! Prior to the late eighteenth century, the part marked “basso” or “bassi” or “bassi tutti” by a composer was not written for a specific instrument. All bass-register instruments–cello, double bass (violone), bassoon, contrabassoon, theorbo, etc.–played from this same part, and if there were times when one or the other should drop out or play alone, this would be indicated with instructions like senza faggoti or soli violoncelli. According to Adam Carse,
The part in 18th century orchestral music which is most liable to be misunderstood is the bass part. The 19th century editions are apt to treat this as a part written specifically for cellos and double-basses; as a purely string part. Up to the time, quite late in the century, when composers did write specifically for these two instruments, only one bass part was written. It was the bass of the music in general, and was not designed for any
particular instrument, nor did it embody the technical
characteristics of the bowed string-instrument family. [...] The part was intended for all instruments of the bass register, and for all those whose function included playing the bass of the music.63
! Carse’s dessription of the flexibility of the “basso” role withstands scrutiny, but more recent scholarship disagrees slightly with his description on two particulars: First, his assertion that the bass part was not designed for the “technical characteristics” of the stringed instruments disagrees with Edgerton’s research on Haydn’s bass part writing. On the contrary, Edgerton asserts a high degree of tailoring for the specific characteristics of both the cello and the Viennese violone.64 In addition to an overall
compliance with the lower compass of the violone, Edgerton notes features
! 63 Adam Carse, The Orchestra in the XVIIIth Century (Cambridge, UK:
Heffer and Sons, 1940), 122.
such as the concurrence of the top boundary of the cello’s range (a’) with that of the violone–this note is an octave harmonic on the top strings of both instruments. In Haydn’s writing, passages utilizing this top note are carefully prepared by either rests or stepwise motion. Furthermore,
figurations and passage-work utilizing alternation with the open-string notes a and d–common to both instruments–are prominent, while similar figurations employing the cello’s G and C strings are avoided unless the violone is resting or has a different role, for example a concertante passage.65
Secondly, the appearance in the late eighteenth century of specific
indications for both cello, double bass, and bassoon is often construed–as Carse implies above–to be the moment of “separation” of the cello from the double bass. James Webster has argued, however, that the appearance of these indications merely follows a late eighteenth-century tendency toward
terminological precision, as opposed to reflecting a change in either scoring or performance practice.66
! Bass instruments in Haydn’s ensemble at Esterházy likely consisted of one player each on cello, violone, and bassoon. Carse writes that “it is not generally realised that [eighteenth-century bass parts] often included the bassoon part, even though that instrument is not mentioned by name.”67
Interestingly, each of the musicians identified as violone players in
Esterházy documents was hired as a bassoonist,68 implying a strong connection
between these instruments and their function. Apparently these duties were considered practically interchangeable. The age of the instrumental
! 65 Ibid., 139-40.
! 66 Webster, “Violoncello and Double Bass,” 425-6.
! 67 Carse, XVIIIth Century, 124.
! 68 See H. C. Robbins Landon, Haydn: Chronicle and Works, vol. 1, Haydn:
specialist had not yet arrived, and many musicians could, and were often expected to, fulfill multiple instrumental roles. Normal instrumentation for Haydn’s “basso” ensemble can be established using documents from the
Esterházy estate, and Haydn’s own description in a letter concerning a performance of his Applausus cantata, from 1768:
In the soprano aria, the bassoon can be omitted, if
necessary; but I prefer it to be included, especially since the bass is obbligato throughout. I prefer just three
players on the bass–one cello, one bassoon, and one double bass [violon]–to six double basses and three celli, because many passages cannot be heard clearly [in the latter
scoring].69
Edgerton notes that these instructions, intended as a guide for the
performance of a cantata outside of Haydn’s own supervision, do not provide conclusive or unconditional evidence concerning his instrumentation practices more generally. But since the letter shows that Haydn knew very little about the circumstances under which the cantata would be performed (he complains about this in the letter),70 it is reasonable to suppose that these
instructions represent his preferences.
! The flexibility that is implied by the above circumstances and evidence indicates a very different conception of musical vs. instrumental roles than what we generally hold today. In other words, the “basso” was a musical role which could be filled by a number of different instruments
! 69 Dénes Bartha, Joseph Haydn: Gesammelte briefe und Aufzeichungen
(Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1965), 60. Translated by James Webster, “Towards a History of Viennese Chamber Music in the Early Classical Period,” Journal of the American Musicological Society 27 (1974), 237, n. 113. “In der Sopran Aria kan allenfahls der Fagot ausbleiben, jedoch wäre es mir lieber, wan selber zugegen wäre, zu malen der Bass durchaus obligat, und [ich] schätze jene Music mit denen 3 Bassen, als Violoncello, Fagot, und Violon höher, als 6 Violon mit 3 Violoncello, weil sich gewisse Passagen hart distinguiren.” Taken from Edgerton, “Bass Part,” 10.
according to circumstance and availability. For a performance today, we assemble the instruments that the composer indicated in the score. A similar progression can be traced with other instruments, for example violin and oboe or flute, whose parts in baroque and earlier classical music were nearly always one and the same, with deviations and separations indicated verbally; of course these two instruments later came to have complete independence in scoring. This aspect of classical performance practice–which is in fact a holdover from the baroque period–changed substantially over the course of the nineteenth century, where instrumental roles became more specifically defined in orchestration practices. But it stands at close remove to Beethoven’s orchestral practices at the beginning of that century. Chapter two will take up this discussion in relation to evidence concerning Beethoven’s use of contrabassoon to reinforce the double bass in performance, and the
implications of this practice for the appearance of unplayable pitches in his double bass parts.
6. Performance Practice Issues Specific to the Double Bass