François Rabbath

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François Rabbath (born March 12, 1931 in Aleppo ) is a French composer and double bass player of Syrian origin.

Life

Rabbath was born into a musical family. He had six brothers and three sisters; He discovered the double bass at the age of 13 when one of his brothers brought an instrument home and allowed him to experiment with it. When the family moved to Beirut , Lebanon , he found an old copy of Édouard Nanny's double bass school in a tailor's shop and began teaching himself to play based on the book (which was tedious as he could neither read notes nor speak French ). After six years in Beirut, he had saved enough money to leave for Paris, where he wanted to study at the Paris Conservatory . Despite a very short preparation time, he passed the test audition as the best of all participants. His stay at the conservatory was short-lived, however, as he quickly realized that he was not only technically ahead of the other students, but also of the lecturers.

In Paris he began to make a living as a companion for musicians such as Jacques Brel , Charles Aznavour , Gilbert Bécaud , Michel Legrand and a few others. In 1963 he recorded his first solo album, Bass Ball (re-released with the follow-up album as New Sound of Jazz ).

From 1964 he began to compose music for film and theater . At the same time he began to play solo concerts , first in France and then all over Europe. He made his American debut in 1975 at Carnegie Hall with Ornette Coleman .

In 1978 Rabbath met the American composer and double bass player Frank Proto , with whom he also recorded the album Four Scenes after Picasso (2005). In 1980 the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra asked Proto to write a solo concerto for Rabbath, Concerto No. 2 for double bass and orchestra , which premiered in Cincinnati in 1981 . Two years later, Houston Symphony asked Proto to write another work for Rabbath; The Fantasy for Double Bass and Orchestra premiered in Houston in 1983 . Rabbath has since performed the work around the globe. Their third collaboration, Carmen Fantasy , was conceived as a work for double bass and piano ; Rabbath performed it again first in Cincinnati in July 1991 with Proto as accompanist on the piano.

Rabbath is regarded as one of the great virtuosos on the double bass. He has written a four-volume Nouvelle technique de la contrebasse , which differs from the school of Franz Simandl not only in the use of the grasping hand, but also in the special attention paid to bowing .

Works

Writings and music publications

  • Nouvelle Technique de la Contrebasse , Paris, Alphonse Leduc, 1977–1984.
  • "Solos for the Double Bassist" ( Breiz, Ibérique Peninsulaire, Equation, Poucha Dass, Kobolds, Papa Georges, Sete Quate, Ode d'Espagne, Concerto in one part, Creasy Course, Lise ), Cincinnati, Liben Music Publishers, 1979, 1995.
  • Concerto No. 3 , Cincinnati, Liben Music Publishers, 1987.
  • Prades , in A Family Album, Cincinnati, Liben Music Publishers, 1990.
  • "Two Miniatures" ( Incantation pour Junon , Reitba ), Cincinnati, Liben Music Publishers, 1992.

DVD

  • Carte Blanche à François Rabbath
  • Art of the Bow (Avant bass, 2005)
  • Bach à la quarte (INIT Editions-Productions, 2008)
  • Art of the Left Hand (Avant bass, 2010)

Discographic notes

  • The Sound of a Bass (Philips, 1963)
  • Bass Ball (Philips-Mercury, 1963)
  • François Rabbath N ° 2 (Philips, 1965)
  • Multibasse (Emen, 1974)
  • Sazmorphosis (Emen, 1978)
  • Live in Paris (QCA / Red Mark, 1980)
  • Rabbath Plays Bach (QCA Red Mark / Liben, 1982)
  • Rabbath Plays Proto (Red Mark / Liben, 1986)
  • 70 (Emen, 1990)
  • Dialogues and Meditations (Emen, 1990)
  • Live Around the World (Emen, 1990)
  • Bach, Vivaldi, Bizet, Rabbath (Emen, 1995)
  • François Rabbath en concert: contrebasse & orchester (Emen, 1996)
  • In a Sentimental Mood (King Productions, 2004)
  • Carmen! (2005)
  • Bach: Suites pour violoncelle seul à la contrebasse (Solstice 2012)

Filmography (selection)

  • 1966: Véra - directed by Francis Moran
  • 1967: Ballade for a Dog (Ballade pour un chien) - Director: Gérard Vergez
  • 1968: La Cage de Pierre - Director: Pierre Zucca
  • 1969: Ténèbres - Directed by Claude Loubarie
  • 1969: The Deep - Directed by Orson Welles (unfinished)
  • 1970: Le bateau sur l'herbe - Director: Gérard Brach
  • 1971: Omer Pascha (TV series)
  • 1973: Vaudou - Director: Jean Luc Magneron
  • 1973: Une Saison dans la vie d'Emmanuel - Director: Claude Weisz
  • 1975: Vincent with l'âne dans un pré (et s'en vint dans l'autre) - Director: Pierre Zucca
  • 1977: Black Out - Directed by Philippe Mordacq
  • 1978: Pour une poignée de cacahuètes - Director: Gabriel Chahine
  • 1990: The drop of gold (La goutte d'or) - Director: Marcel Bluwal
  • 2003: Zaman - The long way to Baghdad (Zaman, l'homme des roseaux) - Director: Amer Alwan

literature

  • Michael Greenberg: François Rabbath: Sa carrière, ses apports techniques et son influence sur l'écriture musicale au travers de la documentation éditée et inédite. (unpublished master's thesis) Université de Paris – Sorbonne (Paris IV), 1998.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b portrait (Liben Music)
  2. ↑ Proto orchestrated the work in spring 1992.
personal data
SURNAME Rabbath, François
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French composer and double bass player of Syrian origin
DATE OF BIRTH March 12, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Aleppo