September 2nd, 2009
Characteristics of a Violin family 2
While the violin, viola and cello (originally the bass violin) are indisputable members of the ancestral violin, or viola da braccio family, the double bass’s and the octobass’s origins are sometimes called into question. The double bass is occasionally taken to be part of the viol family, due to its sloping shoulders, its tuning, and its sometimes flat back. Others say that these features are arbitrary, and point to the internal construction of the double bass, which is proportionately identical to the violin’s, as a more weighty piece of evidence than the external features. Its origins aside, it has historically been used as the lowest member of the violin family since its “invention.”
