Viola da gamba

Viola da gamba is any one of a family of bowed, fretted and stringed instruments
with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be
tightened or loosened to provide strings tuned to different pitches. Frets are thin
strips of hard material, most often gut, which are tied on the fingerboard of the
instrument's neck, to enable the performer to play in tune more easily. The frets
also make stopped strings sound more like open strings. Viols first appeared in
Spain in the mid to late 15th century and was most popular in the Renaissance
and Baroque (1600-1750) periods.[3] Early ancestors include the Arabic rebab
and the medieval European vielle,[4][5] but later, more direct possible ancestors
include the Venetian viole[6] and the 15th- and 16th-century Spanish vihuela, a
6-course plucked instrument tuned like a lute (and also like a present-day viol)[4]
[5] that looked like but was quite distinct from (at that time) the 4-course
guitar[7] (an earlier chordophone).[8]

Although bass viols superficially resemble cellos, viols are different in numerous
respects from instruments of the violin family: the viol family has flat rather than
curved backs, sloped rather than rounded shoulders, c holes rather than f holes,
and five to seven rather than four strings; some of the many additional
differences are tuning strategy (in fourths with a third in the middlesimilar to a
luterather than in fifths), the presence of frets, and underhand ("German")
rather than overhand ("French") bow grip.

All members of the viol family are played upright (unlike the violin, which is held
under the chin). All viol instruments are held between the legs like a modern
cello, hence the Italian name viola da gamba (it. "viol for the leg") was
sometimes applied to the instruments of this family. This distinguishes the viol
from the modern violin family, the viola da braccio (it. "viol for the arm"). A player
of the viol is commonly known as a gambist, violist /valst/, or violist da gamba.
"Violist" shares the spelling, but not the pronunciation, of the word commonly
used since the mid-20th century to refer to a player of the viola. It can therefore
cause confusion if used in print where context does not clearly indicate that a viol
player is meant, though it is entirely unproblematic, and common, in speech.

Detail from a painting by Jan Verkolje, Dutch, c. 1674, Elegant Couple (A Musical
Interlude). The theme is similar to the classic Music Lesson genre, and features a
bass viol, virginal, and cittern (in the woman's hand, out of frame in this detail;
see full image). This image highlights the domestic amateur class of viol players.
Vihuelists began playing their flat-edged instruments with a bow in the second
half of the 15th century. Within two or three decades, this led to the evolution of
an entirely new and dedicated bowed string instrument that retained many of the
features of the original plucked vihuela: a flat back, sharp waist-cuts, frets, thin
ribs (initially), and an identical tuninghence its original name, vihuela de arco;
arco is Spanish for "bow". An influence in the playing posture has been credited
to the example of Moorish rabab players.[5] The viol is unrelated to the much
older Hebrew stringed instrument called a viol (literally, "skin"). This ancient
harp-like instrument was similar to the kinnor or nabla.

Stefano Pio argues that a re-examination of documents in the light of newly

collected data indicates an origin different from the vihuela de arco from Aragon.
According to Pio, the viol (viola da gamba) had its origins and evolved
independently in Venice.[6] Pio asserts that it is implausible that the vihuela de
arco (which possibly arrived in Rome and Naples after 1483-1487, since Johannes
Tinctoris does not mention it prior to this time) underwent such a rapid evolution
by Italian instrument makers not Venetian (circumstances specifically excluded
by Lorenzo da Pavia), nor Mantuan or Ferrarese (as evidenced by Isabella and
Alfonso I d' Este's orders from luthiers from other cities) so that a ten-year span
witnessed the birth and diffusion in Italy of a new family of instruments (viole da
gamba or viols) which comprised instruments of different size, some as large as
the famous violoni as big as a man mentioned by Prospero Bernardino in 1493.

Pio also notes that both in the manuscript of the early 15th-century music
theorist Antonius de Leno and in the treatises of the Venetian Silvestro Ganassi
dal Fontego and Giovanni Maria Lanfranco (de), the fifth string of the viola da
gamba is uniquely called a bordone (drone), although it is not actually a drone
and is played the same as the other strings. Pio argues that this inconsistency is
justifiable only assuming the invention, during the last part of the fifteenth
century, of a larger instrument derived from the medieval violetta, to which were
gradually added other strings to allow a greater extension to the low register that
resulted from its increased size. The fifth string, already present in some
specimens of these violette as a drone (bordone), was incorporated into the neck
when they were expanded in size. This was then surpassed by a sixth string,
named basso, which fixed the lower sound produced by the instrument. In Pio's
view, the origin of the viola da gamba is tied to the evolution of the smaller the
medieval violetta or vielle, that was originally fitted with a fifth string drone,
where the name remained unchanged even though it ceased to perform this
function.

