Eugene Hartzell (1932–2000): Vocalise for Double Bass (Monologue 21) (1996)
Ron Merhavi – Double Bass
Eugene Hartzell was born in 1932 in Cincinnati, Ohio. After graduating from Kentucky State University, he continued his studies at Yale University and then went to Vienna to study voice and composition. He has been a freelance composer, translator, narrator and broadcaster for Austrian radio. He passed away in Vienna in 2000.
Vocalise for Double Bass is dedicated to James Rapport, who served as Principal Bassist of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra in the mid 1970s after studying at Indiana University School of Music under Murray Grodner; Later on, Rapport went to study bass under Ludwig Streicher in Vienna, where he is currently teaching at the Bach Music School. According to Rapport, "The composer wrote this [piece] after hearing Kol Nidrei played on the bass and wanted these slow lyric passages to be played in a similar expressive style".