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Viola: viola, orig. Latin vitulari "be joyful" A medium-sized stringed instrument Viola d'amore: love viola: A tenor viol with no frets Viola da braccio: arm viola: A stringed instrument held in the arm, such as a violin or viola Viola da gamba: leg viola: A stringed instrument held between the legs Violoncello Violoncello was the original name ...
The viola (/ v i ˈ oʊ l ə / vee-OH-lə, [1] Italian: [ˈvjɔːla, viˈɔːla]) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. Violas are slightly larger than violins, and have a lower and deeper sound.
String instruments can be divided into three groups: Lutes Instruments that support the strings via a neck and a bout (gourd), for instance a guitar, violin, or saz Harps Instruments that contain the strings within a frame Zithers
The extra strings on such violins typically are lower in pitch than the G-string; these strings are usually tuned (going from the highest added string to the lowest) to C, F, and B ♭. If the instrument's playing length, or string length from nut to bridge, is equal to that of an ordinary full-scale violin; i.e., a bit less than 13 inches (33 ...
Ancient kings playing an organistrum at the Pórtico de la Gloria in the Catedral de Santiago de Compostela in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. The hurdy-gurdy is generally thought to have originated from fiddles in either Europe or the Middle East (e.g., the rebab instrument) before the eleventh century A.D. [2] The first recorded reference to fiddles in Europe was in the 9th century by the ...
The kontra can be constructed new, but is most often a classical viola which has undergone several organological changes, for example, thinning ("regraduating") the top, back, and sides to increase the amplitude, and flattening the bridge, which allows the player to sound all three strings at once in order to produce chords.
The percussive sound of battuto has a clear pitch element determined by the distance of the bow from the bridge at the point of contact. As a group of players will never strike the string in exactly the same place, the sound of a section of violins playing col legno battuto is dramatically different from the sound of a single violin doing so.
The fragment of Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola, and cello similarly is written in A major, but the viola part is written in G major with the strings to be tuned a whole tone higher. In Richard Strauss's Don Quixote, the solo viola tunes the C string down to B.