Ian Woodfield, in his The Early History of the Viol, points to evidence that the viol
does in fact start with the vihuela but that Italian makers of the instrument
immediately began to apply their own highly developed instrument-making
traditions to the early version of the instrument when it was introduced into Italy.

Initially the family of viole ("viols") shared common characteristics but differed in
the way they were played. The increase in the dimensions of the "viola"
determined the birth of the viol and the definitive change in the manner the
instrument was held, as musicians found it easier to play it vertically. The first
consort of viols formed by four players was documented at the end of the
fifteenth century in the courts of Mantua and Ferrara, but was also present in
popular Venetian music ambience, noted at the Scuola Grande di San Marco,
1499; Venetian culture remained independent of Spanish influence and
consequently unfamiliar with the instruments of those lands, such as the bowed
vihuela de arco.[dubious discuss][citation needed] Groups of viol players,
generally called violoni, were established in the Venetian Scuole Grandi around
1530/40, but the highly traditional environment of these institutions suggests
that these groups would have already been active in the general urban context
during the previous two decades (1510-1520).[citation needed] Some of these
players were known to have traveled to distant lands, including Vienna, the
Duchy of Bavaria or the Kingdom of England where they were welcomed at the
court of the Tudors and subsequently influenced Englands local instrumental
production.

Viols most commonly have six strings, although many 16th-century instruments
had only four or five strings. Viols were (and are) strung with gut strings of lower
tension than on the members of the violin family, let alone the steel strings
mostly used in those instruments today. Gut strings produce a sonority far
different from steel, generally described as softer and sweeter. Around 1660, gut
or silk core strings overspun with copper wire first became available; these were
then used for the lowest-pitched bass strings on viols, and on many other string
instruments as well.

Viols are fretted in a manner similar to early guitars or lutes, by means of

movable wrapped-around and tied-on gut frets. A low seventh string was
supposedly added in France to the bass viol by Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe (c.
16401690), whose students included the French gamba virtuoso and composer
Marin Marais. Also, the painting Saint Cecilia with an Angel (1618) by
Domenichino (15811641) shows what may be a seven-string viol.

Unlike members of the violin family, which are tuned in fifths, viols are usually
tuned in fourths with a major third in the middle, mirroring the tuning employed
on the vihuela de mano and lute during the 16th century and similar to that of
the modern six-string guitar.
Viols were first constructed much like the vihuela de mano, with all surfaces, top,
back, and sides made from flat slabs or pieces of joined wood, bent or curved as
required. However, some viols, both early and later, had carved tops, similar to
those more commonly associated with instruments of the violin family. The ribs or
sides of early viols were usually quite shallow, reflecting more the construction of
their plucked vihuela counterparts. Rib depth increased during the course of the
16th century, finally coming to resemble the greater depth of the classic 17th-
century pattern.

The flat backs of most viols have a sharply angled break or canted bend in their
surface close to where the neck meets the body. This serves to taper the back
(and overall body depth) at its upper end to meet the back of the neck joint flush
with its heel. Traditional construction uses animal glue, and internal joints are
often reinforced with strips of either linen or vellum soaked in hot animal gluea
practice also employed in early plucked vihuela construction. The peg boxes of
viols (which hold the tuning pegs) were typically decorated either with elaborate
carved heads of animals or people or with the now familiar spiral scroll finial.

The earliest vihuelas and viols, both plucked and bowed, all had sharp cuts to
their waists, similar to the profile of a modern violin. This is a key and new
featurefirst appearing in the mid-15th centuryand from then on, it was
employed on many different types of string instruments. This feature is also key
in seeing and understanding the connection between the plucked and bowed
versions of early vihuelas. If one were to go searching for very early viols with
smooth-curved figure-eight bodies, like those found on the only slightly later
plucked vihuelas and the modern guitar, they would be out of luck. By the mid-
16th century, however, "guitar-shaped" viols were fairly common, and a few of
them survive.

