The Baroque Double Bass Violone

By (author) Alfred Planyavsky, James Barket

Hardback - £94.00

Publication date:

06 August 1998

Length of book:

216 pages

Publisher

Scarecrow Press

Dimensions:

225x145mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780810834484

In the nineteenth century, use of the violone, a bass instrument with many sizes and variations, was nearly eliminated from musical repertoires, and its traditional parts were parceled out to other instruments such as the violoncello. The following phases of revival of the double-bass have been hampered by a lack of physical evidence and diligent research into the historical uses of the instrument. The Baroque Double Bass Violone is a comprehensive study that examines a cross-section of standard works to enhance contemporary violone research, and provide information for musicologists, music publishers, ensemble leaders, and revivalists, all of whom have been unable to reconstruct an essential part of Baroque music.

This translation finally makes the most exhaustive study of the double bass violone accessible to English-speaking musical enthusiasts. The book includes lists of terminology, the most comprehensive bibliography to date, and 48 illustrations that make this a compendium of string bass research.
For double bassists interested in assessing the original documents for themselves, I can think of no better introduction to the subject, or list of sources...a tremendous amount of information may be gleaned from Planyavsky's book. Much praise is due both to the author, for his pioneering, inspiring and long-standing contributions to this field, and the translator, James Barket, for having made them widely accessible to the English-speaking community at last.