Shanti Nachtergaele: The Birth of Modern Double Bass Playing at the Prague and Paris Conservatories
Congratulations to Shanti Nachtergaele, a current PhD student in the musicology program, who was awarded a for her project 鈥淭he Birth of Modern Double Bass Playing at the Prague and Paris Conservatories.鈥�
An accomplished double bass player and musicologist herself,聽Shanti holds a B.Mus. in double聽bass performance from Shenandoah Conservatory (USA), an M.Mus. in early music聽from聽the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague (The Netherlands) and an M.A. in music聽theory and history from The聽Pennsylvania State University (USA). She has聽presented at various conferences in North America and Europe and her聽article 鈥淔rom聽divisions to聽divisi: improvisation, orchestration, and the practice of double聽bass reduction鈥� is forthcoming in聽Early聽Music.She is currently at Schulich studying with Tom Beghin.
Project Abstract:
While research on early forms of the double bass has made great progress in recent聽years, few studies investigate how聽these instruments were actually played.聽Double bass method books from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth聽centuries聽demonstrate greater technical diversity than is observable in聽performances today; however, this diversity diminished over聽the course of the聽nineteenth century as European conservatories established double bass classes聽and made efforts to聽standardize technique. I propose to study the role that two聽particularly influential institutions, the Prague and Paris聽conservatories,聽played in standardizing double bass technique and establishing the German and聽French schools of double聽bass playing that remain dominant today. I will also聽experiment with and compare the techniques outlined in historical聽double bass聽methods in order to evaluate their potential effects on musical performances.
