Miloslav Gajdos: Mattinata for double bass & piano

About the Composition

Mattinata is aimed at the intermediate bassist, remaining in bass clef throughout, and is an engaging one-movement piece which is colorful, inventive and instantly appealing.

Useful as both a study piece or as recital repertoire, there are effective challenges for the progressing bassist, with the ability to project lyrical melodies alongside passages of a more technical and challenging nature.

Mattinata, originally entitled Burlesca, was composed in 1979 for Miloslav Jelínek and was the final work in a series of instructional pieces for progressing intermediate bassists. The composer describes the style as “similar to Francis Poulenc in the contrast between technical and lyrical passages.”

The edition includes piano accompaniments for both solo and orchestral tunings.

About the Composer

Miloslav Gajdoš (b.1948) is one of Europe's most active and inventive bassist-composers. He was born in northern Moravia in 1948 and initially learned violin before transferring to the double bass, studying with Alois Kříž, Jirí Bortlíček and Ludwig Streicher.

He has been Professor of Double Bass at the Vejvanovský Conservatoire in Kroměříž (Czech Republic) since 1971, and was a member of the Olomouc Symphony Orchestra for a number of years. He is Director of the Gregora International Double Bass Competition, founded in 1979 and held every two years in Kroměříž, and has been a juror at many competitions in Hungary, Germany and the Czech Republic.

Miloslav Gajdoš is a prolific composer and arranger and, for almost 40 years, has produced a vast body of original works and transcriptions for double bass which are performed worldwide. His original works combine Czech lyricism and melody with brilliant technical demands, and music from one to sixteen double basses. He writes in a traditional and accessible style, producing music for every level of performer, particularly for the advanced bassist, and his many works for unaccompanied double bass are frequently chosen as international competition repertoire.

[Gajdoš is pronounced GUY-DOSH]