Viola da Gamba

The most popular string instruments of the Renaissance and early Baroque, viols came in a handy range of sizes: the smaller, higher-pitched instruments played downwards on the knees; the bigger, lower-sounding ones held between the legs. The viola da gamba (“leg viol”) was the most popular and enduring member of the family. Often referred to simply as a bass viol, it had a dual life—as the foundation of much Baroque ensemble music, and as a solo instrument in its own right. In common with the rest of the viol family, the viola da gamba is bowed (like a cello), has a fretted fingerboard (like a modern guitar), and has six or seven strings; because of their fairly low tension, and the lightness of gamba’s overall build, it is a very resonant instrument which responds instantly to the lightest bow stroke. With its quiet, sinewy tone it was often used in intimate, funereal, or highly emotional musical contexts—notably by J.S. Bach—and it was an instrument widely played by amateur musicians, including the 18th-century English painter Thomas Gainsborough.