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Scan 333
Grove's dictionary of music and musicians, 1904
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 284. See the scan on archive.org.
1antiquity are the stringed instruments of Eastern countries — notably the Sarange of the Hindus, which, mounted with sensitive strings, is of extremely ancient origin. Turning to the name, we can only surmise that some poetic mind created it while listening to the sweet response of string to string. It has been said above by Mr. Payne that the Viola d’Amore was tuned to the true chord of D major. But this was not by any means an arbitrary rule. As a matter of fact, every player tuned as he fancied, though the most ordinary rule was to tune to the common chord of the key in which the player found himself playing. In Mattheson’s Das Neu-eröffnete Orchester, Hamburg, 1713, the author directs that the Viola d’Amore, which, according to his statement, was mounted with wire strings, and one gut (the highest), should be tuned to the common chord of C major or C minor. From this and other statements, it may be gathered that the Viola d’Amore varied a good deal in its harmonic arrangement. Again, Leopold Mozart (Gründliche Violinschule, 1787) calls it a ‘peculiar kind of violin strung with six wire and six gut strings,’ while another writer, Joh. Georg Albrechtsberger (Gründliche Anweisung zur Composition, 1790), but three years later, states that it had seven strings. Moreover, he draws upon his erudition to announce that formerly the upper strings were tuned A, d, a, d', f#, a', d''. On the authority of Evelyn, the Viola d’Amore had five strings, and made its début in England in the latter half of the 17th century. He records in his Diary under Nov. 20, 1679, that he dined at Mr. Slingsby’s, Master of the Mint, who provided some excellent music for his guests; among those artists who took part Evelyn enumerates, ‘Nicholas, on the Violin, but, above all for sweetness and novelty, the Viola d’Amore of five wire strings played on with a bow being but an ordinary violin played on lyra-way by a German. It is worthy of note that neither Mattheson nor Evelyn mentions the sympathetic strings. Dr. Burney (Hist. Mus.) also speaks of the instrument as a novelty in 1716, when he says, Signor Attilio Ariosti played ‘a symphony’ between the acts of the opera ‘Amadis,’ on July 12, the last night of the season. He played again some years later, and composed six sonatas for Viola d’Amore, which were published by subscription in London, in 1728, under the title Cantatas, and a Collection of Lessons for the Viola d’Amore. By the end of the 18th century this viol, according to Laborde (Essai sur la Musique, 1780), was obsolete. He says it had four metal strings placed below the regular gut strings. However this may be, it is quite certain that the Viola d’Amore was still in use in France in the latter part of the previous century, as J. J. Rousseau, (Traité de la Viole, 1687) mentions what he terms ‘a sort of dessus de Viole, with wire strings, that goes by the name of Viole d’Amour.’ The many beautiful viols made by Italian makers at the end of the 17th century afford significant testimony of its popularity in that country. In 1898, at an Exhibition of Musical Instruments shown in Paris in that year (Le Ménestrel) there was a Viola d’Amore dated ‘Brescia, 1500.’ There is no doubt many of the older viols were transformed into Viole d’Amore, and this may have been one of these. The original instruments usually have ‘flaming-sword’ sound-holes. A very fine example is that owned by the late M. van Waefelghem of the Société des Instruments Anciens of Brussels. It has seven strings, and is labelled, ‘Paolo Aletzie, Venetia, 1720.’ There are several excellent Viole d’Amore in the Musée Instrumental of the Paris Conservatoire. Herr Carli Zoeller, — who published a method designed to encourage the renaissance of the Viola d’Amore, under the auspices of Mr. E. J. Payne, — M. van Waefelghem, Mr. Louis Schneider all owned fine specimens, and Mr. Dolmetsch in 1885 owned a beautiful Viola d’Amore, dated 1730 and labelled ‘Joannes Udalricus Eberle, Lautenmacher, in Prag.’
3During the 17th century there were some remarkably fine players of the Viola d’Amore in Germany. Granswid, who settled at Prague, was renowned as a virtuoso and composer for his instrument. He also counted among his pupils such names as Powliezeck, Eberle, and Francis Richter, who became eminent players. And to-day this beautiful instrument cannot be counted obsolete, thanks to the appreciation of Hector Berlioz, who praises its ‘sweet seraphic tones,’ and of such composers as Meyerbeer and K. L. A. Mangold, the former of whom introduced the Viola d’Amore in Raoul’s air in the first act of ‘Les Huguenots.’ Thanks also to such virtuosi as the Chevalier Carl Michael von Essen, of the 18th century, and in more recent times to such executants as M. van Waefelghem, and Herr Zoeller, who besides his ‘Méthode,’ wrote a couple of songs, ‘Vineta,’ and ‘Farewell until we meet again,’ with an obbligato for the Viola d’Amore.
5Mons. Eugene de Bricqueville has published the results of his researches into the history of this instrument in an interesting brochure, entitled La Viole d’Amour (Fischbacher, Paris, 1908). He suggests that the original orthography was ‘Viola da Mori’ (viol of the Moors). The following are the names of makers that he has extracted from various catalogues of Museums and private collections: Klotz, 1732; Janck, Dresden, 1735; Salomon, Paris; Storioni, Cremona, 1786; and Tielke. These are in the Paris Conservatoire. In the Musée of the Brussels Conservatoire there are the following: Parte, Vienna, 1764; G. Aman, Augsburg, 17 — ; Rauch, 1727. From the collections of Ghent, Samary, and Snoeck, come the names of other makers, such as N. Lupot, 1817; Aletrée,
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