Double bass Symbolism
In depictions of rehearsal and performance, the double bass can symbolize the grounded musical infrastructure that makes spectacle possible. In Edgar Degas’s The Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage (ca. 1874), the instrument stands in for the unseen players and steady pulse that support the visible action.
Double bass in The Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage
Edgar Degas’s The Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage (ca. 1874) makes the symbol explicit: a looming double bass anchors the scene even as the musicians remain out of frame. Under harsh footlights, ballerinas stretch and repeat steps while a ballet master or conductor drives the tempo; the bass reads as the material sign of that labor, a counterpoint to the lounging abonnés in the wings.
