Scan 256
A dictionary of old English music & musical instruments 1923, 1923
8 lines. Read by computer on 19 September 2026. Printed page 228. See the scan on archive.org.
1body-size of the Treble-Viol was too great; and this circumstance, added to the greater facility with which the violin could be handled, conspired to hasten the demise of the treble.
3The Tenor-Viol was tuned a fifth below the Treble:
5It was, as John Playford says, "an excellent inward part (q.v.) and much used in Consort (q.v.), especially in Fantasies and Ayres of three, four, five, and six parts." To ensure proper resonance for strings of such gravity, the size of the sound-box (body) had to be proportionately greater than that of the modern viola; and a specimen of the instrument in my possession is in its original condition. This is a very rare state of affairs, since vandal modernisers have been all too busy cutting down the depth of the ribs of the old Tenor-Viols in order to make them as easy of manipulation as the viola. The result of such cutting down was to reduce the air-contents of the body and thus entirely destroy the balance between string-weight and body-resonance. My example is labelled: "William Turner, at ye hande and Crown in gravelle Lane nere Aldgate London, 1652," and thus dates from the period of the instrument's greatest popularity. The marks of the old catgut frets can still be seen impressed in the varnish of the neck. It was the custom to apply frets to all the instruments of the Viol family, even when they were not used Lyraway (q.v.), Playford observing that it was "a most sure and easie way for the first entreing of Scholars, and after, to cut them off when they become perfect in the knowledge of all the several notes." Certain it is that the difficult divisions of Christopher Simpson could not be played easily with frets in the way of free movement for the left hand.
7The Bass-Viol, or Viola-da-Gamba (leg-viol), because it was played between the legs of the performer, was used in three different sizes according to the particular purpose for which it was required. These were known as the Consort-Viol, the Division-Viol, and the Lyra-Viol (see these three headings). The tuning of the Consort-Viol was like that of the Treble-Viol, but an octave lower. The Lyra-Viol, of course, was tuned to
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