Compositions - Chamber Music - Foreword

This section will try to answer the long standing question of how many chamber pieces and of what type do we have within the Viennese bass tradition.  The task may appear simple in the sense of just collecting the pieces that may have used the Viennese bass, yet the practical task of classification has turned to be more far more difficult in the light of period perceptions of how the actual chamber chamber music was perceived at the time. The following paragraphs will try to elaborate on some of these issues which one had to face when cataloging this part of our repertoire.

1. The typical ensemble size in the period

During the classical period and particularly its early part of 1750 to ca. 1770, we simply can not apply a modern differentiation between the chamber and orchestra music, because in many instances the group was the same for the variety of court and church duties within a certain settlement. This core group could than be extended or contracted pending the composer's needs and the occasion. However in most cases the general ensemble will not surpass 10 to 18 people, and in many instances it was as large as a modern quintet or sextets with or without the complement of winds.

2. The chamber music classification.

Taking in consideration the period groups size, one should be reminded that the term chamber in this catalog implies the period perception where the number of performers could range from 2 to certainly more than 15. Our modern chamber ensemble classification - which commonly stops with 9 players in a nonet setting - would simply not be adequate for the period classification than. Therefore a separate category would have been required for the ensembles of more than 9 players.

To avoid such a double chamber music standard, and particularly since the period concept of musical group did not differentiate between our present day small chamber groups and and a chamber orchestra, it was decided to unite them all under the same chamber music classification. The only exceptions are the compositions that clearly imply the use of modern symphony orchestras (symphonies with larger number of players, overtures, ballets etc), and these will be featured in the Orchestra and Opera sections when they get to be developed.

2. The chamber music groups differentiation.

It should be noted that the practice of naming the chamber compositions according to the number of instruments or particular instrument combination (ex. string trio, str. quartet etc.) - has started to emerge in our present crystallized form only during the 1770es and in certain larger musical centers first. In the preceding periods and the majority of non urban locations for many years after 1770, the more common practice was to simply mark composition by the "utility" genre such as Cassatio, Noctturno, Partita, Harmoniemusik etc. Usually, the exact instrumentation would be mentioned in the title so the task of converting the period composition to our modern instrument-number-based classification was not difficult. The RISM would usually provide the exact number of parts too, and that was also of help in classifying these pieces.

In general, the ensembles active outside of the large urban centers were simply the utility groups that could be of any size that the court (church) budget could afford or even specially assembled for the occasion - thus we witness the variety of size and instrument combination. The compositions were usually composed for what was "at hand" in the regard to the number of musicians, and the title given according to the prevalent purpose of the piece (outdoor, indoor, festive, contemplative, concertato, nonconcertato, mainly for winds, mainly for strings - and any combination in between).

In this catalog, for the sake of clarity and in respect to the period naming practice, you will find the two indexed columns above, One lists the compositions according to the number of instruments in our modern way, and the other by the period genres. The genre column however is not completed at this time - but it will be an interesting tool once completed as it could shed even more light on the actual practice of performing these compositions. Moreover, please don't be surprised to find among the genres also listed the "Sinfonia" as the symphony in classical period may have been intended for 3 to up to 30 players. Smaller symphonies would certainly not fit well under the standard symphonic works section, so it was decided to classify them here instead.

3. How many instruments per part?

This issue has already been addressed in the No.6 paragraph of the "Issues" section within the Introduction page, yet here some details will be offered specifically related to the chamber music instrumentation.

It needs to be reiterated that the number of instrumentalists participating - and consequently the number of parts required, can be usually found in the very title of the composition. The title will commonly cite all instruments in a singular and thus imply the one-per-part performance, which again will be corroborated by the extant number of parts, if the parts are preserved. In essence this approach is identical to our modern approach to chamber music performance. You will only notice an exception to this rule when the part may be specifically marked for different setup such as : "bassoon and violone" - or when you note the one extant part for "basso" titled for "violoncello e violone" in the title.

4. How are the small concertos and concertato pieces classified in this catalog?

An interesting problem has appeared with the matter of classifying the concerto or concertato written pieces for small chamber groups. Those ensembles feature one or more solo instruments (including naturally the Violone) but only a small complement of other players, sometime only 2 or 3 of them beyond the soloist. The question than appeared whether to include these solo or concertato pieces in the general chamber music catalog at all, or make a separate classification?

In technical terms, although these pieces belong to the smaller chamber ensembles, they were meant to feature a soloist and thus were not a pure chamber music in a modern sense, where all the instruments are treated relatively equally. Yet due to the fact that the other modern chamber music conventions were not followed, it was decided to include these pieces nevertheless. If anything, the imperative of this catalog was to feature essentially all the extant compositions with the Violone and particularly those that feature a single Violone within the ensemble. It is hoped that some of the active period groups may notice these unusual pieces and perhaps even present them in their original setup.

