Unusual Bass Solo Set Next Sunday
Lawrence P. Hurst was one of the larger boys in his class when he took up playing of the doublé bass in the sixih grade in Norfolk, Va. However, the associate professor of music and chairman of the string department at the University says the trend now seems to be to smaller bass players. "I have three girl sludents who are majoring. in the doublé bass," Hurst says. "It is similar to the harp - size has little to do with the playing of the -instrument." At 4 p.m. next Sunday in Pioneer High School, Hurst will give one of 'the very few performances in 190 years of Johann Mathias Sperger's "Concerto for Doublé Bass in B-Flat Major." Hurst will be the featured soloist with the Ann Arbor Symphony in its last concert of this season. Concertos for doublé bass . are scarce, and this one, which Ipresents "imposing obstacles" I for the modern performer, has I been the object of special conI centration by Hurst for lVi I years. He played the first moveI ment of the concerto with the I School of Music Orchestra last I summer. Sperger was the first basjl player with Haydn's court orchestra in the 1780s and played in the Mecklenburg Hofkapelle from 1787 u n t i 1 his dcath in 1812. The instrument S p e r g e r played and for which he wrote his concerto probably had more strings than the modern four-string bass which Hurst will play next Sunday for Ann Arbor audiences. Paper probably was an expensive and precious commodity in Sperger's time, so whenever he made a mistake, he simply scratched it out, not wasting a bit. He used symbols that would not be found in modern scores. Another p r o b 1 e m which Hurst faced in transposing the work for presentation today was caused by not being able to find any information as to how contra-voiced string struments were tuned during the period. Even after he transposed all the treble clef pitches down an entire octave in accord with the performance practice of the time, he found that the range remained extremely high and many of the multi-stopped notes were forced into "the realm of impossibility for modern basses tuned in perfect fourths." Hurst says that the only soiution may lie in either a different tuning, even radical tuning, for modern instruments or possibly a hybrid instrument with many more strings. At 15, Hurst became the principal bassist and the youngest member of the Norfolk Symphony Orchestra. J Valedictorian of his class in 1955, he was awarded a scholarship by General Motors and attended the U-M, where he was awarded the coveted Stanley Medal, the school's I highest recognition of acaI demic and musical excellence. I He was graduated with highI est honors. He later was awarded a master of music degree from the U-M and became a teaching fellow. He was made assistant professor of music in 1966. Hurst was appointed chairman of the string department last August and became associate professor, o o A group which is making a name for itself on the West Coast and in Chicago with its classical jazz is appearing tonight and Friday through next Sunday at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit. Sweetwater, which h a s a record album by the same name, has s e v e n in the group. Fred Herra, bass guitarist, is leader. Others in the group are Nansi Nevins, lead singer and classic guitarist, Alex Del Zoppo, electric piano and clapinet, Albert Moore, electrified flute, August Burns, electrified cello, Alan Malarouietz, drums, and Elpedio Cobian, congos.