"For the sake of fullness of music in the choir”—performance practice and the double bass at the Kroměříž Court

Argues that the field of historically-informed performance is still applying romantic notions of approaches to the notation of double bass parts in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. Rather than looking to surviving parts for details about instruments, it is argued that the role and function in the context of basso continuo practice, much more than organological concerns about tuning and size, is key to a historical understanding of performance practice of the time. Relying on previously overlooked or mis-read primary sources, a new approach is called for as well as some reconsideration of the function of the 16' bass in the context of concert music with cello obligato.