Miloslav Gajdos: Variations for Double Bass & Piano

About the Composition

\Variations is a great addition to the solo repertoire for the intermediate bassist and is written almost exclusively in bass clef. An engaging and innovative theme and variations make effective use of the orchestral register of the double bass and there are countless opportunities to explore both technical and musical issues. Most of the technical work is given to the bassist with a simple but strongly supportive piano accompaniment.

“In 1968, at a Summer Music School in České Budějovice, I wrote a free improvisation for guitar which was later developed into a theme (in a minor key) and three variations. The piece was never completed and a few years later I rewrote it for double bass, although much of the original material was discarded at the time.

The original theme, with its subtle Paganini-like style was retained, and new variations were added to utilise the expressive and technical capabilities of the double bass. It also echoes back to the Concert Variations by František Gregora, and to Zdeněk Zouhar’s variations on the song Underneath the Oak Tree, composed in 1970 and used in Professor Zouhar’s composition classes at the Janáček Academy of Music in Brno.

The present edition of Variations evolved from the 1973 version. It was written to provide challenging repertoire for the intermediate bassist combining both musical and technical demands in equal measure.” [Miloslav Gajdoš, 2002]

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]