Eugene KURTZ (1923-2006). Autograph musical manuscript, The Last Contrabass in Las Vegas, a musical Sketch for 1 man 1 woman and 1 contrabass, 1973; [2]-18 leaves 35 x 27 cm. Kurtz's most famous work, a musical sketch for a man, a woman and a contrabass Kurtz wrote the text and music for this work, commissioned by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and composed for the bassist Bertram Turetzky (b. 1933) to whom it is dedicated: "Written for and dedicated to Bertram Turetzky", and who premiered it on February 5, 1974 with his wife Nancy, at the 4th Annual Contemporary Music Festival in Las Vegas, and who recorded it. Several videos are available on youtube; one of the most hilarious is by Eric Larson and Isabelle Ganz, recorded in Houston on March 4, 2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paAyX2tFE6I A typed presentation states that while the work was conceived for a double bassist and a woman for the speaking part, it can also be performed by the double bassist alone, as a one-man show. "The work will begin as a lecture on the double bass: the woman will follow the music and make the appropriate comments, according to the indications in the score. At no time will she have to move behind her desk. There will be an atmosphere of complicity and perfect teamwork between the two performers, although one never emphasizes the presence of the other as such. [The woman should be played by an actress capable of reading music, or a musician (singer?) who is used to the stage. This part should be thought of as a real role, because the woman has a psychological problem: for unknown reasons - psychoanalytical transference, perhaps? - the double bass has become an object of fixation for her, a real obsession. Her speech at the beginning is somewhat like that of a voluble saleswoman, but soon she lets her imagination take over. She reviews the various qualities of the double bass - from tenderness to ferocity. [...] The double bass itself is, of course, the other pole of attraction - but the player must remain serene, unruffled, without apparent emotion: he must not react with a sign or a gesture to the woman's remarks; it is the instrument that will speak and react for him. [...] the course of the work must constitute the progressive revelation of the woman's particular type of madness. One could even argue that the double bass and the double bass player are mere fictions produced by her imagination"... The manuscript is very carefully written in black pencil on 12-line tracing paper; the text is written in English and French. It is preceded by 2 pages detailing the "Special Effects". The typed presentation texts are attached; and a tracing of the engraved score for clichage.