Octobass

The octobass (sometimes also written " Octobass " ) was the largest ever built stringed instrument of the violin family.

The octobass was a huge bass with three strings. With a total height of 3.45 m his strings in a fifth and a fourth ( - G2 - C2 C1) were voted - subcontra C, Subkontra -G and low C, the highest string of the instrument corresponds to the deepest one five-string, ordinary bass.

Its origin goes back to the year 1850. The experimental French luthier Jean Baptiste Vuillaume created the octobass in collaboration with the composer Hector Berlioz, who wanted a deeper sounding bass instrument for one of his works. In Charles Gounod's St. Cecilia Mass of octobass was first used successfully in 1855. Hector Berlioz and Richard Wagner strongly recommend the use of the instrument, but neither of them wrote a score for octobass.

Contemporary illustrations show that the instrument required two players: one to lead the bow, the other to grip the strings - the latter from one of podium, with which the instrument was firmly connected. The handles were attached with the aid of levers and pedals are not executed with the fingers.

The invention remained a curiosity. According to current knowledge Vuillaume built three instruments: The first octobass was sold to the World Exhibition in London in 1851 to an unknown private citizen. This was on the instrument to the English opera in London, where it was destroyed in a fire in December 1867. A second octobass, built for the World Exhibition in Paris in 1855, was sold to Monaco. Later, the Paris Conservatory earned back the instrument. Today, it is seen in the Cité de la musique in Paris. The third octobass went to St. Petersburg. In no way clarified the instrument came in the 1880s to the Viennese violin maker Zach sen. and then in the collection Salzer. The Society of Friends of Music in Vienna acquired the octobass in 1924. Nowadays it is issued in the archives of the Musikverein.

The gigantic size of the Oktobasses be illustrated by the picture standing in front of him person.

Since 1995, the Italian musician Nicola Moneta plays on a replica octobass.