Bass violin

Bass violin is the generic modern term used to denote various 16th- and 17th-century forms of bass instruments of the violin (i.e. "viola da braccio") family. They were the direct ancestor of the modern cello. [Baines] Bass violins were usually somewhat larger than the modern cello, but tuned the same or sometimes just one step lower than it. Contemporary names for these instruments include "basso de viola da braccio"," "basso da braccio," or the generic term "violone"," which simply meant "large fiddle." The instrument differed from the "violone" of the viol, or "viola da gamba" family in that like the other violins it had at first three, and later usually four strings, as opposed to five, six, or seven strings, it was tuned in fifths, and it had no frets. With its F-holes and stylized C-bouts it also more closely resembled the viola da braccio. Because it was created to be in consort with the violin and viola, the bass violin was a member of the violin, or "viola da braccio" family.

The name "bass violin" is also sometimes used for the double bass.

Occasionally historians have used the term "bass violin" to refer other various instruments of the violin family which were larger than the alto violin or viola, such as the tenor violin.

After the 1950s, the term "bass violin" may refer to a bass instrument of the violin octet.

History and development

The bass violin developed in Italy in the first half of the sixteenth century. The first builder was possibly Andrea Amati, as early as 1538. The first specific reference to the instrument was probably made by Jambe de Fer in his treatise "Epitome Musical" (1556) [Jesselson 1991, Jambe de Fer 1556, Bonta 1990] . One of the first known instances of a composer explicitly calling for the bass violin ("basso da brazzo") was Monteverdi in "Orfeo" (1607) [Jesselson 1991] (the first was possibly Giovanni Gabrieli in "Sacrae symphoniae", 1597Fact|date=November 2007).

The viol, or "viola da gamba," was introduced to Italy from Spain around 1490. Before the introduction of the viol, no bowed instrument existed in the region which was played in the "a gamba" position [Woodfield 1984] (i.e., between the legs, the way the cello is played today, as opposed to the violin, which is held under the chin). The "viola da gamba" was also much larger, and therefore could play much lower notes than the other fiddles that existed in Italy at that time. The first Italian viols (or "violoni" as they were often called) soon began to take on many characteristics of the pre-cursors to the violin, such as separate tail pieces, and arched bridges that allowed to player to sound only one string at a time. [Woodfield 1984] (Though paintings like Jan Brueghel the Elder's "The Rustic Wedding" [Holman 1982] and Jambe de Fer in "Epitome Musical" suggest that the bass violin had alternate playing positions, these were short-lived and the more practical and ergonomic "a gamba" position eventually replaced them entirely.) One of the qualities that was almost certainly adopted by the Italian violin makers from the early Spanish viols was the C-bout, which they soon stylized. [Woodfield 1984] At some point in the early to mid-sixteenth century, an Italian maker (possibly Amati) set out to create a "violone" that was more closely matched, in appearance, tuning, and number of strings, to the new violin. Judging by artistic representations of the period, this may have been a somewhat gradual development. For example, there are depictions of instruments that appear to be bass violins (such as the one in Gaudenzio Ferrari's "Glory of Angels", c. 1535), but that clearly show the presence of frets. Once the distinction became clear, and the form of the bass violin had crystallized, theorists and composers began to refer to the new instrument as the "basso da viola da braccio"," or the first true bass violin.

Innovations in the design of the bass violin that ultimately resulted in the modern violoncello were made in northern Italy in the late 17th century. They involved a shift to a slightly smaller type and the higher tuning in a-d-G-C (although Michael Praetorius already had reported this tuning for the bass violin in his "Syntagma Musicum" (c. 1619). [Watkin 1996] It has been surmised that an early centre of these innovations lay in musical circles of Bologna, and that it was made possible by the invention of the new technique of composite strings of gut wound with metal. [Bonta 1977, 1990] The new type found its ultimate consolidation and standardisation in works of the famous violin builder Antonio Stradivari around 1700. Many existing bass violins were literally cut down in size in order to convert them into cellos. [Cyr 1982] The new, smaller type was also linked to the new name of "violoncello", a hypocoristic form of the older term "violone", meaning literally "small violone" (i.e., ultimately, "small large viola"). [Bonta 1978, Schmid 1987.] The bass violin remained the "most used" instrument of the two in England as late as c1740, where the violoncello was still "not common." [Grassineau 1740]

Notes

References

*cite book |last= Baines |first= Anthony |editor= |title= The Oxford Companion to Musical Instruments |year= |publisher= Oxford University Press |location= |isbn= |pages= |chapter= |quote=

