Editing Viol (section)

==Construction==
{{multiple image|caption_align=center|header_align=center
|header=Dutch viols overseas
| align = right 
 | image1 = European in Japan playing viol.jpg color modified.jpg
 | width1 = 182
| alt1 = Woman playing viol
| caption1 = Late 16th or early 17th-century viol from a Japanese painting. Has four courses of strings.

| image2 = Young man in European dress playing on a lute, Iran, 1630s.jpg
|width2 = 153
| alt2 = Dutch viol in Persia
| caption2  =  Painting by [[Reza Abbasi]] {{circa|1634}}, showing a musician dressed in European clothing, playing what may be a viol. The instrument has Persian-style soundholes and a thinner neck than the instrument in the Japanese painting.
 |footer= In places where European ships landed in the 16 and 17th centuries, painters illustrated them playing musical instruments.
}}

Viols most commonly have six strings, although many 16th-century instruments had only four or five strings, and during the 17th century in France, some bass viols featured a seventh lower string. Viols were (and are) strung with [[Catgut|gut]] strings of lower tension than on the members of the violin family.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Weinfield |first=Elizabeth |date=June 2014 |title=The Viol |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/viol/hd_viol.htm |access-date=26 October 2022 |website=The Met}}</ref> Gut strings produce a sonority far different from steel, generally described as softer and sweeter. Around 1660, gut or silk core strings overspun with [[copper]] wire first became available; these were then used for the lowest-pitched bass strings on viols, and many other string instruments as well. In 1664, a style of string incorporating a copper wire spun within the gut fibers, called a 'gimped' string, was introduced, mimicking the style of embroidery of the same name.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://shop.gamutmusic.com/copper-gimped-gut-108mm/#:~:text=Gimped%20strings%20were%20first%20mentioned,gimped%20lace%20of%20the%20period | title=Gimped Gut =1.08mm }}</ref> 

Viols are fretted like early guitars or [[lute]]s, using movable wrapped-around and tied-on gut frets. A low seventh string was supposedly added in France to the bass viol by [[Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe]] ({{circa|1640}}–1690), whose students included the French gamba [[virtuoso]] and composer [[Marin Marais]]. Also, the painting [[:Image:StCeciliaDomenichinoLouvre.jpg|''Saint Cecilia with an Angel'']] (1618) by [[Domenico Zampieri|Domenichino]] (1581–1641) shows what may be a seven-string viol.

Unlike members of the [[violin family]], most of which are tuned in [[Perfect fifth|fifths]], viols are usually tuned in fourths with a major third in the middle, mirroring the tuning employed on the vihuela de mano and [[lute]] during the 16th century and similar to that of the modern six-string [[guitar]].

[[Image:Viol Raphael St.Cecilia1510.jpg|thumb|right|Early Italian tenor viola da gamba, detail from the painting ''St. Cecilia'', by [[Raphael]], {{circa|1510}}.]]

Viols were first constructed much like the ''vihuela de mano'', with all surfaces, top, back, and sides made from flat slabs or pieces of joined wood, bent or curved as required. However, some viols, both early and later, had carved tops, similar to those more commonly associated with instruments of the violin family. The ribs or sides of early viols were usually quite shallow, reflecting more the construction of their plucked vihuela counterparts. Rib depth increased during the 16th century, finally coming to resemble the greater depth of the classic 17th-century pattern.

The flat backs of most viols have a sharply angled break or ''canted'' bend in their surface close to where the neck meets the body. This serves to taper the back (and overall body depth) at its upper end to meet the back of the neck joint flush with its heel. Traditional construction uses animal glue, and internal joints are often reinforced with strips of either [[linen]] or [[vellum]] soaked in hot animal glue—a practice also employed in early plucked vihuela construction. The peg boxes of viols (which hold the tuning pegs) were typically decorated either with elaborately carved heads of animals or people or with the now-familiar spiral ''[[scroll (music)|scroll]]'' finial.

