La Basse de Violon

Blanca Leticia Martín Muñoz

About this exposition Nowadays we can find a vast amount of information about the history of the cello. But do we know anything of its larger ancestor? What was its purpose in the music scene in France in the 17th century? And why did it disappear? Little attention has been paid to the basse de violon, an instrument of great importance before the arrival of the cello. In my presentation, I will discuss these questions as well as other matters that concern the basse de violon, starting with what is it, going through its development, its role as a solo instrument, and as the bass of the ensembles, and finishing with the reasons for its decay and ultimately complete disappearance in France. Also, as part of my artistic presentation, I will base my conclusions by using videos of my experimentations on a surviving basse de violon from 1715 and a cello from the 19th century.

Bibliography

Music Scores

Gabrielli, Domenico, Ricercari, canone e sonate per violoncello, Ricercar Secondo, IDG 5[1689]

Lully, Jean-Baptiste,Trios de la Chambre du Roi, LWV 35 [1705]

Matho, Jean-Baptiste, Arion, F-Po, A.88b [1714]

Primary Sources

Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, no. 3. Leipzig, 1799. Columns 33-37

Cerone, Pietro, El Melopeo Y Maestro. Napoli: Iuan Bautista Gargano, and Lucrecio Nucci, 1613.

État de la France, ou, l’on voit tous les princes, ducs & pairs, marêchaux de France... Paris: Guillaume De Luyne, 1649–1749. Under different titles.

Corrette, Michelle,Méthode… pour appendre… le violoncelle. Paris: Undefined publisher, 1741.

Du Tillet, M. Titon, Le Parnasse François... Paris: J. B. Coignard Fils., 1732. 621.

Galilei, Vincenzo, Dialogo della musica. Florence: Giorgio Marescotti, 1581.

Gerle, Hans, Musica Teusch. Nürnberg: Hieronymus Formschneider, 1532.

Jambe de Fer, Philibert, Epitome musical des tons, sons et accordz. Lyons: Michel du Bois, 1556. 61-64

Lanfranco, Giovanni Maria, Scintille Di Musica. Brescia: Lodovico Britannico, 1533. 137-8

Mersenne, Marin, Harmonie Universelle : Contenant La Theorie et La Pratique de La Musique. Paris: Pierre Ballard, 1637

Playford, John, An Introduction to the Skill of Musick. London: John Playford, 1655; reprints 1672, 1674, 1679, 1683, 1687, 1694, 1697, 1700, 1703, 1713, 1718, 1724, 1730.

Praetorius, Michael, Syntagma Musicum, part II. Wolfenbüttel, 1619

Sauveur, Joseph, Principes d’acoustique et musique. Paris: Academie Royal des Sciences,1701

Articles

Bonta, Stephen. “Violoncello”,Grove Music Online. (2001); Accessed 20 Feb. 2021.

Kenneth Cooper, Julius Zsako, and Georg Muffat. “Georg Muffat’s Observations on the Lully Style of Performance”. The Musical Quarterly 53, no. 2 (1967): 220–45. http://www.jstor.org/stable/741202.

Cyr, Mary. “Basses and Basse Continue in the Orchestra of the Paris Opera, 1700-1764”, Early Music, 10 (1982): 155–70

Greenberg, Michael D. “Perfecting the Storm: The Rise of the Double Bass in France, 1701-1815”, Online Journal of Bass Research, 1 (2003). http:// www.ojbr.com/vol1no1.htm

Kory, Agnes. A Wider Role for the Tenor Violin?, The Galpin Society Journal 47 (1994) 123–53. https://doi.org/10.2307/842665.

Singer, Gerhard. Zacconi, Lodovico, Grove Music Online. 2001; Accessed 18 Feb. 2021. https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000030767

Smith, Mark.The Cello Bow Held the Viol-Way; Once Common, But Now Almost Forgotten, Article 4, The Journal of the Viola da Gamba Society (1995): http://vdgs.org.uk/chelys/24

Books and Book Chapters

Brossard, S. D., Dictionaire de musique (Paris: Cristophe Ballard, 1703), 247

Boyden, David D., Monteverdi’s Violini Piccoli alla Francese and Viole de Brazzo(1958), 398-9.

Burney, Charles, The Present State of Music in France and Italy (London: Beckett, 1773; repr. New York: Broude, 1969), 142

Cyr, Mary, Style and Performance for Bowed Strings in French Baroque Music (Farnham: Ashgate, 2012)

Dilworth, John, The cello: origins and evolution, The Cambridge Companion to the Cello ed. by Robin Stowell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 1–27.

Hill, William Henry, Arthur F. (Arthur Frederick) Hill, Alfred Ebsworth Hill, and Cornell University Library. Antonio Stradivari, His Life and Work (1644-1737) (London : Macmillan and Co. 1909) 79-251. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022328896.

Monical, William L., Shapes of the Baroque: The Historical Development of Bowed String Instruments (Philadelphia, Pa.: The Federation, 1989) 2

Quantz, Johann Joachim and Reilly, Edward R, On Playing the Flute / Johann Joachim Quantz; a Complete Translation [from the German] with an Introduction and Notes by Edward R. Reilly (London: Faber And Faber, 1966) 241

Spitzer, John, and Neal Zaslaw, The Birth of the Orchestra: History of an Institution, 1650–1815 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)

Theses and Dissertations

Erodi, Gyongy Iren, ‘The Sixteenth-Century Basse de Violon: Fact or Fiction? Identification of the Bass Violin (1535–1635)’ (unpublished master’s thesis, University of North Texas, 2009)

Agnes Kory, Tenor Violin or Tenor Cello? Problems of Identification and Repertoire. (The University of Manchester, 2018)

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