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Scan 197
Musical instruments, 1908
8 lines. Read by computer on 19 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Among the English public performers on the viola da gamba are recorded a Mrs. Sarah Ottey, in the year 1723, and a Miss Ford in 1760. Carl Friedrich Abel, a German, who lived in London during the latter half of the eighteenth century, was the last performer of celebrity on this instrument. Johann Sebastian Bach has employed it in his admirable "Passionsmusik des Matthæus"; and there are some fine "Suites," still occasionally to be met with, composed for it by M. de Caix d'Herveloix, published in the year 1710. The tone of the viola da gamba is rather nasal, but sweet and expressive; indeed, it is to be regretted that this charming instrument has fallen into disuse. There is, however, a gamba stop in the organ, which resembles the famous vox humana stop, and which has recently been much favoured by organ builders.
3The violoncello came into competition with the viola da gamba at the beginning of the eighteenth century, and has now entirely superseded its predecessor.
5A viola di bardone in the Museum (Fig. 56) has a neck of carved and pierced box-wood, terminating in a figure of Apollo playing the lyre; the principal finger-board is of ivory, engraved and inlaid with ebony and tortoiseshell, with figures of Jupiter and Juno, and a lady playing a lute; the second finger-board is also of pierced and engraved ivory. The instrument has four catgut and fourteen metal sympathetic strings, and a double wrest. It was made by Jaques Sainprae, of Berlin, and is said to have belonged to Quanz, music master of Frederick the Great.
7The most accomplished performers on the viola di bardone were Anton Lidl of Vienna (to whom is sometimes erroneously ascribed the invention of this instrument) and Karl Franz, a musician of the band of Prince Esterhazy, about the middle of the 18th century. Lidl played on the viola di bardone in
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