‘Basses and even occasionally contrabasses are also made for flute bands.’
‘His primary instruments are the contrabass, voice, piano, electronics, and various percussive devices.’
‘It begins with electronic sounds of garbled voices and interference from static-laden radio channels, and gradually introduces gentle guitar strumming, stately piano chords, warm contrabass, and dreamy steel guitar.’
‘The musician, an Estonian-born musician, specialized in the contrabass.’
‘The performer, who plays contrabass, remembers the sensational popularity of the song.’
‘A low-pitched member of a family of instruments, with a range lower than tenor and higher than contrabass or double bass.’
adjective
Denoting a musical instrument with a range an octave lower than the normal bass range.
‘a contrabass clarinet’
‘These horns are often found in their lowest manifestation, with Havard Lund playing bass clarinet and Nils Jansen alternating between contrabass clarinet and bass saxophone.’
‘I played contrabass clarinet in the school Concert Band, guitar in the Jazz Big Band, percussion in the school orchestra and I began to write music.’
‘Among the collection's highlights are the double slide contrabass trombone which inspired Wagner to write for the instrument in his Ring Cycle, a crystal glass flute and an early euphonium.’
‘Gustafsson plays contrabass saxophone, but his contribution is also too brief, though staggering enough when it does enter the fray.’
‘The work is more of a textural tone poem - and a rather heavy-handed one at that - spending most of its time in a noisy netherworld of guitars, electronics, and occasional contrabass saxophone.’
‘One is a real contrabass balalaika, I brought it from Russia.’
Origin
Late 18th century from Italian contrabasso, from contra- ‘pitched an octave below’ + basso (see bass).
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