Scan 287
The American history and encyclopedia of music .., 1908
8 lines. Read by computer on 8 September 2026. Printed page 233. See the scan on archive.org.
1being played. Until the Seventeenth Century it had six strings, when a seventh was added probably by Marais, a Frenchman, who also caused the lowest three strings to be overspun with wire. These changes, however, were not adopted by all makers.
3The viola da gamba was very popular in England during the Elizabethan period, but began to decline in favor with the beginning of the Eighteenth Century. To play upon it was an accomplishment of fashionable Seventeenth Century ladies. Mrs. Sara Ottey in 1723 and Miss Ford in 1760 were public performers upon it. The last celebrated player, Carl Frederick Abel, died in 1784. John Sebastian Bach introduced it in his Passion music and M. de Caix d'Herveloix (1710) wrote several viola da gamba "suites." It was the bass of the chest of viols and the predecessor of the violoncello. The instrument was used in various ways, as in solos, in orchestral music, and in obbligato accompaniment in singing.
5John Playford in 1654 gives the following rules for tuning the viola da gamba: "When you begin to tune, raise your treble or smallest string as high as conveniently it will bear without breaking; then stop only your second or small mean in F and tune it till it agree in unison with your treble open; then stop your third in F and make it agree with your second open; then stop your fourth in E and make it agree with your third open; then stop your fifth in F and make it agree with your fourth open; and lastly stop your sixth in F, and make it agree with your fifth open. This being done you will find your viol in tune, according to the rule of the Gamut (scale)."
7VIOLA D'AMOUR — Bowed Strings. Europe. A tenor viol with sympathetic strings. Its seven catgut strings were tuned in thirds and fourths and gave the chord of D major, while the sympathetic strings of wire passed under the finger-board and through small holes drilled in the lower part of the bridge. The wire strings were tuned in unison with the others and vibrated sympathetically when the
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