Meet the Instruments
In Seattle Baroque, the members of the orchestra all play historical instruments or replicas of historical instruments. In this section you’ll find descriptions of some of the instruments and how they were developed and used in history. This is an ongoing project, so keep checking back to see what new instruments we’ve added.
The Baroque Violin
Strictly speaking, the term “baroque,” when applied to the violin family, is redundant, for the violin is a product of the baroque era and has survived, essentially intact, to the present day. Modifications dictated by changing aesthetic standards have not affected the basic design and dimensions of the instrument, which were perfected almost four hundred years ago.
The violin, which first appeared in northern Italy in the first third of the 16th century, seems to have evolved from three renaissance instruments. Early examples had three strings tuned in fifths in the manner of the rebec, a flat body with a soundpost as did the fiddle and a shape modeled after that of the lira de braccio. By mid-century the fourth string had been added.
The center of violin making in the early period was the province of Brescia. Instruments made by one of the most famous late 16th century makers, Gasparo da Salo, are still in use. By this time, the outline of the violin body as we know it had been standardized. The strings were made of strands of sheep-gut, dried and twisted to various thicknesses. Late in the 17th century came the process of winding fine copper or silver wire over the gut in order to produce a lower string of sufficient mass but thinner gauge.
Early bows were fairly short, the hair fixed or else tightened by means of a wooden plug attached to the lower end and inserted into a recess in the stick. The screw-adjusted frog (the block to which the lower end of the hair is attached) was not invented until about 1690. The hair of early violin bows formed an acute angle with the stick at the upper end. Later a “head” was added to keep the hair further away from the stick. The illustration (below) shows rather crudely the development of the bow (Fetis, Antoine Stradivari, 1856).
In the first three centuries of its existence the violin family had numerous members. Several of these, including the violino piccolo, the violetta, the tenor viola and the violoncello piccolo, fell victim to the evolutionary process. In the 16th and early 17th centuries the viola was preferred for the mellowness of its sound to the more raucous violin, which was deemed suitable only for dance music. By the end of the 16th century, however, composers such as Monteverdi were using the violin in melodic roles and it soon emerged as an important solo instrument.
During the 17th century, Italian and German virtuosi experimented with the technical possibilities of the violin. The results were not only dramatic developments in this area, but also the evolution of the instrument to its ultimate perfection in the work of the Amati family, Jacobus Stainer, and later Stradivarius and Guarnaerius del Gesu. The bow also changed, becoming longer and heavier, although it was not to arrive at is final concave design until about 1780 in the hands of Tourte. By the classical era, with its focus on symphonic music, the supremacy of the violin family was established.
The violin of the High Baroque was distinguished externally by the shape of the neck, fingerboard and bridge. The neck was set in the same plane as the top of the violin, and was somewhat thicker than that of the modern violin. The fingerboard was shorter and inclined upwards toward the bridge by means of a wedge-shaped piece of wood. The bridge was lower and its top less curved. The upper three strings were of plain gut, and the instrument often tuned to a somewhat lower pitch than we are accustomed to hearing. The relatively low tension of the strings meant that the bass-bar and soundpost, which support the top and transmit the vibrations of the strings throughout the instrument, were lighter. These factors and the narrow band of hair on the baroque bow continued to produce a sonority lighter and more transparent than that of the modern violin.
The transition to the set-up of the modern violin was gradual, beginning with the downward inclination of the neck and fingerboard and the increase in the height of the bridge, in order to produce a more powerful tone. Coupled with this, the advent of the Tourte-type bow; a slight increase in string length and gradually rising pitch-standards which required a heavier bass-bar and soundpost; the introduction of the chin rest; and finally the introduction in this century of steel strings to replace the traditional gut, all contributed to the production of the sound we now associate with the violin family today, but which would, however, have been quite foreign to 17th- and 18th-centuy ears.
Lutes & Guitars in Italy, ca. 1600
A Quick Vocabulary:
- Course - Usually a pair of strings tuned in unison or an octave apart, as on a 12-string guitar. A course can also be a single string.
- (Basso) Continuo - The Baroque practice of improvising an accompaniment on any chordal instrument over a written bass line.
- Tablature - A special system for notating music on plucked (or other string or keyboard) instruments that indicates the physical location for each note.
The period around 1600 in Italy witnessed the birth of opera, basso continuo, independent genres of instrumental music, and indeed, Baroque music itself. Like everything else, the lute family went through radical changes at this time.
