BOOKS

75 Years on 4 Strings: The Life and Music of François Rabbath

Hans Sturm

304PP ISBN 9798985305708 AVANT BASS $50

François Rabbath, virtuoso double bass player, musician, composer and teacher, needs no introduction to the bass playing world but there are many others who will enjoy reading this celebration of his ‘75 years on 4 strings’. His uniqueness as both man and musician shine out from the pages describing his extraordinary life from autodidact to elder statesman among both players and teachers.

Hans Sturm draws on an unpublished autobiography for the earlier parts of the book, and later there are insights from Rabbath’s wife and son. He also brings together conversations with numerous champions and friends in the US: Frank Proto, Paul Ellison, Barry Green and an interview with George Vance, plus stories and personal experiences shared by players and teachers from around the world. Using all of this, Sturm has given us an unparalleled insight into Rabbath’s life.

It is an object lesson in how grit, determination, a love of new things to stimulate the mind and an insatiable desire for perfection will win out. The excitement of a young boy getting his first bass and the way he deciphered Nanny’s method for double bass in order to teach himself ‘properly’ is infectious. The piecemeal way watching movies, having siblings who formed a band and wanting to be part of his family group came together might seem like an inevitable progression to stardom, but only when governed by a complete love affair with the double bass and an insatiable curiosity and desire to excel.

The book shows the slow burn of how Rabbath’s life developed as a performer in Paris and then his introduction to the world of bass players through the International Society of Bassists. We learn how difficult it was at first for classically trained players to understand the relevance of Rabbath’s way of playing to their traditional methodology and repertoire, and how he won over their hearts and minds.

We are given a wonderfully honest description of Rabbath’s recording of all the Bach Cello Suites in Venice at the very beginning of the 21st century. It brings to light just how hard it was to marry the strictures of the recording studio and Rabbath’s way of being with music. It was a tall order for him, as a musician used to playing as the music speaks to him at any given time, to produce music ‘on demand’ when the red light came on.

François Rabbath performs Bach’s Cello Suites in Sainte-Chapelle, Paris

I cannot recommend highly enough this lovingly written story of the most exciting and revolutionary bass player of our times. What Bottesini was to the 19th century, Rabbath was to the 20th – indeed maybe more.

CATHY ELLIOTT

The Sound of Memory: Themes from a Violinist’s Life

Rebecca Fischer

200PP ISBN 9780814258224 MAD CREEK $22.95

It is a brave call to end an 18-year association with your fellow musicians as did the Chiara Quartet in 2018. The players had consistently received reviews for ground-breaking performances exploring memory, cohesiveness without the barrier of a score, and the harmony within this perfect balance of united purpose of individuals. This was a timelimited association and comes with its outcome of regret and yet renewed purpose for growth. At least that’s how I read it. One of the results is this fascinating part-memoir, part-autobiography, with poetry and musings on life, family and music.

Many of these ruminations are explored or recounted openly, drawing on reactions to experiences or the directions that life has taken. There is real erudition, too. This is no unfocused ramble and page-filling exercise. There is a feeling of intangibility in this book, almost as if the reader is filling in the blanks in their own responses, yet the writing includes recounting of the routines of a musician’s life, the challenges of combining parenthood with the road, and the inevitability of the author’s calling as a musician, with no choice but to continue to create the next generation of musicians in her family.

The book becomes more readable and relaxed as it progresses, and addresses its various themes with increasing fluency. But the scene is set from the start, and deals with themes of music heard in the womb, with family inheritance, and whether the musical imperative is inherited by Fischer’s own children. She moves between topics of attitudes to breastfeeding on tour, her ability to cope with this close relationship and its end, the role of her body in performance, and how her children cope with societal judgements. There is an engrossing chapter on the living, breathing memory of wood and the energy of objects, as well as the personalities of stringed instruments. She writes about sleep and the variety of sleep aids, this chapter beginning with a typical mixture of the practical and then the embroidery, layered and interwoven with the theme.

These reflections are fascinating yet strangely amorphous, difficult to grasp yet leaving a clear footprint in the reader’s memory. Included, too, are memories of touring, visiting (evidently, although last names not mentioned) Réné Morel and Jacques Francais in New York with her father, and the sickening smell of the men’s cologne. At the end she addresses the pandemic and the effect of an absence of performances, how her calluses dropped off, and the possibly ephemeral connection with her instrument.

Each chapter starts and meanders, sometimes in an unpredictable direction, but with always with a real ability to put these musings on paper with clarity and depth. The Sound of Memory is a book for the shelves, to dip into, to refresh one’s own thinking and to realise that being a performing solo artist is a complicated, thinking process. This book is a personal, absorbing response to the author’s practical and creative journey.

ANNE INGLIS

Violin Fingerboard Mastery: Contemporary Mapping Exercises and Improvisation Studies

Jason Anick

64PP ISBN 9780876392157 BERKLEE PRESS $22.99

Jason Anick is a professor at Berklee College of Music known for his versatility as both a performer and educator. In this book, Anick seeks to guide us towards a deeper knowledge of harmony on the violin, which in turn leads to more freedom and ability to improvise in any genre.

Improvisation can be a scary idea for some violinists. Many classically trained players are used to learning scales, studies and concertos, but not to playing with complete freedom from such formal shackles, whether of technique or interpretation. In this volume, Anick presents improvisation in a format that we are almost used to (like a study book), showing us that it can in fact be learnt. He also demonstrates that the ideas behind improvisation are useful for every genre of music making.

Anick starts with the basics of harmony. He shows how arpeggios and inversions lie on our fingerboards. He urges us not just to play but to understand, picture and feel, thus forming a reliable mind map of the fingerboard. He discusses how the arpeggios are chords and how they can relate to each other – great advice for teachers here, looking to inspire their students to practise scales and arpeggios. As the volume progresses, so more is added, including the harmonic relationships of circles of 5ths, arpeggios and chords with added 9ths, and then on to seemingly more random progressions and chord relationships.

At no point does one get swamped with new ideas, as everything is presented so clearly and encouragingly. Every challenge and exercise is shown using chord symbols, but is also written out complete, to show the reader exactly what is meant. Improvisation can never be completely pinned down, but Anick always provides some guidance, ideas or examples on how to get started with each challenge. The volume is also accompanied by many recorded tracks, some with Anick performing, others just the backing tracks for us to experiment with. It concludes with a step-by-step guide on practice suggestions followed by six jazz standards (Anick actually calls them ‘Jazz Etudes’) where we can start to put together everything we have learnt.

It is very heartening that a gateway for violinists into harmony and improvisation has been provided in such an inspiring, attractive and accessible form. This book is excellent.

ALEX LAING