Forms: 5–6 bas, 6 bace, Sc. bays, 6–7 basse, 6–9 base, 7– bass. [ME. bas, base (see BASE a.) in specific senses in Music; now spelt bass after It. basso, but still pronounced as base. (Pope rhymed base and ass.)]
A. adj.
† 1. Low in sound, barely audible, soft. Obs.
c. 1450. Merlin, xxviii. 572. He seide in bas voice, ‘I am Monewall.’
1513. Douglas, Æneis, IX. vi. 28. With ane bays voce thus Nisus spak agane.
2. Deep-sounding, low in the musical scale.
1533. Elyot, Cast. Helth (1541), 5. Let him … begyne to synge lowder and lowder, but styl in a base voice.
1613. Bp. Hall, Serm., v. 66. The trumpets … sounded basest and dolefullest at the last.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 173. All base notes, or very treble notes, give an asper sound.
1866. Tyndall, Glac., II. § 1. 226. Boys are chosen … to produce the shrill notes; men are chosen to produce the bass notes.
3. [partly attrib. use of sb.] Of, pertaining to, or suited to, the lowest part in harmonized musical composition.
Bass voice: that ranging from E♭ below the bass stave to F above it. Bass clef: the F clef, now placed on the fourth line from the bottom of the bass stave, formerly sometimes on the third, and earlier on the fifth.
1552. Huloet, Base synger, succentor.
1597. Morley, Introd. Mus., 86. Base descant is that kinde of descanting where your sight of taking and vsing your cordes must be vnder the plainsong.
1880. in Grove, Dict. Mus., I. 149/1. A bass voice is too … deficient in sweetness for single songs.
b. Hence prefixed, sometimes with hyphen, to names of musical instruments or their strings, to indicate that they are of the lowest pitch.
1590. [see BASS-VIOL].
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. iv. 6. I haue sounded the verie base string of humility.
1674. Playford, Skill Mus., II. 112. The Bass or fourth string is called G sol re ut.
1856. trans. Berlioz’ Instrument., 152. The sound of the bass trombone is majestic.
1863. Hawthorne, Old Home, I. 248. Rain-drops … pattering on the bass-drum.
1880. in Grove, Dict. Mus., I. 150/2. The Bass-flute requires a great deal of breath.
B. sb. [By some erroneously taken as derived from BASE sb.1, foundation, with which it has etymologically no connection.]
1. The lowest part in harmonized musical composition; the deepest male voice, or lowest tones of a musical instrument, which sing or sound this part. Cf. A 3.
a. 1450[?]. Songs & Carols (Wright), 67. Whan … bulles of the see syng a good bace.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., I. 432. Mony trumpet into sindrie tune, Sum in bas and sum in alt abone.
1597. Morley, Introd. Mus., 3. The Basse or lowest part.
165[?]. Pepys, Diary (1879), IV. 32. One of my new tunes that I have got Dr. Childe to set me a base to.
1674. Playford, Skill Mus., I. xi. 49. The Bass for the Theorbo.
1706. A. Bedford, Temple Mus., viii. 163. The Base usually closing in the Fifth above the Key.
1849. Marryat, Valerie, vi. The milkmaid’s falsetto, and the dustman’s bass.
b. fig.
1532. More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 405/2. Hys false translacion with their farther false construccion, they thoughte shoulde be the basse and the tenour, whereuppon they woulde synge the trouble, with muche false descant.
1649. Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., III. Add. xv. 103. The goodman knew Christ’s voice to be a low base of humility.
1870. M. Conway, Earthw. Pilgr., vi. 94. Above the bass of Commerce is the clear tenor of Fraternity.
2. One who sings the bass part.
1591. Spenser, Tears of Muses, 28. The … streames … were … taught to beare A Bases part amongst their consorts.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., IV. iii. 45. Song-men … most of them Meanes and Bases.
1880. in Grove, Dict. Mus., I. 148/2. The employment of basses and barytons in principal characters on the operatic stage.
3. The bass string of a musical instrument.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 186. Which string in all the harpe wouldst thou styll harpe on. Not the base.
a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Poems, Wks. (1711), 5/2. Sound hoarse, sad lute … Sad treble weep; and you, dull basses, show Your masters sorrow in a doleful strain.
1682. Dryden, Mac Flecknoe (J.).
| At thy wellsharpned Thumb, from Shore to Shore | |
| The Treble squeaks for fear, the Bases Rore. |
4. A BASS-VIOL.
1702. Lond. Gaz., No. 3819/8. For two Violins and a Bass.
1794. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Rowl. for Oliver, Wks. II. 66. Watkyn … forbore his bass to seize.
5. Thorough-bass (ellipt. bass): the bass part written with figures beneath it which indicate concisely but vaguely the kind of harmony to be played with it. Hence formerly, An accompaniment for harpsichord or organ; now, The theory or science of harmony. See also DOUBLE-BASS.
1674. Playford, Skill Mus., I. xi. 36. The Thorough-bass of Songs or Ayres.
1685. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), II. 223. She had an excellent voice, to which she played a thorough-bass on the harpsichord.
1706. in Lond. Gaz., No. 4249/3. With a Thorough-Bass to each Song.
1868. Ouseley, Harmony, iii. (1875), 29. Thorough-bass-figuring … is a kind of musical short-hand.
