Occasional Trios for Double Basses (arr. Kurth)

About the Trios

Okay, suppose you're in orchestra class or a rehearsal and word gets around that it's somebody's birthday, and you feel like a schmuck for not even knowing, let alone getting them a gift. Wouldn't it be great if you and a couple of yr bass buds could just reach into your folders, pull out your copies of "Occasional Trios" and lead the whole group with a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday"? 

Or maybe it's a patriotic occasion. Or St. Patrick's Day. Or you happen to be at a New Year's Eve party with your basses. Or there just happen to be 99 bottles on the wall. Or someone's graduating. Or someone's sleepy and needs a lullabye. Or someone's a Jolly Good Fellow.

These arrangements are short and simple-ish. Top line melodies make generous but elementary use of thumb position, suitable for an advanced middle-school player. Second line harmonies generally stay below the octave G. Bottom line bass parts are all first- and half-position.

Buy one copy for your section and make copies for the rest of them. I'm cool with that. Also, if you think of any other titles you'd like arranged for trio (or duo or quartet or whatever), hit me up and we'll talk. Jason has my contact info.

Table of Contents

Titles included:
America, the Beautiful
Auld Lang Syne
My Darling Clementine
Danny Boy
Elgar's Graduation March (Pomp & Circumstance No. 1)
Happy Birthday
John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt
For (S)He's a Jolly Good Fellow
Rockabye, Baby
She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
99 Bottles

About Michael Kurth

Kurth has been a member of the Atlanta Symphony bass section since 1994. 

Michael Kurth thinks most artist biographies are pretentious and boring, and feels a welcome sense of liberation, not to mention mischief, when writing about himself in the third person. He further believes that all artist biographies should include whether the artist prefers cats or dogs, or is ambivalent. He allows that there is room for ambivalence on this issue.

Kurth prefers dogs.

He also enjoys shrimp burritos, dive bars, road trips, thrift stores, found art, shiny pants, folk plumbing, collecting odd musical instruments, neologism, and bourbon.

Kurth was born in 1971 in Virginia and grew up near Baltimore. He started playing the bass in fourth grade, went to public schools, and got his Bachelor’s Degree at Peabody Conservatory, where he studied bass with Harold Robinson. He also studied cello and viola at Peabody, and did okay at cello, but his ham-fisted viola playing caused his roommate Rick to forbid him from ever practicing it in their dorm room.

He once stole one of those convex security mirrors, just to savor the irony, but he feels a lingering sense of guilt, even though it was laying in a pile of stuff that was probably destined for the dumpster anyway. But still.

Kurth has been a member of the Atlanta Symphony bass section since 1994. 

The ASO has commissioned and premiered many of his orchestral and choral works. A recording on the ASO Media label is scheduled for commercial release on CD and digital platforms in February 2019, including Everything Lasts Forever, A Thousand Words, May Cause Dizziness, and Miserere featuring Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor.

He frequently collaborates with Atlanta poet Jesse Breite on vocal works, including Miserere, Tenebrae, and Magnificat.

He was named “Best New Composer” by Atlanta Magazine in 2017.

He has been awarded Artist-in-Residence fellowships from the Hermitage and Serenbe.

Many Atlanta-area artists have commissioned and performed his works, including the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus and Chamber Chorus, the Atlanta Chamber Players, the Atlanta Young Singers, the Gwinnett Young Singers, the Morehouse College Glee Club, the Peachtree String Quartet, the Franklin Pond String Quartet, the Atlanta Contemporary Ensemble, Concert Artist Guild Award-winning violist Jennifer Stumm, the Georgia Sinfonia, the Atlanta Community Symphony Orchestra, the DeKalb Symphony, the Georgia State University Wind Ensemble, and movement artists gloATL.

He teaches bass at Emory University.