BASS (the same word as "base," and so pronounced, but influenced in spelling by the Ital. basso), deep, low; especially in music, the lower part in the harmony of a composition, the lowest male voice, or the lowest-pitched of a class of instruments, as the bass-clarinet.

Bass or bast (a word of doubtful origin, pronounced băs) is the fibrous bark of the lime tree, used in gardening for tying up plants, or to make mats, soft plaited baskets, &c. Basswood is the American lime-tree, Tilia Americana; white basswood is T. heterophylla.

The name bass is also given to a fish closely resembling the perch.

BASSA, a province of the British protectorate of Northern Nigeria, occupying the angle made by the meeting of the Benue river with the Niger. It has an area of 7000 sq. m., with a population estimated at about one and a half millions. It is bounded N. by the Benue, W. by the Niger, S. by the frontier of Southern Nigeria, and E. by the province of Muri. The province is heavily forested, and is estimated to be one of the richest of the protectorate in natural products. It has never been penetrated by Moslem influence, and is inhabited in the greater part by warlike and unruly pagans. Early in the 16th century the Igbira (Okpoto or Ibo) were one of the most powerful pagan peoples of Nigeria and had their capital at Iddah. At a later period the Bassas conquered the western portion of the state and the Munshis the eastern, while the Okpoto still held the south and a wedge-shaped district partially dividing the Munshis and Bassas. The Bassas are a very remarkable pagan race who permeate the entire protectorate of Northern Nigeria, and are to be found in small colonies in almost every province. They are clever agriculturists, naturally peaceful and industrious. The Munshis, though also good agriculturists, are a warlike and most unruly race, as are also the Okpoto.

The districts which now comprise the province of Bassa came nominally under British control in 1900, but up to the year 1903 administrative authority was confined to the western half with Dekina (in 7deg 3' E., 7deg 41' N.) for its capital. In December of 1903 a disturbance resulting in the murder of the British resident led to the despatch of a military expedition, and as a result of the operations the frontiers of the districts under control were extended to the borders of the Munshi country in about 8deg E. The western portion of the province, occupied by friendly and peaceful tribes upon the Niger, has been organized for administration on the same system as the rest of the protectorate. Courts of justice are operative and taxes are peacefully collected. The Okpoto, however, remain turbulent, as do their neighbours the Munshis. Spirits, of which the importation is forbidden in Northern Nigeria, are freely smuggled over the border from Southern Nigeria. Arms and powder are also imported. The slave-trade is still alive in this district, and an overland route for slaves is believed to have been established through eastern Bassa to the Benue. In consequence of the natural wealth of the province, there are trading establishments of the Niger Company and of Messrs Holt on the Niger and Benue, and colonies of native traders have penetrated the country from the north. Roman Catholic and Protestant missions are established at Dekina and Gbebe.

BASSANO, JACOPO DA PONTE (1510-1592), Venetian painter, was born at Bassano. He was educated by his father, who was himself an artist, and then completed his studies at Venice. On the death of his father he returned to Bassano and settled there. His subjects were generally peasants and villagers, cattle and landscapes, with some portraits and historical designs. His figures are well designed, and his animals and landscapes have an agreeable air of simple nature. His compositions, though they have not much eloquence or grandeur, have abundance of force and truth; the local colours are well observed, the flesh-tints are fresh and brilliant, and his chiaroscuro and perspective are unexceptionable. He is said to have finished a great number of pictures; but his genuine works are somewhat rare and valuable—many of those which are called originals being copies either by the sons of Bassano or by others. Bassano's style varied considerably during his lifetime. He naturally was at first a copier of his father, but his productions in this style are not of great value. He was then strongly attracted by the lightness and beautiful colouring of Titian, and finally adopted the style which is recognized as his own. Although he painted few great pictures, and preferred humble subjects, yet his altar-piece of the Nativity at Bassano is estimated highly by the best judges, and in Lanzi's opinion is the finest work of its class.

BASSANO, a city of Venetia, Italy, in the province of Vicenza, 24 m. N.E. of Vicenza and 30 m. N. of Padua by rail, at the foot of the Venetian Alps. Pop. (1901) town, 7553; commune, 15,097. It is well situated upon the Brenta, which is here spanned by a covered wooden bridge, and commands fine views. The castle, erected by the Ezzelini in the 13th century, lies in the upper portion of the town, above the river; a tower, erected by a member of the same family, is a conspicuous feature. The museum and cathedral and some of the other churches contain pictures by the da Ponte family (16th and early 17th century), surnamed Bassano from their birth-place; Jacopo is the most eminent of them. The museum also contains drawings and letters of the sculptor Antonio Canova. The church of S. Francesco, begun in the 12th century in the Lombard Romanesque style, was continued in the 13th in the Gothic style. Some of the houses have traces of paintings on their facades. In the 11th century Eccelin, a German, obtained fiefs in this district from Conrad II. and founded the family of the Ezzelini, who were prominent in the history of North Italy in the 13th and 14th centuries. Bassano apparently came into existence about A.D. 1000. Its possession was disputed between Padua and Vicenza; it passed for a moment under the power of Gian Galeazzo Visconti of Milan, who fortified it. At the beginning of the 15th century it went over to Venice; its industries flourished under Venetian government, especially its printing-press and manufacture of majolica, the latter of which still continues. On the 8th of September 1796 an action was fought here between the French and the Austrians, in which the French were victorious.

(T. AS.)

BASSARAB or BASSARABA, the name of a dynasty in Rumania, which ruled Walachia from the dawn of its history until 1658. [v.03 p.0491] The origin of the name and family has not yet been explained. It undoubtedly stands in close connexion with the name of the province of Bessarabia, which oriental chroniclers gave in olden times to the whole of Walachia. The heraldic sign, three heads of negroes in the Bassarab shield, seems to be of late western origin and to rest on a popular etymology connecting the second half of the word with Arabs, who were taken to signify Moors (blacks). The other heraldic signs, the crescent and the star, have evidently been added on the same supposition of an oriental origin of the family. The Servian chroniclers connect its origin with their own nationality, basing this view upon the identification of Sarab with Sorb or Serbia. All this is mere conjecture. It is, however, a fact that the first appearance of the Bassarabs as rulers (knyaz, ban or voivod) is in the western part of Rumania (originally called Little Walachia), and also in the southern parts of Transylvania—the old dukedoms of Fogarash and Almash, which are situated on the right bank of the Olt (Aluta) and extend south to Severin and Craiova. Whatever the origin of the Bassarabs may be, the foundation of the Walachian principality is undoubtedly connected with a member of that family, who, according to tradition, came from Transylvania and settled first in Campulung and Tirgovishtea. It is equally certain that almost every one of the long line of princes and voivods bore a Slavonic surname, perhaps due to the influence of the Slavonic Church, to which the Rumanians belonged. Starting from the 13th Century the Bassarabs soon split into two rival factions, known in history as the descendants of the two brothers Dan and Dragul. The form Drakul—devil—by which this line is known in history is no doubt a nickname given by the rival line. It has fastened on the family on account of the cruelties perpetrated by Vlad Drakul (1433-1446) and Vlad Tsepesh (1456-1476), who figure in popular legend as representatives of the most fiendish cruelty. The feud between the rival dynasties lasted from the beginning of the 15th century to the beginning of the 17th.