The earliest viols had flat, glued-down bridges just like their plucked counterpart
vihuelas. Soon after, however, viols adopted the wider and high-arched bridge
that facilitated the bowing of single strings. The earliest of viols would also have
had the ends of their fretboards flat on the deck, level with or resting upon the
top or sound board. Once the end of their fretboards were elevated above the top
of the instrument's face, the entire top could vibrate freely. Early viols did not
have sound posts, either (again reflecting their plucked vihuela siblings). This
reduced damping again meant that their tops could vibrate more freely,
contributing to the characteristic "humming" sound of viols; yet the absence of a
sound post also resulted in a quieter and softer voice overall.
It is commonly believed[13] that C-holes (a type and shape of pierced sound port
visible on the top face or belly of string instruments) are a definitive feature of
viols, a feature used to distinguish viols from instruments in the violin family,
which typically had F-shaped holes. This generality, however, renders an
incomplete picture. The earliest viols had either large, open, round, sound holes
(or even round pierced rosettes like those found on lutes and vihuelas), or they
had some kind of C-holes. Viols sometimes had as many as four small C-holes
one placed in each corner of the boutsbut more commonly, they had two. The
two C-holes might be placed in the upper bouts, centrally, or in the lower bouts.
In the formative years, C-holes were most often placed facing each other or
turned inwards.

In addition to round or C-holes, however, and as early as the first quarter of the
16th century, some viols adopted S-shaped holes, again facing inward. By the
mid-16th century, S-holes morphed into the classic F-shaped holes, which were
then used by viols and members of the violin family alike. By the mid- to late
16th century, the viol's C-holes facing direction was reversed, becoming outward
facing. That configuration then became a standard feature of what we today call
the classic 17th-century pattern. Yet another style of sound holes found on
some viols was a pair of flame-shaped Arabesques placed left and right. The lute
and vihuelalike round or oval ports or rosettes became a standard feature of
German and Austrian viols and was retained to the very end. That feature or
genetic marker was exclusively unique to viols and reminded one always of the
viol's more ancient plucked vihuela roots, the "luteness" of viols.

Historians, makers, and players generally distinguish between Renaissance and

Baroque viols. The latter are more heavily constructed and are fitted with a bass
bar and sound post, like modern stringed instruments.

The bow is held underhand (palm up), similar to a German double bass bow grip,
but away from the frog towards the balance point. The stick's curvature is
generally convex as were violin bows of the period, rather than concave like a
modern violin bow. The "frog" (which holds the bowhair and adjusts its tension) is
also different from that of modern bows: whereas a violin bow frog has a "slide"
(often made of mother of pearl), which pinches the hair and holds it flat and
stationary across the frog, viol bows have an open frog that allows more
movement of the hair. This facilitates a traditional playing technique where the
performer uses one or two fingers of the bow hand to press the hair away from
the bow stick. This dynamically increases bow hair tension to control articulation
and inflection.
Violone or great bass viol. Painting by Sir Peter Lely, c. 1640, Dutch-born English
Baroque era painter. Note the Italianate shape, square shoulders, and F-holes,
apart from its massive size.

Gambas (as the name is often abbreviated) come in seven sizes: "pardessus de
viole" (which is relatively rare, exclusively French and did not exist before the
18th century), treble (in French dessus), alto, tenor (in French taille), bass, and
two sizes of contrabass (also known as a violone), the smaller one tuned an
octave below the tenor (violone in G, sometimes called great bass or in French
grande basse) and the larger one tuned an octave below the bass (violone in D).

Their tuning (see next section) alternates G and D instruments: pardessus in G,

treble in D, tenor in G, bass in D (the seven string bass was a French invention,
with an added low A), small violone in G, large violone in D. The alto, between the
treble and the tenor, does not fit in this scheme. The treble has a size similar to a
viola but with a deeper body; the typical bass is about the size of a cello. The
pardessus and the treble were held vertically in the lap. The English made
smaller basses known as division viols, and the still-smaller Lyra viol. The viola
bastarda was a similar type of viol used in Italy for a virtuosic style of viol
repertoire and performance. German consort basses were larger than the French
instruments designed for continuo.

Those instruments were not all equally common. The typical Elizabethan consort
of viols was composed of six instruments: two basses, two tenors and two trebles,
or one bass, three tenors and two trebles (see Chest of viols). Thus the bass,
tenor and treble were the central members of the family as far as music written
specifically for viols is concerned. Besides consort playing the bass could also be
used as a solo instrument (there were also smaller basses designed especially for
a virtuosic solo role, see above division viol, lyra viol, viola bastarda). And the
bass viol could also serve as a continuo bass. The pardessus was a French 18th
century instrument that was introduced to allow ladies to play mostly violin or
flute music[14] but eventually acquired its own repertoire. The alto was a
relatively rare smaller version of the tenor. The violones were never part of the
consort of viols but functioned as the contrabass of all kinds of instrumental
combination.