Bass

“ As I heard the deep bass of the old Drummer, rolling in a low, solemn undertone, a sudden shifting of the scene came to me. I was in a great auditorium filled with light, and packed with humanity rising tier on tier and stretching far back till lost in the maze of distances. A grand orchestra, banked before me, with swaying arms and earnest faces, played a wonderful harmony which rolled about me like the sea and whelmed me with its volume till I was almost swept away by the tide, then suddenly down under its sweep I found the low deep roll of the bass drum. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 seem to hear
Oboe and cymbal in a rhythmic beat
⁠With bass-drum and bassoon; their drear
⁠And droll crescendo louder growing,
⁠Then falling back, like waters ebbing, flowing,—
Back to the silence sweet! ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A small-mouth bass in a clear, rocky stream, highly aerated as it must be, is, as a matter of course, more active than a large-mouth bass in a quiet, weedy pond.
With others the opinion is merely a matter of prejudice or hearsay, a prejudice that is, indeed, difficult to account for. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Strings first, of course, violet, indigo, blue,—violin, violoncello, double-bass,—upon these you repose; the vault is quite perfect. Green, the many-sounded kinds of wood, spring-hued flutes, deeper, yet softer, clarinetti, bassoons the darkest tone, not to be surpassed in its shade,—another vault. The brass, of course, is yellow; and if the horns suggest the paler dazzle, the trumpets take the golden orange, and the red is left for the trombones,—vivid, or dun and dusk. ”

“ They enter into a movement and conclude it in so delicate a manner, and play the little notes so sportively under the blunter sounds of the bass strings, enlivening with wanton levity, or communicating a deeper internal sense of pleasure, so that the perfection of their art appears in the concealment of it. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Five pounds, four ounces, he weighed, and his relatives under the canal bridge knew him no more for ever.
The bass has countless vagaries, and one never knows what he will do under given circumstances. As a father and son were fishing for small-mouth on the St. Lawrence, the senior hooked a fish which broke the snood and went free. Now there is a persistent tradition that, when a bass has been pricked by the hook, he does not bite again until the passing of twenty-four hours or such a matter has served to wipe the experience from his memory. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Practical Thorough Bass is conversant with the manner of taking the several chords on an instrument, as prescribed by the figures placed over or under the bass part of a composition, and supposes a familiar acquaintance with the powers of these figures, a facility in taking the chords they indicate, and judgment in the various applications and effects of those chords in accompaniment. The Bass is that part of a concert which is the most heard ”

“ 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. ”

“ There is a note of barbarism in the brassy jar and clamor of the instruments, enhanced by the bewildering ambition of each player to force through his piece the most noise and jangle, which is not always covered and subdued into a harmonious whole by the whang of the bass drum. ”

“ If a very low bass found a note rather high, he may have howled it as he best could, or it would perhaps itself have cracked up into falsetto, or he will have gone down instinctively to the octave below, or remained where he was until the melody came again within his reach—ears being not yet critically cultivated. Even now, towards the end of the 19th century, it is not at all unusual to hear amongst a congregation basses singing the air of a hymn below the actual bass part, or soprani singing in the tenor-compass for convenience sake. ”

“ In quadrilles the playing, like the dancing, must be gliding. In reels and strathspeys the bass must never be running—always octaves—struck with a strong staccato touch; and beware of playing too quick. ”

“ 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. Bassoon′ist. [It. bassone, augmentative of basso, low, from root of Base.]
Bass-viol, bās′-vī′ol, n. a musical instrument with four strings, used for playing the bass in concerted music; the violoncello. [See Bass, low, and Viol.] ”

“ 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. ”

“ As with all well-endowed vocalists, the jaw of the bass is generally wide, the tongue large, the teeth small, and the mouth capable of easy expansion. The bass singer is generally above, as the tenor is generally below, the middle height. ”

“ The bass (see accompanying figure) , besides having two keys, is distinguished from the others by a kind of small bolt, two of which slide in grooves and close the two holes that form the lowest notes of the instrument. ”

“ Before long he became possessed of a magnificent bass, which gradually increased in volume until at the age of twenty it attained a compass of two octaves from E flat below to E flat above the bass stave. ”

“ 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 wood wind, for example, consists of flutes and oboes, which are purely soprano instruments, clarinets, which extended from upper bass to moderately high soprano, English horn, which has a tenor range, bass clarinet, which runs from deep bass up into treble, and bassoons, which comprise bass, baritone, and tenor registers. That organization of instruments is capable of independent performance, possessing, as it does, all the components of full and extended harmony and a wide variety of color. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 bass-bar has to be cut and adjusted to meet the requirements of every violin; and only long experience can determine how long, how thick and exactly where the bass-bar should be made and placed. The fraction of a line makes all the difference in the world.
The bass-bar is the only member, or organ, of the violin’s body that has undergone any change since the days of Antonio Stradivari. Owing to the increased pitch (higher tuning) of the present time, the tension, or pull, of the strings equals eighty pounds! ”

“ Whether a bass melody be set against upper voices, or upper voices be concerted against one another upon a background of basso continuo, always sound-worlds of characteristic expression-quality work reciprocally upon one another in the infinity of tonal space, supporting, intensifying, raising, illuminating, threatening, overshadowing—a 231music all of interplay, scarcely intelligible save through ideas of contemporary Analysis. ”

“ The bass drum has a place in every orchestra, although it is used but sparingly to accentuate the rhythm. It is possible to make gradations in forte and piano on the bass drum, and to play quavers and semi-quavers in moderate tempo. ”

“ The tough tympanum of a bass drum yields one sound, and the tom-tom may be a fine instrument for war or joy dances, but a delicately attuned violin quivers with more varied vibrations, and even the minor chords must satisfy some of its fibers. ”

“ 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. ”

“ But at the first, wonder is continually awakened by the incomparable volume of the voices, and the curious booming sound—like the echo that follows the striking of some gigantic bell—which characterises the bass register of island men’s singing. The swing and entrain of the whole performance are intoxicating—the chorus, be it ten or a thousand voices, sweeps onward as resistlessly as a cataract, and the beat of the measure is like the pulse of Father Time himself. ”

“ The intensity or power of the bass voice is due to the same causes as that of the tenor, the contralto, the soprano, or indeed of any other wind-instrument—the capacity and free action of the apparatus by which it collects and ejects air—in the human body, the lungs. ”