* 1886 – Eric Coates, English composer and viola player ( d. 1957 )

Two closely related instruments include the baryton and the viola d ' amore, although the latter is played under the chin, viola-fashion.

The baroque concerto was mainly for a string instrument ( violin, viola, cello, seldom viola d ' amore or harp ) or a wind instrument ( oboe, trumpet, flute, or horn ).

* American ( U. S. A .)— Brown, Earle: Tracking Pierrot ( 1992 ; chamber ensemble ); Wharton, Geoffry ( works mainly in Germany ): ‘’ Five Pierrot Tangos ’’ ( n. d .; violin / viola, flute, piano / synthesizer, cello, clarinet, and voice ).

Towards the end of the 1930s, he made several tours in America as a viola and viola d ' amore soloist.

Kammermusik No. 6, for example, is a concerto for the viola d ' amore, an instrument that has not been in wide use since the baroque period, but which Hindemith himself played.

The viola d ' amore ( Italian: love viol ) is a 7-or 6-stringed musical instrument with sympathetic strings used chiefly in the baroque period.

The viola d ' amore shares many features of the viol family.

The 6 string viola d ' amore and the treble viol also have approximately the same ambitus or range of playable notes.

Intricately carved head at the top of the peg box are common on both viols and viola d ' amores as well ( although some viols lack them ).

The viola d ' amore usually has six or seven playing strings, which are sounded by drawing a bow across them, just as with a violin.

The first unambiguous reference to a viola d ' amore without sympathetic strings does not occur until the 1730s.

Largely thanks to the sympathetic strings, the viola d ' amore has a particularly sweet and warm sound.

The viola d ' amore was normally tuned specifically for the piece it was to play-cf.

The instrument was especially popular in the late 17th century, although a specialised viola d ' amore player would have been highly unusual, since it was customary for professional musicians to play a number of instruments, especially within the family of the musician's main instrument.

However, there has been renewed interest in the viola d ' amore in the last century.

The viola players Henri Casadesus and Paul Hindemith both played the viola d ' amore in the early 20th century, and the film composer Bernard Herrmann made use of it in several scores.

It may be noted that, like instruments of the violin family, the modern viola d ' amore was altered slightly in structure from the baroque version, mainly to support the extra tension of steel wound strings.

Leoš Janáček originally planned to use the viola d ' amore in his second string quartet, " Intimate Letters ".

However, the version with viola d ' amore was found in rehearsal to be impracticable, and Janáček re-cast the part for a conventional viola.

The viola d ' amore can regularly be heard today in musical ensembles that specialise in historically accurate performances of Baroque music on authentic instruments.

It was a natural choice for viola d ' amore where the tuning is not in the usual fifths.

The viola d ’ amore was usually played by violinists.

:: 6 Lessons for viola d ' amore and continuo

In the realm of even larger works, Mozart included the double bass in addition to 12 wind instruments for his " Gran Partita " Serenade, K. 361 and Martinů used the double bass in his nonet for wind quintet, violin, viola, cello and double bass.

Currently, the most common tuning fork sounds the note of A = 440 Hz, because this is the standard concert pitch, which is used as tuning note by some orchestras, it being the pitch of the violin's second string, the first string of the viola, and an octave above the first string of the cello, all played open.

The tuning C-G-D-A is used for the great majority of all viola music.

Music that is written for the viola differs from that of other instruments, in that it primarily uses the alto clef, which is otherwise rarely used.

The viol ( also known as the viola da gamba ) is any one of a family of bowed, fretted and stringed musical instruments developed in the mid-late 15th century and used primarily in the Renaissance and Baroque periods.

The bass viola da gamba continued to be used into the 18th century as a solo instrument ( and to complement the harpsichord in basso continuo ).

They are studied and copied by violin makers, contributing to the extension of the general knowledge we have on the viola da gamba, its forms, and the different techniques used for its manufacture.

In the 15th century, the Italian word " viola " was a generic term used to refer to any bowed instrument, or fiddle.

In Italy, " viola " was first applied to a braccio precursor to the modern violin, as described by Tinctoris ( De inventione et usu musice, c. 1481 – 3 ), and then was later used to describe the first Italian viols as well.

The use of the term " viola " was never used exclusively for viols in the 15th or 16th centuries.

Both " vihuela " and " viola " were originally used in a fairly generic way, having included even early violins ( viola da braccio ) under their umbrella.

In Elizabethan English, the word " gambo " ( for gamba ) appears in many permutations ; e. g., " viola de gambo ", " gambo violl ", " viol de gambo ", or " viole de gambo ", used by such notables as Tobias Hume, John Dowland, and William Shakespeare in Twelfth Night.

Bowing ( Italian: Arco ) is a method used in some string instruments, including the violin, viola, cello, and the double bass ( of the violin family ) and the old viol family.

Composers, arrangers, and bandleaders have used sections with more or fewer players, and additional instruments, such as valve trombone, baritone horn / euphonium ( both of which are usually used in place of or with trombones ), vibes, bass clarinet, French horn, tuba, banjo, accordion and strings ( violin, viola, cello ).

In scordatura, one imagines that one is playing a violin ( or in some cases a viola, where alto clef is used ) tuned in the normal fifths.

The clefs used are based on alto clef ( imagining that you are playing a viola ).

::: Graupner wrote extensively for the viola d ' amore ; he also used it in 13 of his cantatas, like " Wer die Wahrheit tut ", GWV 1139 / 38, where it is used in the soprano aria as obbligato instrument on a background of pizzicato strings.

; The viola d ' amore is also used in:

Slightly different bows, varying in weight and length, are used for the violin, viola, cello, and double bass.

Viola da braccio means the normal viola, and is used here to distinguish it from the " viola da gamba ".