The Viola d'Amore: An Instrument Between Worlds

PART eight

Playing the Viola d'Amore
Tuning

Should you inquire about tuning a seven-string viola d'amore, you'll likely be told something reassuring about A-D-A-D-F-A-D, with the F cunningly sharpened when D major comes calling. Louis-Toussaint Milandre, in the 1782 Méthode facile pour la viole d'amour, works exclusively with the sharp F. Others will cheerfully suggest D-F#-A-D-F#-A-D instead.

A Brief Tour Through Baroque Tuning Chaos

Around 1760, this guy Hubert deployed D major tuning for sonatas in E, G, C, D, B-flat, E-flat, and F major, while his A major sonata demanded a six-string instrument tuned, from the depths to the heights, as D-A-D-F#-A-D, like Milandre.

Christian Pezold (1677-1733) declined to provide tunings for his Partitas entirely, forcing Mátyás Bartha in 2017 to conduct historical detective work and suggest F-A-C-F-A-D for the F major partita on a six-string instrument.

Ariosti's Recueil de pièces offers precisely no tuning whatsoever. Telemann's Trio Sonata TWV 42:D15 does provide a tuning indication, though the absence of a clef renders it not entirely clear. This six-string arrangement features middle strings tuned a mere tone (or semitone).

Rust's c.1765 Sonata in D Major maintains a dignified silence on the tuning question.
Vivaldi specified C-F-A-C-F-C for the A Minor Concerto RV 397 and D-A-D-F#-A-D for the D Major Concerto RV 392.

Holman's research reveals the Moravian composer Gottfried Finger, working in London, used tunings like E–A–c♯–e–a–c♯′ for shimmering resonances in A major on the viol. But, Holman writes: 'Finger was just about the only gamba composer to use scordatura, presumably inspired by Biber.' 

Holman goes on to mention tunings such as: E–G–B–e–a–d'.

Joseph Friedrich Bernhard Caspar Majer's viola d'amore (1732)

Majer gives the following specs: 

Six strings in total, of which the 2 lowest are wound with silver, the 3 following are made together of steel or brass, while the highest and most delicate is a subtle quint and gut string. Its sound is otherwise silver or silvery, thereby exceedingly pleasant and lovely. There are two types, large and small: the former are partly of greater structure than the brasses or viols, the smaller ones however like the violins, only that the body is noticeably more rounded than the latter.

Majer's tunings

The Scordatura Conundrum

These examples illuminate the seven-string instrument was not widely deployed in Baroque music (though it certainly existed), and there was no standardised tuning whatsoever. Furthermore, the tuning bears no particular relationship to the key of the piece, and even Hindemith couldn't be bothered to specify what to do with the sympathetic strings.

In contemporary compositions, composers typically specify tunings. However, when tackling Baroque repertoire where the tuning remains a delightful mystery, performers must channel their inner Sherlock Holmes and deduce the appropriate configuration from the musical evidence.

A noteworthy scordatura tidbit relating to Leo Mozart can be found in Music and Letters vol. XXXVIII iss. 2, 1957, where Danks pontificates Leo's 'Verstimmungen' means 'scordatura' and not 'out-of-tune'. 

Ariosti

The 1724 Six Viola d'Amore Lessons by Ariosti represent a particularly delicious bit of historical mischief. Despite the title, these pieces were not written for the viola d'amore; they're pedagogical exercises for violinists. Five different violin tunings grace the six pieces. And the true genius lies in Ariosti's notation system: everything is written as though in first position. Ariosti's notation in shows what string is in use, and what the fingers are doing. Open strings are assumed unless a fingering is written on G, D, A or E.

He then employs four different clefs to indicate hand positions. This system that failed to achieve widespread adoption. Nevertheless, for anyone interested in the Recueil de pièces or violin scordatura adventures, these lessons offer considerably more than mere historical curiosity.

More information on Scordatura in the baroque can be found in my transcription of The Division Flute.

The Sympathetic String Situation

Tuning the sympathetic strings presents some challenges.

Several approaches exist, and the final decision rests with the performer and/or composer (assuming they're on speaking terms). Sympathetic strings resonate best when tuned to the nearest partials in the overtone series. Tune them too low, and they'll buzz like demented wasps. 

Henri Casadesus suggested chromatic tuning for sympathetics, though they might also match the scale, the tonic chord, or simply mirror the top strings. Typically, sympathetic strings number the same as playing strings, though exceptions abound with gleeful abandon. The Violett, for instance, commonly featured six or seven top strings and a frankly excessive fourteen sympathetic strings. 

While historical sources for tuning of sympathetic strings have not been found, the various tunings for the Hardingfele often specify sympathetic tunings. 

Ultimately, sympathetic string tuning requires experimentation. The performer experiences the full sympathetic resonance, while audiences perceive it more subtly.