Table of Contents
What family does the viol belong to?
violin family
The violin family comprises the violin, the viola, the cello (violoncello), and the double bass; it forms the backbone of the modern symphony orchestra.
Where did the viol come from?
Viols first appeared in Spain in the mid-to-late 15th century, and were most popular in the Renaissance and Baroque (1600–1750) periods.
How is the string family made?
The instruments are made of wood, and usually carved into their characteristic curvy wooden body shape, then attached to a wooden neck piece. The musician plays the instrument by drawing a bow across the strings, making them vibrate, and thus produce a sound that is again amplified by the instrument’s hollow body.
Why was the viol created?
A small treble-range viol, the pardessus de viole (2006.504), was invented in France mid-century, likely to allow women to play music meant for newly popular violins and flutes. French luthiers like Nicolas Bertrand added a seventh string to the viol, increasing its range to the A below the low D (89.4.
Who invented the viol?
The two earliest violin makers in recorded history are both from northern Italy: Andre Amati from Cremona and Gasparo di Bertolotti from Salon (Gasparo di Salon). With these two violin makers, the history of the violin emerges from the fog of legend to hard fact.
How is a viol played?
The viols were bowed instruments with frets. They were usually played held downwards on the lap or between the legs (the name viola da gamba translates to leg viol). Viols were popular in England long after they had been replaced by the violin on the Continent.
How is string family different from brass family?
String instruments are different from the members of the brass and woodwind families because they create sound through bowing and plucking a set of strings. The main instruments in the orchestra string family are the violin, the viola, the cello, and the string bass.
How are string instruments made?
The bodies of the string instruments, which are hollow inside to allow sound to vibrate within them, are made of different kinds of wood, but the part of the instrument that makes the sound is the strings, which are made of nylon, steel or sometimes gut. The strings are played most often by drawing a bow across them.
How is the viol played?
Who invented the string instruments?
Throughout the Centuries Really, it’s an impressively long history of stringed instruments because it starts as far back as 2,500 B.C. What is likely to be the first stringed instrument was found in Sri Lanka. It consists of a semi-circular gourd, a long neck, two strings, and is played with a bow.
When was the viol used?
viol, also called viola da gamba, bowed, stringed musical instrument used principally in chamber music of the 16th to the 18th century.
How are the instrument families grouped?
Each family is grouped by the way the instrument produces vibration. This kind of classification gives us the string family, the woodwind family, the brass family and the percussion family.
How many strings does a viol violin have?
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.
Which is an ancestor of the viol string instrument?
One likely ancestor of the viol is the rabab ( 89.4.403 ), a bowed string instrument played by the Moors of Aragon in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and whose da gamba posture and oblong shape resemble that of early Renaissance viols.
Which is part of the viol family is played upright?
All members of the viol family are played upright (unlike the violin or the viola, 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.
When did the viol become a musical instrument?
The instrument has a unique lineage and repertoire and flourished in western Europe from the late fifteenth through the late eighteenth century, only to be gradually displaced in the eighteenth century by the instruments of the violin family, which met the demands of a rapidly changing musical culture.