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REVIEW
Annette Otterstedt, The Viol: History of an Instrument (Kassel,
Barenreiter, 2002). 294 pp. ISBN 3-7618-1151-9
The original German version of this book was published in 1994, and it was
soon recognised that an English translation would be highly desirable. What we
have here is better still—a revised and slightly extended version of the original,
in a translation by Hans Reiners which the author herself says she sometimes
prefers to the original. The resulting text can be compared to a sumptuous
feast: full of surprises, rich in individuality, spiced with a characteristic sense of
humour, wonderfully entertaining in its judicious eccentricities, and surely
guaranteed to make every viol enthusiast want to continue. Otterstedt has a
truly cosmopolitan understanding of the whole viol family, and a keen eye for
telling details across the many musical language-barriers that the viol bridged;
she also has enough experience as a performer to bring every page to life.
Anyone who has struggled with Schenk's solo pieces will appreciate her
reference to them as works of 'almost brutal and bone-breaking difficulty,
which require practising until one is fed up with their musical content'; many
readers will cherish her stricture (in inimitable Central European imagery) of
those consorts who rest contented with their 'muesli viols', and rely on the
'muted cow' of an uninspiring stopped diapason organ to smoothen out their
imperfections.
The overall organisation of the book remains nearly the same as its German
original. Part I gives an overview of the history of the viol in each of its key
stages, from the early Spanish (and possibly Flemish?) origins, through Italy,
past a distinct early branch in France which did not develop, to England and
hence across much of the rest of Europe. At times the musical evidence is too
sparse to permit more than sensible conjecture, but we get a richer offering for
the areas of greatest musical development-especially England from the
Elizabethan period to the Civil Wars, and France from the middle of the
seventeenth century onwards. Otterstedt attempts to explain why only England
fostered a large body of high-quality consort repertoire, and produced the most
sought-after instruments in Europe to play it on-admitting that an explanation
based on the poor weather, and the need to stay indoors, is unlikely to provide
a full answer. Why the French never acquired a substantial consort repertoire,
but did subsequently give the bass viol a central role in their musical culture, is
also explored. As in the German version of the book, she punctuates her
historical overview with three sets of 'legends of the saints'-in-depth discussion
of key figures, from Alfonso Ferrabosco (the younger), Lawes, Jenkins and
Simpson to Sainte Colombe.
Naturally, Otterstedt is generally better on the specifics of music history
than on the broader framework of historical explanation. In my review of the
German edition (in Chelys in 1995) I noted a few ghosts resurrected from
older history [65] books, and these have not altogether disappeared.
Understandably, given the way recent historical research has transformed our
appreciation of the critical 1620s and 1630s in England, this is where the
weaknesses are most obvious. It is thus quite misleading to see the whole of
the reign of Charles I (and especially the early years) as a period where 'the
imminent civil war was looming already' (p. 48)—and to do so is likely to take