Viola bastarda

The viola bastarda is a bass stringed instrument of the 16th and 17th century, similar to the viola da gamba, but with an extended body.

The first mention of the term is found in a treatise by Girolamo Dalla Casa of 1584. Francesco Rognoni Diminutionslehre Selva de Varii passaggi ( Milan 1620) was designed for Viola bastarda.

The contemporary composer and musicologist Michael Praetorius explains the naming in his Syntagma Musicum so that the instrument " as it were a bastard was by all voices, seeing it tied to any voice alone, but a good master the Madrigalien ( and what else on this instrument wish to make music ) takes over and the joints and harmony with all diligence by all voices through and through, sometimes on top of the treble, soon the bottom of the bass, now in the midst of the tenor and alto seek out, versiehet with jumps and ornaments and so traktieret that you can almost measure almost all voices can be heard in their joints and cadences of it. "

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