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'Viola da Gampa' [sic], has revealed that it cannot possibly be played on a
normal viola da gamba. Requiring a seven-string instrument, it could only be
performed with a nonstandard 'sort of D major' tuning, to quote Alison Crum,
to whom grateful thanks are due. The precise type of gamba for which it was
intended remains unsolved at present, but the music dates from the late 1780s
at the earliest 14 and was presumably composed for Ritter's own use at informal
musical gatherings, for semi-private chamber music performances at
Mannheim, or as repertory for one of his many concert tours.
The Bohemian Simon Truska is one of the more unusual musicians under
consideration here. Grove states that he 'played, composed music for and built
viols, [and] is listed in 1796 among the important musicians in Prague'. 15
According to Dlabacz, 16 Truska studied the violin, the cello and the viola da
gamba; he became a lay brother at the Pramonstratenser Stift at Strahow near
Prague in 1758, and by 1761, when he took his vows, 'he already played the
violin and cello very well'. He took up organ building in 1774, the year that
Fiala left Bohemia (it is not known if the two ever met), and also turned his
hand to making other instruments, including basset horns, 'Klaviere' (not
necessarily only pianofortes), violins, violas, violas d'amore and gambas, 'all [of
which] were prized equally in Bohemia and abroad'. There must, then, have
been a sufficient demand for new gambas at that time to justify learning how
to make the instrument. Dlabacz tantalisingly states that 'his Trios, Quartets
and Quintets, Duos and other Sonatas, that he composed for the viola da
gamba, continue to do him credit', 17 suggesting that Truska is potentially a very
important figure in viola da gamba composition as well as in instrument
making, but unfortunately MGG1 states that all of his works for the instrument
'are untraceable and must be regarded as lost'. 18 Whether they are in fact
languishing, perhaps anonymously, in some library collection, only time will
tell. The same question must also apply to the gambas that Truska is reported
to have made: do any of these survive, perhaps gathering dust or riddled with
woodworm in stately homes or instrument collections on the continent?
Some controversy exists over the Austrian baryton and gamba player variously
identified as Andreas or Anton Lidl, since it remains uncertain as to
14 See J. Elsen, 'The Instrumental Works of Peter Ritter (1763-1846)', (Ph.D., Northwestern
University, Evanston, Illinois, 1967), 90, 101. The manuscript is located at US-Wc.
15 L. Robinson, 'Viol' (section 8), Grove, XXVI, 683. The cited list of 1796 is
unfortunately not identified. This entry also gives Truska's year of birth as 1743, but this is
clearly a misprint for 1734 (see G. J. Dlabacz below): according to the brief but authoritative
biography by R. Quoika, 'Truska', MGGI, XIII, cols 857-8, he was born on 6 April 1735
(MGG2 Personenteil has not reached the relevant volume at the time of writing). The earliest
and certainly the most substantial and comparatively reliable source of reference to Truska,
Dlabacz, Allgemeines historisches Kunstler-Lexicon, II, cols 278-9, states 1734 to have been his
birth year, also incorrectly (a type of mistake commonly encountered even in contemporary
publications as a result of the musicians involved themselves not knowing their precise
year of birth). This date has generally been reproduced without question in subsequent
biographical entries with the exception of MGG1.
16 Dlabacz, Allgemeines historisches Kunstler-Lexicon: the facts and quotations that follow
are all taken from this source.
17 Ibid., 'machen ihm bisher Ehre', the implication here being that they were still highly
rated at the time of Dlabacz's publication in 1815, some six years after Truska's death.
18 MGG1, XIII, col. 858. Rather unusually this article does not mention Truska as actually
having played the viola da gamba!