Simón García: Spanish Sounds for an American Friend for double bass quartet

About the Quartet Spanish Sounds for an American Friend exists in versions for double bass quartet or double bass and piano. Spanish influences abound in this exciting and rhythmically vibrant work which is ideally suited to the intermediate bass quartet. Simón García writes: ‘The idea of this piece was inspired by the sounds of my native country, Spain. The zarzuela was the most popular musical genre in Spanish theatres during the 19th and early 20th-centuries. It combines singing and theatre, much like opera, but they tell popular stories and in my music I have aimed to do the same. In Spain it is usual to play selections of the main themes of a zarzuela in concerts, as if it were a suite. This idea seemed fun and I started writing a selection about a non-existent zarzuela. I used three main themes and treated them with different musical resources of this genre. The first one is a lyrical theme, with sounds of Andalusia, and the melody is lyrical and elegant with the use of triplets