Plus bas

As Printed on a Score

Most often met in an octave instruction — une 8ve plus bas, “an octave lower” — printed with an ossia or in a footnote offering a lower alternative for a singer or player. It refers to pitch, not loudness, and applies only to the passage the note or bracket covers.

How Composers Use It

Use it to offer an alternative register without rewriting the passage: a footnote saying the bars may be sung an octave lower lets a lower voice take a phrase down while the accompaniment stays put. Check that the transposed line still clears the accompaniment without awkward doublings or crossings. For instrumental octave displacement, 8va bassa or 8vb is the conventional sign.

Example

Boulanger, Clairières dans le ciel, “Au pied de mon lit”, piano, m. 17: “plus bas”, ending the footnote “ces 12 mesures peuvent être chanté une 8ve plus bas” — these twelve bars may be sung an octave lower.

Related Terms