by Herber Foster Odell
August /September 1911, Crescendo Magazine
The Mando-Bass
The mando-bass is a comparatively new instrument and is the latest addition to the mandolin family. It completes the quintette of strings of 1st mandolin, 2nd mandolin, tenor mandola, mendo-cell and mando-bass which may be compared to the 1st and 2nd violin, viola, cello and double bass of the regular orchestra. The instrument is, at the present time, in a sort of experimental state. The only one at present manufactured in this country is that made by the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Co. of Kalamazoo, Mich. This instrument has a large body in the form of what might be called the flat backed model. The instrument at present is played by resting it on a post on the floor side of the performer’s chair, the player reaching over the body of the instrument with his right hand to play the strings. The body of the instrument is considerably larger than the harp-guitar in order to give proper vibration for the lowest bass tones. The neck is quite long and the string length of the instrument as made at present, I believe, is about 14 in. shorter than the regular orchestral double bass.
The double bass in the violin orchestra is tuned to the following notes, counting from the first string, G, D, A, E. These notes are written in the bass clef as follows, G in the top space of the staff, D on the 3rd line of the staff, A on the bottom space of the staff, and E on ledger line below the staff and sound one octave below where they are written.
Although the American guild has not taken definite action in form of a recommendation I believe that the mando-bass should be tuned the same as the regular double bass, providing the music for the instrument is written in the bass clef which I think it should and will be. There is a mando-bass made in England which is somewhat smaller than the one made in this country and this instrument is tuned like the three string double bass counting from the first string down, G, D, A, emitting the form string as in the American mando-bass. The three string double bass in the orchestra in addition to being tuned like the mando-bass just mentioned is also tuned counting from the first string down, A, D, G, or in other words in fifths instead of fourths.
It has very little similarity to a guitar as some claim, except that the four strings happened to be tuned the same as the four lower strings of the guitar, but as far as playing goes, the instrument can more readily be played by a mandolin player than a guitar player as it should be played with a pick using the picking and tremolo movements the same as on the mandolin and mando-cello although the actual manipulation of the pick is a little different than on the smaller instruments of the mandolin family but the general idea is the same. Constant reiteration by a number of those who have argued in favor of certain points that the guitar player may easily play it, seem to me very ill-advised statements for the reason that it is hardly likely that guitar players will play the mando-bass to any extent whereas it is more than likely that mandolin players will play the instrument in the large mandolin orchestras. The sustained tone on this instrument must be produced by a constant tremolo, the same as any instrument in the mandolin family and it is with the continuous tremolo tone that the mando-bass becomes most effective.
A number claim that the strings should be fingered the same as the guitar. We cannot agree with this statement. The instruments should be and undoubtedly will be played and fingered exactly like the double bass which fingering is considerably different from that of the guitar. I believe the quiet and best way to learn to play the mando-bass is to get a good standard double bass method, study the fingering of the double bass and apply it to the mando-bass. Quicker results will be obtained this way than any other. I regret that some of my good brothers have advocated that guitar fingering be used as it is misleading to those who will play the mando-bass and I earnestly urge those who are intending to do so to learn the double bass fingering and not the guitar fingering.
The matter of writing mando-bass music has caused more discussion than anything that has agitated the mandolin fraternity for some years. The first thought that has come into the minds o f all musicians, all the publishers and all those who would naturally be judged competent to talk on such matters has been that this instrument will of course be written for in the bass clef, and in fact practically all the publishers in this country with the exception of one or two small ones have already announced their intention of furnishing music for this instrument in the bass clef, and the best known arranges and club leaders have also advocated the bass clef. Among the publishers who have stated they would furnish in the bass clef are Oliver Ditson Co., White-Smith Co., Walter Jacobs, Cundy Bettoney Co., H.F. Odell & Co. These firms collectively publish about 75 per cent of the music published in America. Among the arrangers, club leaders and players who recommend the bass clef in addition to the writer, the following are a few who have expressed themselves emphatically for the bass clef. G. L. Lansing, Paul Eno, M.A. Bickford, Clifford Essex, J.J. Derwin, Carl Tschopp, Wm. Place Jr., W.J. Kitchener, Wm. Ed. Foster, Roy W. Burchard, E.F. Goggin and F. Landry Berthoud, and I could name a great many others who have written me lately stating they were emphatically for the bass clef, in fact from all the letters I have received in regard to the matter, I only know of two who at the present time feel that they prefer the treble clef.
