FAQ about the viola d'amore:

Here are some questions I received, courtesy of the web, with my answers:

Q - "How should I find the tuning of viola d'amore? Many books say there is no regular one. Scordatura signs teach me tunings in some pieces (for example, partia for two violas d'amore by Biber), but there is no sign in many pieces. I would very much appreciate it if you could give me the answer on this matter."

A - Scordatura is tricky when the tuning isn't specified. You often have to work it out from context. If you tell me which works you are currently wondering about or working on, I may be able to tell you, but if I don't know the work I would probably have to see a page of it. The chords should give the best indication of the tuning, especially final chords. If you read German, the book Viola D'amore Bibliographie, by Michael and Dorothea Jappe, Amadeus Verlag, Winterthur, Switzerland, 1997 (?) also gives the tunings for each work listed. And every work written before 1790 is listed. It is a very useful book. If your library doesn't have a copy the e-mail of the publisher is: amadeusvertrieb@bluewin.ch.Please see the Jappes' book for a good summary of the Darmstadt circle's approach to tuning in fourths. The most-performed work from this school is the Telemann triple concerto; I tune gbe'a'.Lastly, there are a few works for which it is appropriate to tune in fifths. I believe the Aria from Handel's Orlando is one of these.

Q - "Where can I buy strings for viola d'amore? Now we are in the rainy season in Japan. It is uncomfortable to play gut d strings. E strings of violin sometimes break in only 3 days."

A - At a violin dealer, where you may be able to choose between the following: Dominant, a well know company,makes synthetic viola d'amore strings, and any dealer of violins and violas almost certainly sells strings by this manufacturer and may well order a viola d'amore set for you. These strings will also help you with your humidity problems; I use them in Tafelmusik all the time. Much of the use of the viola d'amore is in an isolated obligato aria in a larger work, like the Gloria Patri form Vivaldi's Motet Nisi Dominus, or the two arias from the St. John Passion of Bach, or the aria from Handel's Orlando. In these cases tuning just before playing would spoil the mood of the moment, so I use dominant strings, tune well before going out on stage, and hope for the best.On my recordings, however, I used gut strings.

Eudoxa, another major manufacturer, makes gut viola d'amore strings. There are other makers as well. These companies make strings for the D major tuning only. For all the other tunings you have to adjust as best you can. In my experience, you may tune a string up or down a major second from the pitch for which it was designed and have it work fairly well. However, if you take the dominant D major set and tune in c minor at A:415, the strings are in fact being used a minor third lower than they were designed for and they respond poorly. There is a dealer in New York City, a specialist in the viola d'amore, William Monical: w.monical@con2.com. He is a good source of instruments as well as strings. If you are unable to obtain strings in your city, you may be able to order them from Monical in NYC.

Q - "Are there any good piece or method for beginners?"

A - I started with the Biber Partita. It isn't really easy, but it is magnificent. You can hear me play this work on the Sony Vivarte cd SK 58 920. It should be in a record shop or in the library.  There is a Method, by Milandre, from the late 18th century, that is intended for beginners: Method Facile pour La Viole D'Amour. It contains some fairly simple works. It is available in a Minkoff reprint and may well be in your music library; it is written in French. There are a number of modern, i.e., 20th-century methods, like the Karl Stumpf Neue Schule fuer Viola D'amore; it is in German, French and English. There is a method by Paul Shirley as well.

These you may also find in your library. More methods are listed in the two bibliographies of the Viola D'amore. Viola D'amore Bibliographie by Heinz Berck, and Viola D'amore Bibliographie by Michael and Dorothea Jappe.

Q - "Which is suitable for viola d'amore, a violin bow or a viola bow?"