The most prominent members of the family were Mircea (1386-1418), who accepted Turkish suzerainty; Neagoe, the founder of the famous cathedral at Curtea de Argesh (q.v.); Michael, surnamed the Brave (1592-1601); and Petru Cercel, famous for his profound learning, who spoke twelve languages and carried on friendly correspondence with the greater scholars and poets of Italy. He was drowned by the Turks in Constantinople in 1590 through the intrigues of Mihnea, who succeeded him on the throne of Walachia. The British Museum possesses the oldest MSS. of the Rumanian Gospels, once owned by this Petru Cercel, and containing his autograph signature. The text was published by Dr M. Caster at the expense of the Rumanian government. Mateiu Bassarab (1633-1654) established the first printing-press in Rumania, and under his influence the first code of laws was compiled and published in Bucharest in 1654. The Bassarab dynasty became extinct with Constantine Sherban in 1658. See RUMANIA: Language and Literature.

(M. G.)

BASS CLARINET (Fr. clarinette basse; Ger. Bass-Klarinette; Ital. clarinetto basso or darone), practically the A, Bb or C clarinet speaking an octave lower; what therefore has been said concerning the fingering, transposition, acoustic properties and general history of the clarinet (q.v.) also applies to the bass clarinet. Owing to its greater length the form of the bass clarinet differs from that of the clarinets in that the bell joint is bent up in front of the instrument, terminating in a large gloxinea-shaped bell, and that the mouthpiece is attached by means of a strong ligature and screws to a serpent-shaped crook of brass or silver. The compass of the modern orchestral bass clarinet is in the main the same as that of the higher clarinets in C, Bb and A, but an octave lower, and therefore for the bass clarinet in C is [Notation: E2 B5.]; for the bass clarinet in Bb the real sounds are one tone, and for the bass clarinet in A 1-1/2 tone lower, although the notation is the same for all three.

Sometimes the treble clef is used in notation for the bass clarinet. It must then be understood that the instrument in C speaks an octave lower, the bass clarinet in Bb a major ninth and the bass clarinet in A a minor tenth lower. The tenor clef is also frequently used in orchestral works.

The quality of tone is less reedy in the bass clarinet than in the higher instruments. It resembles the bourdon stop on the organ, and in the lowest register, more especially, the tone is somewhat hollow and wanting in power although mellower than that of the bassoon. In the lowest octave the instrument speaks slowly and is chiefly used for sustained bass or melody notes; rapid passages are impossible.

The modern orchestral model may be fitted with almost every kind of key-mechanism, including the Boehm, and the degree of perfection and ingenuity attained has removed the all but insuperable difficulties which stood in the way of the original inventors who, not understanding key-work, made many futile attempts to bridge the necessarily great distance between the finger-holes by making the bore serpentine, boring the holes obliquely, &c.

The low pitch of the bass clarinet (8 ft. tone) contrasted with the moderate length of the instrument—whose bore measures only some 42 to 43 inches from mouthpiece to bell, whereas that of the bassoon, an instrument of the same pitch, is twice that length—is a puzzle to many. An explanation of the fact is to be found in the peculiar acoustic properties of the cylindrical tube played by means of a reed mouthpiece characterizing the clarinet family, which acts as a closed pipe speaking an octave lower than an open pipe of the same length, and overblowing a twelfth instead of an octave. This is more fully explained in the articles CLARINET and AULOS.

The construction of the bass clarinet demands the greatest care. The bore should theoretically be strictly cylindrical throughout its length from mouthpiece to bell joint; the slightest deviation from mathematical accuracy, such as an undue widening of the bell from the point where it joins the body to the mouth of the bell, would tend to muffle the lower notes of the instrument and to destroy correct intonation.

The origin of the bass clarinet must be sought in Germany, where Heinrich Grenser of Dresden, one of the most famous instrument-makers of his day, made the first bass clarinet in 1793. The basset horn (q.v.) or tenor clarinet, which had reached the height of its popularity, no doubt suggested to Grenser, who was more especially renowned for his excellent fagottos, the possibility of providing for the clarinet a bass of its own. One of these earliest attempts in the form of a fagotto, stamped "A. Grenser, Dresden," with nine square-flapped brass keys working on knobs, is in the Grossherzogliches Museum at Darmstadt and was lent to the Royal Military Exhibition, London 1890.[1] Two other early specimens,[2] belonging originally to Adolphe Sax and to M. de Coussemaker, are now respectively preserved in the museums of the Brussels Conservatoire and of the Berlin Hochschule (Snoeck Collection). The tubes are of great thickness and the holes are bored obliquely through the walls. Both instruments are in A.

Attempts were made in Italy to overcome the mechanical difficulties by making the bore of the bass clarinet serpentine. A specimen by Nicolas Papalini of Pavia[3] in the museum of the Brussels Conservatoire has the serpentine bore pierced through two slabs of pear-wood; the two halves, each forming a vertical section of the instrument, are fitted together with wooden pins. The outside length is only 2 ft. 3-1/2 in. and there are nineteen finger-holes.

Joseph Uhlmann of Vienna[4] constructed a bass clarinet, also termed "bass basset horn," with twenty-three keys and a compass from Bb through four complete octaves with all chromatic [v.03 p.0492] semitones. These instruments resemble the saxophones (q.v.), having the bell joint bent up in front and the crook almost at right angles backwards, but the bore of the saxophone is conical.

Georg Streitwolf (1779-1837), an ingenious musical instrument-maker of Goettingen, produced in 1828 a bass clarinet with a compass extending from Ab to F, nineteen keys and a fingering the same as that of the clarinet with but few exceptions. In form it resembled the fagotto and had a crook terminating in a beak mouthpiece. The Streitwolf bass clarinet was adopted in 1834 by the Prussian infantry as bass to the wood-wind.[5] Streitwolf's first bass clarinets were in C, but later he constructed instruments in Bb as well. Like the basset horn, Streitwolf's instruments had the four chromatic open keys extending the compass downwards to Bb. The tone was of very fine quality. One of these instruments is in the possession of Herr C. Kruspe of Erfurt,[6] and another is preserved in the Berlin collection at the Hochschule.

It was, however, the successive improvements of Adolphe Sax (Paris, 1814-1894), working probably from Grenser's and later from Streitwolf's models, which produced the modern bass clarinet, and following up the work of Halary and Buffet in the same field, he secured its introduction into the orchestra at the opera. The bass clarinet in C made its first appearance in opera in 1836 in Meyerbeer's Huguenots, Act V., where in a fine passage the lower register of the instrument is displayed to advantage, and later in Dinorah (Le pardon de Ploermel). Two years later (1838) at the theatre of Modena a bass clarinet by P. Maino of Milan, differing in construction from the Sax model, was independently introduced into the orchestra.[7] Wagner employed the bass clarinet in Bb and C in Tristan und Isolde,[8] where at the end of Act II. it is used with great effect to characterize the reproachful utterance of King Mark, thus:



etc.

(K. S.)

