Musical Instrument: Double Bass
This two-meter giant immediately attracts all the attention to himself, once on the stage. His thick low sound with a slight hoarseness fascinates all viewers from the very first seconds. The double bass is the largest and lowest-sounding string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra. His role in the orchestra is great - it is the foundation on which the entire musical fabric of the piece is built. As a solo instrument it is used in chamber ensembles and quite widely in jazz. Surely, many people can remember the jazz ensemble, where the double bass player cleverly performs his rhythmic solo using the pizzicato technique.
The history of the double bass and many interesting facts about this musical instrument, read on our page.
Double bass sound
Some listeners have an erroneous opinion: if the instrument is large, then it should sound rude and loud. The double bass is completely different. The strength of its sound is small, but the timbre is very beautiful and has a specific and unique color. Thick, rich, juicy, velvety, soft - this is how you can describe the nature of the contrabass tone, which sometimes can sound like a human voice. The sound of the double bass is the lowest in the string group of the symphony orchestra, together with the bassoons and the tuba, he builds a harmonic foundation in the works performed by the musical group.
Double Bass Range does not exceed four octaves and depends on the skill of the performer, and his ability to qualitatively extract not only low, but also very high sounds.
Double bass is a transposing instrument, the musical text for which is recorded in different keys, but mainly in bass - for readability and to avoid excessive additional lines. The double bass sounds an octave below the actual musical notation for him, and this is the only modern string-stringed instrument that is tuned not by quints, like all instruments of the violin family, but by quarts: E, A, D, G. Due to its large size, to play The double bass is quite difficult. The hands of a double bass player should be large, with good finger stretching. Since when playing this instrument a large distance between the positions, it is rather difficult to perform fast passages and jumps on it. Nevertheless, modern virtuoso performers refute such a point of view; for this, it suffices to listen to how N. Bumblebee's flight on the double bass sounds. Rimsky-Korsakov or the "24th Caprice" by N. Paganini.
A photo:
Interesting facts about double bass
- Many bass players can successfully play an electric bass guitar.
- The double bass was the most popular and most used bass instrument in different bands in the 1950s, despite the fact that bass guitars and tubas had already appeared.
- In 1911, during the concert, there was one incident: did the contrabass player B. Jones break the bow without losing heart? the musician continued the performance of the work with his fingers. So the audience first heard the interesting sound of double bass pizzicato.
- In 1615, at the festival in Dresden, the giant bass height was 4 meters, played by a Polish musician. This tool was called oktobas. One of these old oktobasov, under the name "Goliath", is preserved and is in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Its height is 2.6 meters, and its width is slightly more than a meter. In form, it looks like a viol and gamba, but only with wider sides.
- Some oktobasy of such large size that two musicians had to play them: one pressed the strings, and the second drove a bow.
- In 1855, the French master J. Wil presented a three-string OctoBass at the Paris exhibition. Today it is an exhibit in the Museum of the Paris Conservatory. The height of this giant is 4 meters, it is controlled by a special lever-pedal mechanism. The musician on the background of such an Oktobas looks like Gulliver in the land of giants. Such a tool turned out to be impractical and a place for him only in the museum.
- The largest double bass has a height of 5.55 m and a width of 2.13 m.
- Because of the size, it was very difficult to start learning on this instrument at a child's age, but now, with the appearance of small bass baskets, one can begin to get acquainted with the instrument from 6 or 7 years.
- In the USA in the 1930s, double basses were made of aluminum and intended for playing in military orchestras.
- The names of this tool in different languages: Italian - Contrabasso; French - Contrebasse, English - Double Bass, German - Kontrabass.
- 10. 03. 2011 in Seoul (South Korea) a concert was held which was attended by 90 double bass players. Among the works was performed A. Dvorak's symphony No. 9 "From the New World". All parts of violins, violas and cellos were played on double bass. The concert was led by the Korean Association of Double Bass.
- Some manufacturers make instruments specifically for touring musicians. The double bass has a small body as well as a removable fingerboard. Such an instrument does not lose sound qualities and is very convenient during transportation.
- To date, the cost of a double bass made from high-quality aged material is approximately $ 24,000.
Double Bass Design
Unlike the instruments of the violin family, the shape of the double bass has never been completely standard. As a result of the evolution of this instrument, several basic varieties of form have emerged: viola da gamba, violins, busseto, guitars, and pear-shaped forms.
The double bass is made of several varieties of well-aged wood and its structure is the same as that of the instruments of the whole violin group: upper and lower decks, shell, neck, resonator holes, loop, bow, fingerboard, threshold, log head box, stand.
The double bass has thick strings, which are usually made from steel, catgut or synthetic materials, but with obligatory copper or silver winding.
Like a violin, they play bows on the double bass, although it has two varieties: the German system is short and heavy, and the French is long and thin, which is considered more maneuverable. The bow of the German design performer holds the side, the thumb is on a wooden base. The French bow is held on top, and the thumb is under the cane. Both bows are used by contemporary performers, and the choice depends on personal preferences.
Double bass size varies from the largest, 1.8 meters high, to the smallest - a little more than the cello. The height of a double bass may vary slightly with the help of the spire on which it rests.
In the 20s-30s of the last century, the first electrocontrabass was designed, which is lightweight and easy to transport. The idea itself was not new: already in the past centuries, some masters made “dumb” double basses, whose body was flat, as an experiment. With the advent of electronic sound reproduction, manufacturers have new opportunities, but it took a long time for the craftsmen to bring the quality of the instrument to perfection.
