{"id":28519,"date":"2015-05-20T08:00:48","date_gmt":"2015-05-20T12:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=28519"},"modified":"2015-05-19T18:57:23","modified_gmt":"2015-05-19T22:57:23","slug":"cool-stuff-8-the-octobass-an-instrument-capable-of-playing-below-human-hearing-range","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2015\/05\/20\/cool-stuff-8-the-octobass-an-instrument-capable-of-playing-below-human-hearing-range\/","title":{"rendered":"COOL STUFF #8 | The Octobass: An Instrument Capable of Playing Below Human Hearing Range"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/12X-i9YHzmE?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>Have you ever heard of classical music&#8217;s lowest (and rarest) string instrument? It&#8217;s called the octobass (a.k.a. octobasse) and was built in 1850 by\u00a0French instrument maker\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jean-Baptiste_Vuillaume\">Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume<\/a>. It is tuned two octaves below a cello and stands a 12-feet tall. With the human range of hearing starting at 64 Hz, it&#8217;s lowest note (C: 16 Hz) is heard as more of a rumble rather than\u00a0a perceivable pitch. (Perfect for playing the Jaws theme!)<\/p>\n<p>The player must stand on a stool and operate hand and foot-activated levers and pedals to change the pitch. The blow is specially made for the octobass and is equally massive with leather grips. There are only two originals in world, with one found at the\u00a0Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Arizona.<\/p>\n<p>Though it was never adopted on a broad scale,\u00a0Hector Berlioz was very fond of the instrument\u00a0and wrote about it in his famous\u00a0<em>Orchestration Treatise<\/em> first published in 1844.<\/p>\n<p>For a taste of the octobass playing <span id=\"eow-title\" class=\"watch-title \" dir=\"ltr\" title=\"J.S. Bach Chaconne for four double basses and octobass\">J.S. Bach, see below:<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vTqv6ICeGEk?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>#LUDWIGVAN<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Want more updates on Toronto-centric classical music news and review\u00a0before anyone else finds out? Get our exclusive newsletter\u00a0<\/em><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LudwigVanToronto\/app_100265896690345\">here<\/a><\/em><\/span><em><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">\u00a0<\/span>and follow us on\u00a0<\/em><em><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LudwigVanToronto?fref=ts\">Facebook<\/a> <\/span>for all the latest.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Meet the octobass:  An enormous string instrument capable of playing frequencies below what most humans can hear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":28523,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[118,5260],"tags":[5446],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/05\/octobass-2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-7pZ","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28519"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28519"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28533,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28519\/revisions\/28533"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28519"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=28519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}