Especially charming in the stillness of the evening

This chapter sets out to establish the history of the sympathetically-strung viola d’amore, and its larger relation, the englische violet. In 1756, Leopold Mozart documented the bowed instruments known to him in his Versuch einer grundlichen Violinschule, including the baryton, englische violet, trumpet marine and viola d’amore. Mozart commented that the viola d’amore was a ‘distinctive kind of fiddle’ and that it sounded ‘especially charming in the stillness of the evening’. While the viol can be used as a reliable image, confirmed by the large number of extant instruments from Tielke’s workshop, Rottmayr’s depiction of a viola d’amore appears less accurate, albeit clearly showing a sympathetically-strung viola d’amore, most probably modelled on the relatively newly designed instruments from Schorn’s workshop in Salzburg. While the few accounts of the sympathetically-strung viola d’amore are spread across several decades and countries, from extant instruments it can be said that the viola d’amore (and englische violet) proved most popular in Germany and Austria.