Scan 126
The American history and encyclopedia of music .., 1908
10 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1in combining the advantages of both gut and wire strings. The viol was provided with a set of each kind, so that, the gut strings being played upon in the usual way, the wire strings would vibrate in sympathy with them, though untouched by either bow or finger. This, of course, can only happen when the note played is in tune with one of the wire strings or some of its lower harmonics, according to the well-known law of sympathetic vibrations.
3Attached to pins fixed to the lower part of the ribs or to the belly under the tail-piece, the sympathetic strings, six or seven in number, pass through little holes in the bridge, through a hollow space under the finger-board and over a little nut placed at their point of exit at the end of the neck. From there they thread their way to the tuning pins placed at the further end of a much-elongated peg-box.
5The sympathetic strings do not increase the volume of tone. The old makers did not trouble to give more power to an instrument that had enough to make itself well heard. They knew that quantity is antagonistic to quality. In point of fact the wire strings, by their pressure on the sound-board, veil the tone somewhat. But they produce a delightful resonance, almost ethereal in quality, which renders the instrument most effective for the performance of suitable solo music.
7Whether the name viola d'amore is an allusion to the sympathy between the two sets of strings, or to the amorous quality of the tone, or simply a corruption of viola da More (the viol of the Moor), remains an open question. The makers themselves were not agreed on the point, if we may judge from the symbolism of the figures with which they decorated their viols d'amore. Some have a winged angel's head, some a cupid blindfolded, others a blackamoor.
9Whatever its origin, the viola d'amore proved quite a sensational novelty when Attilio Ariosti came to London and gave performances upon it in 1716. Delicate and refined, his genius suited the nature of the instrument to
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