Books › A descriptive catalogue of the musical instruments in the South Kensington museum, preceded by an essay on the history of musical instruments, 1874 › scan 365
Scan 365
A descriptive catalogue of the musical instruments in the South Kensington museum, preceded by an essay on the history of musical instruments, 1874
19 lines. Read by computer on 13 September 2026. Printed page 339. See the scan on archive.org.
1fifth higher than the viola da gamba. The back of the body has a peculiar curve towards the end. Probably the instrument was intended to rest on the shoulder when played.
3(119.)
5TREBLE-VIOL. English. About 1700. Carved head.
6Six strings. Catgut frets. It was tuned an octave higher than the viola da gamba.
8(77.)
10VIOLA d'Amore. Italian. 17th century. Old-fashioned shape. Seven catgut strings; underneath them seven strings of thin steel wire.
12Meyerbeer, Berlioz, and some other composers of the present century, have endeavoured to revive the use of this instrument in the orchestra on account of the sweetness of its tone. The seven wire strings placed underneath the catgut strings are tuned in unison or in octaves with the latter, to increase the sonoroufness by slightly vibrating when the bow is drawn over the catgut strings. The "sympathetic strings," as they are called, should be of very thin steel wire. It is now almost impossible to procure such thin steel strings as were formerly used on this instrument, as well as on the cither or pandore, and as are still used by the Hindus on their tamboura. When the King of Oude visited London, he could not find steel wire thin enough to replace the broken strings of his tamboura.
14The viola d'amore is usually tuned in the following intervals:
16But it was formerly the custom to adopt occasionally another series of intervals, in accordance with the major or minor key in which the composition, wherein the viola d'amore had to take part, was written.
18Burney ('History of Music,' vol. iv. p. 257), in recording that Attilio Ariofti—or "Padre Attilio," as he was usually called—played the viola d'amore in London in the year 1716 between the acts of an opera,
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