Familie barokfluiten-1565119918 (cropped)

A bass recorder is a wind instrument in F₃ that belongs to the family of recorders. The bass recorder plays an

octave In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...

lower than the

alto The musical term alto, meaning "high" in Italian (Latin: ''altus''), historically refers to the contrapuntal part higher than the tenor and its associated vocal range. In 4-part voice leading alto is the second-highest part, sung in choruses by ...

or treble recorder. In the recorder family it stands in between the

tenor recorder The tenor recorder is a member of the recorder family. It has the same form as a soprano (or descant) recorder and an alto (or treble) recorder, but it produces a lower sound than either; a still lower sound is produced by the bass recorder and ...

and C great-bass (or quart-bass) recorder. Due to the length of the instrument, the lowest tone, F, requires a

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

. On modern instruments, keys may also be provided for low F, G, and G, and sometimes for C and C as well. In the early 17th century,

Michael Praetorius Michael Praetorius (probably 28 September 1571 – 15 February 1621) was a German composer, organist, and music theorist. He was one of the most versatile composers of his age, being particularly significant in the development of musical forms ba ...

used the diminutive term "basset" (small bass) to describe this size of recorder as the lowest member of the " four-foot" consort, in which the instruments sound an octave higher than the corresponding human voices. Praetorius calls the next-lower instrument (bottom note B₂) a "bass", and the instrument an octave lower than the basset (with bottom note F₂) a ''Großbaß'', or "large bass". The bass is usually the lowest instrument of the recorder

consort __NOTOC__ Consort may refer to: Music * "The Consort" (Rufus Wainwright song), from the 2000 album ''Poses'' * Consort of instruments, term for instrumental ensembles * Consort song (musical), a characteristic English song form, late 16th–earl ...

, but it may be used as an alto in " eight-foot" register in the so-called "great consort" or ''grand jeux'', in which case two larger sizes of bass recorder take the lower parts and a tenor may be used as an optional descant.

References

* * * * Footnotes {{Authority control Baroque instruments Early musical instruments Internal fipple flutes Recorders (musical instruments)