With a playing time of one hour and forty minutes, The Double Bass comprises a one-act monologue or monodrama with but one speaking voice.

Although the musician bares every aspect of his emotional life, he does not divulge his name, and this anonymity lends him the general quality of everyman.

As an introduction to his lecture the musician asks his audience to listen to a phonograph record of Brahm's second symphony; in the sound of the basses he identifies himself and his colleagues in the National Orchestra.

He continues by presenting technical data and illustrating points with his instrument or by means of musical recordings. In a didactic manner he underscores when he is speaking figuratively or subjectively and notes when making digressions ("That's just by the by"); the effect is that of a speaker intentionally directing his remarks along a particular path to make specific points and...