P. Kellach Waddle: Things You Might See in Cemeteries for double bass quartet

About the Composition

Things You Might See in Cemeteries is in four colourful, dramatic and inventive movements and is aimed at the adventurous intermediate bass quartet. Primarily in bass clef, with some music in lower thumb position, this is an engaging work of rhythmic energy exploring a wealth of colours and timbres. There are musical and technical challenges in equal measure.

“For my first multi-bass chamber work that was aimed to students as well as professionals, I chose to go to familiar territory in terms of colour and theme. I definitely wanted to do something macabre/gothic as this sort of milieu speaks to me the most. A unique path I went down was to make the material much more straightforward, in both rhythm and tempo, as both the outer fast movements and the inner slower movements. for the most part. basically stay in the same pulse and metre. I usually follow the tenets of one of my first teachers, decades ago, who said “Free your material from the tyranny of the bar line or one speed!" with there being usually a gargantuan amount of time signatures and tempo markings in my music.

Dedicated to my dear friend David Heyes, who is truly an industry-wide master of creating interesting and vital music for students and progressing players, the second movement was especially inspired by him with its mixing of ponticello and natural note colours, glissandi, low and high pizzicatos, and harmonics. The third, and moodiest movement, is really just variations on a mini melody of four notes to create its scary tapestry. The opening and final movement stay in one rhythmic drive for the bulk of the material and feature a lot of dramatically dissonant harmonies.

Finally, in a bit of a humorous nod to one of my other impassioned avocations - game shows - I thought of such when I came up with my title for the whole piece. Indeed, the title is formatted exactly as if it were a category in the bonus rounds of my favourite game show of all, "The $100,000 Pyramid!" (I am of such a certain age I remember vividly the very first episode in Spring 1973 when it was just "The $ 10,000 Pyramid!)” [Programme note by P. Kellach Waddle]

About the Composer

P. Kellach Waddle enjoys an active career as a composer, orchestral and chamber music bassist, solo bassist, conductor, writer, and concert curator. His prolific output as a composer now numbers over 760 includes pieces for every standard orchestral instrument except timpani.

His output features hundreds of solo and chamber works as well as concertos and works for large orchestra and chorus, and he is especially known for his large and ongoing contribution to the repertoire of his own instrument, the double bass, as well as continuing to write a significant amount of double reed music and saxophone music.

Waddle’s music has been heard in 39 states in the USA, in dozens of foreign countries, also featured more than 20 times on NPR and in venues from Carnegie Hall to the White House. His many accolades as a composer include an Austin Critics’ Table award for outstanding new composition of the year, three citations as possible finalist for The Pulitzer Prize, four nominations as State of Texas Musician of the Year, and ten nominations for The American Prize, nine as a semi-finalist and one as a finalist.

P. Kellach Waddle has held many festival and professional orchestra positions throughout, including his current position as a tenured member of the Austin Symphony Orchestra (Texas), which he won in 1992.

As a soloist he has been a featured recitalist at many International Society of Bassists conventions where he has been hailed as “…one of the most thrillingly creative bass soloists in the world” and “…Waddle may be a bass virtuoso instead of being a pianist… yet still with all of these luxurious harmonies and melodies… PKW may very well be our American Rachmaninoff…”

Waddle’s diverse career includes his prolific work as a writer. He was a full-time entertainment journalist for 16 years, is an industry renowned TV historian having published over 3000 articles, and is also an award winning poet. He worked in private casinos as a licensed table games dealer and roulette croupier and holds seven degrees (2 Bachelor's, 3 Minors, and 2 Master's) from Cincinnati Conservatory, Rice University, and The University of Texas at Austin.