Introducing the Baroque Viola — Transcript

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1. 0:03This is my baroque viola, it's not actually an old instrument it was made only 11
2. 0:09years ago by a German maker but it's a copy of an instrument of an Italian
3. 0:14maker of the 18th century and I use it for everything from the baroque period
4. 0:21the main visible differences between a baroque viola and a modern instrument
5. 0:26would be the angle of the neck to the body of the instrument which is flatter
6. 0:30a modern viola would be slightly more like this then the length of the
7. 0:37fingerboard because at that time you wouldn't actually require a longer fingerboard
8. 0:45then the shape of the bridge and tail piece so this whole setup is a
9. 0:49lot slimmer and also lighter so now I don't have a modern instrument to
10. 0:57compare how high it will fly but it's to do with the with the lower tension
11. 1:03of the strings on the bridge and the result in the sound is that a baroque viola will
12. 1:08simply sound softer than a modern one. We also don't use chin rests or shoulder
13. 1:14rests which means that we have to support the instrument mainly with our
14. 1:19left hand. The shoulder rest enables you to move more freely along the
15. 1:24fingerboard whereas without, I have more freedom moving the instrument in this
16. 1:31way so if I want to move across the strings that's easier like this.
17. 1:39The gut strings are actually a lot more affected by weather changes or humidity changes so
18. 1:47with the affect that we have to tune them a lot more often than metal or
19. 1:53synthetic strings that you would use on modern instruments but they do give
20. 1:59you another quality of sound and also you have to play them in a different way
21. 2:05if I tried to explain it I would probably say you need to be a lot more
22. 2:11sensitive because they are a lot less forgiving than
23. 2:16synthetic strings for example