The Lute / Archlute
First, new string technology enabled the expansion of the bass register. The standard six course Renaissance lute gained a seventh course on the bass side. It then gained an eighth course, and then a ninth and tenth in quick succession. The ten-course lute gave way to the arciliuto or ‘archlute,’ which brought the number of courses up to fourteen. The archlute’s long neck extension enabled an even more powerful bass register, since the last octave of bass courses could now be strung with thin, single gut strings that could be played with powerful strokes of the right hand thumb.
At this time, lutenists made the crucial switch from playing with right-hand thumb inside of the hand to playing with the thumb on the outside, usually resting on and occupied with the bass courses. This switch made the instrument project a louder tone, particularly in the bass register, and created more possibilities for varying the tone color. The new technique was also perfect for continuo playing, since the thumb functioned like the left hand of a harpsichordist (always playing the bass line) and the fingers like the right hand (playing harmony or melody above the bass).
The Theorbo
The theorbo was created by taking the bass member of the lute family and tuning it up higher than its long string length would allow. The top two strings then broke (!), and were then replaced with thicker strings and tuned an octave lower. This ‘re-entrant’ tuning, where the third course is the highest, was an instant success. While the instrument has a very limited range (it barely goes above middle C), it has a powerful sound and a copious range of volumes and colors.
It was created especially to accompany vocal music (Giulio Caccini claimed it was the best instrument to accompany the tenor voice), though it was used everywhere— in instrumental music, operas and oratorios, and church music. The first composer to publish tablature for the instrument (in the form of madrigal accompaniments) was the Jewish musician from Mantova, Salamone Rossi. Theorbo players also published an impressive literature of solo music that uses the unusual tuning in surprising and inventive ways. This instrument was at first called the chitarrone. Named by the neo-Humanists who were trying to re-create ancient Greek monody, the name means ‘large chithara.’ The Italians then began to call it tiorba, and it was this name that foreigners translated as the instrument was brought over the Alps to other parts of Europe (English: theorbo, French: théorbe, German: Theorbe).
Note that the theorbo/chitarrone looks just like an archlute! The only sure way to tell them apart visually is by the length of the fingered (shorter) strings: an archlute will have a vibrating string length of around 65cm while that of a theorbo is normally over 80cm. However, a better way is to listen to the sound: remember that a theorbo barely goes above middle C while the lute / archlute can easily play an octave above.
The Guitar
The baroque guitar was certainly associated with Spain throughout its lifetime, though a great deal of its evolution took place in Italy, where it was called the chitarra spagnola.
The baroque guitar has five courses, tuned to the same pitches as the top five strings of a modern guitar. However, the instrument really has no deep bass register, which makes it ideal for strumming chords above a bass line played by another instrument.
The beautiful rosette does not affect the sound of the instrument in any way; it is only an elaborate decoration of type seen in Baroque art. The level of ornamentation of guitars varies from extreme (even with etched ivory panels around the sides, elaborate mother-of-pearl inlays, etc.) to simple (as in the two surviving Stradivarius guitars). The earliest books of music for the instrument are written in alfabeto notation, in which each letter of the alphabet corresponds with a chord shape. Dozens of seventeenth-century song books were published with these alfabeto letters just above the voice part, just as in today’s pop music anthologies. Eventually, complex solo music was published for instrument in a combination of tablature and alfabeto.
The Baroque Voice
Unlike any of the other baroque instruments, the baroque voice cannot be studied by going back to the originals; there are no specimens of early larynxes languishing in the museums and private collections of Europe!
A singer hoping for a professional career in any musical genre should learn the techniques of perfect breathing and natural use of resonance. They must learn to mix the colors of their voice (head and chest qualities) into a unified whole, sing in tune, improve their high and low ranges, sing with perfect legato, and sing both loudly and softly without either forcing or losing the focus of their sound and sing with expression.
A number of years ago the well-known Dutch baritone Max van Egmond was asked whether singing baroque music requires a different technique. His answer was, “Singing baroque music does not require a different technique, just more technique.” Max’s more refers to the requirements presented by the unique qualities of baroque music itself; agility, gesture, clarity of articulation and pitch and, of course, the issue of correct ornamentation. When one begins singing early music one must also study about early music by reading about performance practice through the many writings by musicians of the time which are now quite readily available. Many composers, performers and teachers such as Christoph Bernhardt, Giulio Caccini, Pier Francesco Tosi, Michel Pignolet de Monteclair, and Benigne de Bacilly wrote specifically about how to sing, technically as well as musically. Other good sources of information on baroque singing are contemporary diarists such as Charles Burney and Roger North. In their writings you will often find very detailed descriptions of performances by the best-known singers of their day.
