BASSIANUS

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). [illustration: fig. 1.--bassoon with 17 keys. savary model. (rudall, carte & co.)] 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. [illustration: fig. 2.--old english double curtail (before 1688). (from harl ms 2034 in brit. mus.)] 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. 207_b_, 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. * * * * * 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.