double bass

Local name: basy (basses), kontrabas
Classification: 3 Chordophones / 32 Composite chordophones / 321 Lutes / 321.3 Handle lutes / 321.32 Necked lutes / 321.322 Necked box lutes or necked guitars / 321.322-71 Necked box lutes or necked guitars sounded by bowing with a bow
Maker: Unknown
Date: beginning of the 20th c.
Village / Town: Grodzisko Górne (?)
Region: Lesser Poland (Subcarpathia)
Country: Poland
Owner: The State Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw
Inventory number: PME 49034
Description: modeled on (or made from) the profesional double bass; two-piece back plate; tuning machines in the pegbox
Measurements: 192 x 670/410/560 x 222 mm
Materials: wood, metal, plastic, catgut
Sound compass, tuning: D-A (?)
Performance practice: a double bass, also known as "big basses"; became commonly used in folk bands only in the 20th c.; more expensive than the small basses (of the cello size); fees of big basses players were also higher (apart from the flat fee for performing during a wedding, the pay for every dance was thrown into the double bass, often through a special notch ("door") in the plate; big basses were part of bigger folk bands in Lesser Poland (the areas of Cracow and Rzeszów)
Catalog card by: Teresa Lewińska / Zbigniew J. Przerembski


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