The thumb position enabled the cello to rise high into the tenor and even alto range and bridge the gap left by the tenor viola. This new allocation of roles in the middle register contained the area of overlapping which has remained obligatory to this day. The strings were made heavier and their tension increased to improve projection; the neck was set at a slight backward angle to the body and was now longer, retaining the same circumference along its whole length to make it easier for the left hand to slide up and down to different positions.
At the same time the body, bridge and bass bar were reinforced. It was not until the end of the 19th century that the viola gained the same status as the violin. Smaller instruments are easier to play, but their sound is too soft; larger instruments produce the desired volume but are harder to play.
In Hermann Ritter made a so-called viola alta which had a body 48 cm long. Although Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss appreciated its powerful sound and made use of it in the orchestra, it presented the musicians with considerable difficulties — which were even detrimental to their health. Its full, deep and warm sound was impressive. The first time that we can actually see the viola throughout history is in a fresco painting that features one. This painting can be dated back to the s, and we can see from this work that the instruments are roughly shaped like the modern instruments that we see today with four strings and f-holes.
If you were to look at this painting yourself, you would find that the instrument that most resembles the viola is the one that has highlighted gold accents around the ribs. When these instruments became popular in the 16th century, they could be made in a variety of different sizes, but the tuning for each of the instruments would remain the same. The alto and tenor versions had the same tuning as the modern viola, which is: C3, G3, D4, A4.
Larger instruments with different tuning were made, though the original instruments did remain in use. The different sized instruments that were created were designed to have different pitches.
The string ensembles at the time were made up of a soprano and bass instrument, and there would be three violas that would play the middle register. We know that there would be one viola playing in the tenor and one viola playing in the alto range, but there would also be a third viola that would play an overlap of the two of these. Now we know that there were three different types of instruments that would be played, we will give you some more information about each.
The first type of viola would be the alto viola, which would have the alto tuning, and this would have the type of body that we see today, which would range from 40cm to 42cm long. The second instrument would be the tenor viola, which would have a shorter neck, and would be around 42cm to 45cm in length. One of the most distinctive features of the orchestra at this point in time would be the overlapping of the middle register, and this led to readjustments being made in the 17th century, which we will explain below.
Complex compositions required powerful instruments that reached great volumes, and this is the point in time where softer and mellower sounds were created using these instruments. Ensembles were also required to change, and the alto viola became the most commonly used instrument. Once instrument craftsmen in Europe became aware of these instruments and how they were made, they then created their own take on them, using traditional European crafting techniques.
Many different kinds of stringed, bowed instruments evolved in the 16th century in Europe, which has caused some contention about certain aspects of the violin family's history. It is thought that perhaps Andrea Amati did not create the first modern violin, and that it was instead created in Brescia earlier in the 16th century.
The term 'viola' was definitely used well before the start of the 16th Century to describe a stringed instrument of a similar nature to the 'viola' that we know today. One thing we can be certain about is that there were a wide variety of different stringed instruments around in the 16th century that the modern violin, viola and its family eventually evolved from - including the lira da braccio, a bowed stringed instrument much like the modern viola that was popular in the Renaissance period.
The viola is not very different in range to the violin, as it has only one string that is different. The range of the violin is seen as being more compatible to bright, brilliant melodies, whereas its sister the viola sometimes plays a counter melody in orchestral compositions - often a third or a fifth underneath the violins melody, or shadows the bass part an octave higher.
The viola is celebrated for its intense, melancholic timbre - a feature that has often been overlooked when the tone of the viola is compared to the bright tone of the violin. There are some notable physical differences in the playing technique of the violin and the viola.
As the viola is bigger than the violin, the finger positions are spread further apart, requiring the viola player to have greater technical skill than the violin player when playing the same passage. The viola is often heavier than the violin, and the bow is harder to handle as it is also weightier than a violin bow. The C string is much thicker than any violin string, and so it takes more effort to push down the string to play a note.
In fact, the viola is sometimes used for a few months by violinists who want to improve their playing technique, as the viola requires more skill to play! The viola has rather unfortunately been overshadowed for the entirety of its long life by the violin. The viola has long been seen as a less superior instrument in tone, volume and expression that the violin, and subsequently it has been paid very little attention for the majority of its lifetime.
In early orchestras, viola players were often 'failed' violin players - a violinist who did not make first or second violin who would instead play the viola.
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