The Viol - Hystory of an Instrument

Annette Otterstedt

Bärenreiter

2002

294 páginas

9h 48m

ISBN-10: 3761811519

"'How strange the tone of these old instruments - men must have been half crickets when this music satisfied them'
Applied to well-know persons living in the Golden Age of the noble viola da gamba family, such as Queen Elizabeth I, the pirate Sir Francis Drake and the ruffian Esse, the terms 'crickets' is intriguing. But they did love viols.
In the opinion of many in today's musical world there would be no need for viols. The instrument is regarded as a - slightly contemptible - would-be cello. Which is what it was, and should be, least of all. So why not get the instrument's own story, togheter with Elizabethan courtiers and European contemporaries thought about it?
This book is a compendium and pratical guide for musicians and music lovers alike, putting a great many problems and questions relating to the viol, and music in general, into perspective. There is ample material concerning such topics as the great gamba players, the history of viol constuction including regional developments, the musical role of viols, reconstructions and forgeries and the pratical aspects of viol playing.
Before taking umbrage at expressions that seem fanciful or disrespectful, readers are invited to consider that these are mostly allusions to contemporary literature, which have grown on the same soil, like pumpkins and rhubarb on a compost heap.
Although not a novel, this book is novel in that it strives to combine good scholarship wich good story-telling. It is equally without precedent in focusing altogether on the history, construction and playing technique of an instrument that had been forgotten, but wich has come back to life."

Sinopse in back "The Viol"