Some time ago, I was reading on a forum visited by double-bass aficionados about the unpleasant attitude that double-bass players seem to have at present when playing in an orchestra, not only from a behavioural of view but, above all, from the musical one. Nowadays, indeed, the double-bass player, just like any other musician, is not trained anymore for the job of "orchestral player", as was the case in the past. The fault cannot be attributable to anyone because what has changed in time is the type of training and the methods of recruiting and starting out in this profession. Of course I am not the most suitable person to talk about the etiquette to be respected in the orchestra but, during my studies and researches, I happened to read a "list of rules" for the double bass player in the orchestra. It was written by an experienced musician. I would like to discuss it with you. In order to acknowledge the reliability and authority of these rules, it will be useful to know about the author and his background. He belonged to a real dynasty of double bass players, a case that seems to be unique in history. I am referring to the Anglois family, a family from Turin that gave spawned four generations of double-bass players.

The Anglois dynasty at the service of the King

There is little information about the progenitor, Stefano Anglois. The only information we have is that he was born in Turin, where he also died at the end of the 18° century. He played the double bass in the orchestra of the Teatro Regio in Turin where he was joined by his son Giorgio in 1789. We have more details about Giorgio Anglois, but we will exclude the biographical notes here. He is surely the most famous member of the family, together with his son Luigi. In fact, he is the author of the second method for double-bass playing published in Italy. This method can be considered to the leading one on the double-bass for the orchestra, and we certainly understand the reason for it. Giorgio Anglois was first double bass in the orchestra of King Vittorio Emanuele I and dealt with the training of the court double-bass players, among which there were his two sons, Giuseppe e Luigi that played in the orchestra with their father until his death. While there are no further elements about Giuseppe's life and works, we have a lot of information about Luigi's career. He was the first member of the family that left the orchestra and bravely started out on a solo career. In the 1820’s Luigi left Turin to start a successful tour of Europe and America, causing some concern to Bottesini who, in those days, was the undisputed protagonist of the major international theatres. As usual, rumour has it that there was great competition among the two, but I would not trust these legends. Actually, we can compare the great quantity of sources, articles, information concerning Bottesini with poor information about Luigi Anglois (that, in any case, could still be unknown) or even the repertories of the two soloists. We know that Luigi composed a Concerto, a Capriccio and other short pieces for double bass; all of them have been lost. Moreover, we know that, in 1872, he founded the first double-bass class at the Conservatoire in Turin. He adopted his father's method, though only for four months, since he died soon afterwards. In our framework, the most interesting figure is Giorgio, who was the author of many lost works for double-bass and of the “Theoretical-practical method for orchestral double-bass” but bears Luigi Felice Rossi's signature (let me point out again that he is not THAT Luigi Rossi who belonged to the Milan school!). Probably, this Method only bears the name of Luigi Felice Rossi since he was the Director of the Civica Scuola di Musica in Turin and, therefore, the official censor. Finally, we have to mention the last member of the family, Giacomo, who was part of the orchestra at the Teatro Regio but we have no information about him.

“How must the orchestral double-bass player behave”

Giorgio Anglois' rules for the perfect double-bass orchestral player are included in the addendum of the above mentioned Rossi-Anglois method. For a further analysis of this book, I suggest you to read the book "The double-bass method by Giovanni Bottesini – a matter of "school". It is the only addendum of this book that follows the structure of the book itself, divided into theoretical articles (first part) and practical articles (second part). Actually, these rules, too, could have been included as an "article" and the fact that the authors decided to include them as an addendum to the "theoretical" part makes us wonder. Let me include here the original full text, without omissions or changes. The aim is to leave the same ironic and argumentative tone that characterizes the entire book. […] We suggest that the student carefully read the following rules:

• 1. The orchestral double bass shall always have, so to speak, an eye on his score and the other one on the conductor, while his ears shall always be attuned to the main melody. The aim is to follow the movement of the music accurately and to perceive the smallest variation during its performance.
• 2. Having captured the movement, he shall always avoid changing it, with a rallentando or accellerando, at his own discretion. Similarly, during any changes in rhythm in the piece, he shall pay attention to play his notes at the very same moment indicated by the conductor or by the main melody. Any smallest departure from this rule constitutes the worst possible fault for a double-bass player. That is why we mentioned that his main qualities is that of being able to keep strictly to the time of the music.
• 3. It is obvious that a double bass player, just like any other musician, must be able to play his part as it is written on the paper. If not he had better not play in an orchestra. Let us also stress that, should there be a passage impossible to play, he must know which of the notes are the most essential for the harmony, in order to only ignore the less important ones. He shall never think about adding even one single note to the score, this would be a serious fault. If necessary, he could evaluate whether doubling the open strings in a unison or octave, in fortissimo.
• 4. As we have already said, let us repeat that the double bass player must have a good sense of intonation. Whoever does not have good intonation cannot play in an orchestra. He would do better to play alone, in order to be more tolerable. An even better piece of advice for him would be to set aside the double- bass or the subject of music entirely.
• 5. What we have just said about the attention that the double bass player must pay to the conductor and the main melody is aimed not only at making him follow these strictly but it must also be said that he sets the pace in the orchestra. Indeed, where the orchestra happens to be lacking an internal equilibrium, he shall then use one of the above mentioned qualities, that is to say, as needs be he shall give one or more energetic strokes to try to restore the orchestra's equilibrium. We must also advice him not to abuse of this ruse. It is only need, at the right moment, that justifies him playing forte when he is supposed to be playing piano.
• 6. Another common problem for our double-bass players is that they are not really able to play piano. Their piano, in fact, seems more like a mezzo forte. Our student should therefore train to play the entire range from pianissimo to fortissimo, with all the intermediate grades, and then apply them at the right moment and with intelligence.
• 7. Another common problem is to drag out, in a sense, the single notes that appear to accompany the melody. By playing them in this way, they may appear to be undecided and boring to our ears. They are partly the reason why, as already said, we rarely hear our orchestras play a real piano. The above-mentioned notes shall be played with a very short and sharp bow movement. They shall then sound clear and gracious, without being forte.
• 8. Lastly, our student shall also play with vigour in the forte, but also be careful not to cause the strings to vibrate in such a way that they beat on the fretboard. This is a very annoying sound. The same warning is also necessary for the pizzicato.