GUSTAV MAHLER | Urlicht (4th movement from Symphony N°2) adapted by Božo Paradžik | TWO VERSIONS: FOR QUINTET AND FOR QUARTET OF DOUBLE BASSES
FILE FORMAT: PDF | 300 dpi | 43 pages
PARTS INCLUDED: full scores (quintet & quartet) and double bass parts in variants for various tunings
DOUBLE BASS SCORDATURA: 1st bass available in cGDA, AEBF# and GDAE, 4th bass only in GDAE, other basses GDAE or AEBF#
SOURCE: historic orchestral score, printed 1897 by Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig
COMMENT: famous slow movement "Urlicht" (Eng. "Primal Light") from Mahler's 2nd Symphony adapted by myself for five (or four) double basses. It is recommended to perform rather the version for five double basses. Each of the parts from the version for four basses has higher density of technically difficult details, such like double-stops in tricky keys. There are also fewer breaks, as the coverage of the instrumentation of the full orchestra is very difficult to make with only four instruments. Both my instrumentations are in D flat major, just like in Mahler's score of "Urlicht" in the 2nd symphony. Mahler used this composition one more time in "Des Knaben Wunderhorn", however with some alterations, beginning with the key in E flat major (that key sounds very strange -too bright- for my hearing, after knowing the symphony so well from the years when I was an orchestra musician).
This high quality chamber music instrumentation will require very skillful players. It is very tricky for well-balanced playing in tune, especially demanding is the first voice. The first voice is recommended to be performed in cGDA tuning. All tones will be within the reach of the fingerboard that way. If AEBF# or GDAE tuning is used instead and some tones are further than the top end of the fingerboard, two most critical passages are printed as ossias an octave lower. In such case, please test if also the part of the 2nd double bass needs to be adapted to perform a few tones an octave lower as well, to void possible wrong inversions of the intervals with the 1st bass.
total duration: < 6 min
Video recording of the version for four double basses:
Video recording with the version for five double basses:
Example of the PDF score (screenshot of the beginning of the version for four double basses):
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