Viol

Viol (Ital. viola; Late Lat. vitula, from vitulari, 'to celebrate a festival'; fiddle is a doublet), a musical instrument played with a bow, which was the immediate precursor of the violin. It is to be seen represented on monuments as far back as the close of the 11th century. The back was flat; there were larger bends in the sides than in the violin; and frets, like those of the guitar, were placed on the neck of the instrument, to show where the fingers of the left hand should be put to produce the desired notes. There was great variety in the number of strings: in Germany three, four, and five were all common; in Italy there were usually six. The strings were tuned by fourths and thirds. There were four sizes of viol in use, treble or discant, tenor or viola da braccio, bass or viol da gamba, and double bass or violone, and they were often played together in concerted music. Their tone was rather penetrating than powerful. The treble viol was rather larger than the modern violin. The viol da gamba held its place longer than the smaller viols, but was superseded by the violoncello. The viol d'amore was a tenor viol, with from seven to fourteen sympathetic metal strings, stretched under the fingerboard, tuned to a scale. A 'chest of viols,' consisting of six instruments of various sizes, was in the 16th and 17th centuries to be found in most houses of any pretension in England. See BASS, DOUBLE BASS.