The American bass viol, also called a ''church bass'' or ''Yankee bass viol'', is a type of bowed string instrument which enjoyed popularity in early 19th century

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

for use in aiding

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...

congregational singers. In its time of common use, the instrument was referred to as a ''bass viol'', despite the fact that it more closely resembles a large

violoncello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G2, D ...

than a bass viola da gamba (also known as a

bass viol The viol (), viola da gamba (), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitch ...

). The size and form of these instruments varies; many are uniquely proportioned folk instruments. The earliest dated example of a church bass is from the maker Benjamin Crehore, made in Massachusetts in 1788. A particularly notable double bass

luthier A luthier ( ; AmE also ) is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments that have a neck and a sound box. The word "luthier" is originally French and comes from the French word for lute. The term was originally used for makers o ...

Abraham Prescott Abraham Prescott (July 5, 1789 – May 1, 1858) was a noted luthier, particularly of the double bass, who worked in Deerfield and Concord, New Hampshire during the 19th century. Prescott built his first double bass in 1819, building 207 over ...

, is known to have made 500 to 600 church basses, the earliest example dating from 1809. With the rising popularity of the

reed organ The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. T ...

in the 1840s, church basses fell into disuse.

References

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External links

A large collection of American bass viols at MFA, Boston

The Crehore 1788 church bass

Musician Dean Ferrell performing on a Prescott church bass
Viol family instruments Violin family instruments New England Puritanism