The location of this cache will lead you to one of my favoite places in Charlotte.



Permission was granted before placing this cache. Enjoy this location before leaving.

History of QueensGrantMusic:
My road to becoming a music teacher has not been an easy one, but I can clearly remember and tell everyone when it all started. I was about to turn 16 years old and had just moved to a new high school. I was trying to figure out what classes to take when I noticed that the school offered orchestra. I had played a little piano and took an introduction to guitar in Junior High, but I did not play any orchestra instruments. I went to the music teacher and asked her if I could be part of the orchestra. After answering several questions like, "Do you play an instrument?" or "Have you been in orchestra before?" with "NO", she asked if I could read music and I answered "YES". Then she asked if I would work hard, and I said "YES". That was all it took to start my orchestra experience. Miss Linda Bell, newly out of college, gave me a chance and taught me how to play Double Bass. I would come in early to practice, and I would also practice during lunch and by December I had caught up to the class and played in my first concert on the Double Bass.

The Double Bass was my start to a wonderful life as a music teacher. I still strive to be like Miss Linda Bell to help students with music, and maybe create a few music teachers along the way.

I do not need all my students to become professional musicians or music teachers, I tell them, "I want you to either be a musician or make a lot of money and support musicians."

To find this cache, you will learn a little about the Double Bass.

The Double Bass
As stated on Wikipedia, the double bass stands around 180 cm (six feet) from scroll to endpin, and is typically constructed from several types of wood, including maple for the back, spruce for the top, and ebony for the fingerboard. It is uncertain whether the instrument is a descendant of the viola da gamba or of the violin, but it is traditionally aligned with the violin family. While the double bass is nearly identical in construction to other violin family instruments, it also embodies features found in the older viol family.

The double bass is generally regarded as a modern descendant of the string family of instruments that originated in Europe in the 15th century, and as such has been described as a bass Violin. Before the 20th century many double basses had only three strings, in contrast to the five to six strings typical of instruments in the string family or the four strings of instruments in the violin family. Some existing instruments, such as those by Gasparo da Salò, were converted from 16th-century six-string contrabass violoni.

The double bass's proportions are dissimilar to those of the violin and cello; for example, it is deeper (the distance from top to back is proportionally much greater than the violin). In addition, while the violin has bulging shoulders, most double basses have shoulders carved with a more acute slope, like members of the viol family. Many very old double basses have had their shoulders cut or sloped to aid playing with modern techniques. Before these modifications, the design of their shoulders was closer to instruments of the violin family.

The double bass is the only modern bowed string instrument that is tuned in fourths (like a viol), rather than fifths. The issue of the instrument's exact lineage is still a matter of some debate, and the supposition that the double bass is a direct descendant of the viol family is one that has not been entirely resolved.

In his A New History of the Double Bass, Paul Brun asserts, with many references, that the double bass has origins as the true bass of the violin family. He states that, while the exterior of the double bass may resemble the viola da gamba, the internal construction of the double bass is nearly identical to instruments in the violin family, and very different from the internal structure of viols.

Double Bass Strings
Prior to the mid-20th century, double bass strings were usually made of cat gut, but since that time, steel strings have largely replaced gut strings, because steel strings hold their pitch better and yield more volume when played with the bow.

Double Bass Music
The earliest known concerto for double bass was written by Joseph Haydn ca.1763, and is presumed lost in a fire at the Eisenstadt library. The earliest known existing concertos are by Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf, who composed two concertos for the double bass and a Sinfonia Concertante for viola and double bass. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's concert aria, Per Questa Bella Mano, K.612 for bass (voice), double bass obbligato, and orchestra contains impressive writing for solo double bass of that period. It remains popular among both singers and double bassists today.

Beethoven's friendship with Dragonetti may have inspired him to write difficult, separate parts for the double bass in his symphonies, such as the impressive passages in the third movement of the Fifth Symphony, the second movement of the Seventh Symphony, and last movement of the Ninth Symphony. These parts do not double the cello part. Dragonetti wrote ten concertos for the double bass and many solo works for bass and piano.

QUIZ TO CACHE
AB=How many letters are on both sides of this sign at the posted coordinates? (both sides are the same) 30
CDEF=What year was the earliest known concerto written for Double Bass? 1763
GH=The origins of the Double Bass started in what century? 15
I=What symphony of Beethoven had a separate impressive part in the second movement? 7
STU=About how tall in centemeters is a Double Bass? 180
V=How is the Double Bass tuned? 4
WX=How many concerto's did Dragonetti compose for the Double Bass? 10


SOME SIMPLE MATH
(CDEF+AB+GH) * I = N 35 _ _ . _ _ _
(STU+WX+WX) * (AB+GH) + V = W 080 4 _ . _ _ _

This cache was placed by a member of the
Greater Charlotte Geocaching Club