@ericsandmeyer said:
Any ideas on how I can keep my basses from falling asleep with boredom? I've tried alternating octaves with intevening fifths, etc.
Any good orchestration guides/books that deal with this topic?
I'm studying the Bach four part chorales-there's some great stuff there. The protestent chruch hymnals (sorry, I was born into it) actually have some fairly good examples of fine bass parts. Baroque composers were acutely aware of the issue you mention-look at Handel's Messiah and see what he does with the bass parts in his choral writing-now you're talking some complex counterpoint but still . .
On the subject of books that teach the subject, I can't say it too many times- Harmony and Voice Leading by Edward Aldwell and Carl Schlachter (search Amazon.com) is the best ever. Next best and still very good since that first one is a platinum, is The Complete Musician by Steven G. Laitz. This book looks at counterpoint pretty closely where as Aldwell deals exactly in what his title says but he never touches on the formal rules of the different species of counterpoint. Interestingly, if you can wade through it (and I mean as in getting out the hip waders), Arnold Schoenberg's book entitled simply Tonal Harmony offers a light that has not been seen since, some of what he says is quite fascinating and is very useful while other parts are devoted to a mistaken concept of acoustics. It's pretty easy to leave that part behind; some of his examples have some fantastic bass parts. The book is available in a 'Lite' or student version so you can look at that too.