Bass relief

“ Every crested wave rising against the horizon ere it breaks, flashes with their sparkling scales, and so sure as the bait cast from the powerful two-handed rod reaches that wave, so sure is it to be grasped by the nearest bass. The breakers drive the spearing and other small fry from their hiding-places among the rocks; the discolored water blinds them to their danger, and bass trusting themselves in the very curl of the heaving swell collect in myriads to the welcome banquet. ”

“ The basso continuo of certain organists, who have fallen asleep over their pedals, soon becomes an intolerable nuisance for the audience. We should go wild at a performance of a symphony in which the double-basses played uninterruptedly from the first note to the last. Plain-song itself, thus interpreted, loses its eloquence; although the apparent monotony of its design, closely confined within the limits of an octave, would, above all, seem to be better adapted than any other form of music to a continuous bass. ”

“ These rocks are always fantastic, but like the sea that lisps around their feet in fine weather, or dashes in curling wreaths of snow-white foam high over their summits, when a nor’-east storm is blowing, they are, or seem to be, ever-changing in appearance, never quite the same. Only, one rock on the horizon is ever the same, the Bass. ”

“ The rolling thunder closed in upon them with a final rush that brought it so near that their very bodies seemed to vibrate in harmony with that mighty note of shuddering bass. Then with startling abruptness the green net came. ”

“ A little distance above a rustic bridge spans the stream, under and on either side of which, just in the shadow line, a dozen or more fine bass, weighing up to four pounds each, may be seen at any time. As one crosses the bridge they raise their weather-eye and look up, but do not move, whilst hundreds of young bass, an inch or two in length, shoot from the innumerable crevices like so many fresh-water shiners. The very foundation of the bridge seems to be alive with them. There are also a number of giant sun-fish here which seldom refuse a bait. ”

“ Bassinet, Bassinette, bas′si-net, n. a kind of basket with a hood in which an infant is placed as in a cradle: a similarly shaped perambulator. [Fr. dim. of basin, a basin.]
Basso, bas′so, n. the same as Bass (1) : also a bass singer.
Bassoon, bas-ōōn′, n. (It. fagotto) a musical wind-instrument filling an important place in the modern orchestra, of the reed species, made of maple-wood or plane-tree, its compass from B flat below the bass stave to C in the treble.—The Double bassoon (It. contrafagotto) sounds an octave lower.—n. ”

“ One is, the wise God will have it so; some must pipe, and some must weep. Now Mr. Fearing was one that played upon this bass. He and his fellows sound the sackbut, whose notes are more doleful than the notes of other music are; though, indeed, some say the bass is the ground of music. And, for my part, I care not at all for that profession which begins, not in heaviness of mind. The first string that the musician usually touches is the bass, when he intends to put all in tune. God also plays upon this string first, when He sets the soul in tune for Himself. ”

“ For more than two miles of this lovely stream any man who knows how to handle a rod or throw a fly can land, or at least hook, some of the liveliest two to three pounders he could wish for, and although bass vary in their tastes at different periods of the day, I know nothing better than the common trolling spoon as a regular thing. ”

“ I have known bass to be caught on a bare bright hook, and the funny stories one laughs at about wintergreen berries and fish scales proving attractive bait are not so much out of probability.
In the Southern States a belief exists that bass are always on the feed when the moon is above the horizon, particularly at rise and set; many old experienced fishermen will only fish during the last quarter until the new moon. The same variety of ideas exist regarding rain; one angler believes that bass will not bite before a rain, another during a rain, and still another after a rain. ”

“ That light, cheerful movement, which caresses the soul, is cleverly supported by chords in the bass, and by a vague fanfare on the trumpets, restricted to their lowest notes, so as to give a vivid idea of the last cool shadows that linger in the valleys while the first warm rays touch the heights. Then all the wind is gradually added to strengthen the general harmony. ”

