sabato 25 dicembre 2010

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

giovedì 23 dicembre 2010

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

domenica 14 novembre 2010

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


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

Olivier Calmeille - Viola d'amore


http://www.atelier-souslecorce.fr

domenica 3 ottobre 2010

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

domenica 29 agosto 2010

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/

venerdì 27 agosto 2010

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

giovedì 26 agosto 2010

martedì 1 giugno 2010

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.


domenica 30 maggio 2010

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














giovedì 29 aprile 2010