(Fr.: ‘top’).
The highest part in French vocal or instrumental ensembles from the 17th to the early 19th centuries. The term corresponds with the English ‘treble’; hence dessus de viole refers to the treble viol. Within divided textures treble parts may be styled premier dessus and second dessus, or alternatively haut-dessus and bas-dessus. The term may apply collectively to the high instruments within a consort; for example, dessus de hautbois or even dessus de symphonie. During the 17th and 18th centuries dessus alone sometimes meant violin, more properly called dessus de violon. Dessus continued to denote the highest voice in France as late as the first edition of Rossini’s Guillaume Tell (1829), even though the French terms for other voices had long fallen into disuse.