Was Domenico Dragonetti the inventor of the double Bass?

Answer 1

Domenico Dragonetti did not invent the instrument per se, but I am reasonably sure he was responsible for some improvements. What he is really responsible for is showing composers what the instrument in competent hands is capable of. In the early 1800's he became a friend of Beethoven who when he heard D.D. play, became inspired to be much more creative when writing his bass parts. I believe aside from some absolutely beautiful music we wrote and played himself he showed that the bass is capable of playing some extremely complex music and got us all out of the essentially root-5th stuff that was typical before then. He really raised the bar for al of us. As far as the music he wrote for the instrument as a solo instrument, in my opinion, I have yet to hear anything that really compares with it. If I were to stumble across a time machine one of the first things on my list would be to attend a concert where he was the featured soloist so I could hear what the music he wrote was really intended to sound like. From what I've read, he was the Jaco Pastorius of the Upright Bass except that his life story has a happy ending.