The bass clef was the first and most natural suggested for the music of this instrument but I believe without actual serious consideration of the matter a number have suggested that the treble clef be used writing the G first space above the staff, D fourth line of the staff, A second space of the staff and E on the lower line of the staff. Mr. Marsh, of Providence, in a recent issue of the Crescendo, suggested it be written for in the treble clef but with the notes written as follows counting down from the first string and writing in the treble clef, G on the second line of the staff, D first space below the staff, A second line below the staff, E fourth space below the staff. In the first way mentioned with the fourth string E on the lower line of the staff, the music would have to be written three octaves above where it sounds. This would cause mando-bass music to more resemble a flute or piccolo part than anything else, and as much of it would like on high notes above the staff, it would be extremely difficult to play. I have personally written out a number of bass parts in this way to see how they would look and I have found that on average that over 60 per cent of the notes would appear above the staff on ledger lines or spaces. There is the same objection to Mr. Marsh’s suggestion that we write the music accordion to the second way mentioned with the low E fourth string on the fourth space below the staff. This would necessitate having most of the notes written on ledger lines or spaces below the staff, and in such pieces as the Tannhauser Grand March, the bass run would be very difficult to read readily. Of the two ways, however, I should prefer the second way, that is having the notes below the staff and written forin this way the notes would only be two octaves above the actual sound, but neither is as easy to read as the bass clef.
L.A. Williams, of the Gibson Co., has suggested in an article which is now running in the Crescendo on a new notation which he calls “Universal” notation but I believe it is the farthest from universal notation of anything that has been suggested. I will not attempt to describe his notation as Crescendo readers may gain all knowledge of it from his article in this magazine. As far as universal notation is concerned, the present bass and treble clef are the only universal notations that are in existence or probably ever will be. The music of the entire world today is written in the present orchestral notation and is universal in every civilized country.
My good brothers Williams’ suggestion that we use his new notation for the music of the mando-bass and place the bass clef sign on the top line of the staff instead of its usual position but reading the notes as if they were in the treble clef is the most impractical thing, musically, I have ever seen. I hve written out a number of parts in this suggested notation and showed them to musicians and amateurs and in every case without exception, when they have tried to read the notes they have, within a few measures from the beginning, got mixed up and couldn’t tell whether they were playing in the bass or treble clef.
I am in hopes in this article to show members of the mandolin fraternity why the bass clef is the proper and best one for the music for the mando-bas to be written in and also why it is much easier even for amateur players to play this instrument in the bass clef.
Before continuing with my reasons, I wish to ask the fraternity a few questions: would the members of the mandolin fraternity rather be classed as amateurs only or would they rather be called musicians with a real knowledge of real music rather than a make-shift knowledge of music? Admitting that amateurs play principally for amusement, is there any reason that an amateur can’t learn to play correctly just as quickly as to learn music by a short-cut method? I have enough faith in the constantly increasing proficiency of mandolin players to believe they are as capable of learning music as musicians in other lines. Are we, in the mandolin fraternity, always going to adopt some new fangled short-cut which is constantly causing ridicule from real musicians or isn’t it about time for the reformers in the mandolin fraternity to get down to cold facts and adopt the musical ideas of the entire civilized world? Isn’t it time for amateurs even in thai fraternity to be classed as musicians and not just players? Aren’t the amateurs themselves perfectly willing to learn music correctly providing the teachers themselves will teach it correctly?
Some objection has been raised to the bass clef for the mando-bass but no arguments have been presented which will convince those who think seriously of the matter that any other than the bass clef should be used for this instrument. Mr. Williams has referred to the fact that his notation would. be useful for coming generations who will not want to bother to leam the bass
clef. Possibly he has not stopped to consider that in a majority of the public schools in all the cities in the country singing is taught in both the treble and bass clefs, and the children today from 6 to 8 years of age can read in both clefs, a large number even playing chords with
both hands at the same time, in both clefs and these children will be the musicians of the coming generation with the ability to read in both clefs, therefore how can Mr. Williams possibly state that the coming generations won’t know the bass clef when they are learning it now
in the public schools and in private lessons with their private teachers.
