Reaching for the utmost limits – Making a process visible with The Hands, the Bow, and the Bass by Johannes Nästesjö

Can I, by reaching for the utmost limits on my instrument, in dynamically, technically and pitch related ways both find, for me, new contemporary techniques and expand the ways on how to play and perform them on the double bass? Can I, by illuminating, documenting, studying, organizing and re-documenting my musical process, design a toolkit for improvising bassists with contemporary techniques? Can I, in my musical process both act as the first person, i.e. the subjective musician and as the third person, i.e. the objective observer?  If so, can I, as the observer objectively observe and organize the ”discoveries” that I am doing in my daily work as first person. Can I create this tool kit through the limitations that my instrument offers acoustically (the hand, the bow and the bass). And can I through this immerse and widen my musical expressions? - A richer language - more elastic - with more colors.

Background – Research Project;

Thoughts from the start.

I used to say that the bass is not a poor relative of the cello, an octave lower and an octave slower, but an instrument with its own voice. I also believe - and you may not agree, but I will argue the point - that the bass is the most versatile bowed string instrument in Western culture. I can play as high as a violin, and no instrument can play as low as I can. With artificial harmonics, I can get up there.¹

This artistic research is grounded on my empirical experiences as a double bass player in the genre of improvised music. It is based out of curious research on the entire instrument, and limited to the use of the hands, the bow and the bass as working tools. Hence, my aim is, through these ”traditional” limitations, to find a working process where I can both discover and transform different contemporary techniques. Furthermore, I aim to expand the possibilities on what one can achieve on the instrument by reaching for the utmost limits. A metaphor which means that I, through dynamically, technically and pitch related research on my instrument, search for new contemporary techniques and ways on how to expand, play and perform the double bass?

In this, my faith in the bass versatility aligns with that of Bertram Turetzky. So, as you understand, this research will be carried out by extending many different musical lawyers such as the dynamical, the tactile, the technical, the spatial as well as the pitch range. A long working process that will be documented both along the way and as a final artistic product. This research will also lay the foundation to an archive of contemporary techniques.

With this said, I am curious about the whole process. Thus from the practice room and the rehearsals, to the studio recordings and the live performances and all the documentations and the analysis along the road. How ideas in the form of contemporary techniques come to life through hard work and the presence in the here and now, and how I conduct and take care of them. The development of the music and how it becomes a part of a personal and independent musical language. In other words, how I can learn and then transform and personalize already existing techniques from contemporary music. I am convinced that through my limitations I can discover sounds and techniques that I wouldn’t have done otherwise.

My hope is that this focused research will grow my awareness of the great abundance of spectrum and timbre that is hidden in the instrument. The size, the wood and the length of the strings gives this beautiful instrument tremendously sonorous possibilities.²

Marko Aho summarizes some good thoughts about how to find the sounds that are hidden in your instrument and how to work with limitations:

In musical instruments the inherent restricting qualities, however, need not necessarily be seen as faults but can also be considered as pockets of musical potential waiting to be realized; for with music we are dealing with human creativity, the output of which is always unpredictable and novel. In fact the limitations of acoustic instruments may well function as a source of inspiration and creativity for instrumentalists.³

1:Turetzky, B. (1992) Contrabassist Bertram Turetzky, A Conversation with Bruce Duffi. http://www.bruceduffie.com/turetzky3.html

2: Brun, P. (2000) A New History of the Double Bass.

3: Aho, M (2016) The Tangible in Music, The tactile learning of a musical instrument. Routledge, page 50

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Johannes Nästesjö - Reaching for the utmost limits – Making a process visible with The Hands, the Bow, and the Bass - 2022