic energy of Dvořák’s Slavonic Dance in G minor Op. 46 No 8.

The melodies of the six little pieces in ‘Czech Dances’ are all original, but ideas for the rhythmic patterns characteristic of Czech dances have come chiefly from Dvořák and Smetana. [Christopher Field]

In Memory of František Pošta (1919-1991)

About the Composer

Christopher Field has a lifetime's experience of singing and teaching stretching back to 1953 when he was a chorister at the coronation of HM Queen Elizabeth II. Later he won a choral exhibition to Trinity College, Cambridge, a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music and an Arts Council of Great Britain award for postgraduate study with Frederick Husler in Switzerland.

His subsequent career as a schoolmaster at Dulwich College was combined with work as a concert baritone, choral conducting, and teaching singing and double bass. For many years a number of his teaching works have been included in the graded examination syllabuses of the leading examination boards.