Unwinding the Viola's DNA: A Survey of the Viola's Origins and Ancestors
Kelly Bartek
The viola in its present form first appeared in Italy during the 16th century, but its genesis was neither an instance of spontaneous invention nor a mere coincidence. Centuries of prior experimentation and evolution in instrument making were woven into the design of the earliest violas, and traits from closely-related instruments of the time undoubtedly made their way into the viola’s DNA. Historical evidence points toward the medieval fiddle, the rebec, the viol, and the lira da braccio as precursory instruments to the modern viola, but determining the identities and the roles of earlier instruments in the viola’s evolution becomes more complex with each previous century. Appearances of certain identifiable, recurring instruments within the viola’s lineage can be traced with some confidence, but transitions between ancestral instruments are often unclear and require hypotheses. Most information about early instruments comes from manuscript drawings and other art, but the reliability of these depictions is often questionable; some artists chose to depict instruments in unusual positions or possessing inaccurate characteristics for “artistic convenience,” with inconsistencies in detail perhaps stemming from ignorance about an instrument’s design and playing technique.1
Written evidence has similar issues: an instrument could be described unclearly, leaving its design or playing posture up to the interpretation of modern readers. Surviving documentation often muddles the identities of historical instruments as well. Lack of clarity and wild inconsistencies in nomenclature ignite a fiery debate among scholars today about what these early instruments exactly were. In the words of Ian Pittaway, encountering “several instruments with the same name, [or] the same instrument with several names” makes factualizing information about these early instruments nearly impossible.2 The vagueness of the word “viola” in Renaissance Spain and Italy creates even more threads of mystery that are difficult to unravel. “Viola” originally acted as a generic name that referred to many different kinds of bowed string instruments, and could be
1 Remnant, “Rebec, Fiddle and Crowd in England,” 15-17. 2 Pittaway, “The Mysteries of the Medieval Fiddle.” modified to specify an instrument based on its construction or geographic location. Renaissance instruments with names derived from “viola” include viols (with modified names such as viola da gamba and viola da braccio), violone, violetta, vihuela, and viola da brazzo. “Viola” may have also been used to describe close cousins of the viola such as the Renaissance fiddle, lira da braccio, or viols.3 Despite these issues of lost and speculative history and debatable primary sources, surviving written and iconographic evidence combined with modern theories can shed light on the history of the viola. One view of the viola’s heritage, accounting for just one perspective through a kaleidoscope of theoretical history, will be examined in this paper.
The earliest ancestors of the viola originated over a thousand years ago with the first instruments that created sound by players rubbing horsehair across strings. This category of instrument is known as fiddles, or bowed lutes. One design of fiddle, the stick fiddle, was the basis for centuries of progress toward the modern violin family. The earliest stick fiddles were quite primitive in comparison to the modern viola; they lacked fingerboards and were played by sliding the finger up and down a string to change pitch. The neck passed through the body of the fiddle and came out the other end where strings were attached.
Stick fiddles have a wide diversity spanning many centuries and lands, but some of the earliest fiddles may have come from Mongolia. China and its surrounding regions have a rich history of string instruments, but many were plucked or “bowed” with a bamboo slip. The
Mongolian morin khuur, a two-stringed fiddle with a carved horse head at the top of the neck, was one of the first instruments to display one of the defining traits of the modern violin family: the use of a horsehair bow to produce sustained sounds. The erhu also appears to be rooted in the early history of bowed string instruments; it was likely derived from the huqin, an instrument first
3 Boyden, “Viola.” recorded in China in the 1st century CE. The huqin’s name, meaning “barbarian string instrument,” suggests that it was brought into China by invaders from the north and west.
It is almost certain that the instruments of central and east Asia, such as the huqin and its relatives, made their way west along the trading routes of the Silk Road to the Middle East. This
trade overlapped with the earliest accounts of an instrument
called the rabab. It should be noted that the etymology of the
name “rabab,” sometimes spelled as “rebab,” is quite complex
and encompasses a variety of string instruments across the
Middle East and Asia. This complexity in nomenclature
leaves considerable room for interpretation and speculation
about these early instruments. The rabab of the spike fiddle
variety began to appear in the Middle East around the late
9th century. It was played with a horsehair bow, was
positioned in the lap, and typically had one to three strings,
with two strings being a common configuration. In cases of
rababs with more than one string, the instrument was likely
tuned in fifths, as evidenced in a 13th-century treatise by
Hieronymus de Moravia. Its body was a wooden frame with sheepskin belly and back, though some were likely made from gourds. The neck had no fingerboard or frets.