“ I have heard, and you doubtless, in a fine concert of viols, extemporary descant upon a thorough bass in the Italian manner, when each performer in turn plays such variety of descant, in concordance to the bass, as his skill and present invention may suggest to him. In this manner of play the consonances invariably fall true upon a given note, and every succeeding note of the ground is met, now in the unison or octave, now in the concords, preserving the melody throughout by the laws of motion and sound. I have thought that this is life. ”

“ A deep, strong bass sound is produced which resembles the distant whistle of a big ocean steamer. The men at the rear would join in with wild shouts like those made by American cowboys, most of them rising in their prahus to be able to give more impetus to the paddles. ”

“ This entire reach, is one mass of rock, indented by innumerable bays, or severed by inlets into barren islands, where the tide rushes, and the surf beats; and in every favorable locality are the bass taken with a stout rod, a long line, and menhaden bait. From almost every bold rock, or prominent island, can the angler cast into the vexed water of some current, made by the huge waves rushing over the uneven bottom, and allure thence the fierce bass, who has been attracted from the ocean depths, to feed on the small fry that hide in the clefts and crevices ”

“ Is it more fun than casting for big black bass on a clear, warm, summer night? Lots of times I've seen the big fellows leap out of the water, then in again with a splash, making big rings of ripples on the smooth water. ”

“ The boom of the breakers finds a marvellously close echo in the splendid volume of the men’s voices, which are bass for the most part, and very much more powerful and sonorous than anything one hears in the country of the “superior” race. The women’s voices are somewhat shrill, but they sound well enough as one usually hears them, wandering wildly in and out of the massive harmonies of the basses. ”

“ If the violin is the leader of the orchestra, the double bass is its foundation. To it is given the lowest part, on which both harmony and melody rest. The English term 'double bass' has probably been applied to the instrument because it often doubles in the lower octave the bass of the harmony, given to the bass voice, the violoncello, the bassoon, or some other instrument. ”

“ The boat should be rowed alongshore, or over rocky reefs or shoals, and about the eddies of rock pools. As the fish always hooks itself in trolling, it only remains for the angler to play and land his quarry in good form, always having a large landing-net or gaff in the boat.
Casting menhaden bait from the rocky shores of the coast requires tools and tackle of great excellence and strength, as the largest bass are taken in this way. The most approved rod is a first-class split-bamboo, eight or eight and one-half feet long, and weighing from twelve to sixteen ounces. ”

“ Last season I only met three strangers at the lake, but they never seemed to catch anything beyond eels, turtles, sun-fish, and a few two inch bass, the name of which they did not even know, and I got into their bad graces by telling them they ought to return the bass into the lake. They thought I was a crank, in fact one of them told me so. These men were salt-water sports, and one man who came there from Newark, N. J., was actually baiting with shrimps for fresh-water bass and had no less than eight hooks upon his line, all baited with shrimps. ”

“ During that time I have seen a world of excitement and adventure, and have performed some exploits of which any fly-rod might be justly proud. I have hooked, at one cast, and successfully landed, two black bass, weighing together eight and a quarter pounds; I have so often been dumped in the cold waters of mountain lakes and streams that it is a wonder my ferrules were not rusted out long ago; I have been dragged about among snags and lily-pads, by enraged trout, pickerel and bass ”

“ Three new bellows, carefully installed, should insure a sufficiency of wind to feed the great organ, the choir, and the new swell.
2. The pressure should be increased in the four old bellows, to give speech to the new Subbass of thirty-two feet, and to the lower pipes of the other stops.
3. The old soundboards of all the bass pipes to be renewed, and the wind-supply so to be regulated that when playing with only a single stop drawn all the remaining registers may be brought on-77- suddenly without producing unsteadiness, as has been the case up to the present time ”

