'Should be in every bass player's library'. Making Music. Grade: Advanced

Delightful virtuoso homage to the fiddle music of the composer's Scotland... a stunning work'. Notes. 'The timbreof the instruments match up beautifully'. The Guardian London. Two playing scores. Grade: 8

'An easy piece... Suitable for players who have been studying for about eighteen months'. Music Teacher. Dare was a Scottish composer and an amateur bassist.

A rather jolly sequential duet by the youthful Edward Elgar . Sunday Times London . A good piece for a school concert . Making Music . Grade: Easy

A collection of four Bagatelles For Double Bass which utilise the first four positions. Scored for Double Bass and Piano. Suitable for grades 2 - 4 and part of the ABRSM Double Bass Syllabus.

Relatively easy; written for the student. The second of the three movements is a tuneful Quodlibet based on folk songs.

Thirty-five easy Pieces for Double Bass and Piano. A wealth of short and enjoyable tunes for school concerts festivals and exams. A tremendous amount of music packed into 48 pages. I highly recommend this book ...useful for a variety of levels of students'. American String Teacher. Contains a selection of pieces for the ABRSM and AMEB (Australian Syllabus) Double Bass examinations.

'A pleasantly engineered four movement suite for Double Bass which is technically quite undemanding ... an attractive concert item' The Strad. Suitable for Grade 5 players and part of the ABRSM Double Bass Syllabus.

for Double bass (or cello) and piano. Six short easy pieces written to supplement the examination repertoire. Can be played separately or as a suite. Alan Ridout died shortly after correcting proofs of these tuneful movements: his popular Concerto and Little Sad Sound (also available) are in similar style.

A wonderful vivacious composition full of humour and warmth. It is well suited to the needs of the less advanced player and is set as part of the ABRSM Double Bass Syllabus. Grade: 6

Allegretto Capriccio Romanza Drammatica (Elegie) Fantasia I Puritani Fantasia Lucia di Lammermoor .

For Violone-Very little is known about the two sonatas which appear here in their original keys. They were placed in the library of the Music School in Oxford at the end of the seventeenth century in a form convenient for playing (i.e. unbound). The library was catalogued by Hake between 1850 and 1855 and the sonatas were eventually bound in 1855 with other instrumental and vocal manuscripts of the same period some of which are dated 1698. The sonatas are both inscribed on the title page Sonata à Violone Solo. Col Basso per l'Organo o Cembalo. A third sonata bears the words Sonata à Violino e Violoncino … di Giovannino del Violone. Giovannino (=Little or Young John) musthave been a performer and although the third sonata has been copied by a different hand it is conceivable that Giovannino is a connecting link between the three. He cannot however be assumed to be their author. The Violone was a six-stringed instrument with frets and there is evidence to suggest that the Contrabasso of the same period was similar but probably a little larger; the Violoncino (=Little Violone or Violoncello) must have been smaller. The word 'Violone' was also used as a collective term embracing all members of the Viol family which means that the sonatas might well have been written for a tenor or a bass Viol and not necessarily a Violone as such. Indeed when they are played on a Violone or Double Bass the continuo bass line must be played at a lower pitch than the solo instrument to prevent inversion of the intended harmony. (The use of a Violone/Double Bass continuo or 16' organ tone would overcome this problem.) The editor has added no ornaments or embellishments to the solo part as it appears in the original manuscript. It is open to debate whether a Violone player owing to the very nature of his instrument would have used any but the simplest melodic decorations. Nevertheless the performer should acquaint himself thoroughly with those seventeenth century traditions that are known today (see Dart

Double Bass and Cello (1985). 'Pleasantly atmospheric'. Daily Telegraph London. A show work written for The Manchester Bass Week not too difficult but immediately pleasing. Grade: Moderate

Grasps and holds the attention firmly'. The Times London. Well worth exploring. Grade: 8 'Grasps and holds the attention firmly'. The Times London. Well worth exploring. Grade: 8

Two short and delightful movements in a lighter style composed for Double Bass with Piano Accompaniment by Bryan Kelly. Based upon characters from Shakespeare's The Tempest this piece is ideal for concerts offering a wonderful enrichment to the advancing Double Bassist's repertoire. The solo Double Bass part is also included on a separate insert.

A quartet of medium difficulty by one of Australia's leading composers. The first part is sometimes difficult but the others are moderately easy. The writing is low sonorous and effective. Grade: Medium

Five movements well contrasted in style. A splendid addition to the library... should prove to be most useful to reasonably advanced players'. Making Music. Recorded by Beyer Breuer (FSM). Grade: Medium

A large-scale solo piece using the blues form and jazz language changing meters contrasting tempi and vocal sounds to fuse the jazz world with the world of concert music in a unique way. The composer is one of the world's foremost exponents of contemporary bass music. Duration c.4'. Grade: Advanced

Op.75 (1969). 'Grasps and holds the attention firmly'. The Times London. Well worth exploring. Grade: 8

Ideal for a popular school or informal concert. Programme note by Rodney Slatford 2008: Jack Snow Hester was born on 2 March 1907 in Chorlton Lancashire and joined the music profession as a double bass player when he was seventeen. His father Arthur Darrell Hester appears on his birth certificate as 'Manufacturer (chemicals)'; his mother was Minnie Frances Hester formerly Stamp and the family lived in South Manchester. During the 1930s as Norman Hester he worked at Daly's Theatre the Piccadilly Theatre the Palace Theatre and other London variety houses in West End productions. He married Isabella Dawson Davidson on 1 July 1940 in Worcester and shedied in 1973. He died in 2001 after a long period of ill health. During the 1960s Norman was an active freelance player working as an extra bass player with the London symphony orchestras including the BBC. Quite when The Bull Steps Out was written isn't certain but Norman sent me a copy to consider for republishing - it is assumed that the original publication appeared sometime during or just after the war. It was a 'one off' that he probably played for light music evenings in the theatres. The piece has been very popular and has been used for examinations on various syllabuses around Grade 7 level. An unpublished manuscript copy of a double bass 'method' is on file that Norman Hester wrote when he retired but it is mainly a compilation of various scales and exercises similar to many that were published in the early 20th century. A photograph of him as a young man is held at the Royal Society of Musicians in London which he joined in 1930 and of which he was a loyal supporter until he died.