Approximately 90 per cent of the mandolin fraternity have at some time or other sung in church choirs or played piano and are familiar with the bass clef. Church singers, especially tenors and basses,when first entering church choirs are perfectly familiar with the bass clef as a majority
of church music is written this way, in fact there is hardly a man or boy living today who has had any training or experience at all in music who cannot read readily in the bass clef, or learn it in a few moments and probably. 75 per cent of the girls or women have studied or played piano. ls there any reason then why those who arc to play the mando-bass in the mandolin orchestra cannot play this instrument in the bass clef where the notes lie much easier to read on the staff than in any other notation or shall we, the mandolin-fraternity, try by another shortcut method to upset the musical standard of the world and let the players read a mando-bass part sounding
way down in the lowest notes of the piano but looking like a piccolo or flute part on the staff or shall we, the mandolin fraternity, set ourselves up as advocates of a new notation which is of no benefit to anyone, which is no better to read in, which only causes confusion and which would cause more ridicule for our already berated mandolin fraternity? As an arranger, a player and director, as a student of music of all forms, I say ”No”. Let us try rather to lead the mandolin fraternity into musical ways and ideas which are no more difficult but are in fact easier in most cases to learn and which arc decidedly more sensible when figured out on paper.
In the next issue of the Crescendo I shall give other reasons advanced by musicians for the use of the bass clef for mando-bass music.
(continued)
An article entitled “The Mandolin Family” by J. Greenwood Hamilton, recently appeared in the American Musician. An excellent description of the mando-cello and tenor mandola was given. What interested the writer most was Mr. Hamilton’s reference to the mando-bass in which he said in part, “It occupies the same place in the mandolin orchestra that the double base does in the regular orchestra. It is tuned exactly like the four stringed double bass and the music will doubtless be written in the bass clef.” Here’s another musician who naturally expects that the mando-bass will be written for in the bass clef, where it certainly belongs according to all rules of music, harmony, or instrumentation.
It seems more natural to many with whom I have talked that the club leaders, the musicians, the teachers, the arrangers and publishers should be considered better authorities on how music should be published or written than the manufacturers of instruments. The publishers of this class of music are almost without exception men who were formerly teachers of not only these instruments but of voice, piano, band, orchestra, organ, in fact almost every kind of music and their entire lives have been devoted to settling musical questions. It is very seldom that these gentlemen state how instruments should be manufactured but when it comes to the playing or the writing for these instruments, it is natural that the entire fraternity look to these men as authorities on music as they look to the manufacturer for the instruments.
Was Stradivarius considered as an authority on violin playing or was it Paganini? No, Stradavarius made the instrument as no one else could but he could not play it. It took the musician, the composer, to bring out the tone and he was the one whom the world looked to as an authority on how to play the instrument. Did the piano makers in the days of Beethoven tell him how to plan the piano or how to compose his wonderful music? No, the piano makers merely manufactured the instruments. Beethoven created the music and was the authority on musical matters, not the manufacturer., and even today, Beethoven’s music is regarded as the highest form of the musical art.
Some years ago, to be exact 1776, a Frenchman, L’Abbede Cassagne tried to bring about a reform in music and suggested a similar clef to this so called universal clef. Later on the matter of this clef was again brought up and it was called the “Unicelf” so this present idea which is being talked about is really quite an old matter. Some music was published for piano on this Uniclef and it had the effect of making its users lose the power to read ordinary music. Nearly 75 per cent of the mandolin, banjo and guitar fraternity, at sometime or other in their lives play other instruments or sing. I firmly believe that those who learn to read music in this proposed new clef will have much difficulty in playing real music when they again try to come back into the fold of the real musicians. There is no use learning any more clefs than necessary but the treble and bass clefs are necessary in the music of the world and always will be. A player will be only wasting time in learning any other than these regular clefs.
