Bob's Music Player
| Basse de Violon with Frets |
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I often play the bass violin (bass de violon) which is like a big cello tuned a tone lower (Bb lowest string). I put some frets on it, to see if it made it easier to play chords. see the photos.
I don't think it is so strange to put frets on a "cello." Since the cello was invented when the viola da gamba was a very common instrument it must have occured to some people to also stick frets on the cello - either for better resonance or to help with intonation or to make chord playing easier.
You can even read in Quantz:
“If the violoncello has frets, as is customary upon the viola da gamba, the violoncellist must, in playing notes marked with flats, depress the strings a little above the frets, and apply a little more pressure with his fingers, in order to stop them with the additional height (that is, of about a comma) that their ratios require as opposed to those of notes marked with sharps." So, what is it like? advantages. The hard surfaces of the added frets , compared to the soft pad of the finger, allow the strings to resonate much longer. Every note approaches the quality of an open string (as on a viol). The main advantage of this is that the bass continues to resonate strongly under a chord after the bow has moved to another string. You can also use "gamba fingering." disadvantages. playing for an extended time with no opportunity for tuning e.g. in an opera. When the strings go out of tune as they naturally do, it is very hard to blend into the continuo group, and there is nothing that can prevent this except being very good at tuning very quickly, very quietly.
The instrument pictured is made by Katrien van der Meersch (Belgium) and belongs to BarokOpera Amsterdam. It is a very fine instrument. |
