Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Same as
contrabass .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Mus.) The largest kind of bass viol. See
violone .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun music The largest kind of
bass viol .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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His booming contrabasso voice makes middle-aged ladies squeal in delight and his pithy, homily-laden retorts are greeted with roars of approval.
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He is represented, as is well known, seated in the group of musicians in the centre, and playing the contrabasso.
Giorgione Cook, Herbert 1904
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It is not so cheerful, perhaps, as its predecessor in the same key; the heavy basses twanging in tenths like a contrabasso are intentionally monotone in effect.
Old Fogy His Musical Opinions and Grotesques James Huneker 1890
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Finally, an old hound which appeared to be gifted with a peculiarly robust temperament kept supplying the part of contrabasso, so that his growls resembled the rumbling of a bass singer when a chorus is in full cry, and the tenors are rising on tiptoe in their efforts to compass a particularly high note, and the whole body of choristers are wagging their heads before approaching a climax, and this contrabasso alone is tucking his bearded chin into his collar, and sinking almost to a squatting posture on the floor, in order to produce a note which shall cause the windows to shiver and their panes to crack.
Dead Souls 1842
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