A letter which I recently received from a very prominent musician may be interesting.
“Dear Mr. Odell:
A foreign musician is suggesting a new division of the scale–in the tripartite tones. This will make a scale of something like 18 or 20 different otnes–now with these recently suggested “FLEXIBLE CLEF–the new scale and the possible harmonies arising therefrom, I see the FINISH–all the present instruments, music, plates, and text books must be destroyed and we must begin anew. Are you glad you are living just now or would you rather have been born about 10 years later? Hurray for the bass-clef!”
About every ten years someone attempts to reform the music of the world. They are all sincere in their efforts and beliefs. This gentleman who suggest 18 tones in the scale undoubtedly has it figured out to his own satisfaction so that the music of the world will be much better, but if any such matter should ever be considered seriously, wouldn’t it mean that all of the music of the great masters, way back from the time of the Father of Harmony, Rameau, must be destroyed. It would mean that all of the violins of Stradivarius, Amati, and other noted makers must be destroyed and we start all over again. There would be no old masters to pattern by but we would create new music and new instruments. Future generations would play instruments which could produce more tones than any of those now in use. The music would resemble chromatic scale exercise and what the music itself would sound like, is more than can be imagined.
I mentioned this suggested universal clef, so-called to the Editor of a very prominent music magazine and he said “Why that’s an old story. Reformers of music appear on the horizon every once and a while and think they will upset the entire music of the world” and in my conversation with him he mentioned the one great point why no publisher of the present day will ever consider publishing music in this suggested new clef. In Germany alone there are billions and billions and more billions of dollars already invested in music. In Italy, England, France, Russia and our own country there are many more billions of dollars invested in music. Is it likely that those who have already issued this amount of music will consider destroying it and issuing it in a new form? There are in the civilized world billions and billions of people who study music and at a conservative estimate 75 per cent of these people can read music in both bass and treble clef and at least 50 per cent of them are even familiar or can read music in the so called viola clef or the tenor clef. However I am discussing principally the bass clef. This little mandolin fraternity of ours is just as large in actual numbers in comparison with all the musicians in the world as a little mud pile made by a child compared with Mount Vesuvius. Is it likely that reforms in the musical world will come from our fraternity?
My good friend, who is suggesting the new clef practically refers to precedent and antiquity and what our forefathers did as something to be ignored. He tells about the obsolete clefs, in fact at times he suggests that we should do away with the obsolete clefs but isn’t he only suggesting that we revive a clef that is almost obsolete and use it for the tenor mandola. Would the present players of the tenor mandola really like to see the tenor clef on the staff instead of the present treble clef which has been adopted by the publishers and will undoubtedly be used for hundreds of years? Why should we return to obsolete clefs in order to adopt universal notation? We must certainly, as agreed by all, consider this mando-bass as a bass instrument playing practically only the bass notes of any composition. Only occasionally will it have difficult bass runs, in fact musically, it will be the easiest part of any instrument in the mandolin orchestra.
In spite of all arguments anyone who takes up the mando-bass, unless he has beforehand studied the double bass, will find it a brand new instrument, and he will have to learn it when he first starts in as he did the mandolin, banjo, or guitar. Is there any reason in the world why, when learning the instrument, he shouldn’t learn it the easiest way and the easiest way is certainly learning to play it with double bass fingering in the bass clef.
As mentioned previously, I can see no connection whatever between a mando-bass and a guitar except that the strings are tuned like the four lowest strings of a guitar, but what of it? The difference between the frets farthest apart on the fingerboard is about one inch but on the mando-bass the distance between most of the frets is nearly two inches, therefore placing hte first finger on one fret, the fourth finger is the one which most naturally falls on the next fret. This certainly is no guitar fingering, therefore if it should be a guitar player who is to play the mando-bass in a certain club couldn’t he just as quickly learn the instrument considering it as a double bass and reading the music in the bass clef? Is it likely that guitar players will be the ones to take it up? Isn’t it more likely that it will be a mandolin player? Admitting that the mandolin player has been used to reading in the treble clef, he has been reading music written for an instrument tuned in fifths, therefore he must learn the mando-bass anew and he will learn an instrument tuned in fourths and if the notes should be written in the treble clef, in entirely different locations in that clef than he is used to reading, in fact the treble clef should ever be considered for this instrument, he would become an expert in playing piccolo parts on the mando-bass. The mandolin player must learn a new fingerboard and a new location of the notes on the staff he is used to. Won’t he save time by doing the whole thing in the bass clef?
