Mysteries of the Early Double Bass

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Review: Mysteries of the Early Double Bass Author(s): Ephraim Segerman Review by: Ephraim Segerman Source: Early Music, Vol. 27, No. 4, Luca Marenzio (1553/4-99) (Nov., 1999), pp. 660-661Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3128768Accessed: 03-04-2015 03:42 UTC

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in the process of transmission and performance. Invoking Margaret Bent ('Editing early music: the dilemma of trans- lation', Early music, xxii (1994), PP.373ff.), he concludes that 'transcription ... into modern notation cannot be a proper basis for understanding its musical content, since the manuscript is a transcription in itself'. These are good points, well made, but it should be noted that the complexity of the manuscript's tablature together with the relatively few attempts to 'translate' it into modern score hardly combine to make the repertory accessible to a wider circle of potential performers or scholars.

The volume would certainly have been enriched had it included more detailed discussion of the problems of realizing its contents in performance, even if this had involved varying degrees of (acknowledged) speculation. Paul Whittaker's description (and reconstruction) of the Iolo Morganwg Manuscript (London, British Library, Ms. Add. 14970) suggests that such an approach could have been fruitful. His use of modern (printed) tablature alongside facsimiles of the manuscript helps to clarify the grammar and structure of the originals-which include Cwlwm bach ar y go gywair, a composition listed by Robert ap Huw as one copied by him elsewhere. This coincidence, together with orthographic and notational similarities to Ms. Add. 14905, leads Whittaker to wonder whether the lost original of the Iolo Morganwg Manuscript could also have been copied by Robert ap Huw. If this were so, it would give credence to the claim that Robert served for a while as a court harpist, since Medle (one of the four Iolo Morganwg compositions) is a version of ]honson's Medley from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book.

This is an important publication that fills a significant gap in our understanding of oral traditions and the dis- semination of repertory. Although the actual music may still seem illusory, the book paints a vivid picture of the musical culture of the other Tudors. Robert ap Huw him- self emerges as a strong and influential figure. It is much to Sally Harper's credit that she has combined her editorial overview of the volume with writing two outstanding con- tributions. The texts throughout are duplicated in English and Welsh, and there is an excellent glossary of technical terms which readers would be well advised to consult before embarking on the studies themselves.

Ephraim Segerman Mysteries of the early double bass Alfred Planyavsky, The Baroque double bass violone, trans. James Barket (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1998), $55 The modern double bass functions as a member of the 'violin family' in spite of a tuning and usual appearance more like a viol. In early-music performances a four-string 'double bass' can play next to a six-string 'violone', the former often using a tuning that is historically unknown, and the latter usually having a tuning that was used mostly on a larger instrument. Historically, there was no such distinction in name. Players have tended to make up their own traditions with little regard to history. Alfred Plan- yavsky's first book, Geschichte des Kontrabasses (Tutzing, 1970; 2/1984) outlined the history of these instruments. In 1989 he expanded the early chapters of that book into Der Barockkontrabass Violone, which is what James Barket has now translated.

Planyavsky traces the double bass back to large viols developed around 1500 in Spanish-dominated Italy, but he offers no historical context for them. They were double- size versions of the original viol (tuned like a lute). Soon after these appeared, the Italians made intermediate sizes to form sets in four sizes and three tunings, all called violoni ('large viole'). They also then developed sets of small viole called violette ('small viole') or viole da braccio ('arm-held viole')-tuned in 5ths, usually played without frets by professionals, and the ancestors of modern violins.

None of these conforms to Planyavsky's first criterion for a violone, which is that it reaches into the sub-bass region. Not before late in the 16th century (when more elastic bass strings became available) did any viol tuning go below C. During the 16th century the sizes in many viol sets (all in England and France, and many in Italy and Ger- many) became about 20 per cent smaller. The smaller viols were then called just viole or viole da gamba, while the original bass size kept the old name violone. Many of his 'violone' illustrations from later in the 16th and the 17th century, particularly those from France, appear to depict bass viols.

His discussion of the violone in 17th-century Italy and Germany is much more convincing. The names violone grande, violone doppio and violone contrabasso refer to an instrument larger than the usual violone; the contrabasso di viola was the same type of instrument since it had six

660 EARLY MUSIC NOVEMBER 1999


strings and was much larger than any double bass played today (examples survive in the Brussels museum). The usual violone, at about modern double-bass size, had a tuning range of G'-g, allowing music up to d' to be played at pitch, and music from G to d" to be played an octave lower. The advice for amateurs quoted by Planyavsky suggests picking the lower option whenever possible, though advanced players surely chose more resourcefully.

There were more such instruments. The name violone da braccio occasionally appeared, and da braccio always meant instruments tuned in 5ths. The usual basso da braccio, tuned an octave below the violin, was not a violone by Planyavsky's definition; but the large five-string basso da braccio with a low C, larger than a cello and illustrated by Praetorius, would qualify, as would a French basse de violon. 'Violone' apparently just meant 'large bowed continuo bass'.