“ Of two bass living side by side in the same water, one may be logy and lazy and indisposed to strenuous exertion when hooked, while the other is brought to net only after he has tried every dodge known to fishdom and exhausted every atom of his strength.
It was while fishing on the reef just west of the Point that the invalid bass was taken. Each fisherman has his favourite method of capturing bass. One uses live frogs and casts close to the edge of the rushes or weeds along shore. Another trolls with many yards of line out, and a piece of pork-rind or a minnow fastened to the spoon. ”

“ Ground Bass is used sometimes as synonymous with Fundamental Bass, and sometimes as a bass which starts with some subject of its own, and continues to be repeated throughout the movement, while the upper part, or parts, of the composition pursue a separate air, and supply the harmony. ”

“ A horse, cow, dog, or fowl will shake the head violently to rid its mouth of an offending object. But a fish, having no neck to speak of, can only shake his head by shaking his body, and that only in a lateral direction. As a bass cannot shake himself energetically enough beneath the water to dislodge the hook, owing to the resistance of the denser medium, he naturally leaps into the air for that purpose ”

“ While the various sections are distinct from each other, it is like a gradation of colors whose harmony arises only from the order of their selection. This series of strokes produces something more than the feeling of continuity, it frees itself of an intensity of expression which is increased at every measure; but the climax is attained with stately chords, in five real parts, the bass emphasizing them by a quarter-note upon each beat. ”

“ Never leave a bass string the slightest amount too sharp. As flatness is so obnoxious in the treble, just so is sharpness in the bass, so if there must be any variation in any bass tone let it be flat ”

“ The bass in the lake are innumerable, but they are more difficult to catch than those in the stream, a fact which pleases the true fisherman, who fishes to match his skill and science against the instinct and cunning of the fish, rather than with the one sole intention of making his bag larger than that of any preceding angler.
Remember the lake bass want sport more than food, and the bait must be handled in a lively manner to bring success. ”

“ To many people a bass is a bass, and that’s all there is to it. To be sure, they recognize the fact that some bass are larger than others, but the process of differentiation begins and ends with the table of weights and measures. Skegemog bass belong to the small-mouth family, and there is as much difference between these and the big-mouth variety as between a split-bamboo rod and a saw-log. The small-mouth is the aristocrat of the bass family. He is more dainty in his tastes, more plucky, and has more brains than his brother of the more generous facial opening. ”

“ When you are casting for striped bass, the reel runs very easy, and the bait is heavy, and if you don’t check the reel with a thumb, as the line runs out, and then stop it as the bait drops on the sea, the reel runs on, and the line gets into a tangle, such as is really unimaginable. It takes hours to get it clear. ”

“ You know in advance what the big-mouthed black bass is going to sing—there is only one regular song for a bass singer to [Pg 60] sing. From time to time insidious efforts have been made to work in songs for basses dealing with the love affairs of Bedouins and the joys of life down in a coal mine ”

“ In any case, when the Bass Voices are silent, the lowest of the upper Parts is given in the Thoroughbass, either with or without Figures, in accordance with the law which regards the lowest sound as the real Bass of the Harmony, even though it may be sung by a Soprano Voice. ”

“ I mean your bass-viol, which grumbles in the bottom of the concert, and with a surly masculine sound strengthens the harmony, and tempers the sweetness of the several instruments that play along with it. The bass-viol is an instrument of a quite different nature to the trumpet, and may signify men of rough sense, and unpolished parts, who do not love to hear themselves talk, but sometimes break out with an agreeable bluntness, unexpected wit, and surly pleasantries, to the no small diversion of their friends and companions. ”

“ The rock-bass is an attractive-looking fish, and for its size is very pugnacious. It will take the artificial fly, or natural or artificial bait. It bites freely at small minnows, grubs, grasshoppers, cut-bait, or angle-worms. It is capable of affording considerable sport with light tackle, owing to its large and strong fins, and its habit of curling its sides in opposition to the strain of the rod.
With a light fly-rod of four or five ounces, and corresponding tackle, and trout flies on hooks Nos. 5 to 7, the rock-bass is not a mean adversary. ”