[1] See Captain C. R. Day, Descriptive Catalogue (London, 1891), No. 266, p. 125.

[2] See Victor Mahillon, Catalogue descriptif, vol. ii. (1896), pp. 224-226, No. 940.

[3] See Captain C. R. Day, op. cit. p. 123, pl. v. B. and p. 123, No. 262.

[4] See Dr Schafhaeutl's report on the Munich exhibition, Bericht der Beurtheilungscommission fuer Musikinstrumente (Munich, 1855), P. 153.

[5] See Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (Leipzig, 1834), Bd. xxxvi. March, p. 193.

[6] See Wilhelm Altenburg, Die Klarinette (Heilbronn, 1904-1905), p. 33.

[7] See W. Altenburg, op. cit. p. 34.

[8] Orchestral score, p. 284.

BASSEIN, a district and town in the Irrawaddy division of Lower Burma, in the delta of the Irrawaddy. The district has been reduced to 4127 sq. m., from 8954 sq. m. in 1871, having given up a large tract to the district of Myaungmya formed in 1896.

A mountain range called the Anauk-pet Taungmyin stretches through the district from N. to S. along the coast. The principal river of the district is the Irrawaddy, which debouches on the sea at its eastern extremity through a delta intersected with salt water creeks, among which the Pyamalaw, Pyinzalu, Kyunton, and Ngawun Shagegyi or Bassein river rank as important arms of the sea. Irrawaddy and Inyegyi are the only two lakes in the district. The delta of the Irrawaddy forms, wherever cultivable, a vast sheet of rice, with cotton, sesamum, and tobacco as subsidiary crops. In 1901 the population was 391,427.

BASSEIN, the chief town and port, is the capital of the district and division, and is situated on the eastern bank of the Bassein river, one of the main arteries by which the waters of the Irrawaddy discharge themselves into the sea. It forms an important seat of the rice trade with several steam rice mills, and has great capabilities both from a mercantile and a military point of view, as it commands the great outlet of the Irrawaddy. It fell before the British arms, in May 1852, during the second Burmese war. In 1901 it had a population of 31,864. The vessels of the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company ply between Rangoon and Bassein, &c., by inland waters, and a railway opened in 1903 runs northeastward through the centre of the district, to Henzada and Letpadan.

BASSELIN, OLIVIER (c. 1400-c. 1450), French poet, was born in the Val-de-Vire in Normandy about the end of the 14th century. He was by occupation a fuller, and tradition still points out the site of his mill. His drinking songs became famous under the name of Vaux-de-Vire, corrupted in modern times into "vaudeville." From various traditions it may be gathered that Basselin was killed in the English wars about the middle of the century, possibly at the battle of Formigny (1450). At the beginning of the 17th century a collection of songs was published by a Norman lawyer, Jean Le Houx, purporting to be the work of Olivier Basselin. There seems to be very little doubt that Le Houx was himself the author of the songs attributed to Basselin, as well as of those he acknowledged as his own.

It has been suggested that Basselin's name may be safely connected with some songs preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris, and published at Caen in 1866 by M. Armand Gaste. The question is discussed in M. V. Patard's La Verite dans la question Olivier Basselin et Jean le Houx a propos du Vau-de-Vire (1897). A. Gaste's edition (1875) of the Vaux-de-Vire was translated (1885) by J. P. Muirhead.

BASSES-ALPES, a department of south-eastern France, formed in 1790 out of the northern portion of Provence. It is bounded N. by the department of the Hautes Alpes, E. by Italy and the department of the Alpes Maritimes, S. by that of the Var, and W. by those of Vaucluse and the Drome. Its area is about 2698 sq. m., while its greatest length is 89-1/2 m. and its greatest breadth 56 m. Pop. (1906) 113,126. The river Durance passes through the western part of this department, receiving (left), as affluents, the Ubaye, the Bleone and the Asse (the entire course of each of these rivers is included within the department) as well as the Verdon, the upper course of which is within the department, while the lower course forms its southern limit. It is a poor and hilly district, the highest summits (the loftiest is the Aiguille de Chambeyron, 11,155 ft.) rising round the head waters of the Ubaye. The department is divided into five arrondissements (Digne, Barcelonnette, Castellane, Forcalquier, and Sisteron), 30 cantons and 250 communes. It forms the bishopric of Digne, formerly in the ecclesiastical province of Embrun, but since 1802 in that of Aix-en-Provence. Its chief towns are Digne, Barcelonnette, Castellane, Forcalquier, and Sisteron. It is poorly supplied with railways (total length 109-1/2 m.), the main line from Grenoble to Avignon running through it from Sisteron to Manosque, and sending off two short branch lines to Digne (14 m.) and to Forcalquier (9 m.). It is a poor department from the material point of view, being very mountainous and containing many mountain pastures. But these pastures have been much damaged by the Provencal shepherds to whom they are let out, while the forests have been very much thinned (though extensive reafforestments are now being carried out) so that the soil is very dry and made drier by exposure to the southern sun. From near the head of the Ubaye valley the pass of the Col de l'Argentiere (6545 ft.) leads over from Barcelonnette to Cuneo, in Italy; it was perhaps traversed by Hannibal, and certainly in 1515 by Francis I.

See C. J. J. M. Feraud, Histoire, geographie et statistique du Departement des Basses-Alpes (Digne, 1861).

(W. A. B. C.)

BASSES-PYRENEES, a department of south-western France, at the angle of the Bay of Biscay, formed in 1790, two-thirds of it from Bearn and the rest from three districts of Gascony—Basse-Navarre, Soule and Labourd. The latter constitute the Basque region of France (see BASQUES) and cover the west of the department. Basses-Pyrenees is bounded N. by Landes and Gers, E. by Hautes-Pyrenees (which has two enclaves forming five communes within this department), S. by Spain, and W. by the Atlantic Ocean. Pop. (1906) 426,817. Area, 2977 sq. m. The whole of the south of the department is occupied by the western and lower summits of the Pyrenees. The remainder consists of a region of heaths and plateaus to the northeast of the Gave de Pau, and of hills divided by numberless fertile valleys to the west of that river. The height of the mountains of the southern frontier increases gradually from west to east. The peak of the Rhune, to the south of St Jean de Luz, rises only to 2950 ft.; and on the border of the Basque country the mean height of the summits is not much greater. The peak of Orhy alone, in the south of the valley of Mauleon, reaches 6618 ft. But beyond that of Anie (8215 ft.), on the meridian of Orthez, which marks the boundary of Bearn, much loftier elevations appear,—Mourrous (9760 ft.), on the border of Hautes-Pyrenees, and the southern peak of Ossau (9465 ft.). The frontier between France and Spain, for the most part, [v.03 p.0493] follows the crest-line of the main range. Forts guard the upper valleys of the Nive and the Aspe, along which run important passes into Spain. The general direction of the rivers of the department is towards the north-west. The streams almost all meet in the Adour through the Gave de Pau, the Bidouze, and the Nive. In the north-east the two Luys flow directly to the Adour, which they join in Landes. In the south-west the Nivelle and the Bidassoa flow directly into the sea. The lower course of the Adour forms the boundary between Basses-Pyrenees and Landes; it enters the sea a short distance below Bayonne over a shifting bar, which has often altered the position of its mouth. The Gave de Pau, a larger stream than the Adour, passes Pau and Orthez, but its current is so swift that it is only navigable for a few miles above its junction with the Adour. On the left it receives the Gave d'Oloron, formed by the Gave d'Ossau, descending from the Pic du Midi, and the Gave d'Aspe, which rises in Spain. An important affluent of the Gave d'Oloron, the Saison or Gave de Mauleon, descends from the Pic d'Orhy. From the Pic des Escaliers, which rises above the forest of Iraty, the Bidouze descends northwards; while the forest, though situated on the southern slope of the chain, forms a part of French territory. The Nive, a beautiful river of the Basque country, takes its rise in Spain; after flowing past St Jean-Pied-de-Port, formerly capital of French Navarre and fortified by Vauban to guard the pass of Roncevaux, it joins the Adour at Bayonne. The Nivelle also belongs only partly to France and ends its course at St Jean-de-Luz. The Bidassoa, which is only important as forming part of the frontier, contains the Ile des Faisans, where the treaty of the Pyrenees was concluded (1659), and debouches between Hendaye (France) and Fuenterrabia (Spain).

