Books › The Instruments of the Modern Orchestra and Early Records of the Precursors of the Violin Family, in Two Volumes, Vol. I- Modern Orchestral Instruments, 1910 › scan 160
Scan 160
The Instruments of the Modern Orchestra and Early Records of the Precursors of the Violin Family, in Two Volumes, Vol. I- Modern Orchestral Instruments, 1910
10 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1short tremolos. Long tremolos would be too exhausting to the player to be much used in quick tempi.
3The double bass is the foundation of the whole orchestra, and therefore of great importance; it plays the lowest part, often as its name indicates, only doubling the 'cello part an octave lower. It is only since the beginning of this century that an independent voice has occasionally been allotted to it—as in the Scherzo of Beethoven's Symphony in C minor:
5Contrabasso.
7These opening bars of the movement are played soli by 'cellos and double basses, a daring innovation of Beethoven's which at first caused quite a consternation among conductors and in musical circles.
9Origin. Whether the violin or the double bass was the first invented is still a matter of dispute. As the double bass has some of the characteristics of the viol family and of the violin too; it may have been posterior to both; but its name which means "large violin," seems to indicate that it is an offshoot of the viol, from which it only differs in the matter of the number of strings and of the soundholes, which instead of being C shaped, back to back, are "f f" holes, as in the violin; the most probable hypothesis is, therefore, that it is the bass viol brought up to date after the violin made its appearance, to complete the quartett.
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