| Title: | Bass |
| Original Title: | Basse |
| Volume and Page: | Vol. 2 (1752), p. 119 |
| Author: | Unknown |
| Translator: | Beverly Wilcox [California State University, Sacramento] |
| Original Version (ARTFL): | Link |
| Rights/Permissions: |
This text is protected by copyright and may be linked to without seeking permission. Please see http://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/terms.html for information on reproduction. |
| URL: | http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0004.081 |
| Citation (MLA): | "Bass." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Beverly Wilcox. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2020. Web. [fill in today's date in the form 18 Apr. 2009 and remove square brackets]. <http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0004.081>. Trans. of "Basse," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, vol. 2. Paris, 1752. |
| Citation (Chicago): | "Bass." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Beverly Wilcox. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0004.081 (accessed [fill in today's date in the form April 18, 2009 and remove square brackets]). Originally published as "Basse," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 2:119 (Paris, 1752). |
Bass is one of the parts in music, and is below the others; the lowest of all, from which comes its name, bass . [1] See Score.
The bass is the most important of the parts because the harmonic structure is founded on it: also, it is a kind of axiom among musicians that when the bass is good, the harmony is rarely bad.
There are several kinds of basses : fundamental bass , for which we will write a separate article.
Basso continuo, is called thus because it continues throughout the piece: its main purpose, other than to define the harmony, is to support the voices and to establish the key. It is claimed that a certain Ludovico de Viana , from whom we have a treatise, was the first to have used it, at the beginning of the last century.
Basse figurée , which, instead of holding a single note, divides the value into several other notes in the same chord. See Harmonie figurée.
Ground bass , in which the subject or melody, limited to a small number of measures, repeats over and over, while the upper parts pursue their own melody and harmony, and vary them in different ways. This bass was originally part of the couplets of the chaconne: but it is not used that way today. The ground bass descending diatonically or chromatically, slowly, from the tonic to the dominant in minor keys, is admirable for pathetic pieces: the periodic returns subtly affect the soul, and move it to sadness and languor. Very good examples are to be seen in several scenes from French operas.
Sung bass, is the kind of voice that sings the bass part. [2] There are basses récitantes and basses de choeur ; concordans or baritones [ basses-tailles ] , who take the middle between the tenor [ taille ] and the bass ; the true basses that are commonly called baritones ; and finally basses-contres, the lowest of all the voices, who sing the bass beneath the bass itself , and which must not be confused with the double basses which are instruments. See Double bass.
1. This article is unattributed but it was probably written by Rousseau, since a revised form of it appears in his Dictionnaire de musique (1768).
2. In other words, vocal bass parts are headed “sung bass” to distinguish them from the orchestral bass parts.