An English form of bass viola da gamba, smaller in size than a consort bass Viol but larger than a Lyra viol. John Playford described it thus in A Brief Introduction, 1667. As its English name suggests, it was used for the performance of free ornamentation or Improvisation by way of varying given melodies (see Division). Since its compass was large (a good performer could use more than three octaves) it was not limited in its divisions to any one line of a polyphonic vocal composition, but could encompass them all. Its tuning was D–G–c–e–a–d'.
The division viol seems to have come into being in England around the middle of the 17th century. Its performing style is essentially linear (although often with lyra viol-like chordal passages interspersed), improvisatory or quasi-improvisatory, featuring much rapid passagework and marked (unlike music for lyra viol) by the use of staff, rather than tablature, notation in written sources. In terms of its musical function and style, it is possible that the division viol may have a lineal connection with the continental Viola bastarda of the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
C. Simpson: The Division-Violist, or An Introduction to the Playing upon a Ground (London, 1659, 2/1667 [dated 1665]/R as Chelys: minuritionem artificio exornata/The Division-Viol, 3/1712)
A. Otterstedt: Die Gambe: Kulturgeschichte und praktischer Ratgeber (Kassel, 1994)
FRANK TRAFICANTE