Andrew Kohn: Thumb Position Melodies from Southern Harmony

About the Composition

Twenty-eight shaped-note melodies arranged to introduce double bassists to thumb position.

Includes various finger spacings, extension to D harmonic, "bridge" fingerings, variable spacing. Includes piano accompaniment and two copies of bass part: in treble and in tenor clef. Each is 2-4 lines long.

About the Composer

Andrew Kohn teaches string bass, music theory, and Music in World Cultures at West Virginia University. He holds his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh and received the only AD in double bass awarded by the Peabody Conservatory. His principal teachers included Eric Moe, Pablo Ortiz, Eugene Levinson, Eldon Obrecht, and Barry Green.

The former principal bassist of the National Chamber Orchestra and Harrisburg Symphonies, he is a member of the Pittsburgh Opera and Ballet Theatre Orchestras and an active soloist. His publications have appeared in the book On the Music of Stefan Wolpe (ed. Austin Clarkson) and the journals American String Teacher, Bass World, Double Reed, Fulcrum, Musica Hodie, Muzyka, and Perspectives of New Music; he has read papers at Wolpe Symposia and AMS and SEM conferences and has performed, lectured and adjudicated at international bass conventions.

He has recorded and edited for Music Minus One. His compositions have been broadcast nationally.