I believe that this mandolin fraternity of ours is becoming more musical every year and I don’t believe it is necessary to cater to the more ignorant. I sincerely hope to see at least 200 mando-basses in use during the next year and admitting that 200 are used, wouldn’t it be possible for this little handful of players to just start off right and learn this instrument correctly in the bass clef. They would be better off musically in every way and I wager that of the 200 that may play the mando-bass during the coming year 175 can read in the bass clef now as well as they can in the treble clef.
Imagine a small town. There is a little orchestra in the town. It has four or five violins, a cornet, a clarinet, trombone flute and drums. They talk the matter over among themselves and finally decided they must have a double bass and they can’t get anyone who wil play them therefore having more violins than really needed, they persuade one of the players to play the double bass in order to make their little orchestra of which they are so proud able to play what they desire. One of the violin players agrees to the change. They purchase a double bass. The leader hands out the parts, puts a double bass part in the bass clef in front of this former violin player and says to him “there’s your part, play it.” The present double bass player, formerly the violin player, has all his life been reading in the treble clef and is not really familiar with the bass clef, but he has made up his mind to play the double bass and at this first rehearsal, he does have a little difficulty reading the part. After the rehearsal, he takes his double bass and the music written in the bass clef and goes home and practices a little while. Of course he is learning the strings of the instrument, the fingering positions, all new to him, but in less than an hour this man has learned to read in the bass clef almost as readily as in the treble clef and he has mastered the ordinary positions on his instrument and he is sawing away on that double bass as though he had always played the instrument.
The above is only one of thousands of similar occurrences in this country and all other countries. We now have the mando-bass added to the instrumentation, an instrument which all club leaders desire. It is new to all of us except those who have been fortunate enough to play double bass, but wouldn’t it be a good idea for us all to start off musically correct? Some short cuts in life are found advisable. No one has ever suggested a short cut in music yet that saved any time for a student of music. Methods may differ but methods based on the legitimate in music constitute the shortest way to learn music quickly.
It is a pretty positive fact that no music publisher with any sized catalog whatever will consider a change of notation. All the present publications of the large mandolin orchestra catalogs from which we can now draw will continue to be printed just as they are and additions to these catalogs will be in the same notations as the pieces formerly issued. If there be those who desire a new notation they will find it practically impossible to obtain music for the mando-bass. We doubt if there will ever be a demand for music in any other than the bass clef for mando-bass and if the players in the clubs desire to use the fine pieces now on the market they will necessarily have to learn to play the mando-bass in the bass clef. Surely no firm would care to spend $10,000 to rewire all this music in any other than the present clefs to accommodate 50 or 100 players.
Considerable reference has been made to what the American Guild will do in regard to his suggested change of notation. The men who are known most prominently at the present time as the leading musicians, teachers, arrangers, or publishers in the American Guild are almost unanimously in favor of the bass clef for this instrument, and it is absurd to think that the American Guild would vote to adopt a new notation which obviously on account of the music already published, can never be adopted.
My good brother asks if the American Guild is to stand for the squash variety worth, growth, and merit. As a professional member of the American Guild I heartily agree with my good brother here. No, indeed. The Guild is not to stand for the squash variety of merit. It is going to squash all ideas of trying to reform must the music world (it is a pretty good old musical world as it is), it is going to set itself up as the body of musicians and the world is going to say “The American Guild has transformed the mandolin, banjo and guitar from toys into real musical instruments as capable of producing real music as any other sort of instruments.
In a later issue of the Crescendo I hope to show various easy ways of learning this much talked dof clef, the bass clef, and it illustrate how easy it is to read in the bass clef, in fact as easily as the treble clef, and how it may be learned in in a few moments and to show those who have been not fortunate enough to learn this clef how simple it is.