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Re: Eberhard's intonation...
List;
As an electric upright player who has always considered Eberhard to be my
hero, i feel compelled to respond on the subject of his intonation.
Though i never studied with him, i did receive advice from him during my
formative years concerning what to practice and how. Eberhard (as most
all upright players, myself included) studied the Simandl method. One of
the principal emphases of the Simandl is on developing flawless
intonation. Eberhard is not only a brilliant conceptualist but also a
very skilled technician. At the same time, anyone can (and will) have a
bad night. Given that his intonation is so impeccable, it may be
hard at times for some of us to know what is and is not intentional on
any given night of an Eberhard Weber performance.
Concerning Eberhard's 'thumb position playing':
given that Eberhard plays the "hi-five" (five string with a
high 'C' string) he rarely plays high up on the fingerboard. Because he
plays seated and his bass has no 'body' in the traditional sense, when he
does play high he doesn't have to use his thumb. In other words, i've
never known Eberhard to play in 'thumb position'. Then again, i haven't
seen him play live in a number of years so maybe he's started using his
thumb high up on the instrument.
On the matter of lined verses unlined fretless: for myself it's all about
muscles and the ears. The way the 'classically' oriented teachers taught
the bass when i was coming up involved discouraging pupils from looking
at the fingerboard and taught us to use a combination of muscle memory
and our ears. As one teacher used to remind me, "...the music is on
the page, not your fingerboard". Aditonally, unlike in pop music,
intonation in many other musics becomes a musical device just like pitch,
timbre or rhythm. Subtle pitch variations are a very effective means of
expression. Playing a fretted instrument or a lined instrument often
hinders a musicians ability to access these sophisticated
techniques. Given the infatuation with equal temperament/pitch in
'mainstream music' this doesn't really matter at all.
Thanks for letting me burn a little bandwidth.
JPW
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