The climate of the department is mild and it has an abundant rainfall, partly due to the west wind which drives the clouds from the gulf of Gascony. The spring is rainy; the best seasons are summer and autumn, the heat of summer being moderated by the sea. The winters are mild. The air of Pau agrees with invalids and delicate constitutions, and St Jean-de-Luz and Biarritz are much frequented by winter visitors.

Despite extensive tracts of uncultivated land, the department is mainly agricultural. Maize and wheat are the chief cereals; potatoes, flax and vegetables are also produced. Pasture is abundant, and horses, cattle, sheep and pigs are largely reared. The vine is grown on the lower slopes sheltered from the north wind, the wines of Jurancon, near Pau, being the most renowned. Of the fruits grown, chestnuts, cider-apples, and pears are most important. About one-thirteenth of the department consists of woods, a very small proportion of which belong to the government, the rest to the communes and private individuals.

The department furnishes salt, building-stone, and other quarry products. There are mineral springs at Eaux-Bonnes, Eaux-Chaudes, Cambo-les-Bains (resorted to by the Basques on St John's Eve), St Christau, and Salies. At Le Boucau, 3 m. from Bayonne, there are large metallurgical works, the Forges de l'Adour, and chemical works. The manufactures of the department include woollen caps and sashes, cord slippers, chocolate, and paper, and there are also tanneries, saw- and flour-mills. "Bayonne hams" and other table delicacies are prepared at Orthez. There is a considerable fishing population at Bayonne and St Jean-de-Luz. Bayonne is the principal port. Exports consist chiefly of timber, mine-props, minerals, wine, salt and resinous products. Coal, minerals, phosphates, grain and wool are leading imports. The interior commerce of the department is, however, of greater importance to its inhabitants; it takes the form of exchange of products between the regions of mountain and plain. The railway lines of Basses-Pyrenees, the chief of which is that from Bayonne to Toulouse via Orthez and Pau, belong to the Southern Company. The Adour, the Nive and the Bidouze are navigable on their lower courses. The department has five arrondissements—Pau, Bayonne, Oloron, Orthez and Mauleon, divided into 41 cantons and 559 communes. It constitutes the diocese of Bayonne, comes within the educational circumscription (academie) of Bordeaux and belongs to the district of the XVIII. army corps. Pau, the capital and seat of a court of appeal, Bayonne, Oloron, Biarritz, Orthez, Eaux-Bonnes, and St Jean-de-Luz are the principal towns. The following places are also of interest:—Lescar, which has a church of the 12th and 16th century, once a cathedral; Montaner, with a stronghold built in 1380 by Gaston Phoebus, count of Foix and viscount, of Bearn; and Sauveterre, a town finely situated on the Gave d'Oloron, with an old bridge, remains of a feudal castle, and a church in the Romanesque and Gothic styles.

BASSET, or BASSETTE, a French game of cards played by five persons with a pack of fifty-two cards. Once very popular, it is now practically obsolete. It is said to be of Venetian origin and to have been introduced into France by Justiniani, the ambassador of Venice in the second half of the 17th century. It resembles lansquenet (q.v.) in a general way, in that it is played between a banker and several punters, the players winning or losing according as cards turned up match those already exposed or not.

BASSET HORN (Fr. Cor de Basset, or Cor de Bassette; Ger. Bassethorn, Basshorn; Ital. Corno di Bassetto), a wood-wind instrument, not a "horn," member of the clarinet family, of which it is the tenor. The basset horn consists of a nearly cylindrical tube of wood (generally cocus or box-wood), having a cylindrical bore and terminating in a metal bell wider than that of the clarinet. For convenience in reaching the keys and holes, the modern instrument is usually bent or curved either near the mouthpiece or at the bell, which is turned upwards. The older models were bent in the middle at an obtuse angle, and had at the bottom of the lower joint, near the bell, a wooden block, inside which the bore was reflexed, and bent down upon itself.[1] The basset horn has the same fingering as the clarinet, and corresponds to the tenor of that instrument, being pitched a fifth below the clarinet in C. The alto clarinet in Eb is often substituted for the basset horn, especially in military bands, but the instruments differ in three particulars:—(1) The basset horn has a metal bell instead of the pear-shaped contracted bell of the alto clarinet. (2) The bore of the basset horn is wider than that of the alto clarinet in Eb, or of the tenor clarinet in F. (3) The tube of the basset horn is longer than that of the clarinet, and contains four additional long keys, worked by the thumb of the right hand, which in the clarinet is only used to steady the instrument. These keys give the basset horn an extended compass of two tones downwards to F [Notation: F2.] whereas the Eb clarinet only extends to G [Notation: G2.] and the F clarinet to A [Notation: A2.] (actual sounds). This brings the compass of the basset horn to a range of four octaves from [Notation: C3 to C7.], actual sounds [Notation: F2 to F6.].

[v.03 p.0494]

Like the clarinet, the basset horn is a transposing instrument, its music being written a fifth higher than the actual sounds. The treble clef is used in notation for all but the lowest register. The technical capabilities of the basset horn are the same as for the clarinet, except that the extra low notes from A to F (actual sounds) can only be intoned slowly and staccato; the notes of the upper register being better represented in the clarinet are seldom used in orchestral music.

The tone of the basset horn is extremely reedy and rich, especially in the medium and low registers; the tone colour is similar to that of the clarinet without its brilliancy; it is mellow and sensuous, but slightly sombre, and therefore well adapted for music of an elegiac funereal character.

The basset horn flourished mainly in Germany, where at the end of the 18th century it was the favourite solo instrument of many celebrated instrumentalists, such as Czerny, David, Lotz, Springer, &c. Among the great masters, Mozart seems to have been foremost in his appreciation of this beautiful instrument. In his Requiem, the reed family is represented by two basset horns having independent parts, and two bassoons. Mozart has also used the instrument with great effect in his opera La Clemenza di Tito, where he has written a fine obbligato for it in the aria "Non piu di Flori"; in Zauberfloete; and in chamber music, viz. short adagio for two basset horns and bassoon, and another for two clarinets and three basset horns (Series 10 of Breitkopf & Haertel's complete edition). Beethoven employed it in his Prometheus overture. Mendelssohn used it in military music, and in two concerted pieces for clarinet and basset horn with pianoforte accompaniment, in F and D min., opp. 113 and 114, dedicated to Heinrich and Carl Baermann.

