Klarinet Archive - Posting 000573.txt from 2003/09

From: Bear Woodson <bearwoodson@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Fretted and Unfretted "Bass Viols"
Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2003 09:23:45 -0400

> Date: Sat, 06 Sep 2003 05:06:46 -0400
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> From: Anne Bell <bell@-----.net>
> Subject: Re: [kl] Missed all the Fun
> Message-Id: <3.0.3.32.20030906050646.00c713e0@-----.net>
>
> Possibly the most famous viol player and composer
> for viol- Marin Marais. 1656-1728.....

Oops, yes and no.

I had never heard of Marin Marais (1656-1728)
before, but he is listed as being a respected virtuoso
of the "Bass Viol", specifying it as another name for
what we also call a "String Bass", "Double Bass",
"Contra Bass", which players of Popular Music
also call a "Bass Fiddle", "Bass Violin" or a "Stand-
Up Bass". This is NOT a FRETTED Instrument,
which was the case for the "Consorts of Viols", but
grammatically it may seem like the Bowed Fretted
Bass Instrument.

A "Consort" was the Medieval and Renaissance
word for "a Family of Several Sizes of the same
Instrument", as in a "Consort of Viols" or a "Con-
sort of Recorders". In the last 100 years we would
say the "Violin Family" to specify "Violin, Viola,
Cello and String Bass" to express a similar idea.

However the "Viols" in the "Consorts of Viols"
from the Late Medieval to Middle Renaissance
Eras were sometimes also called "Da Gamba"
["of the leg"] Viols and were specifically:
FRETTED,
bowed instruments,
with the bow held Underhand,
sitting upright between the legs of the player,
with 2 "C" shaped holes on the front plate,
usually with 6 strings tuned mostly in Perfect
Fourths with a Major Third in the middle
(akin to Guitar Tuning), but
sometimes having only 5 strings, and
usually available only in 3 sizes of:
Treble, Tenor (Cello Range) and Bass.

The "Consorts of Viols" or "Da Gamba"
instruments had their peak in the 13th and 15th
Centuries, and then began to fail, because the
same Frets that made them easier to play in tune
in earlier centuries, also limited them to remaining
stuck in those Outdated Tuning Systems! The
15th and 16th Centuries were the Beginning of
Early Tertian (chords stacked in Thirds) Harmony
underwent MANY changes in Tuning Systems
for how to make the Thirds and Sixths sound
good. (All of the Ancient Modal Folk Tunes like
"Greensleeves" in Dorian, Flamenco Guitar music
in Phrygian, etc., begin to emerge at this time, and
so did the "Four Primary Chords" of I, vi, IV, and
V, in "Tonality", which are still used in Popular
Music today in 2003.)

From 800 AD to 1400 AD, all the harmony
was Quartal (chords stacked in Perfect Fourths,
Fifths and Octaves) for use in singing Organum.
There are a few rare scores surviving from the
Late 12th Century of singing in Parallel Thirds,
but that didn't really catch on until the 1380's in
Britain, and finally by the 1440's in much of
Western Continental Europe. As Tertian harmony
spread across Europe in the 15th Century, the
"Consorts of Viols" still built with Frets in older
tuning systems, sounded out of tune with the
singers and wind instruments, that made the
Thirds and Sixths sound better.

The Unfretted Violin Family arose to greater
popularity in the 15th Century, and flourished
in the hands of great master builders like the
Amati, Montagnana, Stradivari and Guareri
families in the 16th and 17th Centuries. Ironically,
while this caused the death of the Fretted Consorts
of Viols in Continental Europe by the Early 17th
Century, the Fretted Viols remained popular in
Britain until the End of the 17th Century.

By the Mid-17th Century in Continental Europe,
only the middle sized, Cello-Ranged "(Tenor) Viola
Da Gamba" was left in COMMON usage. Yes,
there are some exceptions, and there were also
Experimental Sizes of Unfretted Violin Family
Members, as well as among the Fretted Viols.

In the Violin Family alone, we find "Violino
Piccolo", "Viola d'Amore", "Viola Pomposa", used
by Bach and other Baroque Composers, plus there
was even a short-lived Tenor-Bass Cello (that had
an F String, a Fifth lower than the present-day Low
C String on a Cello) used by composers like Jean-
Marie Leclair, 'l'aine' (1697-1764).

In the Fretted Viol Family there are several
works by Bach for the "(Tenor) Viola Da Gamba",
including the 3 gorgeous "Da Gamba Sonatas",
nowadays played by cellists, as they also play in
the Brandenburg Sixth Concerto (with its brilliant
Canons at the Unison, Third, Sixth and Octave).
(The respected Cello Virtuoso, Paul Olefsky, has
been a friend since 1976, when he Premiered a
virtuoso work of mine. He is also a big advocate
of the (Tenor) "Viola Da Gamba" and "Viola
d'Amore".)

Jean-Marie Leclair, 'l'aine' (1697-1764) was the
Head of the French School of Violin Playing,
which was battling the Italian School Players. The
String Bass Virtuoso Marin Marais (1656-1728)
was a forerunner of Leclair's by helping establish
the French Style of Unfretted Bowed String
Playing, well before the conflict between French
and Italian Styles even got started. That was a
result of friction between string students of
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) and Archangelo
Corelli (1653-1713), choosing either to remain
loyal to the Italian Style or to invent a French
Style, just to spite them.

The kind of Unfretted, Bowed String Bass
that Marais played is questionable, because the
design of the Bass kept undergoing changes
until the Early 19th Century. I've had Professors
of the String Bass tell me that there were even
3-Stringed Basses being played in Beethoven's
lifetime! Obviously in the 20th Century, adding
a "C Extension" or Fifth (Low C) String has
become common. It is likely that Marais played
a number of kinds of Unfretted String Basses
AS WELL AS the Fretted (Tenor) "Viola Da
Gamba" at least some of the time, as he did
write a number of Tenor Da Gamba works.

The development of the "Arpeggione" in 1823
was an attempt to re-introduce a Tenor Viola Da
Gamba type of instrument, that never caught on.
All we have left is the gorgeous Sonata by
Schubert, which I've heard soloed by cello, viola,
clarinet and even flute!

Since it has long been my goal to write sonatas
and concertos for all the major orchestral instru-
ments, I've been aware for years of some of the
famous existing sonatas and concertos by Bass
Virtuosi / Composers, like:
Domenico Dragonetti (1763-1846)
Giovanni Bottesini (1821-1889)
Serge Koussevitzky (1874-1951)

I even give Lead Melodies to Soloists and/or
the Whole Sections, for each String Section in a
number of my orchestral and chamber works,
including in the several pages already written of
the new "Quintet for Bb Clarinet, Violin, Viola,
Cello and String Bass". (Why not? It's more fun
for each player, to give everyone some solos!
Besides, Bass Players have sometimes been the
one to initiate performances of works like the
Schubert "Trout" Quintet.)

But I've studied this kind of Violin-Family
History and Early Tonal Harmony for years.
Personally I'm more curious about the develop-
ment of Early Clarinets from the Baroque Era.
Weren't there a few Vivaldi Concerti for "Clari-
nets"? And what kind of instruments were these,
compared to the mechanisms on the modern
clarinets? Having never been a clarinetist, nor a
woodwind player, these answers remain vague
for me!

Bear Woodson
Composer in Tucson, Arizona, USA

"Bear Woodson" <bearwoodson@-----.net>
http://www.fluteconnection.net/
Then click on "Contemporary Composers",
then click on "Bear Woodson".
http://catalog.lib.asu.edu/search/a?SEARCH=McGale

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