ABSTRACT
This chapter observes the construction and characteristics of the viola d’amore ‘family’, and the methods used to add sympathetic strings to old wire-strung instruments. The viola d’amore attracts as many admirers for its appearance as it does for its distinctive timbre. Developing on the design lineage of the baryton and other seventeenth-century instruments, the viola d’amore, particularly with sympathetic strings, is an eye-catching object which stands proud of the wider viol family, both in museums and on the stage. The development of the instrument’s stringing appears to have been a gradual process, starting as the viola d’amore with just five strings – as described by Evelyn in 1679, and indicated in the Partia by Mr Grobe – but became more widely known as an instrument with six bowed wire strings. Whereas a traditional viola d’amore has sympathetic strings tuned by lateral pegs in the pegbox, this alternate method involves the strings being tuned by wrest pins.