The rabab began to disperse from the Middle East and was traded along cross-continental routes between Asia and Europe. Two models of rabab were influential ancestors of subsequent instruments such as the rebec and medieval fiddle. Rababs with pear-shaped bodies became common in the Byzantine Empire by the 11th century.4 These Byzantine rababs were known there
4 Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Rabāb.” as the lira, but unlike the two-stringed rababs of the Islamic empires, it could have three to five strings.5 The lira made its way further west into Europe and likely evolved into variants of the medieval fiddle. Its exact course of evolution is unknown, as the names of “lira” and “fiddle” were interchangeable throughout the 11th and 12th centuries, proving a close similarity between the two instruments.6 Arab settlers brought boat-shaped rababs into northern Africa, and these instruments eventually made their way north into Spain by the 11th century. Rababs took hold in Spain and were played there regularly until the 14th century. *7 Rababs began to evolve during the Middle Ages and gave way to the ancestors of one of the next instruments in the viola’s heritage, the rebec. The theory that the rebec originated from the rabab is commonly accepted as plausible, but the period between the Arab rabab’s arrival in
Spain (c. the 11th century) and the 14th century, when the rebec was standardized enough to consider it a definitive instrument, is cloudy. From iconographic evidence, it is apparent that bowed string instruments of these centuries varied widely across
Europe, with unstandardized shapes, number of strings, and even playing positions. Many instruments were in transition or undergoing change based on the needs of the individual player.
The infamous issue of naming arises as well. However, two common varieties of early rebec-like instruments existed during this four hundred year window:8 a pear-shaped model with flat peg holders, much like the Greek lira, that was generally played on the
5 Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Rabāb.” 6 Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Lira.” 7 The Queen Mary Psalter. 8 Remnant, “Rebec.” shoulder, and a narrower, boat-shaped model with a skin belly and right-angled pegbox, rooted in the north African rabab, that was generally played in the lap.
Crusades beginning in the 11th century across continental Europe and England helped spread culture and music, including instruments that preceded the rebec. With this widespread trade came changes to both the design and playing position of the two typical early rebec styles.
These evolutions resulted in the “traditional European” rebec, which appeared around the late 13th century and became established by the 14th century, a timeline that coincides with the formalization of the word “rebec.”9 This newer style was pear-shaped and had a bulbous back and wooden soundboard. Wood, carved from a single, solid block, became the preferred material for constructing the body, as opposed to the traditional gourd or sheepskin. Depictions of the rebec show it ranging from one to five strings, with three being the most typical, and it is believed that when combined with a flat bridge and strings tuned in either fourths or fifths, it could create drones.10 The rebec also appears in art as having a more curved bridge, frets, a sickle-shaped pegbox, a scroll or carved head, and a tailpiece, though the presence of these traits varied by region and changed over time. Almost always the rebec’s musical function informed its structure.
Gradually the rebec went from being played vertically in the lap to resting on the shoulder, though an image from a Catalan church from the 11th century shows a rebec-like instrument on the shoulder, suggesting that this posture had already been developed but became more popular over time.11
The medieval fiddle, or vielle, occupies another major branch in the viola family tree alongside the rebec. It first appeared in Europe around the 11th century, and flourished throughout the 12th and 13th centuries.12 During medieval times, a lack of continuity in instrument names led
9 Remnant, “Rebec.” 10 Remnant, “Rebec, Fiddle and Crowd in England,” 20. 11 Butler, ‘The Rebec Project.” 12 Pittaway, “The Mysteries of the Medieval Fiddle.” the word “fiddle” to describe multiple different instruments across Europe. This included the crwth, a bowed lira found in northern Europe, and occasionally even the rebec. The terminology became less loose around 1300 as surviving written evidence appears to differentiate the medieval fiddle as a specific instrument. Adding to the complicated history of the medieval fiddle is the fact that there were just as many variations of the instrument as there were names. Medieval musicians typically crafted their own instruments, and regionalized experimentation was common. Instrument design was informed by specific, localized criteria such as the indegineous culture and music, traditions in instrument making, and the available building materials. *13 The presence of a fingerboard, the number of strings, and the body shape were not universal features, but most fiddles had at least one of the following traits: five strings, with one off
to the side, known as a bordunus or bourdon, that could be plucked with the left thumb or used as a
drone, and a pegbox in the shape of an inverted
cup. Medieval fiddles had flat backs, unlike the
rounded back of the rebec. They were also slightly
larger than rebecs, and were oval or rectangular
in shape with cutouts on the side for easier
bowing. Sound holes came in a variety of shapes,
from c-shaped holes, holes in the shape of roses, and occasionally even f-holes. In the presence of fingerboards, frets became more common around the 14th century, but were not ubiquitous. Many fiddles had flat bridges that were ideal for droning, but curved bridges, or primitive devices to raise the strings to different heights, were possibly
13 Ormesby Psalter. extant as well. The flat bridge design persisted through the centuries, as flat bridges are seen in artwork of the late 15th century.