Application and repertoire of double bass
The double bass is a mandatory participant in the symphony and chamber orchestras. This instrument was created specifically to double the bass part played by the cellos in the orchestra and create a clear harmonic foundation, sound richness and rhythmic basis for a group of stringed instruments.
At first, only one double bass was used in the orchestra, but over time the number of instruments increased to eight.
The double bass has also found widespread use in military orchestras and various concert groups around the world. It is very widely used in a number of genres such as jazz, blues, rock and roll, rockabilly, psychobilly, traditional country music, bluegrass, tango and many other types of popular and folk music. In the jazz big band, where there is a small number of performers, this instrument is provided with very great opportunities for solo performance, for example, when building beautiful harmonic bass moves.
The emergence of such modern styles as soul, fusion, funk and rock contributed to a significant increase in technical capabilities, as bass players like to conduct various experiments, including stylistic ones.
The double bass went on stage as a solo instrument in the late 18th century. The first performer, who revealed the rich virtuoso-expressive and melodious possibilities of the double bass, was the legendary D. Dragonetti, a contrabass player and composer. Later, his business was continued by P. Bottezini, F. Zimandl, and in the 20th century A. Mishka, S. Kusevitsky, R. Braun, E. Meyer, N. Gorbunov, A. Cohen, V. Volkov, E. Kolosov, C. Mingus, L. Rakov many others.
The repertoire for double bass is extensive. Concert works for him were composed by I. Haydn, D. Dragonetti, P. Bottezini, C. Dittersdorf, S. Kusevitsky, I. Abert, R. Bennett, V. Bruns, A. Eshpay, D. Harbison, O. Yanchenko, N Kapustin, E. Mayer, others.
Popular works:
S. Kusevitsky - concerto for double bass and orchestra in F Sharp Minor (listen)
D. Dragonetti - concerto for double bass and orchestra in A major (listen)
Game tricks
Because of the large case and the somewhat inconvenient location of the bow, playing the double bass requires considerable effort. Play it standing or sitting on a chair, putting the instrument in front of him.
Like other members of the violin family, the double bass is played either with a bow or pizzicato (with a pinch of a string). In the orchestral repertoire or, for example, in tango music, both the bow and the pizzicato are used, but in jazz, blues and rockabilly - only pizzicato, and very virtuoso.
When playing the double bass, different strokes are applied: detail, legato, staccato, portamento, martle, tremolo, spiccato, ricochet and others.
Story
The history of the double bass begins in the Renaissance, before it was preceded by a large double bass viola.
In the seventeenth century, for convenience, the tension of thick strings, which were made from the intestines of animals, the master invented a mechanism with pegs and gears. Another innovation that has greatly simplified the performance of the double bass viola is the winding of the strings with copper wire. The strings have become thinner, they have become easier to clamp and it is more convenient for the musician to play the bow. Now it is possible to slightly reduce the bulky shape of the instrument, without sacrificing its low sound. The size of the current double bass is only ¾ from its predecessor.
The double bass viols existed for a long time with the violin class, but they didn’t fit into it: they had more strings and insufficient sound power. There was a need to create a new instrument that would be similar to the whole violin group.
The first master, who significantly transformed the double bass instrument, was M. Todini. He removed the frets that were previously on the instrument, and left only four strings, instead of the existing six. Further changes in the design of the double bass were made by the great violin makers from Cremona and Brescia. In Cremona, the origins of the double bass can be found in the workshop of A. Amati and his sons. Their attempts to model the double bass more and more similar to the cello were only partially successful, so a mixed form arose that turned out to be the most suitable. The tool size was also determined. Today, manufacturers make double basses following the traditions of the Cremona masters.
The form of the tool, during its development, has undergone many changes. There were instruments with three, four, and five strings. German craftsmen, for example, made five kinds of double basses, which differed in both shape and size. The "beer bass" was the smallest and very popular, the musicians used it to play in pubs and at rural holidays.
In the eighteenth century, craftsmen made small double basses: a cross between a cello and a modern double bass. They were set up differently in each country: in Italy and England by quarts, and in France by quints.
Since the second half of the 18th century, the double bass has held a strong position in the orchestral collectives of Europe. Around the same time, he became a solo instrument, soloists appeared - double bass players. The first was D. Dragonetti, a friend of L.V. Beethoven, the technique of its execution was at that time a real revolutionary breakthrough. The next virtuoso was D. Bottezini - Italian conductor, composer, performer, who expanded the technique of performing the instrument to incredible heights.
Over time, the forms of the double bass gradually changed, the evolution of the instrument led the masters of the 20th century to the production of modern four and five-string double basses, which supplanted the previous instruments, since the musicians were more comfortable to perform. For example, in order to perform works by Wagner, it is necessary to have five-string double bass in a symphony orchestra. Four-stringed instruments, shaped like a cello, are used in jazz, and on the pear-shaped double bass, the musicians play solo pieces.
Contrabass is a versatile instrument, it has a very wide range of applications: from symphonic and jazz music to original rock-n-roll and rockabilly. During the three hundred year period of its development, he has overcome a difficult path and has become a significant tool in various musical genres. The double bass still keeps a lot of unexplored stylistic and technical possibilities to be discovered by new generations of musicians: composers and performers.
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