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Scan 144
A dictionary of musical terms, 1889
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1bass is sometimes called a transposing instrument. The four-stringed double bass is more common abroad than in England, so it is not unusual to find passages written below the lower A, which a three-stringed bass performs on the octave above. Double notes are possible upon the instrument, but are rarely employed as they are ineffective. Continuous rapid passages are best divided between two instruments, but short quick runs are very telling especially when in unison or at the octave with the violoncello. Beethoven in the Pastoral Symphony takes his double bass down to C, an octave below the violoncello:
3a passage which is impracticable upon the instrument as now generally constructed.
5Beethoven also wrote passages for the instrument which, in his time, were considered too difficult for performance, and it was the custom for the players to "simplify" whenever his works were performed. But the improved skill of the players of the present time has justified the composer's foresight, and all the so-called difficult passages are given with ease and distinctness, even by the least distinguished double-bass player in the orchestra. The bow employed is the only representative now in use of one of the primitive forms, and although it has the advantage of producing a thick, heavy quality of sound in slow movements, it is not always successful in eliciting an even tone in quick passages.
7The harmonics on the double bass are of a beautiful flute-like character, and have been made available by solo players in exciting wonder and admiration.
9The mute is rarely, if ever, employed, but the pizzicato on the instrument has a very fine effect, as in the overture to "Der Freischütz," and elsewhere.
11The invention of the double bass is attributed to Gaspar di Salo, 1580; but as the members of the Confrérie de St. Julien were distinguished as players upon "high and low" instruments, it is probable that the reputed invention was after all only an improvement. The introduction of the instrument into the orchestra is due to Michael Monteclace, about the year 1696. Before this time the Bass-viol or Viola da Gamba was the deepest-toned stringed instrument employed. The "Contra Basso di Viola," mentioned in the score of Jacopo Peri's "Eurydice," is held to have been a larger sort of tenor violin, less in size than a bass-viol, and not a double bass.
13Double Bassoon. The deepest-toned instrument of the Bassoon family. It stands in the same relation to the bassoon as a double bass does to the violoncello, that is to say, its sounds are actually an octave below those written. Its compass is
15that is to say, from the B♭ below CCC to tenor F. It forms, in the orchestra, a magnificent support to the wind band, but good players are not commonly to be met with, partly because the large size of the instrument renders it very unwieldy, partly on account of the fatigue which the performer necessarily must undergo. The common habit of replacing it by an ophicleide should be discouraged, as the quality of the two instruments differs greatly.
17Double beat. An ornament of old music, consisting of a beat repeated.
19Double bourdon. An organ stop of 32-ft. tone. On the manuals it rarely goes below middle C; on the pedals it extends of course through the whole compass. It consists of stopped wood-pipes. It is found difficult to produce a pure tone in the longer pipes, as the first harmonic has a strong tendency to assert itself. [Bourdon.]
21Double chant. [Chant.]
23Double chorus. A chorus for two separate choirs: the several themes may be distinct, or so constructed that united they form one harmony. [Chorus.]
25Double counterpoint. [Counterpoint.]
27Double croche (Fr.) A semiquaver.
29Double demisemiquaver. A note whose value is one half of a demisemiquaver.
31Double diapason. [Double, § 4.]
33Double dièze (Fr.) A double sharp.
35Double drum. A drum with two heads, used in the bands of foot regiments, and being suspended from the neck of the player is struck with drumsticks held in the right and left hands. [Drum.]
37Double flageolet. A flageolet having two tubes and one mouth-piece, admitting of the performance of simple music in thirds and sixths, &c.
39Double flat. A sign (♭♭) used in music before a note already flattened in the signature, which depresses the note before which it is placed another half tone. It is contradicted by a natural and a flat.
41Double octave. The interval of a 15th.
43Double pedal point. A portion of a fugue or melody in which two notes are long sustained, generally the tonic and dominant. [Fugue.] [Sustained note.]
45Double quartet. A composition for two sets of four voices or instruments soli.
47Double reed. (1) The vibrating reed of
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