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CONTRABASSI

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 441 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CONTRABASSI . ,-.1 _+ —etc. These opening bars are played See also:

soli by 'cellos and See also:double basses, a daring innovation of See also:Beethoven's which caused quite a consternation at first in musical circles. The remote origin of the double See also:bass is the same as that of the See also:violin .3 It was evolved from the bass See also:viol; whether the trans-formation took See also:place simultaneously with that of the violin from the See also:treble viol or preceded it, has not been definitely proved, but both Gasparo da Salo and Maggini constructed double basses, which were in See also:great See also:request in the churches. De Salo made one with three strings for St See also:Mark's, See also:Venice, which is still preserved there .4 It was See also:Dragonetti's favourite See also:concert See also:instrument, presented to him by the monks of St Mark, and, according to the See also:desire expressed in his will, the instrument was restored after his See also:death to St Mark's, where it is at See also:present preserved. Dragonetti used a straight See also:bow similar to the See also:violoncello bow, held overhand with the See also:hair slanting towards the See also:neck of the instrument; it 2 The Double Bass (See also:Novello, See also:Music Primers, No. 32), p. 6. ' See Kathleen Schlesinger, The See also:Instruments of the See also:Orchestra, See also:Part II. " The Precursors of the Violin See also:Family " (1908-1909). See See also:Laurent Grillet, See also:Les Ancetres du violon et du violoncelle (See also:Paris, 1901), tome ii. p. 159; IWillebald See also:Leo von Lustgendorff, See also:Die Geigen and Lautenmacher vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart (Frankfurt a.

M., 1904), p. 50; A. C. See also:

White, The Double Bass, p. 8. was introduced into See also:England from Paris, and is a favourite with orchestral players. See also:Praetorius gives an See also:illustration of a sub-bass viol da gamba or See also:gross contra-bass geige1 "recently constructed," which displaced the other large contra-bass viols; of which he also gives an illustration.2 Giovanni See also:Bottesini (1822–1889) was the greatest virtuoso on the double bass that the See also:world has ever known. It was not only the perfection of his technique and See also:tone which won him See also:artistic fame, but also the delicacy of his See also:style and his exquisite See also:taste in phrasing. (K.

End of Article: CONTRABASSI

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