A - There is a good late 18th-century source in my files. From the Musikalische Real-Zeitung of 19th August 1789 comes:

"The choice of three part chords on the viola d'amore rests on the structure of the bow and bridge. The bow needs to be lighter than a violin bow and longer by about half a foot. If the bow is as heavy as normally required by tightly strung violins one is hindered in string crossing, often playing accidentally on two strings instead of one. And if it is not only heavy but short that part of it which I called its half strength, its half weakness, (the middle?) is thus too small to catch three strings at the same time. It goes without saying that snatched four and six part chords with such a bow cannot possibly sound good on a viola d'amore."

I do not use the modern Tourte bow on the viola d'amore ever. If your instrument has the bottom 7th A string you may need the heavier bow, so experiment. Please see my bow page and the pages of the bowmakers on my links page for futher information.

Q - "Are there any important difference between violin playing and viola d'amore playing?"

A - As far as I am concerned there is no difference, if you mean differences like how I hold the instrument, or the bow, or other basic issues; other players will doubtless have other opinions. However, when playing the viola d'amore I personally find it much harder to hear the rest of the ensemble than when playing the violin or viola; all that ringing in my ears drowns the rest of group out. On the website I pointed out that the 18th-century d'amore player reading scordatura is in fact pretending he is playing his violin. To me the viola d'amore is an accessory to the violinist, a kind of a big complicated mute, if you will, a means of changing color/instrumentation, and not a separate vocation or a distinct genre of musical literature. However, I am in a minority here. From Huberty on, players have tried to establish the viola d'amore tuned in D as an instrument that could play any sort of thing in any key as a genre in its own right.

Q - "Now I am listening to Bach's cantata No.152. This beautiful cantata is the piece I want to play most. My friends play recorder, oboe or viola da gamba very well, so I must find soprano and bass. Is it difficult to play?"

A - Yes, I would say it presents some big challenges, tuning, principally. I have played it with the tuning dgc'f'bb'd'', at a: 392. BWV 152 is one of the early cantatas where the original parts are in two different keys. The viola d'amore and the two wind instruments play in the key of g at A: 392, the gamba and organ continuo play in e at A: 460. Historically, the church pitch and the chamber pitch were quite different; in different cities, church and chamber pitch were sometimes more different, sometimes less. The soprano part of BWV 152 remains in a very high tessitura throughout, so the original tuning situation is important, and finding a soprano willing to do the part is also not easy. In addition, the viola d'amore part is Bach's most idiomatic and fully realized viola d'amore writing; all six strings are used. The string crossings are especially difficult.

A colleague in Connecticut wrote to ask about acquiring music from European libraries:

Q - "Are there any serious publishers of D'Amore music?"

A - Please see the links page. Search for publishers. Some music is available through the websites listed on the links page. Also check your local library, and good music stores.

For music you cannot find in these places you may need to write to the collection holding the original. Comparatively little viola d'amore music is published. And when it is, it tends to go out of print, because the market is so small. I had the experience when I started looking for music of placing an order of 24 items with a major music-distributing firm, who found only one of my requests available. This turned out to be a transcription of the Vivaldi concerto RV 540, originally for lute and viola d'amore, for viola and guitar, not really usable.

However, if you have in mind a particular work that you may have seen in a bibliography, you may have to order it directly from the collection holding the original.

Q - "Can one simply order copies of manuscript of viola d'amore music from European museums in person or by mail? On the one hand, with the Jappes incipits, one could make decisions without seeing the mss and just order them by mail, saving a lot of travel money. Comments?"

A - The short answer is you should certainly go into the library and see how far you are allowed to go, if you are going to be in the city anyway. If you are not able to get in to actually see the material, you may well be able to place a photocopy order and get considerable info. I don't have the experience myself to know whether there is something to be learned from the originals that you would not get from the facsimiles. I have mostly written to libraries, only once, in Frankfurt, did I visit one, and on that occasion I was not allowed to see the original but I did place a microfilm order.

In Germany almost everything is already on microfilm, and can be ordered easily. The librarian will ask you what is the purpose of your request, for example, whether it be to create an edition, or for performance. Probably they will be reluctant to let you handle originals; a letter from someone in the library business might help establish your credibility in this respect.

