The low part of the musical system. In a composition, it refers to the part standing lowest in any sonority, which in music since c 1500 has played an important role in the sequence of harmonies. It applies to the bottom note of a chord, the lowest part in a polyphonic texture, the bottom register and the lowest male voice. The term - like the word ‘base’ - comes from the Latin bassus (‘low’, ‘thick’), and first appeared in music c 1450, when the lower contratenor part in four-part texture came to be called ‘contratenor bassus’. In Baroque music, the existence of the basso continuo or thoroughbass (see Continuo) showed the importance of the bass part in governing the harmony.
The bass voice has a normal range of F-e′; it found a regular place in polyphony in the 15th and 16th centuries. In early opera it was used mainly for gods or mysterious figures, though later also for elderly fathers, generals and sometimes kings. In the 18th century the bass voice was much used for arias expressing rage, but by the mid-century the basso buffo (comic bass) was becoming popular; there are many examples in the operas of Pergolesi, Mozart and Rossini. In the 19th century the bass voice tended to be used for villains (Mephistopheles, Alberich) and figures of authority, such as Verdi's King Philip II and Grand Inquisitor (Don Carlos), Wagner's King Mark and Boris Godunov. These call for voices of the basse-noble and basso profondo type, particularly associated with Russian music. Another type, used in the earlier 19th century, is the basso cantante or basse-chantante, calling for a rather lighter voice.
The term ‘bass’ is sometimes used to signify any bass instrument, but particularly the double bass (in orchestral or jazz contexts) or the bass tuba (in band contexts). It is used to qualify other instrument names, to signify the lowest (or sometimes one from lowest) of a family of instruments. Examples are the bass flute (an instrument in C, an octave below the normal flute; the term is sometimes incorrectly applied to the alto flute in G); the bass clarinet, normally in B♭, an octave below the soprano; the bass saxophone, in B♭, an octave below the tenor; the bass trumpet, an octave below the normal trumpet; and the bass trombone, in G or F, a minor 3rd or a 4th below the tenor trombone. Bass tuba is simply another term for the tuba, already a bass instrument. The bass viol or viola da gamba is the normal bass instrument of the viol family. The term ‘bass violin’ has been used for the basse de violon, an instrument of c 1700 tuned a whole tone below the cello; it has also been applied to the cello itself.
The bass clef, used by most instruments of bass and baritone pitch, shows the F below middle C on the second staff line from the top.