*cite journal |last= Bonta |first= Stephen |title= From violone to violoncello: A question of strings? |year= 1977 |journal= Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society |volume= No. 3 |pages= 64–99 |url= http://www.earlybass.com/strings.htm

*cite journal |last= Bonta |first= Stephen |title= Terminology for the bass violin in 17th-century Italy |year= 1978 |journal= Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society |volume= No. 4 |pages= 5–42 |url= http://www.earlybass.com/terminology.htm

*cite journal |last= Bonta |first= Stephen |title= The use of instruments in sacred music in Italy 1560-1700 |year= 1990 |journal= Early Music |volume= XVIII |pages= 519–536 |url= |doi= 10.1093/earlyj/XVIII.4.519

*cite journal |last= Cyr |first= Mary |title= Basses and basse continue in the Orchestra of the Paris Opéra 1700-1764 |year= |journal= Early Music |volume= XVIII |issue= Apr., 1982 |pages= 155–170 |url=

*cite book |last= Grassineau |first= James |editor= |title= A Musical Dictionary |year= 1740 |publisher= J. Wilcox |location= London |isbn= |pages= |chapter= |url= http://www.viola-da-gamba.org/wiki/dokumente/Grassineau.pdf |quote= VIOLONCELLO of the "Italians", is properly what we call the Bass Violin with four strings, sometimes even five or six; but those are not common, the first being most used among us.

*cite book |last= Jambe de Fer |first= Phihbert |editor= |title= Epitome Musical |year= 1556 |publisher= |location= Lyon |isbn= |pages= 61-2|chapter= |quote=

*cite journal |last= Jesselson |first= Robert |coauthors= |year=1991 |month= |title= The Etymology of Violoncello: Implications on Literature in the Early History of the Cello
journal= Strings Magazine |volume= No. 22 |issue= JAN/FEB 1991 |pages= |id= |url= http://www.cello.org/Newsletter/Articles/celloetymology.htm |accessdate= |quote=

*cite web |url= http://www.usd.edu/smm/Cellos/Amati/Amaticello.html |title= The King Violoncello by Andrea Amati, Cremona, after 1538 |accessdate= 2007-11-14 |accessmonthday= |accessdaymonth= |accessyear= |author= |last= |first= |authorlink= |coauthors= |date= |year= |month= |format= |work= |publisher= |pages= |language= |doi= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote=

*cite conference | first = Manfred Hermann | last = Schmid | year = 1987 | title = Der Violone in der italienischen Instrumentalmusik des 17. Jahrhunderts. | booktitle = Studia organologica: Festschrift John Henry van der Meer | editor = Friedemann Hellwig | location = Tutzing | pages = 407–436

*cite book |last= Woodfield |first= Ian |editor= Howard Mayer Brown, Peter le Huray, John Stevens |title= The Early History of the Viol |year= 1984 |publisher= Cambridge University Press |location= Cambridge |isbn= 0 521 24292 4 |pages= |chapter= |quote=

*cite journal |last= Holman |first= Peter |coauthors= |year= 1982 |month= |title= The English Royal Violin Consort in the Sixteenth Century
journal= Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association |volume= Vol. 109 |issue= |pages= pp. 39–59 |id= |url= |accessdate= |quote=|doi= 10.1093/jrma/109.1.39

*cite journal |last= Watkin |first= David |coauthors= |year= 1996 |month= |title= Corelli's Op.5 Sonatas: 'Violino e violone o cimbalo'? |journal= Early Music |volume= Vol. 24 |issue= No. 4 |pages= pp. 645–646+649–650+653–654+657–663 |id= |url= |accessdate= |quote=|doi= 10.1093/em/24.4.645

External links

Articles

* [http://www.ojbr.com/2-1-3.html| The term Violone and the early history of the bass violin] — 2004 article from The Online Journal of Bass Research 2
* [http://www.xs4all.nl/~lambsmit/files/Download/bachsvioloneandvioloncellocorr291005.pdf| Bach's Violone: a 16' double bass of sorts or a 8' C-G-d-a bass fiddle?]
* [http://www.cello.org/Newsletter/Articles/celloetymology.htm Article]

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* [http://cello.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=GraphicDetailPage&GraphicID=45 Image of a bass violin with five strings from "Syntagma Musicum"]
* [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Gaudenzio_Ferrari_002.jpgDepiction of a "violone" with both viol and violin characteristics, by Ferrari]

* [http://www.cello.org/uploadedfiles/images/cellist3.jpgImage of a bass violinist]