skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Violin / VDA size comparison
Viola d'amore
I recently read Dr. Faustus by Thomas Mann. Herr Zietblum, the book's narrator, described himself as a player of the Viola d'amore, a bowed stringed musical instrument at its height of popularity in the Baroque. I play several stringed instruments, including the bass viol, so I decided to research this instrument and discovered it is a kind of Viol and Violin family hybrid, and that it has six sympathetic strings and, like the viol, six playing strings. It is bowed like a violin and is about the size of a modern viola. I discoverd Salve's website in my research, and after many email discussions with him, I decided to order a viola d'amore from him. Salve lives in southern Norway, makes beautiful musical instruments and takes wonderful photographs. Some of those photographs are posted on this blog to describe the results of the building process. Check the LINK below for his website.