This is the next chapter in my ongoing series about the musical instruments that are the partners in my life of work. The first chapter about my Baroque Violin and bow, part 1 and my Baroque Viola and bow, part 2 can be found here.

Phew, it's been a while since I'd posted about my friends and partners in crime. Today, I write about a special little (well, not so little) instrument that I own and play relatively regularly. This beast of an instrument is called the Viola d'amore, and the body is roughly the size of a viola (but the pegbox makes it much much longer!).

It is instrument that was descended more from the gamba family of instruments rather than the violin family, this is most noticeable in the shape of the body and the c-holes (instead of f-holes) as well as a few internal details (like the lack of a bass bar). This gives it a much more transparent sound, as opposed to the brilliant and strong quality of the violin. Just for clarity, it is held like a violin, on the shoulder!

This particular instrument was built for me by a maker in Nijmegen (Netherlands) and it is based upon a copy of an instrument that is held in a museum in Belgium. There is one major change however, the original instrument's body was roughly violin sized. I preferred the greater sound and bassiness of a larger instrument, and seeing as I play both violin and viola, I asked if it could be scaled up to a viola sized body.

I have to say, it is one of the most pleasant instruments of this type that I have played. Easy response and a beautiful light and transparent (yet generous) tone. Previously, I had to loan instruments to play on, and they were often a mixed bag of quality and difficulty. Nothing beats having your own instrument to fall in love with playing the repertoire again!

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Probably, the first thing that you would notice is the huge amount of strings. On this particular instrument, there are 7 playing strings (on the top) and 7 resonant (below) strings. Like everything about this instrument, there was never a standard design of the string configuration. Some instruments have 5/6/7 playing strings and some have resonant strings and others don't. I chose for the maximum of both, as it is easy to remove strings, or to stop them with a damper, but it is much more difficult to add more!

The resonant strings are really important for the general sound of the instrument. If they aren't tuned well, then the d'amore sounds thin and doesn't sound so strongly. However, when tuned, they vibrate in sympathy with the played notes to give the instrument a big boost (like an upvote bot...). They aren't heard directly in the audience, but next to your head, they are a massive confusing cloud of sound!

I will probably write more about this unusual instrument, but every piece written for it has a different tuning for the strings, and every composer has a different way of notating the music. Needless to say, this is right pain in the arse! My solution has been to find a tuning that I enjoy the most (like a treble gamba) and a personal notation code (scordatura that I need to write for my self!). If the composer hasn't specified a particular tuning, then I will just use my own!

The pegbox

The pegbox is an intricate mess of connections that is topped by a beautiful carving of a blinded woman. The carved scrolls were relatively common in the Baroque era instruments, however it was an art that died out in the following centuries of instrument making.

As you can see, the playing strings exit from the top of the pegbox like a violin. I have chosen for a slighly inauthentic touch and opted for mechanical pegs. These are screwed pegs which make the instrument much easier to tune on the fly in a performance.

On the bottom, the resonant strings exit via a gap in the pegbox, and eventually pass over three nuts. This makes them a pain to tune, as it takes a while for the tension in the string to equalise. In addition, the pegs turn the opposite way to the playing strings, and they are incredibly close together....

Matching a bow

Like I've already mentioned in my previous instrument posts, the matching of a bow to an instrument is critical. If you think of the bow as the "breath" of the instrument, then it is really the part that makes the sound. For this instrument, I use either my Baroque violin or viola bow depending on the repertoire. The heavier viola bow is more useful if I need more weight in the lower bass end of the d'amore, but if I need a clearer texture then the violin bow is much more resonant.

My d'amore

I love this instrument.It is an annoyance to tune and to keep in shape, so just generally high maintenance, and the music needs to be re-written into my own personal code (scordatura). However, the payoff is a beautiful clear and transparent tone, that also has some of the quietest most touching moments of music in the complete repertoire of music!