contrabass Mus.
(ˈkɒntrəbeɪs)
[ad. 16th c. It. contrabasso (now contrabb-), F. contrebasse: see contra- 4, and bass. Occasionally used in the It. and F. forms, or adapted as counterbase.]
1. The largest instrument of the violin class, the double-bass, used to add the lower octave to the bass in the orchestra.
| 1598–1611 Florio, Contrabasso, a counterbase, be it voice, string, or instrument. 1813 T. Busby Dict. Mus. (ed. 4), Contra-Basso (Ital.), the instrument called the Double Bass. Contra-Bass (Ital.), the lower Bass. 1867 Cornh. Mag. Jan. 28 The cornet is a contrabasso, the ophicleide..becomes a tenor, the trombones are sharp violins. 1879 Scribn. Mag. XIX. 903/1 This term [‘the strings’] is understood to mean..the violins, the violas, the violoncellos and the contra-basses or double basses. |
2. Applied to instruments of other kinds taking a similar part; chiefly attrib. as contrabass posaune a kind of trombone, contrabass tuba the bombardon. (Grove Dict. Mus.)
| 1834 Mus. Library Nov. Suppl., As a contra-basso to the trombones, it [the double-bass ophicleide] will not be found less useful. 1926 Whiteman & McBride Jazz ix. 197 The tuba and contra-bass tuba. 1965 Listener 3 June 837/3 No expense was spared—eight harps and horns, bass trumpet, contrabass trombone. |