Viola d'amore

(Fr. viole d'amour; Ger. Liebesgeige).

A kind of viola popular during the late 17th and 18th centuries; also a stop on the Romantic organ that imitates its timbre. Normally the viola d'amore is about the size of a viola but with the physical characteristics of a viol: flat back, wide ribs flush with the top and back, sloping shoulders and a carved head at the top of the pegbox (see fig.1). The soundholes are commonly in the shape of a ‘flaming sword’ and there is usually an additional rosette. The instrument is held under the chin and played like a violin; it is unfretted. Its tone, though not as brilliant or powerful as that of the violin or viola, is singularly sweet. Usually there are 14 strings: seven playing strings, which cross the top of the bridge, and seven sympathetic (resonating) strings, which run through the bridge and under the fingerboard into separate pegs in the pegbox. Various instruments, however, may have various combinations of playing and sympathetic strings.

1. History.

The use of Sympathetic strings and the ‘flaming-sword’ soundhole (symbolic of Islam) on the viola d'amore suggest a Middle Eastern influence, and many Indian chordophones, such as the sārangī, dilrubā, esrāj, sitār and sarod, have sympathetic strings. In western Europe sympathetic strings were applied to the viol in England in the early 17th century, and also (at various times) to other instruments including the violin, kit, baryton (see Baryton, (i)), trumpet marine and Norwegian Hardanger fiddle, as well as the viola d'amore.

The first known mention of the name ‘viol d'amore’ appeared in John Evelyn's diary (20 November 1679):

I dind at the Master of the Mints with my wife, invited to heare Musique which was most exquisitely performed by 4 of the most renouned Masters, DuPrue a French-man on the Lute: Signor Batholomeo Ital: on the Harpsichord: & Nicolao on the Violin: but above all for its swetenesse & novelty the Viol d'Amore of 5 wyre-strings, plaied on with a bow, being but an ordinary Violin, play'd on Lyra way by a German, than which I never heard a sweeter Instrument or more surprizing…

Extant instruments and early writings show that two types of viola d'amore have existed: a small, shallow-ribbed, viol-shaped 17th-century type with metal playing strings and no sympathetic strings, and a later, larger type that prevailed during the 18th century – of viola body-length but viol-shaped and equipped with sympathetic strings. Some extant late 17th-century violas d'amore have sympathetic strings, although the earliest known explicit reference to them is in Joseph Majer's Museum musicum (1732). Other 17th- and 18th-century writers who described the instrument include Speer (Grund-richtiger … Unterricht, 1687, rev., enlarged 1697), Brossard (Dictionaire de musique, 1703), Mattheson (Das neu-eröffnete Orchestre, 1713), Walther (Musicalisches Lexicon, 1732), Eisel (1738) and Rousseau (Dictionnaire, 1768). Mattheson extolled its ‘tender and languishing effect’ and regretted that ‘its use should not be greater’. Leopold Mozart (Versuch, 1756) wrote that the viola d'amore was ‘a special kind of violin that sounds lovely in the stillness of the night’ and emphasized that it permitted many different tunings. Albrechtsberger (1790) called it a ‘pleasant chamber instrument’.

The abundance of extant 17th- and 18th-century violas d'amore shows that the instrument was in great demand, particularly in Austria, Germany, Bohemia and Italy. Some of the more notable craftsmen who made violas d'amore were J.A. and Mathias Albani, Lorenzo and Tomaso Carcassi, J.U. Eberle, four members of the Gagliano family, Matteo Gofriller, Giovanni Grancino, G.B. Guadagnini, C.F. Landolfi, Vincenzo Ruggieri, Jacob Stainer, Lorenzo Storioni and P.A. Testore. Plans by Antonio Stradivari from 1716 exist, but no corresponding instrument has been found.

For the greater part of the 18th century the viola d'amore was tuned in the key of the individual composition it was to be used to play. Mattheson and Walther wrote that the instrument was tuned in either C minor or C major: g–c'–e'(e')–g'–c''. In addition to the C (minor or major) tuning Eisel offered another: F–B–d–g–c'–g'–b'. Extant compositions from the first half of the 18th century show a wide variety of scordatura tunings. Majer listed 16 for the viola d'amore in 1732. By the end of the 18th century, however, the standard tuning was in the tonality of D major: A–d–a–d'–f'–a'–d''. The sympathetic strings were tuned in unison with the playing strings.

18th-century music for the viola d'amore was sometimes notated to sound as written (as in the music of J.S. Bach and Graupner), but more often in scordatura, whereby the composer would write g–d'–a'–e'' for the four highest open strings, which were tuned to and would sound d'–f'–a'–d'' in the D major tuning (or other pitches in different tunings). Fingered notes were indicated accordingly. Notes written in the bass clef (when it was used for the three lower strings) sounded an octave higher. Ex.1 illustrates typical viola d'amore notation. Attilio Ariosti in his ‘lessons’ for viola d'amore and continuo used a unique notation system, placing the alto clef in its usual position and the soprano clef on different leger lines to indicate hand position rather than actual pitch.

