The Viol - gebunden oder broschiert

'How strange the tone of these old instruments - men must have been half crickets when this music satisfied them!' Applied to well-known persons living in the Golden Age of the noble viola da gamba family, such as Queen Elizabeth I, the pirate Sir Francis Drake and the ruffian Essex, the term 'crickets' is intriguing. But they did love viols. In the opinion of many in today's musical world, there would be no need for viols. The instrument is regarded as a - slightly contemptible - would-be cello. Which is what it was, and should be, least of all. So why not get the instrument's own story, together with what Elizabethan courtiers and European contemporaries thought about it? This book is a compendium and practical guide for musicians and music lovers alike, putting a many great problems and questions relating to the viol, and music in general, into perspective. There is ample material concerning such topics as the great gamba players, the history of viol construction including regional developments, the musical role of viols, reconstructions and forgeries, and the practical aspects of viol playing. Before taking umbrage at expressions that seem fanciful or disrespectful, readers are invited to consider that these are mostly allusions to contemporary literature, which have grown on the same soil, like pumpkins and rhubarb on a compost heap. Although not a novel, this book is novel in that it strives to combine good scholarship with good story-telling. It is equally without precedent in focusing altogether on the history, construction and playing technique of an instrument that had been forgotten, but which has come back to life.