On Feb 17, 2006, at 7:15 PM, John Howell wrote:
Monteverdi specifies both contrabass violin and contrabass viol in the 1607 score to "L'Orfeo."
This ensemble was not an orchestra by any meaningful definition. The violin-family instruments were not massed, nor did they dominate the ensemble. Rather, the group was dominated by continuo instruments, as was characteristic of almost all opera pit ensembles in the first half of the century. It can't be stated too many times: the first composer to accompany opera with an orchestra was Lully.
Corelli may not have specified violone in his concertos, but specifically mentions it as appropriate for his church sonatas.
<sigh> We had this out before, and you've forgotten: "violone" did not mean "double bass" in the 17th c. It was the name of the cello-like instrument that played the 8' bass line in violin ensembles prior to the introduction of the cello itself.
I would have to question any dogmatic statement that 16' instruments did not exist or were not used in the entire 17th century.
Neither I nor anyone else has ever suggested (much less dogmatically) that no 16' member of the violin family existed or was used in the 17th c. I merely said it was not used in the orchestra, and this is incontrovertibly true.
As to "massed sections," the numbers were certainly no more than we would call a chamber orchestra today.
"Massed" means more than one on a part. The exact numbers are irrelevant.
Andrew Stiller Kallisti Music Press http://home.netcom.com/~kallisti/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