Q - "You have the Jappes' book: with the Jappes explicit references to archive numbers, etc., it should be fast and easy, shouldn't it?"

A - Certainly the Jappe book is excellent. What you need to do is make a list of viola d'amore works by library. I made a page with a box for every library (ca 30 boxes,) then went through Jappe and put the page numbers of works in the same library in the box with the library name. An index of works by library, if you will. The Berck Viola D'amore Bibliographie has the addresses of the collections, which are also available in standard reference works in your local research library.

Q - "You mentioned microfilm. I've never printed from that. Is it clear? Is that the way to go?"

A - Actually the European libraries seem to be providing photocopies more and more often. Clear copies from microfilms can be made at most larger libraries here in North America, where they have microfilm readers/photocopiers. The quality varies from poor to quite good, depending on the machines, the film, and the state of the original, quite a few variables. Microfilm adds to the overall work, so if you can get photocopies in the first instance, that's the best. 

Q - "You didn't indicate probable cost per page. Maybe $.25, plus postage?"

-The prices charged vary greatly, so I really can't estimate what the cost might be; I can't tell you what you might expect. In addition, some of the collections containing viola d'amore manuscripts have limited staff, so you must be considerate in the scale of your request in such places.

Q - "You've also mentioned that you had to sign some sort of "no (further) copying" agreement?"

A - You will have to agree not to pass copies to third parties. This is the usual restriction; various libraries may impose other conditions.

In conclusion I would like to reiterate that the facsimiles are vital and necessary tools for the violist d'amore. They have a far greater significance for us than comparable manuscripts have for violinists or keyboard players, as they have much more information on how to use the instrument.

An instrument maker wrote:

Q - I visited your website recently, and found it fascinating, and the music beautiful. I have been studying all I can find on the viola d'amore, but unfortunately don't often get to examine one in person. The last opportunity I had for that was a brief one while spending some time at the Boston Early Music Festival last year.I am interested in building a viola d'amore with a non-modern setup, and was wondering if there are any measured drawings of the 1783 instrument, or if there is a possibility of obtaining a photo of the side view of the neck of your 1783 instrument showing the way the neck is set and fingerboard built etc. Any other information about the instrument would also be desirable. 

If you can help me with this request or direct me further, I'd appreciate it very much."

A - I have had a number of requests for information about how to make a viola d'amore. Unfortunately I can't help very much. I urge you to have a look at the pictures of violas d'amore available through the websites of museums; there are many many pictures available and the variety of design of violas d'amore is fascinating.

Q - I'm a violinist considering purchasing a viola d'amore. However, I am not yet very familiar with specifics of the six / seven (play) strings. I understand that the seven string is adequate for late repertoire. Does it bring any drawbacks for the earlier repertoire? If you wanted to play earlier repertoire (vivaldi concertos, for example or something different) on a seven-string viola d'amore, what would you do? Use the top/lower strings. Take a string out(Please, note that I have never really seen the score of these works).

A - The six strings instrument is probably inadequate for late repertoire, I imagine. The purpose of these questions is really to get more insight to decide
on a six or seven string instrument.

I prefer to play a six-string viola d'amore, and have performed 7-string repertoire on it. String crossings in particular are easier on the 6 string, and that is important for the earliest repertoire, which is in the majority, I think. However, this is my personal preference, and I do have both 6 and 7 strings violas d'amore, so I have a choice.

Q - I really appreciate you time. I have looked at your site (that is how I found your e-mail address) and read two helpful articles.

What is your background in music and the Viola D'Amore?

A - As I said on my website, I have been performing full time as a professional musician since I graduated from SUNY at Stony Brook in 1980. I played in a modern orchestra for ten years (in Australia) and since then in a baroque chamber orchestra, the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, (in Canada.) www.tafelmusik.org. You may hear me play as part of Tafelmusik on some 60 cds, mostly on the Sony Vivarte label. You may hear me play the viola d'amore on two cds, Biber's Instrumental Works, and Many Strings Attached, both available from amazon.com; just search all products for Thomas Georgi.

