The viol, or viola da gamba (Italian: [ˈvjɔːla da (ɡ)ˈɡamba, viˈɔːla -]), or informally gamba, is a bowed and fretted string instrument that is played da gamba (i.e. "on the leg"). It is distinct from the later violin, or viola da braccio; and it is any one of the earlier viol family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitch of each of the strings. Although treble, tenor and bass were most commonly used, viols came in different sizes, including pardessus (high treble, developed in 18th century), treble, alto, small tenor, tenor, bass and contrabass (called violone).
These members of the viol family are distinguished from later bowed string instruments, such as the violin family, by both appearance and orientation when played—as typically the neck is oriented upwards and the rounded bottom downwards to settle on the lap or between the knees.
The viola da gamba uses the alto and bass clef. Seven and occasionally eight frets made of "stretched gut" are tied on the fingerboard around the instrument's neck. Frets tied in this manner—instead of permanently fixed as on a guitar—allow for fine-tuning of the instrument. (Frets enable the performer to stop the strings more cleanly, improve consistency of intonation and lend the stopped notes a tone that better matches the open strings.)
Viols first appeared in Spain and Italy in the mid-to-late 15th century, and were most popular in the Renaissance and Baroque (1600–1750) periods. Early ancestors include the Arabic rebab and the medieval European vielle, but later, more directly possible ancestors include the Venetian viole and the 15th- and 16th-century Spanish vihuela, a six-course plucked instrument tuned like a lute (and also like a present-day viol) that (at the time) looked like, but was quite distinct from, the four-course guitar (an earlier chordophone). It should also be mentioned that the Arabic rebab originally comes from a Persian instrument called rubāb.
Although bass viols superficially resemble cellos, viols are different in several respects from instruments of the violin family: the viol family has flat rather than curved backs, sloped rather than rounded shoulders, c holes rather than f holes, and five to seven rather than four strings. Additional differences include tuning strategy—in fourths, with a third in the middle, rather than in fifths (similar to a lute)—the presence of frets, and underhand rather than overhand bow grip.
A modern player of the viol is commonly known as a gambist, violist , or violist da gamba. Notably, "violist" is a homograph of the word commonly used since the mid-20th century to refer to a player of the viola, which can cause confusion in written/printed texts when not clear from the context.
Vihuelists began playing their flat-topped, originally plucked, instruments with a bow in the second half of the 15th century. Within two or three decades, this led to the evolution of an entirely new and dedicated bowed string instrument that retained many of the features of the vihuela: e.g., a flat back, sharp waist-cuts, frets, thin ribs initially, and identical tuning—hence its original name, vihuela de arco; arco is Spanish for "bow". An influence on the playing posture has been credited to the example of Moorish rabab players.
However, Stefano Pio (2012) argues that a re-examination of documents in light of new data indicates an origin different than the vihuela de arco from Aragon. According to Pio, the viol had its origins in Venice, and evolved independently there. He asserts it was implausible that the vihuela de arco underwent such a rapid evolution by Italian rather than Venetian instrument makers. Nonetheless, a ten-year span brought the birth and diffusion in Italy of a new family of instruments (viola da gamba, or viols). These comprised instruments of different sizes, some as large as the famous violoni—as 'big as a man'—mentioned by Prospero Bernardino in 1493.
Pio also notes that the fifth string of the viola da gamba is uniquely called a bordone (drone)—both in the manuscript of the early 15th-century music theorist Antonius de Leno, and in the treatises of the Venetian Silvestro Ganassi dal Fontego and Giovanni Maria Lanfranco. However, it is not a drone and is played the same as the other strings. This inconsistency is justified, Pio argues, only by assuming the invention (in the latter 15th century) of a larger instrument derived from the medieval violetta, which gradually added more strings to allow greater extension to the low register. The fifth string was incorporated into the neck. This was surpassed by a sixth string (basso) which fixed the lower sound produced by the instrument. Pio's view was: the origin of the viola da gamba is tied to the evolution of the smaller violetta, or vielle, which was originally fitted with a fifth-string "drone"; and the name 'stuck' even after it ceased to perform this function.
Ian Woodfield, in his The Early History of the Viol, points to evidence that the viol does start with the vihuela, but that Italian luthiers immediately began to apply their own highly developed instrument-making traditions to the early version of the instrument after it was introduced into Italy.
Viols most commonly have six strings, although many 16th-century instruments had only four or five strings, and during the 17th century in France, some bass viols featured a seventh lower string. Viols were (and are) strung with gut strings of lower tension than on the members of the violin family. Gut strings produce a sonority far different from steel, generally described as softer and sweeter. Around 1660 in Bologna, gut or silk core strings overspun with copper wire first became available; these were then used for the lowest-pitched bass strings on viols, and many other string instruments as well. In 1664, a style of string incorporating a copper wire spun within the gut fibers, called a 'gimped' string, was introduced, mimicking the style of embroidery of the same name.
Viols are fretted like early guitars or lutes, using movable wrapped-around and tied-on gut frets. A low seventh string was supposedly added in France to the bass viol by Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe (c. 1640–1690), whose students included the French gamba virtuoso and composer Marin Marais. Also, the painting Saint Cecilia with an Angel (1618) by Domenichino (1581–1641) shows what may be a seven-string viol.
Unlike members of the violin family, most of which are tuned in fifths, viols are usually tuned in fourths with a major third in the middle, mirroring the tuning employed on the vihuela de mano and lute during the 16th century and similar to that of the modern six-string guitar.
Viols were first constructed much like the vihuela de mano, with all surfaces, top, back, and sides made from flat slabs or pieces of joined wood, bent or curved as required. However, some viols, both early and later, had carved tops, similar to those more commonly associated with instruments of the violin family. The ribs or sides of early viols were usually quite shallow, reflecting more the construction of their plucked vihuela counterparts. Rib depth increased during the 16th century, finally coming to resemble the greater depth of the classic 17th-century pattern.
The flat backs of most viols have a sharply angled break or canted bend in their surface close to where the neck meets the body. This serves to taper the back (and overall body depth) at its upper end to meet the back of the neck joint flush with its heel. Traditional construction uses animal glue, and internal joints are often reinforced with strips of either linen or vellum soaked in hot animal glue—a practice also employed in early plucked vihuela construction. The peg boxes of viols (which hold the tuning pegs) were typically decorated either with elaborately carved heads of animals or people or with the now-familiar spiral scroll finial.