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Violone

 
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The violone (literally "large viol" in Italian, "-one" being the augmentative
Augmentative

An augmentative is a Affix or Prefix added to a noun in order to convey the sense of greater intensity, often though not primarily indicating a larger size....
 suffix) is a musical instrument
Musical instrument

A musical instrument is an object constructed or used for the purpose of making music. In principle, anything that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument....
 of the viol
Viol

The viol is any one of a family of bow , fretted, stringed instruments musical instruments developed in the 1400s and used primarily in the Renaissance music and Baroque music periods....
 family. The largest/lowest member of that family, the violone is a fret
Fret

A fret is a raised portion on the neck of a stringed instrument, that extends generally across the full width of the neck. On most modern western culture instruments, frets are metal strips inserted into the fingerboard....
ted instrument with six strings (although some versions had five, or, more rarely, four strings), generally tuned a fifth or an octave below the bass viol. Thus, the violone can properly be called a contrabass instrument, being tuned lower than the bass instrument.






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The violone (literally "large viol" in Italian, "-one" being the augmentative
Augmentative

An augmentative is a Affix or Prefix added to a noun in order to convey the sense of greater intensity, often though not primarily indicating a larger size....
 suffix) is a musical instrument
Musical instrument

A musical instrument is an object constructed or used for the purpose of making music. In principle, anything that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument....
 of the viol
Viol

The viol is any one of a family of bow , fretted, stringed instruments musical instruments developed in the 1400s and used primarily in the Renaissance music and Baroque music periods....
 family. The largest/lowest member of that family, the violone is a fret
Fret

A fret is a raised portion on the neck of a stringed instrument, that extends generally across the full width of the neck. On most modern western culture instruments, frets are metal strips inserted into the fingerboard....
ted instrument with six strings (although some versions had five, or, more rarely, four strings), generally tuned a fifth or an octave below the bass viol. Thus, the violone can properly be called a contrabass instrument, being tuned lower than the bass instrument. The name is also used sometimes for the 8'
Eight foot pitch

Eight-foot pitch is a term common to the Pipe organ and the harpsichord. An organ pipe, or a harpsichord string, designated as eight-foot pitch is sounded at standard, ordinary pitch....
 bass violin
Bass violin

Bass violin is the generic modern term used to denote various 16th- and 17th-century forms of Bass instruments of the violin family family. They were the direct ancestor of the modern cello....
 (cf. violoncello).

Usage

The violone is most often used today as the contrabass bowed string instrument in early music
Early music

Early music is commonly defined as European classical music from the Medieval music and the Renaissance music.The Early Music Movement as a trend in history is the study and performance of music from composers before our own era and began in 1829 when Felix Mendelssohn conducted Johann Sebastian Bach's St Matthew Passion ....
 groups performing Renaissance and early Baroque music. Only a few players specialize in the instrument, with most using contemporary reproductions rather than actual historical instruments.

History

After the decline of the other members of the viol family, the violone continued to have a place in orchestral music and, for example, Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and organ whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque music period and brought it to its ultimate maturity....
 scored his cantatas for violone as the contra-bass instrument. It was eventually ousted by the modern double bass
Double bass

The double bass or contrabass is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow string instrument used in the modern orchestra. It is a standard member of the string section of the orchestra and smaller string musical ensembles in European classical music....
.

Terminology


It is important to understand the etymology of the term "violone." "Violone" is a conjugation of the word "viola," not of the English word "viol," which is contemporarily used to refer to a member of the viola da gamba family. When use of the word "violone" began in the early sixteenth century, "viola" simply meant a bowed, stringed instrument, and did not specify viol or violin. Historically "violone" has referred to any number of larger fiddles, regardless of family. Sixteenth century instruments that at some time were (not incorrectly) called "violone" include the vihuela d'arco, or early viol, and later the bass violin
Bass violin

Bass violin is the generic modern term used to denote various 16th- and 17th-century forms of Bass instruments of the violin family family. They were the direct ancestor of the modern cello....
 (direct ancestor of the cello).

The term violone is sometimes used to refer to the modern double bass, which belongs almost as much to the viol family as to that of the violin, having sloped shoulders, a flat back (often) and tuning in fourths. The double bass, unlike the original violone, is an unfretted instrument.

"Violone" is also the name given to a non-imitative string-tone pipe organ
Pipe organ

The pipe organ is a keyboard musical instrument that produces sound by venting mechanically compressed air through resonant Organ pipe. Each pipe produces sound at one fixed pitch, so they are provided in sets or "ranks" with one pipe or more per note, each rank having a common timbre and loudness throughout....
 stop
Organ stop

An organ stop is a component of a pipe organ which admits pressurized air to a set of organ pipes. Its name comes from the fact that stops can be used selectively by the organist; some can be "on" , while other can be "off" ....
, constructed of either metal or wood, and found in the pedal division at 16' pitch (one octave below written pitch), or, more rarely, 32' (2 octaves below written pitch).

External links

  • by Tharald Borgir & Alfred Planyavsky
  • collected at www.GreatBassViol.com
  • by Joëlle Fancher Morton


See also

  • Viol
    Viol

    The viol is any one of a family of bow , fretted, stringed instruments musical instruments developed in the 1400s and used primarily in the Renaissance music and Baroque music periods....
  • Double bass
    Double bass

    The double bass or contrabass is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow string instrument used in the modern orchestra. It is a standard member of the string section of the orchestra and smaller string musical ensembles in European classical music....