The Viol : history of an instrument

Annette Otterstedt ; translated by Hans Reiners

This book is a compendium and a practical guide for musicians andmusic lovers alike, putting a great many problems and questionsrelating to the viol, and music in general, into perspective. Thereis ample material concerning such topics as the great gamba players,the history of viol construction including regional developments,the musical role of viols, reconstructions and forgeries, and thepractical aspects of viol playing.

A viola da gamba miscellanea : articles from and inspired by viol symposiums organized by the Ensemble Baroque de Limoges, France = recueil des actes des colloques de "La Borie en Limousin" : contributions et essais sur la viole de gambe

Edités par Susan Orlando

Dans les années 1990, trois colloques consacrés à la viole, anglaise, allemande et française, se sont tenus à La Borie-en-Limousin, près de Limoges, à l'initiative de Christophe Coin, directeur de l'Ensemble Baroque de Limoges. Dans cette anthologie éclectique, on trouvera traitées un large éventail de questions sur la viole allant de récentes découvertes sur différents compositeurs des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (tel Sainte Colombe) à des perspectives très neuves sur Haendel et la viole, la "descant" viole et bien d'autres encore. Quatre articles consacrés à la restauration de violes complètent ces réflexions musicologiques

The Caldwell collection of viols : a life together in the pursuit of beauty

Catharina Meints Caldwell | with notes on the instruments by John Pringle and notes on the makers by Thomas G. MacCracken

This book presents the stringed musical instruments in the Caldwell Collection of Viols, including fine, rare, and important examples by Amati, Bertrand, Norman, Rose, Tielke, and others. Lavishly illustrated listings provide : 217 photographs, including full-page portraits of each instrument by Roger Mastroianni, over 70 minutes of music, in 40 audio tracks, details of provenance, dimensions, and restoration history, technical descriptions of each instrument by the contemporary viol builder John Pringle, essays on the makers by the musicologist Thomas G. MacCracken. The book is a moving and humorous memoir as well as a catalogue, telling the story of how the collection was shaped by the forty-year musical life together of its principals, and by their conviction that instruments, no matter how beautiful, are meant to be played and heard, not just looked at.

The viola da gamba : its origin and history, its technique and musical resources

Nathalie Dolmetsch

Gambiste et compositrice, fille d'Arnold Dolmetsch, Nathalie Dolmetsch retrace l'histoire de la famille des violes, sa typologie, les bases de sa technique. Elle insiste sur l'utilisation de l'archet, l'ornementation et l'interprétation en solo et en consort.

The Early history of the viol

Ian Woofield

Le but de cet ouvrage est de décrire le développement de la viole depuis son origine, au cours du Moyen Age tardif, jusqu'à sa renaissance au 20e siècle. Le 16e siècle apparaît comme le zénith de la viole ancienne.

The Viola d'amore

Harry Danks

The viola d'amore has never attracted the attention and adulation that have become the prerogative of the violin. The viola d'amore evolved in Germany, in two forms : in the north, as an instrument of 5 wire playing strings only, before 1679 ; and in the south, approximately at the same time, an instrument either of viol or multiple-bouted outline, with generally 6 playing and 6 sympathetic strings. Both north and south forms evolved from the viol family. An extensive and interesting repertoire exists for the instrument. Only about half its repertoire was composed in the 18th century : about a third was written after 1880

Life after death : the viola da gamba in Britain from Purcell to Dolmetsch

Peter Holman

It is normally thought that the bass viol or viola da gamba dropped out of British musical life in the 1690s, and that Henry Purcell was the last composer to write for it. Peter Holman shows how the gamba changed its role and function in the Restoration period under the influence of foreign music and musicians ; how it was played and composed for by the circle of immigrant musicians around Haendel ; how it was part of the fashion for exotic instruments in the middle of the century ; and how the presence in London of its greatest eighteenth-century exponent, Charles Frederick Abel, sparked off a revival in the 1760s and 70s. Later chapters investigate the gamba's role as an emblem of sensibility among aristocrats, artists and intellectuals, including the Countess of Pembroke, Sir Edward Walpole, Ann Ford, Laurence Sterne, Thomas Gainsborough and Benjamin Franklin, and trace Abel's influence and legacy far into the nineteenth century. A concluding chapter is concerned with its role in the developing early music movement, culminating with Arnold Dolmetsch's first London concerts with old instruments in 1890.

The Lira da braccio

Sterling Scott Jones

The lira da braccio is frequently depicted in paintings and drawings of the Italian Renaissance, yet until now it has been little studied. Only a few fragments of music written for it have been found, and very few instruments have survived. The very lack of concrete knowledge about the lira da braccio and its technical difficulties challenged Sterlign Scott Jones to discover more about this sixteenth-century string instrument, which may be trhe missing link between the medieval fiddle and the modern violin