Viol
one of a family of bowed, fretted and stringed instruments
The viol (also viola da gamba, Italian: [ˈvjɔːla da (ɡ)ˈɡamba, viˈɔːla -], or informally gamba) is a family of bowed, fretted string instruments that developed in Spain in the late 15th century, particularly in Valencia within the Crown of Aragon, and subsequently spread to Italy and other parts of Europe. Most viols have six strings tuned primarily in fourths, with a third in the middle, and are played upright, with the instrument held on or between the legs—hence the Italian name viola da gamba, meaning "leg viol".
Viols are distinguished from instruments of the violin family by features including their frets, tuning, generally flat backs and sloping shoulders, and the use of an underhand bow grip. The family developed in several sizes, most commonly treble, tenor and bass, and became widely used during the Renaissance and Baroque periods as solo, consort and continuo instruments.
The early development of the viol was closely connected with the vihuela, a family of Spanish string instruments that could be played with the fingers, a plectrum or a bow. Bowed vihuelas were established in the Crown of Aragon by the late 15th century and contributed to the emergence of the viol family, which underwent further development in Italy during the 16th century.
The term viola da gamba may refer to the viol family as a whole, although without qualification it commonly refers to the bass viol. Viols remained prominent in European art music through the 17th and 18th centuries before declining in use, and were revived in the 20th century as part of the historically informed performance movement.
History
Vihuelists began playing their flat-topped, originally plucked, instruments with a bow in the second half of the 15th century. Within two or three decades, this led to the evolution of an entirely new and dedicated bowed string instrument that retained many of the features of the vihuela: e.g., a flat back, sharp waist-cuts, frets, thin ribs initially, and identical tuning—hence its original name, vihuela de arco; arco is Spanish for "bow".
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q40125. The Library of Congress control number is sh85143421. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Viol” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.