Viola d'amore 1771

www.violadamoresocietyofamerica.org

The owner writes: "It seems authentic and undisturbed and has a date of about 1771. It is sweet and little, and I bought it (after recording film music) with the Casadesus Preludes in mind, as my other larger instrument makes some intervals difficult to reach. But the larger instrument has fuller sound." www.violadamoresocietyofamerica.org

Viola d'amore (1739) - Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg

Mold for viola d'amore - Médiathèque Cité de la Musique, Paris

Nom de l'oeuvre

Moule de viole d'amour (?)

Numéro d'inventaire

E.901.5

Numéro Chouquet 1884

C.196

Collection

Musée de la musique

Attribué à

Stradivari Antonio

Lieu de création

CREMONE

Date d'exécution

début 18e

Historique

Provient de la vente après décès de Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, Paris, hôtel Drouot, 21-22 mai 1880

Description

Bois de sapin * (Source : Inventaire du musée)

Longueur caisse

338 mm

Date d'acquisition

30/06/1880

Czech viola d'amore - Early XXth Century

www.tarisio.com

Edward Gaut - Viola d'amore: copy after Lambert, 2004

Edward Gaut Violins6 Chatsworth RoadArnos ValeBristolBS4 3EY, UK+44 (0)117 3079 785

Viola D’Amore

Please note this is not for sale and is only on the site as an example of my work. If you would like it replicating for you please contact me to discuss making you one on commission and view my commissions page.

This is an instrument I was commissioned in 2004 by a customer unable to find a Viola D’amore that suited his requirements. The original instrument is in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and is made by the French maker ‘Lambert’. As it happens my customer works at this particular museum and sees the original on a regular basis. This for him held a vision of what he desired and was the instrument of choice to be copied by myself.

The instrument I made for him is following the same out line and measurements. It has 7 playing strings and 7 sympathetic strings which pass around the back of the peg box, under the finger board, bridge and tail piece to a decorative ivory plate and pins on the rib. The outline is so graceful and uncomplicated without the modern day corners. The front and back are very curvaceous and not only is the out line shown off in it’s glory by the purfling but also a band of rosewood on it’s edges making it very prominent.

The neck is very long as it allows for the 14 pegs it needs to accommodate. On the side of the peg box it has a scribed line and also a flower stamp printed along its contours. On the back of the peg box it has more of the same and the carving of a shell in the heal.

When commissioning an instrument it gives you freedom to have exactly what you want. In this particular example the head on the very end of the neck was replaced with a likeness of my customers partner, which is quite romantic as it is a Viola D’amore (the viola of love).

Click here to see more photos of this Viola D’Amour.

If you would like an instrument commissioned especially for you please call me or email to discuss your requirements.

Olivier Calmeille - Viola d'amore

http://www.atelier-souslecorce.fr

Viola d'amore by Collin Mezin, Mirecourt (France), 1934

Viole d'amour de COLLIN MEZIN Charles Jean Baptiste Leon dit Charley (1910-1987) faite à Mirecourt (France) en 1934 spécialement pour Monsieur Emile Moëbs alto solo de l'Opéra d'Alger et professeur de violon.

Table de deux pièces d'épicéa à mailles fines s'élargissant sur les bords, double filet,ouïes en forme de flamme.

Cordier et touche asymétrique en ébène.

Fond d'une pièce d'érable à ondes larges, double filet.

Eclisses en érable.

Manche en érable se terminant par une tête sculptée de femme au yeux bandés.

Chevilles en palissandre, sept cordes frottées, sept cordes sympathiques.

Boutons d'attache en ivoire.

Vernis orange-brun sur fond or.

Etiquette signée :

Faite spécialement pour Monsieur E. Moëbs

Ch. J.B. COLLIN MEZIN

1934 Luthier

GRAND PRIX Exposition Universelle 1900

PARIS

Longueur totale : 811 mm

Longueur caisse : 418 mm

J.S. Bach, Johannes Passion

A very interesting site, many thanks to Leon King!

Here you find some important information about violas d'amore tunings. Scores of Arioso and Aria of Bach's Johannes Passion to be downloaded.

http://quallpublications.co.uk/bach/

Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936) and the viola d'amore

Ottorino Respighi,

violinista e compositore, suonò anche la viola e la viola d'amore nel "periodo russo" (1901-1903): prima viola d’orchestra e viola d’amore presso i teatri imperiali a S.Pietroburgo e a Mosca dove studiò con Nikolaj Rimskij-Korsakov per cinque mesi e poi, nel 1906, come violista del quintetto Mugellini.