2. Repertory.

Among the earliest known works that use the viola d'amore are J.C. Pezel's cantata Des Abends, Morgens und Mittags (MS, 1690, D-F Ms.Mus.449), Wilderer's Il giorno di salute (1697), Ariosti's Marte placato (1707), Giovanni Bononcini's Turno Aricino (1707), Fux's Gli ossequi della notte (1709), Keiser's Desiderius (1709) and Kayserliche-Friedenspost (1715), Mattheson's Boris Goudenow (1710) and Henrico IV (1711), Alessandro Scarlatti's Il Tigrane (1715), Stölzel's Brockes-Passion (1712), Telemann's 1716 Passion Der sterbende Jesus and his cantata Herre, lehre uns bedenken, 1720 – all with obbligato viola d'amore; and Biber's Partita no.7 for two violas d'amore and continuo from the Harmonia artificiosa-ariosa (1712).

The viola d'amore was used to great effect by J.S. Bach (the cantatas Schwingt freudig euch empor bwv36c, Tritt auf die Glaubensbahn bwv152 and Der zufriedengestellte Äolus bwv205, and the St John Passion), Telemann (a concerto for flute, oboe d'amore and viola d'amore with strings and harpsichord, and a trio sonata), Christoph Graupner (nine concertos, 12 overtures, one sinfonia, six trio sonatas and 14 cantatas) and Vivaldi (eight concertos, Juditha triumphans and Nisi Dominus). Attilio Ariosti, one of the first virtuosos on the instrument, composed six ‘lessons’ for viola d'amore and continuo (1724/R), 15 sonatas for viola d'amore and continuo, and a cantata Pur al fin gentil viola for soprano, viola d'amore and continuo.

During the second half of the 18th century the viola d'amore was frequently used in both solo and chamber compositions. Carl Stamitz (see Stamitz family, (2)), a virtuoso on the instrument, wrote two concertos, sonatas and a quartet with viola d'amore. Hoffmeister composed four quartets in which the viola d'amore is the leading instrument. F.W. Rust wrote demanding and musically superior works that made dramatic use of the instrument's technical possibilities, including sonatas with bass or harpsichord, a sonata with violin, a duet with viola, an Aria con variazioni for viola d'amore and bass and a trio for viola d'amore and two flutes. Other 18th- and early 19th-century composers who wrote solo or chamber works for viola d'amore include Albrechtsberger, F. Benda, Eybler, Farinelli, Girànek, Haydn, Heinichen, Locatelli, Pepusch, Pez, Pezold, Quantz and J.C. Toeschi.

Baroque composers, primarily interested in the special timbre of the instrument, tended to ignore its multiple-stop and chordal possibilities. Late 18th-century composers, however, made abundant use of double and multiple stops (see ex.2) as well as arpeggios and harmonics.

The popularity of the viola d'amore declined during the 19th century, despite its effective use in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots (1836), Ferenc Erkel's Bánk bán (1861), Gustave Charpentier's Louise (1900), C.M. Loeffler's La mort de Tintagiles (1900), Massenet's Le jongleur de Notre-Dame (1902), Puccini's Madama Butterfly (1904), and Pfitzner's Palestrina (1917). Interest was revived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries owing to a general growth of interest in old instruments, the work of outstanding players such as Louis van Waefelghem, Walter Voigtländer and Carli Zoeller, and the efforts of the performer-composers Paul Hindemith and Henri Casadesus. Hindemith's Kammermusik no.6 for viola d'amore and chamber orchestra (1927) and Kleine Sonate for viola d'amore and piano (1923) and Frank Martin's Sonata da chiesa for viola d'amore and organ (1938) were the first major works for viola d'amore in the 20th century. Hindemith's viola d'amore works, though thoroughly 20th-century in content, extend the typical viola d'amore techniques of the 18th century (see ex.3). Other 20th-century composers who have written works with viola d'amore are A. Arcidiacono, Siegfried Borris, York Bowen, Hans Gál, G.F. Ghedini, Ginastera (Don Rodrigo, 1964; Bomarzo, 1967), Janáček (Kát’a Kabanová, 1921; The Makropulos Affair, 1926; the original versions of the Sinfonietta, 1926, and the String Quartet no.2, 1928), A. Kaufman, V. Nelhybel, Dika Newlin, Prokofiev (Romeo and Juliet, 1938), K.G. Roger, Cyril Scott, Mátyás Seiber and H.W. Henze (We Come to the River, 1976, and in his edition of Monteverdi's Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, 1985).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

J.P. Eisel: ‘Von der Viole d'Amour’, Musicus autodidaktos (Erfurt, 1738/R), 31–6

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M. Rosenblum: ‘The Viola d'amore: a Baroque Stringed Instrument for the 20th Century’, Penn Sounds, vi/3 (1995), 4–6; vii (1995–6), no.1, pp.4–6; no.2, pp.4–7

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M. Rosenblum: ‘Cupid’s Strings’, The Strad, cx (1999), 176–181; continued as ‘Bridging the Gap’, ibid., 276–80

MYRON ROSENBLUM