The archetypes of the basset horn are the same as those of the clarinet (q.v.). The basset horn was the outcome of the desire, prevailing during the 16th and 17th centuries, to obtain complete families of instruments to play in concert. The invention of the basset horn in 1770 is attributed to a clarinet maker of Passau, named Horn, whose name was given to the instrument;[2] by a misnomer, the basset horn became known in Italy as corno di bassetto, and in France as cor de basset. In 1782, Theodore Lotz of Pressburg made some modifications in the instrument, which was further improved by two instrumentalists of Vienna, Anton and Johann Stadler, and finally in 1812 by Iwan Mueller, a famous clarinettist, who invented the alto clarinet in Eb from the basset horn, by giving the latter a construction and fingering analogous to those of the clarinet in Bb, which he took as his model, instead of the clarinet in C.

See J. G. H. Backofen, Anweisung zur Klarinette, nebst einer kurzen Abhandlung ueber das Basset-Horn, with illustration, p. 37 (Leipzig, Breitkopf & Haertel, 1803); Iwan Mueller, Anweisung zu der neuen Clarinette und der Clarinette-alto, nebst einigen Bemerkungen fuer Instrumentenmacher (Leipzig, Freidrich Hofmeister, 1826, with illustrations); Gottfried Weber, "Ueber Clarinette und Bassethorn," Cacilia, Band xi. pp. 35-37 (Mainz, 1834); Wilhelm Altenburg, Die Clarinette, ihre Entstehung und Entwickelung bis zur Jetztzeit in akustischer, technischer u. musikalischer Beziehung (Heilbronn, 1904), pp. 16-32; good heliogravures of early basset horns in Descriptive Catalogue of the Musical Instruments at the Royal Military Exhibition, London, 1890, compiled by Capt. C. R. Day (1891), pl. v.

(K. S.)

[1] An instrument of this type, stamped "H. Grenser, S. Wiesner, Dresden," is in the collection of the Rev. F. W. Galpin, of Hatfield, Broad Oak.

[2] Cantor Lectures on Musical Instruments, their Construction and Capabilities, by A. J. Hipkins, p. 15; Henri Lavoix, Histoire de l'instrumentation depuis le seizieme siecle jusqu'a nos jours (Paris, 1878), on p. 123 the date is given as 1777.

BASSI, LAURA MARIA CATERINA (1711-1778), an Italian lady eminently distinguished for her learning, was born at Bologna in 1711. On account of her extraordinary attainments she received a doctor's degree, and was appointed professor in the philosophical college, where she delivered public lectures on experimental philosophy till the time of her death. She was elected member of many literary societies and carried on an extensive correspondence with the most eminent European men of letters. She was well acquainted with classical literature, as well as with that of France and Italy. In 1738 she married Giuseppe Verrati, a physician, and left several children. She died in 1778.

BASSI, UGO (1800-1849), Italian patriot, was born at Cento, and received his early education at Bologna. An unhappy love affair induced him to become a novice in the Barnabite order when eighteen years old. He repaired to Rome, where he led a life of study and devotion, and entered on his ministry in 1833. It was as a preacher that he became famous, his sermons attracting large crowds owing to their eloquence and genuine enthusiasm. He lived chiefly at Bologna, but travelled all over Italy preaching and tending the poor, so poor himself as to be sometimes almost starving. On the outbreak of the revolutionary movements in 1848, when Pope Pius IX. still appeared to be a Liberal and an Italian patriot, Bassi, filled with national enthusiasm, joined General Durando's papal force to protect the frontiers as army chaplain. His eloquence drew fresh recruits to the ranks, and he exercised great influence over the soldiers and people. When the pope discarded all connexion with the national movement, it was only Bassi who could restrain the Bolognese in their indignation. At Treviso, where he had followed Guidotti's volunteers against the Austrians, he received three wounds, delighted to shed his blood for Italy (12th of May, 1848). He was taken to Venice, and on his recovery he marched unarmed at the head of the volunteers in the fight at Mestre. After the pope's flight from Rome and the proclamation of the Roman republic, Bassi took part with Garibaldi's forces against the French troops sent to re-establish the temporal power. He exposed his life many times while tending the wounded under fire, and when Garibaldi was forced to leave Rome with his volunteers the faithful monk followed him in his wanderings to San Marino. When the legion broke up Garibaldi escaped, but Bassi and a fellow-Garibaldian, Count Livraghi, after endless hardships, were captured near Comacchio. On being brought before the papal governor, Bassi said: "I am guilty of no crime save that of being an Italian like yourself. I have risked my life for Italy, and your duty is to do good to those who have suffered for her." The governor would have freed the prisoners; but he did not dare, and gave them over to an Austrian officer. They were escorted to Bologna, falsely charged before a court martial with having been found with arms in their hands (Bassi had never borne arms at all), and shot on the 8th of August, 1849. Bassi is one of the most beautiful figures of the Italian revolution, a gentle unselfish soul, who, although unusually gifted and accomplished, had an almost childlike nature. His execution excited a feeling of horror all over Italy.

Countess Martinengo gives a charming sketch of his life in her Italian Characters (2nd ed., London, 1901); see also Zironi, Vita del Padre Ugo Bassi (Bologna, 1879); F. Venosta, "Ugo Bassi, Martire di Bologna," in the Pantheon dei Martiri Italiani (Milan, 1863).

(L. V.*)

BASSIANUS, JOANNES, Italian jurist of the 12th century. Little is known of his origin, but he is said by Corolus de Tocco to have been a native of Cremona. He was a professor in the law school of Bologna, the pupil of Bulgarus (q.v.), and the master of Azo (q.v.). The most important of his writings which have been preserved in his Summary on the Authentica, which Savigny regarded as one of the most precious works of the school of the Gloss-writers. Joannes, as he is generally termed, was remarkable for his talent in inventing ingenious forms for explaining his ideas with greater precision, and perhaps his most celebrated work is his "Law-Tree," which he entitled Arbor Arborum, and which has been the subject of numerous commentaries. The work presents a tree, upon the branches of which the various kinds of actions are arranged after the manner of fruit. The civil actions, or actiones stricti juris, being forty-eight in number, are arranged on one side, whilst the equitable or praetorian actions, in number one hundred and twenty-one, are arranged on the other side. A further scientific division of actions was made by him under twelve heads, and by an ingenious system of notation the student was enabled to class at once each of the civil or praetorian actions, as the case might be, under its proper head in the scientific division. By the side of the tree a few glosses were added by Joannes to explain and justify his classification. His Lectures on the Pandects and the Code, which were collected by his pupil Nicolaus Furiosus, have unfortunately perished.

