(It.).
A 16th- and 17th-century term for a member of the Violin family. ‘Da braccio’ (‘on the arm’), as opposed to ‘da gamba’ (‘on the leg’), was one of the ways the generic word viola was qualified in 16th-century Italian to distinguish the violin from the viol. At this stage it was usually applied to the complete family: in the printed score of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo (1609) five-part passages evidently intended for two violins, two violas and bass are collectively labelled ‘Viole da braccio’. Later in the century it became customary to restrict the term to the alto, tenor and bass parts of string consort music while the soprano parts were given the more precise label ‘violino’. The first setting of ‘Beatus vir’ in Monteverdi's Selva morale e spirituale (Venice, 1641) calls for ‘6. voci concertato con due violini & 3 viole da brazzo ouero 3 Tronboni’, while a sonata by Clemens Thieme (1631–68) composed about 1660 (S-Uu) is said to be for two ‘Violini’, two ‘Trombetti’ and four ‘viole di Braccio’ – the last being parts in alto, tenor and bass ranges. By then it was becoming more common to restrict ‘viola da braccio’ (or sometimes just ‘braccio’) to viola parts. Bratsche, the most common German word for viola, preserves a form of this usage in modern terminology.
PETER HOLMAN