The aim of this project is to develop:
Knowledge and Understanding of Early English Viols
Background
Early modern viols appeared in England shortly after they first developed in Continental Europe at the end of the 15th century. As well as performing the finest vocal music they stimulated the development of an idiomatic instrumental repertory of outstanding quality. By the early 17th century English viol players ‘surpassed all other nations’, according to André Maugars (1629). They were employed at many European courts, and old English viols became the most highly esteemed throughout Europe.
By 1635, the French polymath Marin Mersenne had noted the suitability of particular instruments for particular music, and since the 20th-century ‘early music’ revival the the value of using the most appropriate instruments for any particular repertory has been widely recognised. Ideally one would like to use the very instruments that originally played particular music, but in the case of viols this is really problematic, for the following reasons:
- Antique viols are rare – they are difficult and expensive to obtain
- Antique viols have commonly suffered significant alterations (such as their size, shape, number of strings and height of the bridge), so their form does not represent the original form well
- Antique viols have typically suffered significant wear and damage that compromises both their performance and appearance
- Even without deliberate or accidental alterations, the aged wood of these instruments performs differently from when they were new
- For Tudor viols, all these problems, especially rarity, are extreme.
Thus, for most people the possibility of using an original viol is remote, and the likelihood that it would sound or behave the same as the viols with which the composers and players of the 16th century were familiar is negligible. We therefore need new viols that resemble the viols of that time as closely as possible.
In order to provide such instruments, the makers of today need to know exactly what the original instruments were like, and how they were made. Very little such information is currently available, and much of it is unreliable.
Musicologists and performers are similarly constrained by the lack of information. More data about the precise nature of these viols is essential for scholarly examination of the music, and for realising it in performance. Reliance on features of superficially similar but different music, instruments and practices leads to a blurred vision of how things were, and obstructs attempts to know about and understand these important instruments.
These are the problems that Making the Tudor Viol is designed to address. We aim to provide a clear working description of the form and nature of the instruments used in Tudor England. This should be of benefit to everyone with an interest in the viol. For example, the findings will help viol-makers to provide the most suitable tools for performers to realise this outstanding and important repertory, and will enable scholars to maximise understanding of the music.
The Construction of New Viols
While no viols will be constructed as part of our research, the research explicitly aims to be useful for makers (among others), and our findings may well be used in that way while the project is ongoing.
Research Methods
Many of our approaches have already been tried and tested, particularly during research carried out for Fleming’s doctoral thesis Viol-Making in England c1580-1660 (=VME, 2001), though this excluded any examination or discussion of music.
- Music of the period will be examined for clues about the instruments: it is hoped that a detailed analysis of the ranges and tessituras of surviving pieces that might have been performed on viols will help us to understand the performance properties of Tudor instruments. Comparison of sixteenth century composers’ texted and untexted music may help to clarify to what extent they conceived it in ‘vocal’ or ‘instrumental’ terms, and lead to a deeper understanding of what they expected from Tudor viols, such as their ability to balance and blend in consort, and how they might have articulated phrasing and characteristic melodic features.
- Archives and other resources will be explored to trace the lives of viol-makers. For most of English makers, even the five whose names are relatively well-known, having been praised by Thomas Mace in 1667, almost nothing is known about their families, their training or how they went about making and selling viols. Research for VME revealed some aspects of their organisation, and showed how combining genealogical evidence with information gleaned from wills and inventories, accounts and other documents, and other historical data can create a credible outline description of what such people were like. For Making the Tudor Viol similar techniques will be used to investigate the earlier period. In the VME period, some previously unknown viol-makers were identified but makers were found generally to be very obscure individuals. We intend to discover as much as possible about known Tudor viol-makers, and we hope to identify some more.
- Surviving viols. The obvious starting point for understanding any type of instrument is to look closely at some examples. Limits to the usefulness of this approach for Tudor viols are explained above. Nevertheless, such information as can be extracted or deduced from the few survivors will be gathered and will form part of the picture.
- Material and cultural resources of viol-makers. Much new information is needed to enable makers to produce new viols that resemble Tudor originals as closely as possible, including the details of how the original makers worked. This includes such things as their tools, wood and other materials, and also their training, workshop practice and commercial organisation. Furthermore, the cultural context is relevant as it affects the nature of clients (and their demands) for whom the instruments were intended, as well as the education, knowledge and expectations of the makers.
- Images. Relevant images occur in many media: paintings, prints, carved or inlaid woodwork, carved stone, tapestry, embroidery, ceramics and others. These images can help our research in two ways:
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They may record viols that were in use
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They form part of the cultural environment in which the viols were made. Some of these images represent what players and makers had in their minds when they conceived of a viol. Others are the raw materials that all artificers used as a library of resource.
Only very few English images of viols fall within our period, and in fact there are not many of any period, so we are extending the time range to 1800. A page showing all these images will be added to this website in due course, and a link will be added to the column on the left.
Please check back regularly to discover when this page is active. You will probably see some unfamiliar images. The information that accompanies them will be provisional but aims to be accurate and authoritative. Any corrections or additions you may be able to contribute would be valuable and appreciated.
Research Outputs
Research findings will have a direct impact on future practice in the performance of music involving viols, on recordings, on viol-making, and on research.
- Printed Outputs
- A book combining the majority of our research findings with previous work will be prepared for publication in 2014.
- Articles will be published in specialist journals and newsletters, and in more ‘general interest’ musical publications
- Oral/Aural Outputs
- A dedicated symposium and conference will be held, to share findings, to promote links with other researchers, and to stimulate further research
- Project researchers will give papers at other conferences, speak to special interest audiences such as the Viola da Gamba Society, and give lecture recitals at events such as the York Early Music Festival