100 BULLETIN 136, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



or nasal but very penetrating. When the violin was introduced the 

 tone was so much more brilliant than that of the viols that it was 

 considered uncultured and not refined; indeed, Thomas Mace refers 

 to the " scoulding violins " that " be fit to make a man's ears glow 

 and to fill his brains full of friskes." 



A " sett " of viols, consisting of six members, ranged downward 

 from the soprano to the double bass. Among them were the viol 

 d'amore, the viol de gamba or knee viol (from the Italian gamba, 

 leg), and the viola braccio, or arm viola. Almost all, if not all, of 

 this group of instruments has sympathetic as well as bowed strings. 

 A viol d'amore (95266, pi. 46/) has the head terminating in a carved 

 cupid's head with eyes bandaged. The present collection contains 

 three valuable speciments of viola braccio. Nos. 95324 (pi. 46<7) and 

 94865 are German instruments made in 1704 and 1703. The former 

 has six melody strings and seven sympathetic strings tuned either in 

 unison or an octave higher. The latter has two sound holes of the 

 sort called the " flaming sword." Attention is directed to the open- 

 work circular sound holes in the viols illustrated. An Italian instru- 

 ment (95279) was made by Antonius Gragnani, of Liburni, Italy, 

 in 1780. An old "viola or tenor viol" is 94838, labeled "Johan 

 Georg Hennig, New Kirchen 1738." It has the " flaming sword " 

 sound holes. The original number of strings was probably five, six, 

 or more, but it is now strung and tuned like a viola. 



An arci viola de lira from Italy (95265) has a heart-shaped 

 head and nine vertical tuning pegs with heads at the back. It does 

 not coincide with descriptions of types, having some characteristics 

 of different instruments of the period of viols. 



The double bass (or bass viol) is the largest stringed instrument 

 played with a bow and is the only one of the viol family now in 

 common use. It has the flat back and slanting shoulders that char- 

 acterized the old viols, while the four corners, the f-holes, and the 

 bell}' are like the modern violin group. The double bass originally 

 had only three strings, and some players still prefer the three- 

 stringed instrument on account of its greater sonority. Both three- 

 stringed and four-stringed double basses are now in use and the 

 five-stringed bass is rapidly being introduced at the present time. 

 The double bass is about 6 feet high and the strings are so long 

 that they are tuned in fourths to make the intervals more con- 

 venient for the hand. If it be & three-stringed instrument, it is 

 tuned to give upward fourths beginning with A below the bass 

 staff. The additional string in a four-stringed instrument gives 

 the pitch of the second E below the bass staff. The player stands 

 beside the instrument, using a short, heavy bow. 



The collection contains a three-stringed double bass (95305) which 

 was made by Tommaso Carcassi, Florence, Italy, in 1760. The 

 bridge is very high. 