5. The issue of "basso" part.

This is probably the most intriguing and interesting issue for all the bass players who would wish a practical advice on this matter. As all the bassists are well aware, many classical period pieces are simply endowed with a universal "basso" part which needs to be assigned to a specific instrument (or instruments) today.

This was obviously not an issues to period players who knew well how to interpret the "basso", yet it is to us when we need to guess by deductive means the real instrument behind the term. In this catalog every effort has been made to find a proof of the Viennese Violone use within the "basso" designation, and thus the following pattern has been established for differentiating among the "basso" parts:

1. If a "basso" part is featured within the ensemble smaller than a quintet - and there is no additional marking on the score or parts that specifies the basso as Violone or Contrabasso, than the piece is not included in the listing. The part was probably intended for violoncello. Further research of some of these pieces could show some idiomatic writing for Viennese bass, yet until that research is done, there will be no evidence to prove that these compositions used the Viennese bass.

2. If the "basso" is cited within the larger ensemble such as quintet and sextet that in addition to strings, features the winds and particularly the pair of horns, than the location of piece would be considered as well. If the location is within the Austrian or any other catholic monastery with a long tradition of Violone use - the Violone would be assumed and the piece would be classified in this catalog. The same would apply for collections within the libraries that house similar pieces of which some have already cited Violone or Contra Basso on Basso part. Such a practice would simply imply a typographical inconsistency on the part of composer. However, with these pieces, you will also find the sub note "further research needed" attached, as only a careful study and comparison of these compositions along with a possible practical performance would be sufficient to solve bass instrument dilemma. In some cases however, not even such an approach would be adequate, as there are pieces with winds (and sometime a pair of horns too) that indeed have only a violoncello on basso part cited. So the winds in general may not imply the use of Violone - unless - the piece is directly related to the location that have predominantly used Violone in mid sized chamber compositions.

3. An issue of determining basso in smaller ensembles gets even more complicated with some compositions (Albrechtsberger for example) whose compositions cite "Violoncello and Basso". What basso is than the second "basso" beyond the Violoncello. Again, if the original piece can be traced to the Austrian monastery or a collection that offers similar pieces with Violone than it most certainly would have used the Violone on that second basso. This conjecture we could apply to some of the Albrechtsberger's sextets of which we do find a source where actual Contrabasso is appended on the end while  most other manuscripts simply state "basso" after violoncello (see sextets listing, A-HE source).

4. With all the pieces larger than sextets it was assumed that they have used the Viennese Violone, if the geographic location of the manuscript is within the collection that features Viennese violones. The issue of how some manuscript may have come to a certain collection is too complicated to discuss here in greater detail, as every single collection will have a somewhat different history. Yet every attempt has been made to avoid including a violoncello "basso" in the listings. Furthermore, since in many northern locations our modern bass tuning in fourths was also in use at the same time when the Viennese tuning was used further south, the matter of clear differentiation between the compositions with the orchestra tuned bass vs. the Viennese one will take time to accomplish. However it is hoped that this catalog will offer a working tool that eventually just may offer some conclusive evidence on that matter.

5. Although not common to our modern perception of chamber music genres, this listing also features the pieces larger than nonets, as they existed in the period and apparently do not fit well under the "orchestra" category according to our modern standards either. It may be interesting to note that such pieces have been composed even by Mozart. Some of these pieces are intended for winds and feature one Violone to balance the sound of bassoons or brass, not unsimilar to the present-day use of double basses in modern concert bands.

6. Lastly, the issue of authentic Mozart and Haydn chamber repertoire for the Viennese bass needed to be addressed here thoroughly in order to help us understand better the contribution of these masters to our heritage.

It should be pointed that the issue of bass repertoire in Mozart's and Haydn's opus is directly related to the Haydn and Mozart institutions that specialize in their entire opus and offer the best critical editions of their works ( NMA and Joseph Haydn Institut ). However, with many compositions they have not finalized their own research yet, and thus many of the questions related to the Viennese bass use have not been addressed either.

In regard to Mozart's works, the author of this site has covered his complete chamber music opus within the NMA, consulted all their writings on the subject and consequently included all the compositions according to the criteria cited above. If there is some ambiguity in the selection, it is rather a small one. In regard to Haydn the matter is far more complicated as many of his compositions are still considered spurious, thus the attribution problem has somewhat delayed the entire official research of his works. Therefore with Haydn's compositions cited here, you will always notice the Violone / Contra Basso cited in the title, or see the other conjectural evidence that point to their use. After all, it is from the Haydn's orchestra administration books that we have a direct records of period Viennese basses and even period Viennese string purchases - thus all of the larger compositions during his Eisenstadt & Esterhaza tenure were bound to use the Viennese bass.

Posted: November 1, 2011

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