Musicon / Musical education / The Double-Bass
-The Double-Bass
The patriarchal double-bass is known to all, and also its mission of providing the foundation for the harmonic structure of orchestral music.
It sounds an octave lower than the music written for it, being what is called a transposing instrument of sixteen-foot tone. Solos are seldom written for this instrument in orchestral music, though Beethoven, with his daring recitatives in the Ninth Symphony, makes it a mediator between the instrumental and vocal forces.
Dragonetti and Bottesini, two Italians, won great fame as solo players on the unwieldy instrument. The latter uses a small bass viol, and strings it with harp strings; but Dragonetti played a full double-bass, on which he could execute the most difficult passages written for the violoncello.