Donald Erb: Four Timbre Pieces for Cello and Double Bass

Bryn Mawr, Pa. : Merion Music : c1993
2 scores (15 p. each) 

• Standard notation with some explained symbols
• Advanced difficulty 

Available at :sheetmusicplus.com; amazon.com; justsheetmusic.com; thedukesmusic.co.uk among other vendors.

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Are you are looking for an atmospheric 20th-century piece for double bass and cello which contains some surprising, innovative effects? Then, Donald Erb’s Four Timbre Pieces is the piece for you.
American composer, Erb (1927-2008) wrote this piece in a period of his output when he focused on chromatic motions and counterpoint. In Four Timbre Pieces we can clearly trace this tendency in many ways as you will notice.
Written in 1989 and published by Merion Music in 1993, it was not the first attempt for Erb to write for the double bass. His first composition for our beloved instrument, Déjà vu: six etudes for the double bass was published in 1982 also by Merion. This piece was dedicated to Bertram Tureczky, pioneer of modern double bass techniques. We can assume that Tureczky may have suggested many of the effects and their execution, influencing Erb in how he conceptualized the instrument. Many of the figures and effects he used in this piece are reoccurring in Four Timbre Pieces, such as the rattling of an object between two strings, similar chromatic and rhythmic figures, and the use of highest possible note, toward which the bass player needs to slide up, among other effects. After the Four Timbre Pieces, Erb wrote another collection of pieces Three Pieces for Double Bass Alone published in 2000, recycling many similar technical ideas from the previous pieces.
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 Let’s look at the effects he shares between the cello and the double bass in Four Timbre Pieces and how they reflect the atmosphere of each title of the movements.
I would like to express my gratitude to Svetlana Garitselova for recording the examples with me.

The first movement is titled "Illusions."  Erb creates illusion by different techniques, such as very low dynamic levels, glissando, and mostly chromatic motion throughout as if searching for something. Unique effects in this movements occur, such as:
1.  hidden voices (humming while playing)
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2. pulled harmonics - On the instruction page Erb writes: "Play by touching a natural harmonic with fingers crooked around the string. Pull the string while bowing, causing the pitch to rise." On several spots, where there is only a half step pitch difference it is easy to utilize this technique. However, in the movement "Harmonics" the bassist needs to travel more than a half step (a diminished fourth).  If you follow Erb's instructions this fingering is problematic.

The second, a fast movement is titled "Bariolage." This musical term, normally referring to a color mixture, means the usage of the same pitch on different strings in rapid alternation.
Erb employs this musical color mixture right in the beginning of the movement, where the cello and the bass plays the only common open G string with a rather complex rhythm. Notice, that the players are instructed to use chopsticks for the col legno instead of the traditionally used bow stick.

After a few measures the cello and bass diverge in a chromatic motion and louder dynamic level:

Sometimes passages are time-measured and the instruments meet again at a new section with a new motive:

 Chromatic motion represented as a half step dissonance runs between the two instruments:

One of the unique features of the movement is the effect of the rambling chopsticks between the strings:

"Harmonics" is the title of the third movement. Against all expectations, there are no natural harmonics displayed in this movement, but Erb plays with other interesting possibilities of harmonics.
​The movement starts out with a very soft, mysterious melody that is imitated in inversion.

Later on we  do experience harmonics several different ways: the famous "seagull" effect; artificial harmonics; trill between a harmonic and a regular pitch; and towards the end of the movement the already introduced pulled harmonics. 

I would like to show three out of the many ways Erb is experimenting with the different possibilities of displaying double stops  in the last movement called "Double Stops and Speed." 
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1. The movement starts out rather aggressively, with the dissonant Major 7th intervals in both instruments, heavily accented as well.

2. Double stops in a more lyrical manner by sustained open string and a melodic line (mostly in minor 2nds) slurred over or under it.

3.  Erb displays double stops in this movement is through thirds moving parallel in one instrument:

Early on in the movement the cello receives a motive (that includes the interval of a Major 7th) that will return later as part of a "melody:" Is that the "stop" part of the movement title?

The last example combines many of the different techniques Erb introduced during this whole piece, such as the imitative rhythmic figure on indefinite high pitch. After the glissando-sixteenth notes passage the instruments will arrive to double stops of minor 2nds (complementary interval of Major 7th) and ends with the cello's motive.  

In sum, I love this piece because it displays unique techniques in each movement that really help to evoke the feeling of what its titles suggests. It is a piece that even the musically more conservative audience will understand and most likely value.  I hope that you gained some insight into this piece and will explore it further.
Please let me know if you have any questions about this piece.
I hope to see you soon with another wonderful piece of music written for the double bass with other instruments.