The triple contrabass viol is a modern variant of the French

octobass The octobass is an extremely large and rare bowed string instrument that was first built around 1850 in Paris by the French luthier Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume (1798–1875). It has three strings and is essentially a larger version of the double ba ...

, closely related to the

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

. Recordings and performances of sub-contrabass string instruments are rare; over tall, the triple contrabass viol must be played with the performer on an elevated platform. It was originally a three-stringed baroque instrument tuned C₀–G₀–C₁ or C₀–G₀–D₁ with the lower C coming in at 16.35 Hz. This is equivalent to the C two octaves below the cello's lowest C. A four-string variant of the contrabass viol is played by bassist Brian Smith on

Roscoe Mitchell Roscoe Mitchell (born August 3, 1940) is an American composer, jazz instrumentalist, and educator, known for being "a technically superb – if idiosyncratic – saxophonist". ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' described him as "one of the key figures ...

's recording, ''Four Compositions'' (Lovely Music, 1988).
It had two large circular holes in the body to facilitate recording.

References

Contrabass instruments Viol family instruments {{Violin-family-instrument-stub