The earliest vihuelas and viols, both plucked and bowed, all had sharp cuts to their waists, similar to the profile of a modern violin. This was a key and new feature—first appearing in the mid-15th century—and from then on, it was employed on many different types of string instruments. This feature was also key in seeing and understanding the connection between the plucked and bowed versions of early vihuelas. If one were to go searching for very early viols with smooth-curved figure-eight bodies, like those found on the only slightly later plucked vihuelas and the modern guitar, they would be out of luck. By the mid-16th century, however, "guitar-shaped" viols were fairly common, and a few of them survive.

The earliest viols had flat, glued-down bridges just like their plucked counterpart vihuelas. Soon after, however, viols adopted the wider and high-arched bridge that facilitated the bowing of single strings. The earliest of viols would also have had the ends of their [[fretboard]]s flat on the deck, level with or resting upon the top or soundboard. Once the end of their fretboards was elevated above the top of the instrument's face, the entire top could vibrate freely. Early viols did not have [[sound post]]s, either (again reflecting their plucked vihuela siblings). This reduced [[Damping ratio|damping]] again meant that their tops could vibrate more freely, contributing to the characteristic "humming" sound of viols; yet the absence of a sound post also resulted in a quieter and softer voice overall.

It is commonly believed<ref>{{cite book|last=van der Straeten|first=Edmund|title=The History of the Violin: Its Ancestors and Collateral Instruments from Earliest Times|year=1933|publisher=Cassell and company, ltd.}}</ref> that [[Sound hole|C-holes]] (a type and shape of pierced sound port visible on the top face or belly of string instruments) are a definitive feature of viols, a feature used to distinguish viols from instruments in the violin family, which typically had F-shaped holes. This generality, however, renders an incomplete picture. The earliest viols had either large, open, round, sound holes (or even round pierced [[Rosette (design)|rosette]]s like those found on lutes and vihuelas), or they had some kind of C-holes. Viols sometimes had as many as four small C-holes—one placed in each corner of the bouts—but more commonly, they had two. The two C-holes might be placed in the upper bouts, centrally, or in the lower bouts. In the formative years, C-holes were most often placed facing each other or turned inwards.

In addition to round or C-holes, however, and as early as the first quarter of the 16th century, some viols adopted S-shaped holes, again facing inward. By the mid-16th century, S-holes morphed into the classic F-shaped holes, which were then used by viols and members of the violin family alike. By the mid-to late 16th century, the viol's C-holes facing direction were reversed, becoming outward-facing. That configuration then became a standard feature of what we today call the “classic” 17th-century pattern. Yet another style of sound holes found on some viols was a pair of flame-shaped Arabesques placed left and right. The lute- and vihuela-like round or oval ports or rosettes became a standard feature of German and Austrian viols and were retained to the very end. That feature was unique to viols and reminded one always of the viol's more ancient plucked vihuela roots, the "cuteness" of viols.

Historians, makers, and players generally distinguish between ''[[Renaissance music|renaissance]]'' and ''[[Baroque music|baroque]]'' viols. The latter are more heavily constructed and are fitted with a [[bass bar]] and sound post, like modern stringed instruments.

===Viol bows===
The [[bow (music)|bow]] is held underhand with the palm facing upward, similar to a German [[double bass]] bow grip, but away from the frog towards the balance point. The stick's curvature is generally convex as were violin bows of the period, rather than concave like a modern violin bow. The "frog" (which holds the bow hair and adjusts its tension) is also different from that of modern bows: whereas a violin bow frog has a "slide" (often made of [[Nacre|mother of pearl]]), which pinches the hair and holds it flat and stationary across the frog, viol bows have an open frog that allows more movement of the hair. This facilitates a traditional playing technique where the performer uses one or two fingers of the bow hand to press the hair away from the bow stick. This dynamically increases bow hair tension to control [[articulation (music)|articulation]] and inflection.