The path of instrument evolution toward the modern viola began to slightly clarify as the
16th century neared. With artistic styles trending toward more realistic (but not always accurate) depictions, and more surviving written documentation, the instruments of the Renaissance era are considerably more identifiable than their medieval predecessors. Closer relatives began to bear more resemblance to the modern viola as well. The Spanish Kingdom of Aragon is considered to be the next significant place in the timeline of the viola’s evolution. Two instruments in Spain during the 15th century likely led to the creation of the viol, arguably one of the closest cousins of the modern viola. In Aragon, musicians played the rebec between the legs, or “a gamba” style, rather than on the shoulder as was common practice in most of Europe.14
The vihuela, a guitar-like instrument that could be plucked (vihuela de mano) or bowed (vihuela de arco) was also popular there during this time. It is probable that modifications to the bowed version of the instrument in combination with the gamba style of playing in Aragon resulted in the emergence of the viol family during the second half of the 15th century. These early viols had a guitar-shaped body and long necks with a fretted fingerboard, and the strings rested on a flat bar over the body rather than a curved bridge.*15
14 Woodfield, The Early History of the Viol, 38. 15 The Sforza Hours. The election of Valencian pope Alexander VI in 1492 significantly changed the course of the viol’s development.16 With the new Spanish pope in office, Spaniards brought vihuelas and viols to
Italy. Viols traveled north from their first point of entry, Rome, and Ferrara emerged as the epicenter of viol playing during this time. The original Spanish viol quickly underwent drastic changes in its musical function and design upon its arrival in Italy. Paintings of viols17 from the late
15th-century Ferrara show that its original Spanish form had changed, most notably with the appearances of a fingerboard, a tailpiece, and an arched bridge. The arched bridge is perhaps the most significant change, as it allowed the viol to play individual lines within a polyphonic texture.18
With the ability to play individual lines in polyphonic music, viol consorts became the ensemble of choice for many noble courts. The viol, with its subdued, nasal tone, was ideal for playing indoors and became associated with serious, courtly music. An opportunity arose for a new type of instrument to fill the role of playing dance music, and the violin family soon appeared.
The viol and violin families appeared in close succession, with the first accounts of the violin family dating back to the early 16th century. The familiar consort arrangement transferred to this new family, as there were three main members named by Lanfranco in his treatise Scintille di musica: the soprano (violin), contralto and tenor (viola), and basso (cello). The term “violin” was used as an umbrella term for the whole family, much as the term “viol” includes all its sizes today.
To make matters easier, “violin” in this paper will now also refer collectively to the violin family, which includes the viola and cello, unless otherwise specified. The earliest violins had three strings, with the middle voice violas having a tuning of c-g-d. Later, as their ranges expanded to keep up with more demanding compositions, a fourth string was added. For violas, the fourth string was added to the top to create the now-standard tuning of c-g-d-a. However, some larger tenor violas
16 Woodfield, “The Early History of the Viol,” 143. 17 Woodfield specifically references a 1497 painting by Lorenzo Costa in San Giovanni in Monte, Bologna. Woodfield, “The Early History of the Viol”, 149. 18 Woodfield, “The Early History of the Viol”, 147. expanded their range downwards with a fourth string added to the bottom, creating the tuning of f-c-g-d. This tuning is archaic and disappeared by the 17th century, as consort music typically did not require the inner parts to play in such a low register.19
Though experimentation was still ongoing in the early 16th century, several trends in design became intrinsic to the new violin family. Instrumentalists began moving from background roles, which typically involved accompanying vocals, to more prominent roles in instrumental ensembles. In response to this change in roles, luthiers began to create instruments with arched top and back plates to increase projection. The stiffer, arched plates provided better air resonance, and gave the violin a clearer and more focused sound than flat-backed viols and medieval fiddles. The body became wider to accommodate a louder sound as well. Luthiers also experimented with shape, length, and placement of sound holes, replacing the c-shaped sound holes of viols with the f-holes of modern violins. The f-hole was not invented by early violin makers, but was an acoustical feature that set their early violins apart from other instruments that they crafted, such as viols and citterns.