This creates an opening that has been exploited. Many writers since the 19th century have claimed that a part marked 'violone' (or 'Violon' in German sources) was usually played on a violoncello. 'Violone' could mean the usual violone or any member of the violone category. If they claimed that the five-string basso da braccio was some- times used, there would be no argument. But they claim more, that at least in some musical centres the usual violone actually was a cello. There is no documentary evidence for this proposition, but it is hard to marshal specific evidence against it. Planyavsky does as good a job as can be done. A theory in historical scholarship should be about the probable, with supporting evidence, not just the possible, existing in niches between the surviving evidence. That most of the music can readily be played on the cello is not evidence that it usually was.

The Germans used the names Violon and Bass-violon as well as violone. In French the name violon meant a member of the fiddle family, implying a tuning in 5ths. The cello advocates attempt to interpret Violon to have the French meaning. Planyavsky shows clearly that all the evidence indicates that in Germany, Violon meant the same as violone.

The large basso da braccio became a professionally used instrument after the middle of the 17th century, when a metal-wound C string became available, giving a low-note projection that could do the job of the violone in the church and theatre. With the top e' string often dropped, it was called 'little violone' or violoncello, and the prints then specified it. Adding a metal-wound lowest bass string, and shifting the other strings over, could also convert an ordinary violone into a contrabasso. There is evidence for

this happening, but not for most ordinary violones. The same thing was done to the 17th-century bass viol so that it could be tuned like the ordinary violone. It often just shared the violone name, but it was also called a small violone.

New four- and five-string variants of the violone were developed before the end of the 17th century, either on larger instruments, or with a metal-wound lowest string on a violone of the normal size. The five-string one was tuned an octave below the highest four strings of the ordinary one, with the fourth string either a note lower at E' (resulting in the tuning that later became standard on the double bass), or a note higher at G'. The five-string version was initially tuned to F'-A'-D-F#-B, with the highest string later lowered to A. These reduced-range tunings abandon most of the 8' pitch capability of the violone to concentrate on its 16' function.

Planyavsky's discussion of violones in the 18th century is good. Early on, six-string violones still predominated, some with a low C' string (probably metal-wound). The use ofviolones with four and five strings grew steadily, and these replaced the six-string violones by the second half of the century. The five-string tuning with mostly 3rds flour- ished mainly in Vienna, and was the type used by Mozart and Haydn. Late in the century, a three-string violone arose and became prominent in the 19th century, when the two leading virtuosos (Dragonetti and Bottesini) used it. Tunings usually were G'-D-A (called 'French') or A'-D-G (called 'Italian'). It used the ordinary size instrument and octave transposition to play in a most constricted range. One advantage was to be able to dig into notes without touching other strings while bowing not necessarily close to the bridge. Another advantage was of not needing any metal-wound string, so it consistently provided the funda- mental-rich foundation note for an orchestra that a thick all-gut string provides. As the music of late Romantic composers demanded lower notes, three-string basses were abandoned in the 2oth century.

Planyavsky's book is full of very valuable information. Now that it is available in English there is no longer an impediment keeping players of these large instruments from learning about their history.

EARLY MUSIC NOVEMBER 1999 661


Article Contentsp. 660p. 661

Issue Table of ContentsEarly Music, Vol. 27, No. 4, Luca Marenzio (1553/4-99) (Nov., 1999), pp. 513-688Front Matter [pp. 513-515]Editorial [pp. 516-517]Marenzio and Cardinal Luigi d'Este [pp. 518-522+525-528+531-532]Marenzio and the villanella alla romana [pp. 535-548+550-552]Marenzio and Wert Read Tasso: A Study in Contrasting Aesthetics [pp. 555-570+572+574]'Such Sweet Sorrow': The dialogo di partenza in the Italian Madrigal [pp. 576-588+590-599]'An Aristocratic Dilettante': Notes on the Life and Works of Antonio Bicci (1552-1614) [pp. 600-607]Marenzio's Sacred Music: The Roman Context [pp. 608-620]Marenzio, Poland and the Late Polychoral Sacred Style [pp. 622-631]Performing MattersPerformance Practice in the seconda prattica Madrigal [pp. 632-639]Marenzio on Record [pp. 641-650+652]

Book ReviewsReview: Marenzio's Life Reassessed [pp. 655-656]Review: Music at Burgos Cathedral [pp. 656-657+659]Review: Bardic Traditions and Transcriptions [pp. 659-660]Review: Mysteries of the Early Double Bass [pp. 660-661]

Music ReviewsReview: Sacred Music by Morley and Aldrich [pp. 663-664]Review: Neue Bach-Ausgabe Keyboard Offprints [pp. 664-665+667]Review: Useless Old Music? [p. 667]

Recording ReviewsReview: A Tallis Mass [pp. 669-671]Review: Frescobaldi Attributions [pp. 671+673-674]Review: Les Voix Humaines [pp. 674-675]Review: Buxtehude Instrumental Music [pp. 677-678]Review: Thurston Dart Clavichord Recordings [pp. 678-680]

ReportsMarenzio Celebrations in 1999 [p. 682]Correction: C. P. E. Bach Conference [p. 682]1999 Boston Early Music Festival [pp. 683-685]NEMA Conference [p. 686]

Back Matter [pp. 523-688]

Documents

Mysteries of the Early Double Bass