The Giovanni Bottesini's "Metodo per contrabbasso": a matter of "school"
Silvia mattei - preface of M.° Franco Petracchi
 Many know that Bottesini wrote a double bass method. Nevertheless, the circumstances and reasons that led to its creation are not known, nor is the value that this method has nowadays. For a long time, this virtuoso musician refused, probably for reasons of "image", Tito Ricordi’s offer who, instead, had an intuition about its commercial potential. Probably, Ricordi insisted for another reason: he wanted to compete with a Turin Publishing House that, in those same years, was publishing the Method for orchestra double bass, written by Luigi Rossi and Giorgio Anglois, the latter being the declared the rival of Bottesini himself. Here we have the first enigma: wasn’t Luigi Rossi Bottesini’s professor at the Milan Conservatoire? If so, why did he write a method with a representative of the Turin school? This is one of the many questions in double bass history that are clarified in this book, as well as others.
We know that Bottesini started his musical studies with the violin, but the only confirmed records mention Bottesini as a “singer” with a very promising future. Moreover, which one was the first double bass method? Who was the author? Where did the modern double bass Italian school take its origins? Could Bottesini be the founder?
The answer is included in the analysis and study of the “new school” in Turin, compared with other schools, first and foremost, Bottesini’s Milan school.
All this and much more, accompanied by intuitions in filigree about bow technique (one of the most difficult issues in the history of strings) can be found in this valuable book that all double bass players and musicians should have.
|
