(Untitled)

[hyounpark]

Right now, i'm waiting in the intermission of ursamajor's chorus performance of St John's passion.

And there's a 9 string viol in the orchestra. So, of course, that reminds me of the best viol player in the world (or at least the world of Livejournal), rhiannon76. And there's some 13 pegged viola sized viol there, too. It makes me regret that I've forgotten

Comments

[rhiannon76]

Yay!

13 pegged viola sized viol --> viola d'amore

9 string viol -- Hmm, I'm not sure what that would be. What size was it? Held between the legs, played sitting or standing? Played melodically or chordally? I'm thinking possibly baryton, though that has a whole slew of sympathetic strings. Or, if it was more of a continuo instrument, maybe lirone, though again that has more strings. And I'm not sure that Bach would have ever used either of those; they're definitely not part of the prescribed instrumentation for the St. John Passion.

What does the program say? Does it list the players?

[hyounpark]

It was a cello-sized viol. In the program, it was just listed as a viola da gamba, but I knew you'd have a a more specific name for it. It was played melodically and the player listed in the program is Laura Jeppesen. The instrumental choices were interesting, with both cello and viol, viola d'amore and viol, and a bass with an extra string. I was trying to figure out if it was supposed to be baroque or Renaissance the entire time, but it was an interesting contrast.

Confusedly,
Hyoun