Travelling family groups often performed on violins and first appeared throughout northern
Italy before spreading to courts across France, Germany, Austria, and England. Not only did they perform, compose, and arrange their own music, but many of these early violinists likely built their own instruments. Some of the earliest organized centers of instrument building specifically for the violin family can be tracked down to the Lombardy region of northern Italy. Luthiers in the town of
Brescia, already known for its rich history of crafting citterns, lutes, and viols, began to experiment with the violin family in the early 16th century. Most of the earliest violin family instruments from
Brescia were lower-voiced instruments such as violas and cellos; in the case of the viola, this output perhaps reflected a greater demand for instruments in the tenor range. Around this time and
19 Holman, “Violin.” before, it was common for the melodic part to be in the tenor line, but changes in musical genres and compositional style over the course of the 16th century normalized the presence of the tune in the soprano line. This eventually led to more rigid roles for the violin family by the early 17th century, with the violin carrying the tune and the viola filling the middle, accompanimental voices.
The violas of some of the earliest Brescian makers, including Zanetto, his son Pellegrino, and
Gasparo da Saló display a great deal of experimentation in their design. Many of the surviving instruments have since been cut down from their large tenor sizes or have had parts replaced, but traits such as their body shapes (some having sloping shoulders or two corners, vestiges of viols), varying lengths and shapes of f-holes, and freeform scrolls have led many to describe their appearance as “rustic.”20 Less than forty miles away in the town of Cremona, Andrea Amati is credited with creating the first “highly sophisticated” model of violin around the mid 1500s. His design was based on careful proportions and measurements,21 and his methods persisted in the renowned Cremonese school of violin making through instruments made by his descendents and eventually great makers such as Giuseppe Guarneri and Antonio Stradivari, the latter improving
Amati’s original design to what some regard as perfection in the world of lutherie.
Looking back one step before the viol, two instruments, the medieval fiddle and the rebec, arguably had just as much of an impact on the violin family tree as viols. Both were in existence during the late 15th century and overlapped with the emergence of the violin family; the medieval fiddle went out of fashion by the mid 16th century,22 and the rebec’s presence in Europe lingered into the 18th century. Traits directly linked to these two common ancestors appeared in the earliest violins as well as viols. The tuning of strings in fifths was largely standardized for both families and
20 Price, “Italian Cello Making” 21 Beare, "Amati." 22 Remnant, “Fiddle.” was seen in the violin even in its early three-string form. Three strings may have been a holdover from the rebec, and body shape may have been inspired by the medieval fiddle.
Not only did the medieval fiddle and rebec lead to the vihuela and viol branch of evolution, but it is highly possible that they were also responsible for the creation of another older cousin of the viola, the lira da braccio. This instrument preceded the modern violin family, appearing in the
15th century, and could have influenced the earliest violas. It is notable because its overall construction is similar enough to the modern viola that most surviving instruments from the 16th century have been cut down and reshaped into modern violas with success. Most likely a descendant of the medieval fiddle, three shapes of lira da braccio “existed simultaneously,” but it
obtained its violin shape in the late 15th
century.23 The lira da braccio retained the
medieval fiddle’s feature of bourdon strings,
but typically had two, and its seven-string
tuning as noted in Lanfranco’s Scintille di musica (1533) became d/d’ (bourdon strings in octaves), g/g’-d’-a-e.”24 Its bridge was much
flatter than that of a modern viola, which made
it suitable for playing chords (triple and
quadruple stops, but in limited inversions due to its tuning) and drones on the bourdon strings to provide accompaniment underneath a singer’s line. However, there is evidence that its bridge was curved enough that it could play a single line as well.*25
23 Brown, "Lira da braccio." 24 Brown, "Lira da braccio." 25 Giovanni Bellini, Pala di San Zaccaria.
The lira da braccio is just one of several possible influences in the decades leading up to the appearance of the modern viola, but the culmination of ideas and events of years past are the real reason why the modern viola exists today. It may be impossible to trace the chance meetings of traveling musicians across Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe, their exchange of music and instruments, and when and how instruments makers recombined traits so that instruments gradually developed into new forms. However, the rabab, lira, medieval fiddle, rebec, viol, and lira da braccio are some of the most likely members of the viola’s family tree. The 16th-century designs of early Brescian makers and Andrea Amati tied a combination of features together, many of which came from preexisting instruments, into the viola’s present form, but the centuries of progress embedded within the DNA of the design makes even the newest viola a piece of history.
Beare, Charles, Carlo Chiesa, and Philip J. Kass. "Amati." In Grove Music Online. 2001; Accessed April 29, 2020. Oxford Music Online.
