Editing Historically informed performance (section)

===Viol===
[[File:Viola da gamba (AM 1998.60.11.1-1).jpg|thumb|A [[Viola da gamba]] by Thomas Cole ({{circa|1680}})]]
{{Listen
| type         = music
| filename    = Bach - Cello Suite no. 1 in G major, BWV 1007 - IV. Sarabande.ogg
| title       = The sound of a Modern-era cello
| description = Sarabande from Bach's Cello Suite no. 1 in G major, [[BWV 1007]], played on a modern cello
| pos         = right
| filename2    = Carl Friedrich Abel (1723- 1787) – Sonata in G-Major, WKO155 for Unaccompanied Viola da Gamba for Unaccompanied Viola da Gamba.ogg
| title2       = The sound of a Baroque-era viola da gamba
| description2 = [[Carl Friedrich Abel]]'s Sonata in G-Major played on a Viola da Gamba
}}
A vast quantity of music for [[viol]]s, for both ensemble and solo performance, was written by composers of the [[Renaissance music|Renaissance]] and [[Baroque music|Baroque]] eras, including [[Diego Ortiz]], [[Claudio Monteverdi]], [[William Byrd]], [[William Lawes]], [[Henry Purcell]], [[Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe]], [[J.S. Bach]], [[Georg Philipp Telemann]], [[Marin Marais]], [[Antoine Forqueray]], and [[Carl Frederick Abel]].

From largest to smallest, the viol family consists of:
*[[violone]] (two sizes, a contrabass an octave below the bass, and a smaller one a fourth or fifth above, a great bass)
*bass viol (about the size of a [[cello]])
*tenor viol (about the size of a [[guitar]])
*alto viol (slightly smaller than the tenor)
*treble or descant viol (about the size of a [[viola]])
*pardessus de viole (about the size of a [[violin]])

Among the foremost modern players of the viols are [[Paolo Pandolfo]], [[Sigiswald Kuijken|Sigiswald]] and [[Wieland Kuijken]], [[Nikolaus Harnoncourt]], [[Jordi Savall]], [[John Hsu (musician)|John Hsu]], and [[Vittorio Ghielmi]]. There are many modern [[viol consort]]s.