certs (1861), and elsewhere, until her marriage with Mr. J. S. C. Heywood, in or about 1865. At her concert, on July 5, 1860, Mme. Montigny-Rémaury made her first appearance in England.
[ A. C. ]
VIOL (Ital. Viola; Fr. Viole) The generic English name of the bowed instruments which succeeded the mediæval Fiddle and preceded the Violin. The Viol was invented in the 15th century, and passed out of general use in the 18th. It differs from the violin in having deeper ribs, and a flat back, which is sloped off at the top, and was strengthened internally by cross-bars and a broad centre-piece, on which the sound-post rests. The shoulders curve upwards, joining the neck at a tangent, instead of at right angles, as in the violin. The neck is broad and thin, the number of strings being five, six, or seven; the peg-box is usually surmounted by a carved head. The soundholes are usually of the C pattern. [See Soundholes.] The Viol was made in four principal sizes—Treble or Discant, Tenor (Viola da Braccio), Bass (Viola da Gamba), and Double Bass (Violone): the last is still in use, the double bass of the violin pattern never having found general favour. The Viols are tuned by fourths and thirds, instead of fifths. Their tone is rather penetrating than powerful, and decidedly inferior in quality and flexibility to that of the violin, which accounts for their disappearance before the latter instrument. [See Violin.]
[ E. J. P. ]
VIOLA, (1) The Italian name of the Viol. (2) The usual name for the Tenor Violin. (The accent is on the second syllable.)
[ E. J. P. ]
VIOLA BASTARDA. The Bass Viol, or Viola da Gamba, mounted with sympathetic strings like the Viola d'Amore. It afterwards developed into the Barytone. [See Barytone.]
[ E. J. P. ]
VIOLA D'AMORE. A Tenor Viol with sympathetic strings. It usually has seven stopped strings. The sympathetic strings, of fine steel or brass, pass through small holes drilled in the lower part of the bridge, and under the fingerboard: their number varies from seven to fourteen. They are tuned to a diatonic or chromatic scale.
We give the ordinary tuning of the gut strings. The sympathetic strings, tuned to the scale of D, diatonic or chromatic, are sometimes screwed up by pegs similar to those of the gut strings: but the better plan is to attach them to wrest-pins driven into the sides of the peg-box. [See Violin.]
[ E. J. P. ]
VIOLA DA BRACCIO. The Tenor Viol. It had originally 6 strings, tuned as follows:—
The sixth string was generally dropped in the last century, and the instrument thus approximated in compass to the common Viola or Tenor Violin, which has now superseded it. It was sometimes called Viola da Spalla. [See Violin.]
[ E. J. P. ]
VIOLA DA GAMBA. The Bass Viol. [See Viol, Violin.] (2) Under the incorrect title of Viol di Gamba it designates an organ stop of 8 ft. pitch, with open pipes, in the choir organ. Considering its imitative aims, it is troubled with a most inappropriate slowness of speech, and in the lower octaves can hardly be used alone.
[ W. Pa. ]
VIOLA DA SPALLA (i.e. Shoulder Viol). [See Viola da Braccio.]
[ E. J. P. ]
VIOLA DI BORDONE. [See Barytone.]
VIOLA DI FAGOTTO (Bassoon Viol). A name sometimes given to the Viola Bastarda.
[ E. J. P. ]
VIOLA POMPOSA. A small Violoncello with an additional treble string, tuned thus:—
It was invented by Sebastian Bach, and is probably identical with the 'Violoncello piccolo' of his scores. The sixth of his solos for the Violoncello was written for this instrument. [See p. 281b.]
[ E. J. P. ]
VIOLET. A name sometimes given to the Viola d'Amore. L. Mozart calls the Viola d'Amore with chromatic sympathetic apparatus the 'English Violet': a singular denomination, for, as in the case of the Corno Inglese, the instrument appears never to have been made, and seldom used, in this country.
[ E. J. P. ]
VIOLETTA. The French version of 'La Traviata,' by M. E. Duprez; produced at the Theatre Lyrique, Oct. 27, 1864.
[ G. ]
VIOLETTA MARINA. A name found occasionally in the scores of Handel and his contemporaries, probably to designate the Viola d'Amore. [See Viola d'Amore, Violin.] [App. p.812 "add that the instrument was invented by Castrucci."]
[ E. J. P. ]
VIOLIN (Fiddle), Viol, Viola, Violone, Violoncello. Portable instruments of different sizes, constructed on the common principle of a resonant wooden box, pierced with two soundholes, and fitted with a bridge, over which several gut strings attached to a tailpiece are stretched by means of pegs. The strings are stopped with the left hand on a fingerboard, and set in vibration with a bow held in the right. Being the only instruments with strings in common orchestral use, they are usually called 'stringed instruments,' and collectively 'the strings': but the German name 'bowed instruments' is more accurate.[1] They have been developed by the application of the bow to the Greek lyre and monochord; and their common name (Viol, Violin, Fiddle) is derived from the Latin name by which a small sort of lyre appears to have been known throughout the Roman empire. The Latin name for any kind of string is 'fides,' of which the diminutive is 'fidicula': and by a grammatical figure which substitutes the part for the whole,
- ↑ A German authority insists that the true name is 'Bow-string instruments.'