Boyden, David D., and Ann M. Woodward. "Viola." In Grove Music Online. 2001; Accessed April 30, 2020. Oxford Music Online.
Boyden, David D., Peter Walls, Peter Holman, Karel Moens, Robin Stowell, Anthony Barnett, Matt Glaser, Alyn Shipton, Peter Cooke, Alastair Dick, and Chris Goertzen. "Violin." In Grove Music Online. 20 Jan. 2001; Accessed May 15, 2020. Oxford Music Online.
Brown, Howard Mayer, and Sterling Scott Jones. "Lira da braccio." In Grove Music Online. 2001; Accessed May 11, 2020. Oxford Music Online.
Butler, Paul. “The Rebec Project.” Paul Butler: Diverse Arts. Rutgers University. Last modified October 21, 2003. http://crab.rutgers.edu/~pbutler/rebec.html.
Dick, Alastair, Christian Poché, Jack Percival Baker Dobbs, Margaret J. Kartomi, Jean During, and John Baily. "Rabāb." In Grove Music Online. 2001; Accessed May 2, 2020. Oxford Music Online.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Lira.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. Last modified June 30, 2017. https://www.britannica.com/art/lira-musical-instrument
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Rabāb.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. Last modified January 17, 2018. https://www.britannica.com/art/rabab
Fig. 1, Cantigas de Santa Maria, c. 13th century. Illumination. Spain, https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/sound/ciabattoni-instruments/.
Fig. 2, The Queen Mary Psalter, c. 1310. Illumination. England, http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=531 67.
Fig. 3, Ormesby Psalter, Fol. 9V, 1250. Illumination. Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, England. Accessed June 10, 2020. https://iiif.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/iiif/viewer/34a6037b-12e8-4b12-8920-26c33914fe0e#?c=0 &m=0&s=0&cv=23&r=0&xywh=-1811%2C-35%2C11901%2C7394.
Fig. 4, The Sforza Hours, c. 1490. Illumination. British Library. https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/sforza-hours.
Fig. 5, Bellini, Giovanni. Pala di San Zaccaria, oil on panel, 1501, Church of San Zaccaria, Venice, Italy, https://library.artstor.org/asset/ALIEBERMANIG_10313502656.
Nia, Hadi T., Ankita D. Jain, Yuming Liu, Mohammad-Reza Alam, Roman Barnas and Nicholas C. Makris. “The Evolution of Air Resonance Power Efficiency in the Violin and Its Ancestors.” Proceedings of the Royal Society A 471, no. 2175 (March 2015). The Royal Society Publishing.
Pittaway, Ian. “The Mysteries of the Medieval Fiddle: Lifting the Veil on the Vielle.” Early Music Muse. Last modified November 22, 2015. https://earlymusicmuse.com/lifting-the-veil-on-the-vielle/
Pittaway, Ian. “The Rebec: A Short History from Court to Street.” Early Music Muse. Last modified October 6, 2015. https://earlymusicmuse.com/rebec/
Price, Jason. “Italian Cello Making, Origins to 1750: Cremona & Brescia.” Tarisio Fine Instruments and Bows. Last modified 2020. https://tarisio.com/cellos-piatigorsky-festival/italian-cello-making-cremona-brescia/
Remnant, Mary. "Fiddle." In Grove Music Online. 2001; Accessed May 17, 2020. Oxford Music Online.
Remnant, Mary. "Rebec." In Grove Music Online. 2001; Accessed May 8, 2020. Oxford Music Online.
Remnant, Mary. “Rebec, Fiddle and Crowd in England.” Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association 95, no. 1 (1968): 15–28. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrma/95.1.15.
Stock, Jonathan. “A Historical Account of the Chinese Two-Stringed Fiddle Erhu.” The Galpin Society Journal 46 (1993): 83–113.
Weinfield, Elizabeth. “The Viol.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000. Last modified June 2014. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/viol/hd_viol.htm
Woodfield, Ian. The Early History of the Viol. Cambridge University Press, 1988. Google Books. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrma/103.1.141. https://books.google.com/books?id=sEh7VkTEaM4C&pg=PA37&lpg=PA37&dq=aragon+re bec&source=bl&ots=WRFN_iz10Y&sig=ACfU3U3GCYwMaogTwesCg9AfcYNoUEcMiA&hl=en &sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjM3rSvqMvpAhX0dM0KHZVTAkUQ6AEwBXoECAkQAQ#v=onepage &q=aragon%20rebec&f=false
Woodfield, Ian. “The Early History of the Viol.” Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association 103, no. 1 (1976): 141–57. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrma/103.1.141.