Q - How did the Viola D'Amore develop through time?  Was it the first hybrid of the viol and violin families?  I have heard that it is a hybrid between the viol and violin families. What characteristics were brought to it from each side?

A - For a good overview of the history of the violin see the first chapter of Peter Holman's book on the violin in the English court. Certainly the viola d'amore has features of both the violin and viola da gamba families, as I said on my site. Makers of d'amores were quite free how they chose features from the two families, like whether the edges of the back and belly are flush with, (like the viola da gamba) or overhung, (like the violin) the ribs. And some of the early violists d'amore, like Biber, also played both the violin and the viola da gamba. Overall, from the construction point of view I think the viola d'amore is closer to the gamba family. Over time a few d'amores have been converted into tenor gambas and vice versa.

However, from the playing point of view, because of the absence of frets, I think of the viola d'amore as closer to the violin. (There is one 18^th century method that describes playing the viola d'amore with frets; I haven't tried frets myself.) Any player playing from the viola d'amore from an 18^th century scordatura manuscript is pretending he is playing his violin. The baryton is really the viola da gamba with a second manual of contrasting metal strings, so that the player can pluck the bass line with his left thumb. The baoryton is associated with sympathetic strings only later in the 18^th century. Please see my English colleague Jeremy Brookers' website for more info: http://www.baryton.mailbox.co.uk/. And don't forget the flauto d'amore, oboe d'amore, chalameau d'amore, and cembalo d'amore, also the hurdy gurdy. There is as well the hardanger fiddle. http://www.hfaa.org/. I notice that the hardanger fiddle association is in Minnesota.

Q - What type of people played it? Aristocrats or hired professionals?

A - Professionals certainly played d'amore, among them the violinists Vivaldi, Pisendel, and Kress. One of the references that came to my attention after I issued my solo cd, Many Strings Attached, was the will of the wife of the composer Christian Pezold. She had two violas d'amore, two baritones, and a lyra da braccio in her possession when she died in the 1720's.

I don't know of many famous cases of nobility playing the viola d'amore, but one exceptional one was the singer, Farinelli, a castrato, who is known to have played the viola d'amore in his retirement. He bought his way up into the nobility. Biber also managed to get himself ennobled. There may well have been many other nobles who played, but I know no records of them. Violas d'amore are frequently highly ornamented, an indulgence a performing musician could not afford, so some people, like the dealer Bill Monical in NYC, speculate that rich upper class people bought them for their music rooms.

Q - Also, were people likely to pick it up if they already played violin or viol?

A - I am nearly certain that no one has ever played the viola d'amore exclusively, and nearly all of the baroque players were violinists. How do I know this? 75% of the literature is in scordatura, which assumes you can play the violin. The scordatura repertoire is also a soprano tessitura, or range, repertoire. The Darmstadt circle, which comprises the other 25% of the early repertoire, is the only alto range repertoire of the instrument. This includes all of the works of Graupner, Suess, Kress, and others. The only well recorded work from this repertoire is the Telemann triple concerto. You may be able to find the Peters edition of this work in your local library, but the editors misunderstood the notation and put the viola d'amore part an octave too high. Also some players making recordings!

Q - Were there any famous players?

A - The most important players of the early 18^th century were all violinists, indeed, they were the leaders of their respective ensembles: Pisendel, in the Dresden court, Kress, in the Darmstadt court, Vivaldi and Gerlach, for Bach, in Leipzig

Q - What type of strings was authentically used?  What type of sound did
they create?

A - Kai Koepp has done the best historical research, in my opinion, that has been done on the early history of the viola d'amore, and especially about strings.Please see the wire strings page link at the foot of this page.