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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. 660-661 Published by: Oxford University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3128768 Accessed: 03-04-2015 03:42 UTC

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in the processof transmissionand performance.Invoking MargaretBent ('Editingearlymusic:the dilemmaof translation', 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 manuscriptis a transcriptionin itself'. These are good points, well made, but it should be noted that the complexityof the manuscript'stablaturetogetherwith the relativelyfew attemptsto 'translate'it into modern score hardlycombine to makethe repertoryaccessibleto a wider circleof potentialperformersor 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'sdescription (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 alongsidefacsimilesof the manuscripthelps to clarifythe grammar and structure of the originals-which include Cwlwmbachary go gywair,a composition listed by Robert ap Huw as one copied by him elsewhere.This coincidence, together with orthographicand notational similaritiesto Ms. Add. 14905,leads Whittakerto wonder whether the lost originalof the Iolo MorganwgManuscriptcould also have been copied by Robert ap Huw. If this were so, it would give credenceto the claim that Robertservedfor a while as a court harpist,since Medle (one of the four Iolo Morganwgcompositions) is a version of ]honson'sMedley from the FitzwilliamVirginalBook. This is an important publicationthat fills a significant gap in our understandingof oral traditions and the dissemination of repertory.Although the actual music may still seem illusory, the book paints a vivid picture of the musical cultureof the other Tudors. Robertap Huw himself emergesas a strongand influentialfigure.It is much to Sally Harper'scredit that she has combined her editorial overviewof the volume with writingtwo outstandingcontributions.The texts throughoutare duplicatedin English and Welsh, and there is an excellent glossaryof technical terms which readers would be well advised to consult before embarkingon the studiesthemselves.

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EphraimSegerman Mysteries of the early double bass Alfred Planyavsky,TheBaroquedoublebassviolone, trans. JamesBarket(Lanham,MD: ScarecrowPress, 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-musicperformancesa four-string 'double bass' can play next to a six-string 'violone', the former often using a tuning that is historicallyunknown, and the latterusuallyhavinga tuning that was used mostly on a larger instrument. Historically,there was no such distinction in name. Playershave tended to make up their own traditions with little regardto history. Alfred Planyavsky'sfirst book, Geschichtedes Kontrabasses(Tutzing, 1970;2/1984)outlined the history of these instruments.In 1989he expandedthe earlychaptersof that book into Der Barockkontrabass Violone,which is what JamesBarkethas now translated. Planyavskytraces the double bass back to large viols developedaround1500in Spanish-dominatedItaly,but he offers no historicalcontext for them. They were doublesize versions of the original viol (tuned like a lute). Soon after these appeared,the Italiansmade intermediatesizes 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 fretsby professionals,and the ancestorsof modernviolins. None of these conforms to Planyavsky'sfirst 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. Duringthe 16thcenturythe sizes in many viol sets (all in Englandand France,and many in Italyand Germany) becameabout 20 per cent smaller.The smallerviols were then called just viole or viole da gamba, while the original bass size kept the old name violone. Many of his 'violone' illustrationsfrom later in the 16th and the 17th century, particularlythose from France,appearto depict bass viols. His discussion of the violone in 17th-centuryItaly and Germany is much more convincing. The names violone grande,violonedoppioand violonecontrabassorefer to an instrument largerthan the usual violone; the contrabasso di viola was the same type of instrument since it had six

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This content downloaded from 192.188.53.215 on Fri, 03 Apr 2015 03:42:48 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

strings and was much largerthan any double bass played today (examples survive in the Brussels museum). The usual violone, at about modern double-bass size, had a tuning rangeof G'-g, allowingmusic up to d' to be played at pitch, and music from G to d" to be played an octave lower. The advicefor amateursquoted by Planyavskysuggests picking the lower option wheneverpossible, though advancedplayerssurelychose more resourcefully. There were more such instruments.The name violone da bracciooccasionally appeared, and da braccioalways meant instruments tuned in 5ths. The usual basso da braccio,tuned an octavebelow the violin, was not a violone by Planyavsky'sdefinition;but the large five-string basso da bracciowith a low C, largerthan a cello and illustrated by Praetorius, would qualify, as would a French basse de violon. 'Violone' apparentlyjust meant 'large bowed continuo bass'. This createsan 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 claimedthat the five-stringbassoda bracciowas sometimes used, there would be no argument.But they claim more, that at least in some musical centres the usual violone actuallywas a cello. Thereis no documentaryevidence for this proposition,but it is hard to marshalspecific evidenceagainstit. Planyavskydoes as good a job as can be done. A theory in historical scholarshipshould be about the probable,with supportingevidence, not just the possible, existing in niches between the surviving evidence. That most of the music can readilybe playedon the cello is not evidencethat it usuallywas. 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 advocatesattemptto interpretViolonto have the French meaning. Planyavskyshows clearly that all the evidence indicates that in Germany, Violon meant the same as violone. The large bassoda bracciobecame a professionallyused instrument after the middle of the 17th century, when a metal-wound C stringbecame available,giving a low-note projection that could do the job of the violone in the churchand theatre.With the top e' stringoften dropped,it was called 'little violone' or violoncello, and the prints then specifiedit. Addinga metal-woundlowest bass string, and shifting the other strings over, could also convert an ordinaryviolone into a contrabasso.There is evidence for

this happening, but not for most ordinaryviolones. The same thing was done to the 17th-centurybass 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-stringvariantsof 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-stringone was tuned an octavebelow the highest four stringsof the ordinary one, with the fourth string either a note lower at E' (resultingin the tuning that laterbecame standardon the double bass), or a note higherat G'.The five-stringversion was initially tuned to F'-A'-D-F#-B, with the highest string later lowered to A. These reduced-rangetunings abandon most of the 8' pitch capabilityof the violone to concentrateon its 16'function. Planyavsky'sdiscussion of violones in the 18thcentury is good. Earlyon, six-stringviolones still predominated, some with a low C' string (probablymetal-wound). The use ofviolones with four and five stringsgrewsteadily,and these replacedthe six-stringviolones by the second half of the century.The five-stringtuning with mostly 3rdsflourished mainly in Vienna, and was the type used by Mozart and Haydn. Late in the century, a three-string violone aroseand became prominentin the 19thcentury,when the two leading virtuosos (Dragonetti and Bottesini) used it. Tuningsusuallywere G'-D-A (called'French')or A'-D-G (called 'Italian').It used the ordinarysize instrumentand octave transpositionto play in a most constrictedrange. One advantagewas to be able to dig into notes without touching other stringswhile bowing not necessarilyclose to the bridge.Another advantagewas of not needing any metal-woundstring,so it consistentlyprovidedthe fundamental-richfoundation note for an orchestrathat a thick all-gut string provides. As the music of late Romantic composers demanded lower notes, three-string basses were abandonedin the 2oth century. Planyavsky'sbook is full of very valuableinformation. Now that it is availablein English there is no longer an impediment keeping players of these large instruments from learningabout their history.

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This content downloaded from 192.188.53.215 on Fri, 03 Apr 2015 03:42:48 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

1999

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