Viola d'amore

The viola d’amore is a bowed stringed instrument which was most popular during the 18th century. Morphologically, it mixes the characteristics of the viola da gamba and violin families, but it also has its own particularities.

Like the viola da gamba, the viola d’amore has a rather large soundbox with sloping shoulders, and the pegbox usually finishes in a sculpted head rather than a scroll. Another similarity with the viola da gamba is that the viola d’amore has six or seven melodic strings. Its similarities with the violin and viola are in its playing technique: it is played on the shoulder and without frets. Finally, its unique features in contrast to the violin and viola da gamba families, is that it frequently has flame-shaped sound holes and sympathetic strings. These are a series of strings which pass underneath the melodic strings and which vibrate sympathetically while the musician bows the upper strings. The disposition of these sympathetic strings varies from one instrument to another. In the present case, they pass behind the pegbox, underneath the fingerboard, and then pass through the bridge to meet the bottom of the instrument where they are fixed by hitch pins.

Following the success which the viola d’amore knew in the 18th century, the instrument was almost forgotten, but some musicians continued to play it and its repertoire. The viola d’amore (inv. nr. 1391.01) is one of these. It was built in 1742 by Johann Rauch (c.1690-c.1760), a luthier who was active in Chomutov in Bohemia. During the 19th century, it belonged to Karl or Carli Zoeller (1840-1889), a violinist trained in Berlin and who established himself in London where he directed the music ensemble of the 2nd regiment of the Life Guards. He was also the author of a method for viola d’amore.

After its arrival at the Conservatoire, around 1888, the viola d’amore by Rauch continued aid research into early music. Emile Agniez (1859-1909) played it during the International Exposition in Brussels in 1888. Today, the instruments of the museum are no longer maintained in playing condition, but the viola d’amore of Rauch is regularly copied and thus continues, indirectly, to let its voice be heard.

Text: Anne-Emmanuelle Ceulemans

Bibliography

Carli Zoeller, New Method for the Viole d’Amour (the Love Viol), its Origin and History, and Art of Playing it, Londen, J.R. Lafleur & Son, 1885, available at https://doi.org/10.25624/kuenste-1987.

Victor-Charles Mahillon, Catalogue descriptif et analytique du Musée instrumental de Bruxelles, vol. 3, Gand, Ad. Hoste, 1900, p. 38.

Malou Haine, ‘Concerts historiques dans la seconde moitié du 19e siècle’, in Musique et société : Hommages à Robert Wangermée,  Bruxelles, Les Éditions de l’Université de Bruxelles, 1988, p. 121-142.

Peter Holman, ‘Performed upon the Original Instruments for which it was Written’: the Viola da Gamba and the Early Music Revival’, in Life After Death: The Viola Da Gamba in Britain from Purcell to Dolmetsch, Woodbridge, Boydell & Brewer, 2010, p. 302-336.