Simón García: A Night in Compostela for double bass sextet

About the Composition

A Night in Compostela is vibrant and exciting. Simón García uses jazzy and rhythmic styles to describe the emotions and feelings you may experience as a pilgrim or tourist on a brief visit to the city of Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain, both the spiritual element or the fun of the exotic nightlife.

"Rhythmic drive is perhaps the most important- and unifying - musical element that extends through A Night in Compostela...A Night in Compostela recalls the nocturnal streets of Northern Spain during a season of fiesta. The first second bass part open with a repeating sixteenth note pattern, setting a quick pace and immediately establishing a lively groove. Basses three, four and five soon join with ricochet gestures that pop like celebratory firecrackers in the night.

When the sixth bass makes its entrance, it is the first to play a four-bar G minor melody. This syncopated and scalar theme will later be picked up and modified by the upper voices, which often work together in rhythmic unison. Meanwhile, the sixth bass takes over a purely rhythmic function, clearly outlining the quadruple meter all the way to the end of the piece...accessible to intermediate and advanced bassists fluent in thumb position and confident with rhythmic playing.

García's command of the instrument is clear. His idiomatic writing allows the performer to take advantage of harmonics and open strings. Frequent repetition and ostinato rhythms will help hold the ensemble together and likely inspire the audience to tap or clap along." [Philip Alejo, Bass World, International Society of Bassists]

About the Composer

Bassist and composer Simón García was born in Mugardos (Spain) in 1977 and graduated in double bass from the Conservatorio Superior of Salamanca. He has worked as a double bassist in the Royal Orchestra of Galicia, having also performed in many orchestras throughout Spain, and is the bassist in the Symphony Wind Orchestra of A Coruña.

His music has been performed in Mexico, Venezuela, Uruguay, Denmark, Spain, Japan, Italy, Austria, Germany, Canada, USA, and UK by The Bass Gang, Bass Instinct, and Il Quint-etto amongst others, and some of his music was used as teaching material in the 2011 ISB Year of Collaborative Music.

Simón García’s music is lively, jazzy, and rhythmic with great forward momentum and drive. Accessible for players and audiences alike, he writes colourful music of distinction and energy, employing the entire range of the double bass.