Early Italian Viols
Early music and baroque music festivals: United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, Italy Labels de la musique ancienne et la musique baroque : France, Etats Unis, Royaume Uni, Espagne, Allemagne, Italie Early music and baroque music courses: United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, Italy Early music and baroque music competitions: United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, Italy Early music and baroque music luthiers: United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, Italy Early music and baroque music books and sheet music: United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, Italy Early music and baroque music associations: United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, Italy Early music and baroque music newsletters: United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, Italy
español | français
Early music magazine, baroque music Early music and baroque music concerts schedule: United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, Italy Early music and baroque music news : United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, Italy CDs and discography, early music, baroque music: Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Scarlatti, Rameau, ... Early music and baroque music month cds: United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, Italy
COMPOSERS
Giacomo Carissimi
Magister Leoninus: the first great polyphonist
INTERVIEWS
Martin Gester
10 CDs for a desert island: Marco Beasley
ESSAYS
Early Italian Viols
Busenello
Gainsborough and Music
  52 - 51 - 50 - 49 - 48 - 47 - 46 - 45 - 44 - 43 - 42 - 41 - 40 - 39 - 38 - 37 - 36 - 35 - 34 - 33 - 32 - 31 - 30 - 29 - 28 - 27 - 26 - 25 - 24 - 23 - 22 - 21 - 20 - 19 - 18 - 17 - 16 - 15 - 14 - 13 - 12 - 11 - 10 - 09 - 08 - 07 - 06 - 05 - 04 - 03 - 02 - 01 -
COMPOSERS
Early Italian Viols
ESSAYS
EARLY ITALIAN VIOLS
Ian Woodfield’s The Early History of the Viol, published by Cambridge University Press in 1984, is the essential study of the origins of the instrument. Woodfield assembled a rich iconography that constitutes a large part of the information we have about the dimensions and design of these early viols since few dated before about 1550 have survived. His research includes information about viol consorts and mixed ensembles that included viols. Musicians today continue to explore the probable repertoire for these ensembles. Some recent recordings demonstrate what sounds these early instruments offered to composers and listeners at Italian courts.

Woodfield tells us that the viol, called vihuela de arco in Castillano, is first depicted by artists of the Catalan-speaking city and province of Valencia as well as from the islands of Majorca and Sardinia, which had cultural links to Valencia. The bowed ancestor of the Valencian viol seems to have been the medieval rabab of Moorish origin. The first painting of a viol is dated ca. 1473, and other representations date from ca. 1485-1510. These viols vary considerably from one another as well as from later viols, and have many features in common with the vihuela de mano, its guitar-like plucked relative. Some have long necks and tiny waists, others have short necks and large waists, and considerable experimentation seems to have taken place in the late fifteenth and well into the sixteenth- century before a standard shape evolved. The number of strings on the viol was quite variable during its early history, ranging from three on a few instruments, to a more usual five or six. The earliest paintings depict strings placed close to one another, fastened to a flat bar glued to the belly of the instrument, and passing directly to the fret nut without a curved bridge, as on the guitar. All the strings would sound with a bow stroke so that only the top string could play melodies and the others would be drones. Most painters are careful to depict the playing position of the viol as vertical, the player seated and the instrument held between the legs or on the lap. The bow is usually held “underhand,” a distinctly different position than the “overhand” position of fiddle players.

In 1455, Alonso Borja, Bishop of Valencia, was elected Pope Calixtus III, and many of his countrymen came with him to the papal household in Rome. Shortly before his death in 1458, Calixtus appointed his nephew Rodrigo Borgia as Bishop of Valencia. Rodrigo remained in Rome, an absentee Bishop until he returned to Valencia for a visit with considerable pomp in 1472. Rodrigo was elected Pope as Alexander VI in 1492 with the support of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza of Milan, and died in 1503. The Reverendissimo Monsignor Ascanio sent Spanish musicians to a celebration of the birth of an heir to Duke Ludovico Sforza of Milan, and Isabella d’Este requested their presence in Ferarra. The painter Pinturicchio depicted the viol in the Borgia apartments of the Vatican and representations can be seen in other cities of the Papal States, for instance Luca Signorelli’s fresco in the Orvieto Cathedral, and Timoteo Viti’s fresco in Urbino.

The court of Ercole d’Este at Ferarra was strongly influenced by the Spanish subsequent to Ercole’s studies in Naples after the Aragonese conquest, and later he married Eleanor of Aragon. Pope Alexander VI arranged the marriage of his daughter, Lucrezia, to Ercole’s heir, Alfonso d’Este, a union that solidified Ferrara’s ties to the Borgias. The viol followed, as can be seen in paintings in Ferrara and Mantua that are among the first to depict viols in Italy. In 1499, Alfonso requested that five viole d’archo be made in Venice because he was intending to learn to play them himself.

Early Italian Viols
Lionello Spada (1576-1622). A concert. Museum of Louvre, Département des Peintures, Paris, France
Discography
Goldberg Articles
Order your copy of issue nº 36 now!
Early Italian Viols: Start Early Italian Viols: Previous Early Italian Viols: Next
Early music and baroque music notice board: United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, Italy Ensembles, soloists, conductors, early music, baroque music:  United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, Italy Early-Music Composers
ABOUT US | CONTRIBUTE   web map - home page - cover
Top
Legal warning Copyright 2003, Goldberg. info@goldberg-magazine.com