Northern Lights is a beautifully atmospheric and evocative work using simple harmonic motifs and a gently syncopated pizzicato accompaniment to create the beauty and majesty of the Northern Lights. Simón García uses limited resources but produces an amazingly effective piece full of magical mystery and colour.
Simón García writes: “Finland is a beautiful country where people are still closely related to nature. One of the atmospheric phenomena that fascinates me are the Northern Lights.
People can spend hours looking at the sky as if bewitched, this magical effect is what I try to describe in this small pizzicato work. Northern Lights is a reworking of Polar Lights, composed for Teppo-Fest 2016 and originally for unaccompanied double bass, also for Double Bass, Duet, and has been extended and developed retaining a simple and evocative serenity which captures the magic and mystery of the northern lights in all their beauty and majesty.”
Northern Lights exists in three versions:
Polar Lights for unaccompanied double bass
Northern Lights for Double Bass, Duet
Northern Lights for Double Bass, Quartet
Polar Lights was the first version and was composed for Bass-Fest 2016 to celebrate the 75th birthday of the legendary Finnish bassist-composer Teppo Hauta-aho. It was commissioned by David Heyes, originally a one-minute piece for unaccompanied double bass and the middle movement of Three for Teppo, also published by Recital Music. David liked the piece so much that he asked the composer to extend the piece and create a version for Double Bass, Duet.

Bassist and composer Simón García was born in Mugardos (Spain) in 1977 and graduated in double bass from the Conservatorio Superior of Salamanca. He has worked as a double bassist in the Royal Orchestra of Galicia, having also performed in many orchestras throughout Spain, and is the bassist in the Symphony Wind Orchestra of A Coruña. He has collaborated with many musicians and ensembles, particularly in the field of contemporary music, and has recorded and performed on many commercial recordings and for television and radio broadcasts