[v.03 p.0495] BASSOMPIERRE, FRANCOIS DE (1579-1646), French courtier, son of Christophe de Bassompierre (1547-1596), was born at the castle of Harrouel in Lorraine. He was descended from an old family which had for generations served the dukes of Burgundy and Lorraine, and after being educated with his brothers in Bavaria and Italy, was introduced to the court of Henry IV. in 1598. He became a great favourite of the king and shared to the full in the dissipations of court life. In 1600 he took part in the brief campaign in Savoy, and in 1603 fought in Hungary for the emperor against the Turks. In 1614 he assisted Marie de' Medici in her struggle against the nobles, but upon her failure in 1617 remained loyal to the King Louis XIII. and assisted the royalists when they routed Marie's supporters at Ponts-de-Ce in 1620. His services during the Huguenot rising of 1621-22 won for him the dignity of marshal of France. He was with the army of the king during the siege of La Rochelle in 1628, and in 1629 distinguished himself in the campaign against the rebels of Languedoc. In 1615 Bassompierre had purchased from Henri, duc de Rohan (1579-1638), the coveted position of colonel-general of the Swiss and Grisons; on this account he was sent to raise troops in Switzerland when Louis XIII. marched against Savoy in 1629, and after a short campaign in Italy his military career ended. As a diplomatist his career was a failure. In 1621 he went to Madrid as envoy extraordinary to arrange the dispute concerning the seizure of the Valteline forts by Spain, and signed the fruitless treaty of Madrid. In 1625 he was sent into Switzerland on an equally futile mission, and in 1626 to London to secure the retention of the Catholic ecclesiastics and attendants of Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I. The personal influence of Henry IV. had deterred Bassompierre from a marriage with Charlotte de Montmorency, daughter of the constable Montmorency, afterwards princesse de Conde, and between 1614 and 1630 he was secretly married to Louise Marguerite, widow of Francois, prince de Conti, and through her became implicated in the plot to overthrow Richelieu on the "Day of Dupes" 1630. His share was only a slight one, but his wife was an intimate friend of Marie de' Medici, and her hostility to the cardinal aroused his suspicions. By Richelieu's orders, Bassompierre was arrested at Senlis on the 25th of February 1631, and put into the Bastille, where he remained until Richelieu's death in 1643. On his release his offices were restored to him, and he passed most of his time at the castle of Tillieres in Normandy, until his death on the 12th of October 1646. He left a son, Francois de la Tour, by the princesse de Conti, and an illegitimate son, Louis de Bassompierre, afterwards bishop of Saintes. His Memoires, which are an important source for the history of his time, were first published at Cologne in 1665. He also left an incomplete account of his embassies to Spain, Switzerland and England (Cologne, 1668) and a number of discourses upon various subjects.

The best edition of the Memoires is that issued by the Societe de l'Histoire de France (Paris, 1877); see also G. Tallemant des Reaux, Historiettes de la princesse de Conti, et du marechal de Bassompierre (Paris, 1854-1860).



BASSOON (Fr. basson; Ger. Fagott; Ital. fagotto), a woodwind instrument with double reed mouthpiece, a member of the oboe (q.v.) family, of which it is the bass. The German and Italian names of the instrument were bestowed from a fancied resemblance to a bundle of sticks, the bassoon being the first instrument of the kind to be doubled back upon itself; its direct ancestor, the bass pommer, 6 ft. in length, was quite straight. The English and French names refer to the pitch of the instrument as the bass of the wood-wind.

The bassoon is composed of five pieces, which, when fitted together, form a wooden tube about 8 ft. long (93 in.) with a conical bore tapering from a diameter of 1-3/4 in., at the bell, to 3/16 in. at the reed. The tube is doubled back upon itself, the shorter joint extending to about two-thirds of the length of the longer, whereby the height of the instrument is reduced to about 4 ft. The holes are brought into a convenient position for the fingers by the device of boring them obliquely through the thickness of the wood. The five pieces are:—(1) the bell; (2) the long joint, forming the upper part of the instrument when played, although its notes are the lowest in pitch; (3) the wing overlapping the long joint and having a projecting flap through which are bored three holes; (4) the butt or lower end of the instrument (when played) containing the double bore necessitated by the abrupt bend of the tube upon itself. Both bores are pierced in one block of wood, the prolongation of the double tube being usually stopped by a flat oval pad of cork in the older models, whereas the modern instruments have instead a U-shaped tube; (5) the crook, a narrow curved metal tube about 12 in. long, to which is attached the double reed forming the mouthpiece.

The performer holds the instrument in a diagonal position; the lower part of the tube (the butt joint) played by the right hand resting against his right thigh, and the little bell, turned upwards, pointing over his left shoulder; a strap round the neck affords additional support. The notes are produced by means of seven holes and 16, 17, or 19 keys. The mechanism and fingering are very intricate. Theoretically the whole construction of the bassoon is imperfect and arbitrary, important acoustic principles being disregarded, but these mechanical defects only enhance its value as an artistic musical instrument. The player is obliged to rely very much on his ear in order to obtain a correct intonation, and next to the strings no instrument gives greater scope to the artist.

The bassoon has an eight foot tone, the compass extending from Bb bass [1] [Notation: B1b.] to Ab treble [Notation: A4b.], or in modern instruments by means of additional mechanism to C or even F [Notation: C5 or F5.]. These extra high notes are from their extreme sweetness called vox humana. The pitch of the bassoon apparently lies two octaves below that of the oboe, since the lowest note of both is B, but in reality the interval is only a twelfth, as may be ascertained by comparing their fundamental scales. On the bassoon the fundamental scale is that of F maj., obtained by opening and closing the holes; the notes downwards from F to Bb [Notation: F2 to B1b.] are extra notes obtained by means of interlocking keys on the long joint, worked by the left thumb; they have no counterpart on the oboe and do not belong to the fundamental scale of the bassoon. The fundamental scale of the oboe is that of C, although the compass has been extended a tone to Bb [Notation: B3b.]. Therefore the difference in pitch between the bassoon and the oboe is a twelfth. In the first [v.03 p.0496] register of the bassoon, seven semitones [Notation: B1b to E2.] are obtained, as stated above, by means of keys in the long joint and bell; the next eight notes (holes and keys) each produce two sounds—the fundamental tone, and, by increased pressure of the breath, its harmonic octave. The remaining notes are obtained by cross fingering and by overblowing the notes of the fundamental scale a twelfth as far as Ab [Notation: A4b.] which forms the normal compass. From A to Eb the vox humana notes are produced by the help of small harmonic holes opened by means of keys at the top of the wind joint; exceptional players obtain, without additional keys, two or more higher harmonic notes, which, however, are only used by virtuosi. This then forms the intricate scheme of fingering for the bassoon, and in order to appreciate the efforts of such instrument makers as Carl Almenraeder in Germany, Triebert and Jancourt in France, Sax in Belgium, Cornelius Ward and Morton in England, to introduce improvements based upon acoustic principles, it is necessary to understand what these general principles are, and why they have been disregarded in the bassoon. In all tubes the note given by the vibrating air column is influenced directly by the length of the tube, but very little, if at all, by the diameter of the bore. The pitch, however, is greatly affected by the diameter of the opening, whether lateral or at the bell, through which the vibrating column of air is again brought into communication with the outer air. The tube only sounds the normal note in proportion to its length, when the diameter of the lateral opening is equal to the internal diameter of the tube at the opening. As in most of our early wood-wind instruments the holes would in that case have been too large to be stopped by the fingers, and key-mechanism was still primitive, instrument-makers resorted to the expedient of substituting a hole of smaller diameter nearer the mouthpiece for one of greater diameter in the position the hole should theoretically occupy. This important principle was well understood by the Romans, and perhaps even by the ancient Greeks, as is proved by existing specimens of the aulos (q.v.) and by certain passages from the classics.[2]

