the viola d'amore belongs to the family of the string instruments rubbed.

Description

The viola d'amore is provided with seven melody cords and five to seven vibrating cords out of metal, called cords sympathetic nerves which pass in lower part of the rubbed cords, in the handle, and come to be fixed on the chevillier of the instrument. They vibrate (by sympathy, without the touch) as soon as the cords of melody are actuated. The Ouïe S often have the shape of flames. One often says that it owes its name with the head of woman to the bandaged eyes furnishing the Volute, symbol of the blind love.

One finds violas d'amore to 14 and even 16 cords sympathetic nerves which take the name of English violet.

The first source which quotes this instrument is a letter of a German musician, going back to 1649. The first descriptions of violas d'amore do not specify that they have cords sympathetic nerves. One can even think that they did not have any, and that the process being used to create the sound halation was different: rubbed metal cords, double scordatures, cords.

The viola d'amore was very with the mode at the 18th century. It is suggested there that it is of all the instruments that whose sound resembles the human voice much. Leopold Mozart wrote in his method of violin that this viol is appropriate perfectly to create “an environment of calm at the evening”. The violas d'amore disappeared at the 19th century. Some were transformed into viola S. the revival of the Baroque music towards 1900 arouses a new interest for the instrument, whose invoice begins again then little by little. In France, it is Henri Casadesus which worked more for the viola d'amore.

Graph: basic agreement and tessiture of the viola d'amore.

The viola d'amore agrees normally according to the tonality of played work - cf “Scordatura”. The agreement was standarisé towards the end of the 18th century: , D, D, F sharp, D

Some old works

• Heinrich Biber : Harmonized artificiosa-ariosa
• Antonio Vivaldi: five concertos
• Johann Sebastian Bach: in uses two in the aria n° 19 of its Passion according to St-Jean
• Jean-Marie Leclair: sonata in trio for flute, violated amore and B.C
• Attilio Ariosti: several entertainments
• Joseph Haydn: divertimento for violated amore, violin and violoncello
• Karl Stamitz: three concertos, some sonatas and a quartet.

Some modern works

• Henri Casadesus (1879 - 1947): Concerto for violated amore and cords

• Paul Hindemith (1895 - 1963): Small sonata for violated amore
• Frank Martin (1890 - 1974): Sonata da Chiesa for violated amore and organ

Operas which require the viola d'amore

• “Huguenots” of Giacomo Meyerbeer (1836)

• “the juggler of Notre-Dame” of Jules Massenet (1901)
• “Mrs Butterfly” of Giacomo Puccini (1904)
• “Palestrina” of Hans Pfitzner (1912)
• “Katya Kabanova” of Leoš Janáček (1919)

See too

Internal bonds

• Viola da gamba

• Violated ale inglese

External bonds

• Company of violas d'amore in America (in English)

• Orpheon Foundation, Vienna, Austria

Partitions

• Ariosti collection of parts
• Sonatas of Johann Christoph Pezel 1639-1694
• Partita of Mr. Grobe