Books › Essentials of music / 2 The American history and encyclopedia of music / W.L. Hubbard, ed, 1910 › scan 120
Scan 120
Essentials of music / 2 The American history and encyclopedia of music / W.L. Hubbard, ed, 1910
8 lines. Read by computer on 11 September 2026. Printed page 86. See the scan on archive.org.
1The form of the viol is simpler and smoother than that of the violin. The shoulders, instead of starting at right angles from the neck, join it at a tangent. The corners turn inward instead of outward. The back is flat; the belly vaulted, but rising insensibly from the edges to the center without forming a groove first. The ribs or sides are higher, making the instrument thicker in proportion. The back and the belly terminate flush with the ribs; they do not project over them, and so there is no rim round the instrument. The sound-holes are in the form of crescents, or C's pointing outwards, sometimes in the conventional figure of a Flaming Sword, very rarely in the form of the violin "f." The neck, long and thin, is fretted with tied pieces of gut, as in the lute; it is wider than the violin's, so as to accommodate a greater number of strings and allow more room between them for playing. The strings are longer, thinner and less tense than those of the violins; their classical number is six, although viols of five or seven strings are not rare, and the number may reach up to fourteen. The tuning is by intervals of a fourth, with a third toward the middle of the compass, like the lutes.
3The peg-box, often decorated with carvings, usually ends in a man's or woman's head, a lion or other animal, or, when a scroll, a simpler one than the volute of the violin. The body, the fingerboard and tail piece are ornamented with inlays, or patterns of lines. A small carved rose is often present in the upper half of the sound-board; and, generally, much care and taste was spent by the makers in beautifying the viols, an unmistakable proof of the high esteem in which they were held.
5CONSORT VIOLS.
7There is a complete family of viols, from a small thing not more than two feet in length, to the largest, nearly eight feet high. The five principal sizes are treble, alto, tenor, bass, and double bass, the latter being generally called
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