The Original Violas da gamba in the Orpheon Collection
Gallery
A Photographic Panorama
Present exhibition: Castello di Duino, Italy
See also: On the Origin of the Viola da gamba(English), (German)
A film featuring one of the violas da gamba of the collection
Tu, Violetta, in forma più che umana Foco mettesti dentro in la mia mente Col tuo piacer ch’io vidi; Poi con atto di spirito cocente Creasti speme, che in parte mi sana Là dove tu mi ridi Dante Alighieri |
The Viola da gamba: Origin and History
To portray the proper expression, Ganassi further recommends the player to roll his eyes and to distort his countenance in melancholy pieces, even change the tempo, if need be! Ganassi obviously understands his primary task to be the conveyance to the listener of the manifold spectrum of sentiments and passions through the use of all available artifice - even delving in the theatrical. From the hand of a Spaniard comes yet another informative treatise: the Tratado de glosas of 1553 by Diego Ortiz discusses the art of diminution (embellishment of a particular type) on the viol to the accompaniment of a harpsichord. Three methods of diminution to the harpsichord are described. The first consists in decorating a given cantus firmus with spontaneously invented counterpoint - by the viol player as well as by the harpsichordist simultaneously. The second method makes use of a pre-existing composition - chanson, motet or madrigal - which is then ornamented according to the rules of the art. The third method completely amazes us: called free fantasie, Ortiz explains that one begins with a few ordered chords on the harpsichord, to which the violist webs an improvised counterpoint. Subsequently, the harpsichord answers with other counterpoints, and so forth. Ortiz cannot describe it any further, since"everyone does it according to his own whim" (similar to modern improvised jazz). This form of art, now regretably lost, imposed the highest demands - both technical and musical - on the performers, and causes us to marvel at the all-encompassing musical training of the musicians of those times. Although this high perfection of instrumental proficiency of 16th century Italy may at first surprise us, all doubt would be effortlessly dispelled even by a first encounter with the exquisite achievements of that same century in the fields of painting, sculpture, architecture and literature: a culture, which brought forth such Art would never habe been satistied with a primitive musical practice, a field so highly esteemed by Italian Renaissance humanism. From the instrument building centers in Italy - and there were certainly not few - issued veritable creations which were, as one would expect, in every way the equivalents to the illustrious achievements in the other branches of the fine arts of the Italian city-states. From the beginning Cremona led the way. Thanks primarily to the unparalleled, almost miraculous achievements of the Amati Family, Cremona assumed from the onset of the 16th Century the undisputed leadership in the construction of quality string instruments, a position which it did not forfeit until the end of the 18th Century. The dynasties of the Amati, the Stradivari, Guarneri, Ruggieri, Bergonzi - all poet laureates of their guild - raised the name of Cremona into the spheres of celestial bliss. The City of Brescia entered the stage next to Cremona in the middle of the 16th C. with the outstanding works of Gasparo da Salò and Giovanni Paolo Maggini: their instruments are also considered a first-rate choice for soloists today. Soon thereafter the noble art of the luthier flourished in Milano, Venice, Mantua, Bologna, Florence, later also in Rome and Naples. It is important to note that all these centers brought forth from 1540 until 1780 violas da gamba and violas da braccio of a quality unequalled to this very day. The art of building and of playing crossed the boundaries of the Italian city-states: into the German principalities, France, England, the Low Countries... Hans Gerle considered it necessary already in 1532 to publish a treatise for the well-off middle-class in the German Lands, who wished to learn to play the viola da gamba: there was obviously a strong demand for this. Spellbound by the ideas of Italian Humanism, the art-loving princes Francis I ("1547) and Henry VIII ("1547) brought not just the leading Italian painters, sculptors and thinkers, but also Italian composers and musicians to France and to England respectively. At the time when Neoplatonic Thought was in everyone's head, Petrarca and Ariosto in everyone's mouth, the viola da gamba was in everyone's hand! Note: the viola da gamba is frequently called simply the "viol"in English. The sizes are named: treble, tenor, bass and great bass; the name "pardessus" has been adopted from the French for the smallest member of the family, used principally in France in the 18th Century. |