Kontrabass

As Printed on a Score

The German name on double-bass staves — Kontrabass, Kontrabaß, older Contrabass, plural Kontrabässe — shortened to Kb.; many German scores simply write Bässe, as Mahler’s Fifth Symphony does. The part is written in bass clef an octave above sounding pitch, and in older scores it shares the cello staff until labels separate the lines.

Abbreviations: Kb.

Also spelled: Kontrabaß, Kontrabässe, Contrabass, Contrabässe, Bässe

How Composers Use It

It sounds an octave below written: the open E, written on the first ledger line below the bass staff, sounds E1, and a fifth string or C extension reaches lower. German parts use get. (divided), arco and pizz. as everywhere, plus spelled-out effects such as mit dem Bogen geschlagen (struck with the bow), which Mahler writes for the basses in his Fifth Symphony. Keep lines simple in the lowest register, where fast notes lose definition.

Example

Mahler, Symphony No. 5, first movement (Trauermarsch), staff label: “Bässe.” — Mahler’s name for the double basses, on the staff below “Violoncelle.”

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