B AS 



126 



BAS 



part of a time. The word it thus written 

 in imitation of the Ital. basso, which is 

 theEngl. case, low. The bass is the foun- 

 dation of the harmony, and the base or 

 support of the whole composition. Figured 

 baah ia a bass which, while a certain 

 chord of harmony is continued by the 

 tiarU above, moves in notes of the same 

 barmony. Fundamenta, bass is that which 

 lorms the tone or natural foundation of 

 the harmony, and from which that har- 

 mony is derived. Ground bass starts with 

 some subject of its own, and continues to 

 be repeated throughout the movement, 

 while the upper parts pursue a separate air 

 end supply the harmony. See THOROUGH- 

 BASS. Bass is the name of several species 

 of fishes. In England it is a name of the 

 fish otherwise called the Sea-wolf (the 

 Anarrhichus lupus, Lin.), and in America 

 of thepercaodllata^An. Another species 

 of the same tribe is called the sea-bass. 



BAS'SANET, ) A kind of helmet, a hat or 



EAS'SANAT. / casque of steel, very light, 

 aiade in the form of a basin. The soldiers 

 in the French army who wore bassanetn 

 were called bascinets or bacinets. 



BASS-CLIFF, called also the F. CLIFF. 

 The character here represented, 

 and placed at the beginning of a 

 ctave, in which the base or lower 

 notes are placed. 



BASS-COUNTER, the under bass or con- 

 tra-bats. That part which, when there 

 are two bass parts in a musical composi- 

 tion, is performed by the double basses, 

 the Tiolincellos taking the upper bass or 

 lotto contertante. 



BASS-HORN, a modification of the bas- 

 soon, much lower and deeper in its tones ; 

 it is now generally substituted in field 

 music for the serpent. 



BABBIT, a term used by miners to ex- 

 press an upward slanting direction of a 

 vein from below the surface. Basseting, 

 slanting upwards, opposed to dipping. 



BAS'SZT-HOBN, the richest of all musi- 

 cal wind instruments ; it is properly an 

 enlarged clarionet. Although differing in 

 form, its intonations, the mode of hold- 

 ing and fingering it are such, that any 

 clarionet-player can perform on it with- 

 out practice. It has the name cornel from 

 its curvature. 



BAS'SO, the Italian word for bast (q. T.). 

 Scuso-concertante, the bass of the little 

 chorus, usually taken by the violincellos, 

 called also basso recitante, and opposed to 

 baiso repieno, the bass of the great chorus. 

 The former plays throughout the piece, 

 the latter only at full parts. 



BAS'SO-KELIE'VO, Ital. } The terms are 



BASS-RELIEF, Eng. } used to denote 

 sculptured representations raised upon a 

 flat surface, or back-ground, in such a 

 manner as to project from it less than 

 one-half the general depth of the figures, 



distinguished from alto relievo, in which 

 the figures project more than a half, and 

 mezzo-relievo, in which they project a 

 half. Popularly, however, the first term 

 includes the other two. 



BASSOO'N, Fr. has son, low sound. A 

 musical instrument which forms the na- 

 tural bass to the hautboy. It is playeii 

 like that instrument, with a reed, and 

 forms a continuation of its scale down- 

 wards, hence called by the French bas- 

 son de hautbois. It consists of four tubes 

 bound together like a fasrgot, hence its 

 Italian name faggotte, which the Germans 

 write faggott. 



BAS'SUS, a genus of terebrantian hyme- 

 noptera. 



BASS VIOL, a stringed instrument re- 

 sembling the viol in form, but much 

 larger. It has four strings and eight 

 stops, and is played with a bow. 



BAS'TARD, Lat. basturdus, an individual 

 born out of wedlock. The subsequent 

 marriage of the parents legitimises the 

 bastard according to the common law of 

 Scotland. Bastar eigne, bastard elder, is 

 when a man has a bastard son, and after- 

 wards weds the mother, and has a legiti- 

 mate son, mulicr puisne, or younger. Tho 

 term bastard is otherwise used in the senso 

 of spurious, and especially in botany, thus : 

 bastard balm is the melittis of botanists, ae 

 distinguished from melissa or true baiai. 

 Bastard cabbage-tree, is the genus Geofroya 

 in distinction to the calcalia kleinia, or 

 cabbage-tree of the Canary 1 Islands, &c. &c. 



BASTARD STUCCO. In architecture, plas- 

 tering of three coats : first, the roughing- 

 in, second, the floating ; the third or finish- 

 ing coat, contains a small quantity of hair 

 additional. 



BASTARD "WING, three or five feathers, 

 placed at a small joint at the middle of 

 the wing. 



BASTINA'DO, ) a punishment used among 



BASTONA'DO, ) the Turks, consisting in 

 beating the offender on the soles of the 

 feet with a baston or wooden club. 



BAS'TION, a bulwark, from old Fr. bas- 

 tir, to build. The bastion, formerly 



called a bulwark, is an erection by which 

 the line of fortification is broken so as to 

 obtain lateral defences and due command 

 of every point at the bottom of the ram- 

 parts, and in the ditch before the citadel 

 They are built in very different way*. 



