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Scan 59
A dictionary of musical terms, 1889
45 lines. Read by computer on 12 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Basse recitante (Fr.) [Basse chantante.]
2Basse taille (Fr.) The Barytone voice.
3Basset-horn, Corno di Bassetto (It.)
4A transposing instrument of the clarinet order, of a beautiful, soft, and rich quality, invented in Passau about the year 1770, and improved by Lotz of Presburg twelve years later. In form like a long clarinet, with a curved and bell-shaped metal end. The compass extends from F below Gamut to C in Alt,
6with all the intermediate semitones, except the F sharp and A flat in the lower range.
8The music is written for it in the bass and treble clefs a fifth higher than the real sound. Mozart has written with brilliant effect for the basset-horn in his "Nozze di Figaro," in "Clemenza di Tito," and in the "Requiem."
10Bassetto (It.) (1) The diminutive of Basso. A name sometimes given to the tenor violin. (2) A reed stop in the organ of 8 ft. or 16 ft. in length.
12Bass Flute. The lowest in pitch of instruments of the flute family, now obsolete.
14Its compass was . It was a flute à bec, not a flauto traverso; that is, it was blown at the end (like a flageolet), not at a hole in its side. In order to enable the player to reach the remote holes with his fingers, a bent tube turning upwards conveyed the air from his lips to the mouthpiece of the instrument.
16Bassgeige (Ger.) Bass Viol.
17Bass Horn. (1) Deep B♭ Horn. (2) An instrument which was a precursor of the Ophicleide.
18Basslaute (Ger.) [Bass Lute.]
19Bass Lute. [Theorbo.]
20Basso (It.) A bass singer, also the double-bass, and the bass part.
21Basso buffo (It.) A comic singer, with a bass voice.
22Basso cantante (It.) [Basse chantante.]
23Basso concertante (It.) The principal bass, that which accompanies solos and recitatives.
24Basso continuo (It.) A bass part figured for the organ or pianoforte.
25Basso figurato (It.) (1) Basso continuo. (2) A bass part, with running passages.
26Basso fondamentale (It.) The fundamental ground bass, or root.
27Basson (Fr.) [Bassoon.]
28Basson quinte (Fr.) A bassoon, the pitch of which is five notes higher than that of the common bassoon. The part given to it must therefore be written five notes lower than the actual sounds required. Its written compass is sounding
30including all the intervening semitones. Its tone is more powerful, but less sympathetic, than that of the corno inglese.
32Basso numerato (It.) A bass, the accompanying harmonies to which, are indicated by numbers.
34Bassoon. Basson (Fr.) Fagotto (It.) A reed wind-instrument of deep pitch, with a compass of more than three octaves from low B flat.
36This compass includes all the intermediate semitones, with the exception of
38which are as yet to be obtained only from instruments of improved construction. Some performers can produce three notes higher than the B flat, but for all common orchestral purposes they are unnecessary. The bassoon ordinarily forms the bass or deepest tone among wood wind-instruments, and is capable of excellent independent effects, among which the grotesque ought not to be forgotten, as in Beethoven's "Pastoral Symphony," and the "Clown's March," in the music to the "Midsummer Night's Dream," by Mendelssohn.
40It is customary to write for the Bassoon in the Bass clef, and as the instrument is usually employed in pairs, one stave serves for the two parts. The tenor clef is often employed for the higher notes of the register of the Bassoon, sometimes in a separate stave.
42Some writers assert that the Bassoon is the invention of Afranio of Ferrara in 1540, and that he gave it the name Fagotto from its resemblance to a bundle or fagot of sticks (his instrument being made of several pieces laid together), but it was known long before under the name of Buisine, Buzaine, Courtal, Bombard, or Wait.
44There is reason to believe that the Bassoon is of Eastern origin, introduced into western Europe in the twelfth century, and that it is an improvement of the drone-pipe of the Bagpipe. The Egyptian word for a pipe of deep tone, and for the drone of the Bagpipe is, according to E. W. Lane ("Modern Egyptians"), Zummarah-bi-soan, and the manner in which the word Buzaine, Buisine, is used in mediæval MSS., shows a possible connection with
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