Wind: Beethoven Symphony No. 5 Arranged for Bass Quartet

About the piece:

Encouraged by the success of my Gustav Mahler arrangement, I was looking for a symphony of the classical period to arrange for the 2023 fall semester.

It did not take long to set my eyes on Ludwig van Beethoven’s mighty 5^th symphony, arguably the best-known classical piece of all time. Everybody knows the opening theme, but the entire composition is an absolute marvel. After initially working only on the first movement, I wondered if I could find a musical way to include all four movements in my arrangement. By skipping repeats and taking some adventurous shortcuts, I came up with this reduced version with a duration of about 16 minutes.

Every classically trained bassist knows that several of the most iconic orchestra audition excerpts are in this piece. I like the idea of my students practicing those passages in context so they can hear what else is going on and learn how their parts relate to what everybody else is playing.

Part 1 is challenging but somebody must play the violin parts! Part 4 is ideally performed on an instrument with a C-extension or low B-string.

About the composer:

Martin Wind was born in Flensburg, Germany in 1968. He studied classical contrabass with Professor Wolfgang Guettler in Cologne and earned his master’s degree in jazz performance and composition at New York University in 1997.

Martin has performed all over the world with artists such as Mstislav Rostropovitch, Pat Metheny, Guidon Kremer, Lalo Schifrin, Sting, Hank Jones, Michael Brecker, Johnny Mandel and Bill Mays. He leads his own groups and has released more than 20 CDs as a leader or co-leader. As part of the Kennedy Center Honors Orchestra, he’s played for major artists such as James Taylor, Renee Fleming and Aretha Franklin.

Martin has been on the faculty at New York University since 1997 and at Hofstra University since 2011.