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The viol (/ ˈvaɪəl /), [ 1 ]viola da gamba[ a ] (Italian: [ˈvjɔːla da (ɡ)ˈɡamba]), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitch of each of the strings.
Viol is a bowed, stringed instrument with six gut strings and frets, used in chamber music of the 16th to 18th century. Learn about its types, tuning, playing position, repertory, and decline, and how it was revived in the 20th century.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Nov 21, 2023 · Learn about the viol, a string instrument with a long history and a distinctive shape. Find out how viols are played, how they differ from violins, and how they are used today.
Learn about the viol, a popular instrument from the 15th to the 18th century, played with a bow and having frets on the fingerboard. Find out its history, sizes, tuning, and examples of music and composers.
Learn about the viol, a European bowed and fretted string instrument played on the leg, from its origins in Spain to its decline in the eighteenth century. Explore its tuning, construction, decoration, and repertoire, and see examples from The Met collection.
Aug 18, 2020 · The history of the viol family is long and complex. The viol as recognized today—with its sloping shoulders, C-shaped soundholes, flush ribs, and gut strings and frets—is very much a modern iteration of viol design quite removed from its roots in the plucked and bowed vihuelas of Spain.
By the second half of the 16th century the viol acquired a significant repertory of music for ensemble, for solo bass, and for the lyra viol (or viola bastarda), a small bass viol.
