On Feb 16, 2006, at 5:45 PM, John Howell wrote:
The original "bass" of the violin family (going back to the 16th century) was what we today call the cello.
We had this out a few months ago, but it bears repeating. The original bass of the violin family was *tuned* like the cello, and was about the same size, but was not identical to it, nor did it bear that name. Its name, in the standard musical languages, was bass, basse de violon, violone, and Bassgeige. Note that "violone" at that time did not refer to the contrabass.
The cello, strictly so called, was developed around 1660 as a solo instrument. To that end it had a shorter neck than the violone (whence "violoncello" = "little violone"), facilitating playing in high positions (the violone never played above first position). Gradually the cello took over from the violone until by ca. 1700 orchestral sections contained cellos alone. It was only after this that the word "violone" was transferred to the double bass, which also joined the orchestra at about that time (17th-c. orchestras had no 16' voice).
Andrew Stiller Kallisti Music Press http://home.netcom.com/~kallisti/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