Another curious acoustic phenomenon bears upon the construction of wind instruments, and especially upon the bassoon. When the diameter of the lateral opening or bell is smaller than that of the bore, the portion of the tube below the hole, which should theoretically be as though non-existent, asserts itself, lowering the pitch of the note produced at the hole and damping the tone; this is peculiarly noticeable in the A of the bassoon [Notation: A2.] whose hole is much too high and too small in diameter.[3] To cite an example of the scope of Carl Almenraeder's improvements in the bassoon, he readjusted the position of the A hole, stopped by the third finger of the right hand, boring lower down the tube, not one large hole, but two of medium diameter, covered by an open key to be closed by the same finger from the accustomed position; one of these A holes communicates with the narrower bore in the butt joint, and the other with the wider bore. The effect is a perfectly clear, full and accurate tone. Almenraeder's other alterations were made on the same principle, and produced an instrument more perfect mechanically and theoretically than Savary's, but lacking some of the characteristics of the bassoon. In Germany Almenraeder's improvements[4] have been generally adopted and his model with 16 keys is followed by most makers, and notably by Heckel of Biebrich.[5]

The unwieldy bass pommers of the 15th and 16th centuries led to many attempts to produce a more practical bass for the orchestra by doubling back the long tube of the instrument. Thus transformed, the pommer became a fagotto. The invention of the bassoon or fagotto is ascribed to Afranio, a canon of Ferrara, in a work by his nephew, Theseus Ambrosius Albonesius, entitled Introductio in Chaldaicam Linguam ... et descriptio ac Simulacrum Phagoti Afranii (Pavia, 1539). The illustration of the instrument, showing front and back views (p. 179), taken in conjunction with the detailed description (pp. 33-38), at once disposes of the suggestion that the phagotus of Afranio and the fagotto or bassoon were in any way related; the author himself is greatly puzzled as to the etymology of the word. The phagotus in fact, resembles nothing so much as the musical curiosity known as flute-a-bec a colonne[6], but double and played by bellows, assigned by G. Chouquet to the 16th century. This flute consisted of a column, with base and capital, both stopped, the vent and the whistle being concealed within perforated brass boxes, in the upper and lower parts of the column. Afranio's phagotus consisted of two similar twin columns with base and capital containing finger-holes and keys; between the columns in front was a shorter column for ornament, and at the back of it another still shorter whose capital could be lifted, and a sort of bellows or bag-pipe inserted by means of which the instrument was sounded. The first instrument was made, we are told, by Ravilius of Ferrara, from Afranio's design.[7] Mersenne[8], who does not seem to have any difficulty in understanding the construction of Afranio's phagotus, does not consider him the inventor of the fagotto or bassoon, but of another kind of fagotto which he classes with the Neapolitan sourdeline, a complicated kind of musette[9] (see BAG-PIPE). Afranio's instrument consists, he states, of two bassons as it were interconnected by tubes and blown by bellows. As in the sourdeline, these only speak when the springs (keys) are open. He disposes of Theseus Albonesius's fanciful etymology of the name by showing it to be nothing but the French word fagot, and that it was applied because the instrument consists of two or more "flutes," bound or fagotees together. There is no evidence that the phagotus contained a reed, which would account for Mersenne calling the pipes flutes. Mersenne's statements thus seem to uphold the theory that Afranio's phagotus was only a double flute a colonne with bellows. Evidence is at hand that in 1555 a contrabass wind instrument was well known as fagotto. In the catalogue of the musical instruments belonging to the Flemish band of Marie de Hongrie in Spain, we find the following: "Ala dicha princesa y al dicho matoto dos ynstrumentos de musica contrabaxos, que llaman fagotes, metidos en dos caos redondas como parece por el dicho entrego."[10] Sigmund Schnitzer[11] of Nuremberg (d. 1578), a maker of wind instruments who attained considerable notoriety, has been [v.03 p.0497] named as the probable author of the transformation of pommer into bassoon.

We learn from an historical work of the 18th century, that he was renowned "almost everywhere" as a maker of fagotte of extraordinary size, of skilful workmanship and pure intonation, speaking easily. Schnitzer's instruments were so highly appreciated not only all over Germany, but also in France and Italy, that he was kept continually at work producing fagotte for lovers of music.[12]

An earlier chronicler of the artistic celebrities and craftsmen of Nuremberg, Johann Neudorfer, writing in 1549,[13] names Sigmund Schnitzer merely as Pfeifenmacher und Stadtpfeifer. Had he been also noted as an inventor of a new form of instrument, the fellow-citizen and contemporary chronicler would not have failed to note the fact. If Schnitzer had been the first to reduce the great length of the bass pommer by doubling the tube back upon itself, he would hardly have been handed down to posterity as the clever craftsman who made fagottos of extraordinary size; Doppelmaier, who chronicles in these eulogistic terms, wrote nearly two centuries after the supposed invention of the fagotto, the value of which was realized later by retrospection.



An explanation may perhaps be found in Eisel's statement about the Deutscher Basson, which he distinguishes from the Basson (our bassoon). "The Deutsche Bassons, Fagotte or Bombardi, as our German ancestors termed them, before music was clothed in Italian and French style, are no longer in use" (Eisel wrote in 1738) "and therefore it is unnecessary to waste paper on them."[14] This refers, of course, to the bombard or bass pommer, the extraordinarily long instruments which Schnitzer made so successfully. From this it would seem that our bassoon was not of German origin. In the meanwhile we get a clue to the early history of the pommer in transition, but we find it under a different name in no way connected with fagotto. In order to shorten the unwieldy proportions of the tenor pommer in C, and to increase its portability, it was constructed out of a block of wood of rather more than double the diameter of the pommer, in which two bores were cut, communicating at the bottom of the instrument which was flat. The bell and the crook containing the double reed mouthpiece were side by side at the top. This instrument, which had six holes in front and one at the back as well as two keys, was known as the dulceian, dolcian, doucaine, and also in France as courtaud and in England as the curtail, curtal,[15] curtoll, &c., being mentioned in 1582—"The common bleting musick of ye Drone, Hobius (Hautboy) and Curtoll." The next step in the evolution produced the double curtail, a converted bass pommer an octave below the single curtail and therefore identical in pitch as in construction with the early fagotto in C. The instrument is shown in fig. 2, the reproduction of a drawing in the MS. of The Academy of Armoury by Randle Holme,[16] written some time before 1688. At the side of the drawing is the following description: "A double curtaile.[17] This is double the bigness of the single, mentioned ch. xvi. n. 6" (the MS. begins at ch. xvii. of bk. 3) "and is played 8 notes deeper. It is as it were 2 pipes fixed in on(e) thick bass pipe, one much longer than the other, from the top of the lower comes a crooked pipe of brass in which is fixed a reed, through it the wind passeth to make the instrument make a sound. It hath 6 holes on the outside and one on that side next the man or back part and 2 brass keys, the highest called double La sol re, and the other double B mi."

