Masterclass: Frederick Zimmermann?s A Contemporary Concept of Bowing Technique for the Double Bass
by Orin O?Brien, double bassist of the New York Philharmonic
Orin O''Brien
Frederick Zimmermann taught privately and at the Juilliard School from 1934 to 1967, the year he died. His remarkable book A Contemporary Concept of Bowing Technique was published in 1966, and was the creation of one of the most distinguished and prolific teachers of the double bass for several decades. However, many bassists and teachers seem to be puzzled by how to practise it. I would like to show how to make use of its many benefits.
The book was not in print when I studied with Zimmermann: he would give me a pattern or two and tell me to copy out permutations of them. He had a notebook with many handwritten excerpts from the thousands of orchestral works he had played during his 36 years with the New York Philharmonic: he copied the actual excerpts on the top stave of two, and on the lower stave he made the bowing pattern reductions, using only the four notes of E, A, open A string and open E string for the notes of each passage. This was the genesis of the future ?bowing book? (as many students call it), and as I copied and practised it, it solved many of the mysteries of bowing that had puzzled me.
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