ABSTRACT
The novelty of its sweet timbre, and connotations of love through its name, attracted enough interest for the viola d’amore to spread across Europe, proving particularly popular in German-speaking lands. Its similar construction to the treble viol makes identifying original instruments difficult, particularly at the turn of the eighteenth century. The inclusion of the viola d’amore in both Valentini’s and Weigel’s seventeenth-century writings positions it as a serious instrument of the music room rather than a novelty. A further former wire-strung viola d’amore or treble viol that is now a viola, is labelled as being by Johann Andreas Kämbl, also of Munich. Dated 1736, this instrument is very similar to the 1725 instrument by Alletsee, being of the same proportions but fractionally larger than the Alletsee instrument. As with the 1736 instrument by Kämbl, it seems unlikely that this instrument was originally a wire-strung viola d’amore, especially given the dominant trend for sympathetic resonance at this time.
