Dictionary of Music - Birding America

462 violfrets and are plucked with the fingernails, or withtwo plectra (picks) attached to the fingers; thedrones are strummed with the little finger and sometimeswith the thumb. For a very similar instrument,see SITAR.fig. 261 p/ufrom p. 483tenor viol, and bass viol (also called viola dagamba); a typical group consisted of six viols, twoof each size. Late in the seventeenth century afourth high-pitched instrument, called descant viol,was added. One kind of viol music was the divisionon a ground, that is, improvised variations on a basstheme (ground) performed by a solo instrument.The instrument used was often a small bass violthat came to be called a DIVISION VIOL. Anothertype developed was the LYRA VIOL, slightly smallerthan the division viol but still larger than the tenorviol. It usually included fifths in its various tunings,and its music was written in tablature. Still otherdevelopments were viols with sympathetic strings,such as the VIOLA D’AMORE and BARYTON. By theend of the seventeenth century viols had beenlargely replaced by violins. The only size thatremained in general use was the bass viol (the kindillustrated here), which lived on through most ofthe eighteenth century.viol (vī′əl). An important bowed stringed instrumentof the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.Made in various sizes ranging from treble (soprano)to bass, the viol was widely used, especially forchamber music. The viol developed not from themedieval fiddles (the rebec or vielle, ancestors of theviolin) but from the VIHUELA, a small Spanish guitarstrung and tuned like a lute. Like the vihuela, theviol had a flat back, a fingerboard with frets (inviols, pieces of gut tied around the neck at intervalsto indicate where the strings should be stopped; seeFRET), and six strings tuned in fourths around a centralthird (the accompanying example shows the typicaltuning for the bass viol; all the intervals arefourths except for the interval C–E, which is a third).Another feature distinguishing the viol is its slopingshoulders, that is, the body sloped downward fromthe neck, instead of being set at an angle to the neck(as in the violin). The bow used was curved, with thestick curving away from the hair, and it was heldwith the palm of the hand facing up, not down. Originallythe viol was held like a vihuela, slantingacross the player’s body. As larger viols were built,however, it was found more convenient to hold theinstrument upright, resting either on the player’s lapor between the knees, and soon all viols, large andsmall, were held in this way. This practice is thesource of the bass viol’s Italian name, viola dagamba (“leg viol”).From Spain, where it was called vihuela dearco, the viol moved first to Italy and then throughoutEurope. By the late 1520s it had reachedEngland, where it became immensely popular.Numerous compositions were written for ensemblesmade up entirely of viols in various sizes(called a consort of viols, or chest of viols). Forthese the most important sizes were the treble viol,fig. 262 p/u from p. 484In France works for one, two, or three bass violsand continuo were written by Antoine Forqueray(1671–1745) and Marin Marais (1656–1728), bothvirtuoso players, as well as by François Couperinand others. Later in the seventeenth century theFrench viol was given a seventh string, tuned to alow A. It is for this instrument that J. S. Bach wrotehis bass viol sonatas and Jean Philippe Rameau hisPièces en concert. Early in the eighteenth centurythe cello replaced the bass viol as the bass violin inorchestras and chamber music. As a solo instrumentthe bass viol persisted somewhat longer, its last