Description

The Pink Elephant is one of Tony Osborne’s most popular works and was written in the early 1980s for the intermediate Double Bass, Quartet.<…br /> It’s lively, rhythmic and jazzy idiom has been successful with performers and audiences alike and has also been successfully played with massed basses The catchy melody is one that stays with you for a long time and this is a fun quartet which has stood the test of time. All basses remain in bass clef throughout. “This fun quartet is a musical depiction of your favourite black-and-white TV cop from the early 1960s waiting to pounce on some shady crooks outside The Pink Elephant Night Club…the appropriately kitsch, swingy melody sounds like a cross between The Pink Panther and Baby Elephant Walk.” (ISB) Born in 1947 into a musical family, Tony Osborne studied at the Royal Academy of Music (London) with John Walton (double bass) and Richard Stoker (composition), and divided a busy career between composing, teaching, and performing. A prolific composer and arranger, Tony’s original compositions include works in almost every genre, notably Chaconne Syncopations and Wainwright’s Ways for brass quintet, Celebration Fanfare for brass ensemble, the musical A Fine Time for Wine, a beautiful and dramatic Requiem, and many works for string orchestra.
Tony’s music for young bassists is very much at the heart of the teaching, Repertoire, particularly his jazzy and enjoyable bass trios and quartets, and he had the rare ability to create wonderful music which is always player and audience-friendly.
In 2001 Tony Osborne was elected an ARAM (Associate of the Royal Academy of Music) for his pioneering and important work for double bass and was a featured com- poser at Bass-Fest for over ten years. He was a very successful BIBF Composer-in-residence in 2002-3, was a judge for the British Composer Awards and a judge for the BIBF Composition Competition from 1999 until 2015.
Tony Osborne died on 30 March 2019 at the age of 71.