Double bass repertoire
Orchestral double bass excerpts, the standard audition list
The double bass excerpts that recur on audition lists, annotated with what each one tests and where they most often go wrong.
- Excerpts
- 12
- Composers
- 6
- Audition excerpts
- 12
- Eras
- 3
Bass excerpts are shifting problems before they are bow problems. Because a position covers only a whole step, a fast passage that a cellist fingers within two positions may take a bassist five or six, and unclean shifts read to a panel as smudged rhythm rather than as wrong notes.
The other constant is note beginnings. A bass string speaks slowly, so a note that has pitch but no defined start disappears in an ensemble. Almost every excerpt on the standard list is, in part, a test of whether you can make the string speak on time.
Preparing an audition?
12 of these excerpts appear on standard bass audition lists, ordered by difficulty and annotated with what panels listen for.
The bass audition listBrowse by era
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Every bass excerpt
Beethoven, Symphony No. 5, III, Trio
Mozart, Haffner Symphony, IV, Presto
Mozart, Symphony No. 40, I, opening
Mahler, Symphony No. 1, III, bass solo
Beethoven, Symphony No. 9, IV, recitative
Strauss, Ein Heldenleben, bass passages
Brahms, Symphony No. 2, I, opening
Mozart, Symphony No. 39, IV, Finale
Mahler, Symphony No. 2, I, opening
Verdi, Otello, Act IV double bass passage
Beethoven, Symphony No. 5, I, opening
Strauss, Don Juan, opening
Excerpts test the technique underneath
Arco's bass curriculum builds the bow strokes, positions, and clef reading these passages assume.