Double bass excerpt · Audition repertoire
Mahler, Symphony No. 2 in C minor ("Resurrection")
I. Allegro maestoso
The tremolo-driven low string opening. Aggressive, rhythmically exact, and demanding a large sound without loss of definition.
At a glance
- Instrument
- Double bass
- Composer
- Gustav Mahler
- Work
- Symphony No. 2 in C minor ("Resurrection")
- Movement
- I. Allegro maestoso
- Era
- Late-Romantic (c. 1880–1910)
- Composed
- 1894
- Clef
- Bass clef
- Level
- Audition, professional standard
- Audition list
- Yes, standard excerpt
How to practise it
The bow style, the trouble spots, and the stylistic decisions that come up most often on this excerpt.
Bowing
The written articulation must survive at full volume, a big sound that has lost its note beginnings fails the excerpt.
Where it goes wrong
Rhythm is what panels check. The passage is easy to distort when playing loudly.
Style
Marked maestoso: weighty and deliberate rather than merely fast.
Tags
Work on the technique underneath
Arco's bass curriculum builds the bow strokes, positions, and clef reading this excerpt assumes, with recorded bass playback throughout.