Instrumentalists of the baroque era were often admonished to play in a “singing” manner. Early music singers of today should develop technical skills with instrumental precision so that they can execute the music expertly and in a tasteful manner. Techniques to master are:
- quick and regular coloratura, trills and trillos - smooth messa di voce
- use of vibrato (more or less, depending on the context)
- clear and varied articulation along with clear and varied diction
- quasi-parlando, the technique of beautiful recitative singing
- the differing styles of ornamentation depending upon nationality and time
- impeccable intonation
Whichever musical genre one sings, the most important thing is expressive, moving and sincere singing, in a manner that best serves the music. Our voices are one of many instruments used in service of Music. The more we listen to and understand the music, the better we will bring it to life.
The Baroque Flute
It is hard to think of a time and place without flutes. They are as old as the hills and have always been a popular instrument. Whether made from the tibia of a wild deer or a hollowed branch of elder, a rifle barrel or a bicycle pump, flutes are made everywhere and are always in demand. The evolution of the flute in Europe underwent two radical transformations. Both of these fundamental changes had to do with the bore. The first came in the baroque era and the second during the later romantic era.
The renaissance flute looks like a reed flute turned on a lathe from solid wood. It is a thin walled tube of boxwood in one piece with a bore comparable in diameter to the modern flute but is a cylinder from top to bottom. Its tiny embouchure sacrificed volume for flexibility (and accuracy) of pitch over a wide range that extended chromatically well into the third octave. Because the second octave of a completely cylindrical flute is naturally flat in relation to the first, complicated second octave fingerings were necessary to play in tune.
Though it is poorly understood why by science, the best tone woods for flute are smooth, hard and heavy. The best don't float. For many centuries European boxwood was the first choice of woodwind makers.
La Couture Boussey near Versailles in France where boxwood is grown was for the flute what Cremona was for the violin. The baroque flute was invented here in about 1680. The Hotteterre’s, a family of woodwind players in the employ of the King, made experiments consuming great quantities of boxwood in search of a flute that would be fluidly chromatic in a practical way. The result was the one-key conical bore baroque flute. The new flute was much more versatile than its predecessor and Jacques Hotteterre wrote preludes for flute in all twelve keys to prove the new instrument's capabilities.
The flute evolved only slowly for the next 150 years. The bore became slightly narrower to better utilize the upper range. The blow hole became a little larger and more oval than round to increase the volume and a key was added for each chromatic note of the scale. The fundamental scale of the flute was then and remains D. Tone holes became larger to increase volume.
In the mid nineteenth century, after a lengthy study of acoustics, Theobald Boehm realized that the taper in the bore used to correct the octave shift would be more efficient if placed in the headjoint. If it became narrower from the bottom of the head to the embouchure (blow hole), the internal tuning problems would be corrected without losing so much volume. The overall wider bore of Boehm's new flute was louder. A bore of 19 millimeters (3/4 inch) remains standard today. The mid nineteenth-century innovations in key work, culminating in Boehm's design, made playing in key signatures remote from D much easier to accomplish. The Boehm system mechanism remains very much the same as it was one hundred and fifty years ago. Metal (nickel silver, silver, gold) gradually replaced wood but there has been renewed interest in the sound of wood in the last decade. The prominent flute makers Haynes and Powell in Boston are again making flutes of wood after a hiatus of almost fifty years. Modern innovations to embouchure design have increased volume.
To view Peter Noy’s flutes visit his website, or call 206/729-1903.
The Viol Family
A viola da gamba (viol) is a bowed string instrument similar in looks to a cello, but there the similarity ends. The viol descended from the guitar, and has 6 strings and frets to prove it! Like a guitar it is tuned in intervals of a fourth, with a major third in the middle. The viol does not have the cello's endpin, instead being cradled between the legs (hence the name 'viola da gamba', literally 'viol of the leg'). Another major difference between the viol and the violin families of instruments (violin, viola, violoncello) is the gut strings of the viol vs. the metal strings of the modern violin family. The gut strings are under considerably less tension and the sound timbre is more mellow, less bright. The viol first appeared in Europe in the late 15th century and subsequently became one of the most popular Renaissance and Baroque instruments, reaching its heyday between 1600 and 1750. Viols come in different sizes and shapes. The most common sizes are treble, tenor and bass. By the 16th century, a standard shape for the viol did emerge with broad ribs, sloping shoulders and a fairly flat, fretted neck. Much ensemble or consort music was written for combinations of from two to six viols of different sizes. Some of the best known composers to write specifically for the viol family or accompanied viol are William Byrd, William Lawes, John Jenkins, Matthew Locke, J.S. Bach, Karl Friedrich Abel, Johannes Schenk, Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, Georg Philipp Telemann , and Marin Marais.
For more on this topic, short essays and pictures of baroque instruments, often contrasted with their modern counterparts, and complemented with corresponding music examples, can be found at the following excellent websites: