Arcady Dubensky: Prelude & Fugue for double bass quartet

About the Composition Prelude & Fugue is aimed at the advanced bass quartet with effective interplay and dialogue between the four players, creating a colourful and inventive work which exploits the entire range of the double bass. Each player remains within its own range, helping to create clear and open textures with effective technical and musical challenges throughout. Prelude & Fugue was completed on 16 May 1933 and is one of the first works written for double bass quartet. There is no documentation about the work or any performances, but it is likely that it was written for Dubensky's double bass colleagues in the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. The composer was confident enough to use the entire range of the double bass and the carefully spaced parts help to create a colourful work of clarity, great energy and invention. There are challenges for each performer and the two contrasting movements offer much for the serious and advanced double bass quartet with all four pl