Viol da gamba

The instrument has its roots in the guitar; it is thought that guitarists began playing their instruments with a bow in the 15th century. This eventually led to the creation of an entirely new instrument, which had many of the features of the guitar (flat back, frets), but was bowed rather than plucked. This new instrument was at first held in the same way as a guitar, but later began to be held upright, either resting on the lap or held between the legs like a cello, giving it the name viola da gamba, Italian for "viol of the leg."

The instrument is fretted, like a guitar (although with moveable, tied-on frets made of gut), and usually has six or seven strings, though examples with only five strings do exist. Unlike members of the violin family, which are tuned in fifths, the gamba is tuned in fourths and one third, rather like a lute or guitar. The bow is held underhand and is convex rather than concave like a modern violin bow.

The gamba (as it is often foreshortened) comes in 4 sizes: treble, tenor, bass, and double bass (also known as a violone). The treble is about the size of a violin (but with a deeper body); the bass is a bit smaller than a cello. A closely related instrument is the viola d'amore.

The standard tuning of the viol is in 4ths, with a 3rd in the middle (like the standard lute tuning). For treble and bass the notes would be (from the lowest) DGCEAD and for the tenor GCFADG. Other tunings were employed, particularly in the solo viola bastarda style of playing, which also made use of many techniques such as chords and pizzicato (i.e. plucking rather than bowing the strings), which were not generally used in consort playing.

The instrument was common among amateurs, and many homes would have a so-called chest of viols which would contain one instrument of each size. Gamba ensembles, called consorts, were common in the 16th and 17th centuries, when they performed vocal music as well as that written specifically for instruments. Music for consorts was very popular in England in Elizabethan times, with composers such as William Byrd, John Dowland and William Lawes[?]. The last music for viol consorts before their modern revivial was probably written in the 1680s by Henry Purcell.

The bass viola da gamba continued to be used (as a solo instrument and also to accompany the harpsichord in basso continuo) into the 18th century, by which it had acquired associations of courtliness and antiquity; composers such as Marin Marais[?], Johann Sebastian Bach and Karl Friedrich Abel wrote music for it. However, the instrument fell out of use as concert halls grew larger, and the louder and somewhat more strident tone of the violin family became more popular. In the last one hundred years or so, the viola da gamba has been revived by early music enthusiasts, an early proponent being Arnold Dolmetsch[?].