Scrisse per la viola d'amore un solo nell'opera Re Enzo (Prima esecuzione: Bologna, Teatro del Corso, 12 Marzo, 1905 - Edizione: Bologna, Società Tipografica Mareggiani, 1905) ed un quartetto (1906, inedito), catalogato da Potito Pedarra (n. 1945) come P 061.

Sempre nel 1906 trascrisse e realizzò il basso continuo della II e della VI Lezione per viola d'amore di Attilio Ariosti (catalogo P 072 e P 073).

Ottorino Respighi,

violinist and composer, also played the viola and viola d'amore in the "Russian period" (1901-1903): first viola and viola d'amore at the Imperial Theater in St. Petersburg and Moscow, where he studied with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov for five months and then, in 1906, playing the viola with the Mugellini quintet.

Wrote for the viola d'amore a "solo" in the opera Re Enzo (First performance: Bologna, Teatro del Corso, 12 Marzo 1905 - First edition: Bologna, Società Tipografica Mareggiani 1905) and a quartet (1906, unpublished), catalogued by Potito Pedarra (b.1945) as P 061.

In 1906 he make the realisation and the transcription of II and VI Lesson for viola d'amore by Ariosti (catalogued as P 072 and P 073).

Quartet in D major (P 061): Quinton, Viola d’amore,

Viola da gamba, Viola da basso

1. Adagio-Allegro moderato - 2. Minuetto - 3. Largo

4. Tambourin

Viola d'amore by Matteo Baldinelli, Gubbio (Assisi), Italy

http://www.liutaiomatteo.com/index.php?lng=it

The viola d'amore shares many features of the viol family. Like viols, it has a flat back and intricately carved head at the top of the peg box, but unlike viols, the head occurs often with blindfolded eyes to represent love , and its sound-holes are commonly in the shape of a flaming sword (suggesting a Middle Eastern influence in its development). It is unfretted, and played much like a violin, being held horizontally under the chin. It is about the same size as the modern viola.

The viola d'amore usually has six or seven playing strings, which are sounded by drawing a bow across them, just as with a violin. In addition, it has an equal number of sympathetic strings located below the main strings and the fingerboard which are not played directly but vibrate in sympathy with the notes played. A common variation is six playing strings, and instruments exist with as many as fourteen sympathetic strings alone. Despite the fact that the sympathetic strings are now thought of as the most characteristic element of the instrument, early forms of the instrument almost uniformly lacked them. The first unambiguous reference to a viola d'amore without sympathetic strings does not occur until the 1730s. Both the types continued to be built and played through the 18th century.

Largely thanks to the sympathetic strings, the viola d'amore has a particularly sweet and warm sound.

Leopold Mozart, writing in his Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule, said that the instrument sounded "especially charming in the stillness of the evening."

The first known mention of the name 'viol d'amore' appeared in John Evelyn's diary (20 November, 1679):

"for its swetenesse & novelty the Viol d'Amore of 5 wyre-strings, plaid on with a bow, being but an ordinary violin, play'd on Lyra way by a German, than which I never heard a sweeter Instrument or more surprizing..."

Viola d'Amore (plate XXVII)

Author: A. J. Hipkins, Illustrated by William Gibb.

Publisher: Adam and Charles Black, Edinburgh

Date: 1888 (1st Edition)

Viola d'Amore by Andrew Dipper, 2008, Stradivari Copy

Made by Andrew Dipper for the 2008 exhibit of former instructors at the International Violin Making School in Cremona, Italy, using the patterns and molds left by Antonio Stradivari in his workshop. These patterns and molds are now displayed in the Museo Civico of Cremona.

Atelier sous l'écorce: how to manufacture a viola d'amore

Viola d'amore 12 strings, after Franz Ostler (1736)

http://www.atelier-souslecorce.fr/en/olivier-calmeille/profil

Copy of 1786 Storioni's viola d'amore, by Daniel Ross (http://www.atelierdelutherie.info)

Viola d'amore photos by Jean Louis CLARA

http://jlclara.ficanas.org/gallery/Lutherie

Moennig Collection

Viola d'amore by William Moennig Sr., Philadelphia, 1926

Labeled, "William Moennig, Philadelphia, anno 1926. Completed by Burritt Miller, 1972."

LOB 41.7 cm, top of button to edge

Viola d'amore by Paul Dörfel, Markneukirchen,

Labeled"Paul Dörfel, Markneukirchen, 1936."
LOB 41.7 cm, top of button to edge