We may therefore conclude that the satirical name fagotto, presumably bestowed in Italy, since the French equivalent fagot was never used for the basson, was not necessarily applied to the new form of pommer at the outset, but in any case before 1555; that the very term Phagoto d'Afranio, by which the instrument was known during its short fabulous existence, with its pretended Greek etymology, presupposes the pre-existence in Italy of another fagotto with which Afranio was acquainted, perhaps imperfectly. Afranio's was the age of ingenious mechanical devices applied to musical instruments, many of which, like Afranio's, being mere freaks, did not survive the inventor. A document selected from the valuable archives published by Edm. van der Straeten[18] suggests a satisfactory clue. In 1426 Louis Willay, a musical instrument maker of Bruges, sold to Philippe le Bon a triple set of wood-wind instruments, i.e. "4 bombardes, 4 doucaines and 4 flutes," to be sent as a gift to Nicolas III., marquis of Ferrara. The new instrument, the doucaine, we may imagine, by its unusual appearance provoked the satirical wit of some courtier, and was henceforth known as fagotto. Just a century later Ravilius of Ferrara made Afranio's first phagotus from the inventor's design.

The bassoon has been a favourite with all the great masters, excepting Handel. Beethoven uses the bassoon largely in his symphonies, writing everywhere for it independent parts of great beauty and originality. Bach, in his mass in B min., has parts for two bassoons. Mozart wrote a concerto in Bb for bassoon, with orchestra (Kochel, No. 191). Weber has also written a concerto for bassoon in F (op. 75), scored for full orchestra.

See also Etienne Ozi, Nouvelle Methode du Bassoon (Paris, 1788 and 1800); J. B. J. Willent-Bordogny, Gran Methodo completo per il Fagotto (Milan, 1844), with illustrations of early bassoons (English edition, London, J. R. Lafleur & Son); Joseph Froehlich, Vollstaendige Musikschule fuer alle beym Orchester gebrauchliche wichtigere Instrumente (many practical illustrations) (Cologne, Bonn, 1811); article "Bassoon," by W. H. Stone and D. J. Blaikley in Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2nd ed.); article "Fagott" in Mendel's Musikalisches Conversations-Lexikon; for the history of the instrument, and of its prototypes, see OBOE and BOMBARD.

(K. S.)

[1] At Wagner's instigation, the wind-instrument-maker, W. Heckel of Biebrich-am-Rhein, made bassoons with an extra key, extending the compass downwards to A.

[2] Macrobius in Somn. Scip. lib. ii. cap. 4. 5.

[3] Gottfried Weber, "Verbesserungen des Fagotts," in Cacilia (Mainz, 1825), vol. ii. p. 123.

[4] See Traite sur le perfectionnement du basson, avec 2 tableaux, par Charles Almenraeder (Mayence, Schott), and also the above mentioned article by Gottfried Weber in Cacilia, whose explanations are clearer than those of the inventor.

[5] For a description of the modern instrument see Victor Charles Mahillon, Catalogue descriptif et analytique du musee instrumental du Conservatoire Royal de Musique (Bruxelles, 1896), vol. ii. pp. 275-276, No. 999.

[6] As far as is known only three of these curious instruments are in existence; two in the museum of the Conservatoire, Paris, and one in Brussels; all three bear a trefoil as maker's mark; the smallest, in F, is reproduced in the Catalogue of the Musical Instruments exhibited at the Royal Military Exhibition, London, 1890, by Capt. C. R. Day (London, 1891), pl. iv. F. It is also described (without illustration) in Mahillon's Catalogue, p. 201, No. 189. The two flutes in Paris, measuring 73 cm. and 94 cm., are described by Gustave Chouquet, Le Musee du Conservatoire National de Musique—Catalogue descriptif et raisonne (Paris, 1884), Nos. 409 and 410, p. 106.

[7] An Italian translation of the description is given by Count L. F. Valdrighi in Musurgiana, No. 4 (Milano, 1881), "Il Phagotus di Afranio," p. 40 et seq. (without illustration). An illustration of the phagotus is given by W. J. von Wasielewski in Gesch. d. Instrumentalmusik im XVI. Jahrh. (Berlin, 1878), pl. v. and vi., text p. 74.

[8] See L'Harmonie universelle (Paris, 1636), part ii. p. 305.

[9] Ibid., illustrated and described, bk. v. p. 293.

[10] See Edm. van der Straeten, Hist. de la musique aux Pays-Bas, vol. vii. pp. 433, 436, 448.

[11] J. J. Quantz, Frederick the Great's flute-master, gives France the credit of transforming the bombard (pommer) into the bassoon, and the schalmey into oboe, see Versuch einer Anweisung die Flote traversiere zu spielen (Berlin, 1752), p. 24 and again p. 241, s. 6.

[12] J. G. Doppelmaier, Historische Nachricht von den Nuernbergischen Mathematicis und Kuenstlern (Nuernberg, 1730), p. 293.

[13] See "Nachrichten von Kuenstlern und Werkleuten Nuernbergs aus dem Jahre 1549," in R. Eitelberger von Edelberg's Quellenschriften fuer Kunstgeschichte und Kunsttechnik des Mittelalters (Vienna. 1875), vols. viii.-x.

[14] See J. J. Eisel, Musicus autodidactus oder der sich selbst informierende Musicus (Erfurt, 1738), pp. 104 and 100, and also J. Mattheson, Das neu-eroeffnete Orchester (Hamburg, 1713), "Basson," from whom Eisel borrowed.

[15] See the New English Dictionary, and Bateman upon Bartholinus, 423, 1, margin.

[16] British Museum, Harl. MS. 2034, fol. 207b, a reference communicated by Augustus Hughes-Hughes from his valuable appendix to part iii. (Instrumental Music and Works on Music) of a Catalogue of MS. Music in the British Museum (London, 1908-1909). The Appendix contains a list of typical musical instruments represented in illuminated MSS., or described in other MSS. in the British Museum, with a brief description and full references.

[17] Compare Randle Holme's double curtail with the dolcian in C, pl. vi. H. of Capt. C. R. Day's catalogue, and with a dolcian or single curtail by J. C. Denner in Paul de Wit's Katalog des Musikhistorischen Museums von Paul de Wit (Leipzig, 1903), p. 127, No. 380, and illust. p. 121 (Collection now transferred to Cologne). Consult also Mersenne, op. cit., and Michael Praetorius, Syntagma Musicum (Wolfenbuettel, 1618), both of whom describe and figure these forms of early bassoons.

[18] Op. cit. vol. vii. p. 38.

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Corrections made to printed original.

page 340, "exceed, at any time, the sum of L10,000.": 'at ant time' in original.

page 370, "thirty-five years of uninterrupted service": 'thrity-five' in original.

page 456, "all the chief military events": 'imlitary' in original.

THE END