A woodcut of an early five-string bass violin ("Bas-Geig de bracio") from Michael Praetorius' Syntagma musicum, 1619 The bass violin was the direct ancestor of the cello.[1] The instrument was larger than (but was tuned the same as, or only a whole step lower than) the modern cello. Other names for the bass violin include "basso de viola da braccio," or "basso da braccio." In its early history the instrument was also often called "violone," which simply meant "large fiddle." The instrument differed from the violone of the viol, or "viola da gamba" family in that it had only four (at first three) strings, as opposed to five, six, or seven strings, and that it was tuned in fifths. Because it was created to be in consort with the violin and viola, the bass violin was a true member of the violin, or "viola da braccio" family. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
Michael Praetorius. ...
This article is about the stringed musical instrument. ...
The violone (literally large viol in Italian, -one being the augmentative suffix) is a musical instrument of the viol family. ...
Various sizes of viol, from Michael Praetorius Syntagma musicum (1618) Early Italian tenor viola da gamba, detail from the painting , by Raphael Sanzio, c. ...
The Violin family of instruments was developed in Italy in the 17th Century. ...
The name "bass violin" is also sometimes used for the double bass. Side and front views of a modern double bass with a French bow. ...
Ocasionally 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. The viola (French, alto; German Bratsche) is a bowed string instrument. ...
A tenor violin is an instrument with a range between those of the cello and the viola. ...
After the 1950s, the term "bass violin" may refer to a bass instrument of the violin octet. The violin octet is a family of stringed instruments developed in the 20th century primarily under the direction of Carleen Hutchins; each instrument is based directly on the traditional violin and shares its acoustical properties, with the goal of a richer and more homogenous sound. ...
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)[2]. One of the first known instances of a composer explicitly calling for the bass violin was Monteverdi in Orfeo (1607)[3]. This article is about the Amati family of luthiers. ...
Philibert Jambe de Fer (fl. ...
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The viol, or viola da gamba, was introduced to Italy from Spain c1490. Before the introduction of the viol, no bowed instrument existed in the region which was played in the a gamba position[4] (the way the cello is played today, as opposed to the violin). 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 seperate tail pieces, and arched bridges that allowed to player to sound only one string at a time.[5] (Though paintings like Brueghel's "The Rustic Wedding"[6] 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 violin makers from the early Spanish viols was the c-bout, which the Italian makers soon stylized to resemble the c-bout of the modern violin family[7]. 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 developement. For example, there are depictions of instruments that appear to be bass violins (such as the one in Ferrari's Glory of Angels c1535), 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. Various sizes of viol, from Michael Praetorius Syntagma musicum (1618) Early Italian tenor viola da gamba, detail from the painting , by Raphael Sanzio, c. ...
Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625) was a Flemish painter, son of Pieter Brueghel the Elder and father of Jan Brueghel the Younger. ...
Glory of Angels, in Santa Maria dei Miracoli, Saronno. ...
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 Praetorius already had reported this tuning for the bass violin in his Syntagma Musicum (c. 1619)[8]). 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.[9]. The new type found its ultimate consolidation and standardisation in works of the famous violin builder Antonio Stradivari around 1700. 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").[10] Michael Praetorius. ...
For the food product, see Bologna sausage. ...
Look up String in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
Antonio Stradivari examining an instrument, in a Romantic 19th-century print. ...
A hypocoristic (or hypocorism) is a lesser form of the given name used in more intimate situations, as a term of endearment, a pet name. ...
Notes - ^ Baines
- ^ Jesselson 1991
- ^ Jesselson 1991
- ^ Woodfield 1984
- ^ Woodfield 1984
- ^ Holman 1982
- ^ Woodfield 1984
- ^ Watkin 1996
- ^ Bonta 1977, 1990
- ^ Bonta 1978, Schmid 1987.
References - Baines, Anthony. The Oxford Companion to Musical Instruments. Oxford University Press.
- Schmid, Manfred Hermann (1987). "Der Violone in der italienischen Instrumentalmusik des 17. Jahrhunderts.". Friedemann Hellwig Studia organologica: Festschrift John Henry van der Meer: 407–436.
- Woodfield, Ian (1984). in Howard Mayer Brown, Peter le Huray, John Stevens: The Early History of the Viol. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0 521 24292 4.
- Holman, Peter (1982). "The English Royal Violin Consort in the Sixteenth Century". Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association Vol. 109: pp. 39-59.
- Watkin, David (1996). "Corelli's Op.5 Sonatas: 'Violino e violone o cimbalo'?". Early Music Vol. 24 (No. 4): pp. 645-646+649-650+653-654+657-663.
Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ...
is the 318th day of the year (319th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
External links
Articles - The term Violone and the early history of the bass violin — 2004 article from The Online Journal of Bass Research 2
- Bach's Violone: a 16' double bass of sorts or a 8' C-G-d-a bass fiddle?
- Article
Images - Image of a bass violin with five strings from Syntagma Musicum
- Depiction of a violone with both viol and violin characteristics, by Ferrari
- Image of a bass violinist
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