FRANTIŠEK HERTL | 30 Miniatures for double bass and piano | Part 1: (No 1 - No 6) | DOUBLE BASS & PIANO
FILE FORMAT: PDF | 300 dpi | 44 pages
RELEASE: world's first release, composer's original text (Urtext)
SCORES: Double Bass (2x) | Piano (score)
SCORDATURA: in C (GDAE) | in D (AEBF#)
SOURCE: original composer's handwritten text, all compositions by F. Hertl are under copyright protection until 2043
TRANSPOSED PIANO PART (DISCONTINUED): Although the "30 Miniatures" were intended for performance on double bass tuned in “orchestral tuning” GDAE, it was surprising how well the performance in “solo tuning” AEBF# worked. The results were this way surprisingly good and way better than when the piano part was transposed one tone higher. In comparison to some other double bass composers, Hertl obviously composed these works on the piano, so playability on the fingerboard was certainly not his decisive criteria (although he gave it a little more thought in some miniatures). The first editions have also included a piano part transposed one tone higher. Over time, it became evident that playability on the piano in this way was often problematic. Some works (in keys with many sharps) were very difficult to read on the piano when transposed. Transposed keys sounded often less convincing than the original ones. Since the transposed double bass part has proved to be a much better solution in practice, the transposed piano part has been discontinued in the meantime (although earlier releases have included it). On the double bass in solo tuning, only few single notes (the low E) will be out of reach. This can be solved by tuning the lowest string to E instead of F#. Otherwise one can simply perform the low E an octave higher. Such situations occur rarely, although the "30 Miniatures" are composed in a much lower register than one is used to from other solo works for double bass.
COMPOSITIONS: 1. Alla pollaca, 2. Barcarolla, 3. Bagatella, 4. Pastorale, 5. Menuet, 6. Smutná píseň
ABOUT 30 MINIATURES: As part of the cultural mandate of the Czechoslovak State Radio in the 1960s, as a valued member of the State Association of Czechoslovak Composers, František Hertl received several commissions for compositions. One of these compositions was the cycle of 30 miniatures for double bass and piano, in the grade of difficulty of the conservatory degree (equivalent to the bachelor's degree today). He was paid the fee in advance and was supposed to submit the scores by a deadline so that sheet music could be printed by the state music publishing house. Hertl delivered the sheet music in time for the expiry of the deadline, but for some inexplicable reason the sheet music never appeared. My ex professor Jiří Hudec has gotten once back in the 80's by František Hertl's widow a box full of Mr Hertl's manuscripts, including also some fully completed but yet unpublished compositions. "30 Miniatures for double bass and piano" were one of such compositions. With friendly, exclusive permission by František Hertl's daughter, Ms Květa Hertlová, this release can finally become real. These short pieces have never been released before, this is world's first release. Jiří Hudec has spent countless hours in the past few years to carefully enter the composers text into the scoring software. Some years later, composer Jiří Gemrot was kindly asked to check several strangely sounding chords and passages, so he did some minor corrections. This item includes the first "six-pack" with miniatures 1-6. My original wish was to publish all the miniatures at once, but the final revision of the sheet music and formatting have costed another impressive amount of hours, far more effort than expected. For that reason, this release will be better done stepwise, every time with six numerically following pieces. Besides an original version, we have decided also to transpose the parts of both instruments to make the music 100% compatible to any of the most popular options of tuning double bass. This luxory release features not only two versions of double bass part, but also two versions of the piano part: the original one, as well as a transposed in D (a major second higher). So all the combinations are now possible, upon performer's preference. Transposed scores contain sometimes just minor enharmonical changes, for easier reading.
This release is a charity project. Composer's daughter, Ms Květa Hertlová lives in Prague on tight budget, so all three of us who contributed to this release (Prof. Jiří Hudec, composer Jiří Gemrot and myself) have decided to forward 100% of the turnover of F. Hertl's compositions to his daughter, we are sure it would please the composer. At the same time, it makes me very happy and proud to contribute with this release to the enrichment of the concert literature for double bass.
Extremely high PDF resolution (a screenshot):
Hertl's manuscripts:
Hertl's original map of the 30 Miniatures:
WATCH VIDEOS: World's first audio & video production of all 30 miniatures by F. Hertl is being published stepwise on YouTube:
Complete edition of all 30 miniatures is cheaper than buying all five single parts. You can find complete version of all 30 miniatures by F. Hertl by visiting THIS PAGE
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