Bertram Turetzky: Doinas & Dances for 4, 5 or more double basses

About the Composition

Doinas & Dances is available in two formats. Your purchase includes:

1. double bass quartet

2. double bass quintet or ensemble

Doinas & Dances is a klezmer-inspired work that remains in bass clef throughout and is aimed at the intermediate quartet or ensemble.

Composed in 1999 for the ISB Young Bassists Project and dedicated to legendary American bassist and teacher David Walter, Doinas & Dances is an engaging and vibrant work for players of all ages and abilities. There are effective and exciting solos for bass 1, which can be easily divided between players in the ensemble version, creating solo opportunities for more players.

A Doina is a cadenza played before a klezmer piece and acts as an improvisatory introduction to a lively dance.

About the Composer

Born on 14 February 1933 in Norwich, Connecticut, Bertram Turetzky took up the tenor banjo at the age of 12 or 13, he switched to the guitar in high school, having fallen in love with jazz, and then changed to the double bass which he described as '...the core of everything, the glue between the harmony and the wind instruments.'

He subsequently studied at New York University and Hartt College of Music of the University of Hartford and slowly changed direction from jazz to everything else a bassist is asked to do - symphony, opera, contemporary, jazz, teaching and recitals, featuring many of the new works that were being written for him. For many years he combined his hectic performance schedule with teaching, first at the Hartt School of Music and from 1968 as Professor of Music at the University of California, San Diego, where he retired as 'Distinguished Professor Emeritus' only a few years ago.

Alongside his passion for contemporary music, Bert has also played a wealth of music from the 15th and 16th-centuries. He has transcribed works for every possible combination of instruments, but usually including the flute which was always played by his wife Nancy, and the husband and wife partnership have been fearless in their promotion of music for this rare instrumental duo. The vast majority of repertoire for flute and double bass today was either written for Bert and Nancy, or inspired by them. Bert has an interest in any repertoire which features the double bass and has championed many chamber works which are unknown or have been forgotten.

Bert has composed and transcribed many works for double bass. For some years his interest in the music of Domenico Dragonetti (1763-1846) was a passion and in the early 1960s he edited six waltzes for unaccompanied double bass by the great Venetian bassist. Although Bert Turetzky has spent most of his life playing modern music and creating every possible sound and noise that the double bass can produce, his own compositions, on the whole, are far more traditional and accessible. He has composed and arranged a wealth of music for double bass, probably for his own use or for his students, and his legacy throughout the international double bass world is secure.