During the period between c. 1600 and after 1700 the lyra viol was an English variety of bass viol played chordally in various tunings. The term was pronounced “lli:rǝ”, a fact borne out by contemporary spellings such as “leera”, “lero”, and “liera”, i.e. certainly not “laira” as heard in some English-speaking countries today. This pronunciation—at variance with normal conditions at the time—suggests foreign, probably Italian origins. The Rinascimento, the Italian renaissance, assumed erroneously that the ancient lyra was a bowed instrument. The error was not cleared up until a short while before 1600, and the news reached England soon Thus the English editor John Playford remarked in mid-17th-century that “lyra” really meant a harp. Nonetheless the term remained because it had meanwhile acquired a life of its own and was generally used in poetry signifying “lyrical muse”, and we find occasional punning speciically about the “lyric gambo viall”.

However, there is no evidence for a lyra viol in Italy, and except in some rare instances (e.g. in Silvestro Ganassi’s Regola Rubertina) Italians were not interested in a chordal viol. The role of bowed string instrument in Italy was filled by the lira da gamba, which lacked an idiomatic literature, however, but primarily served the purpose of thorough bass accompaniment of song, in ficticious imitation of ancient practice.

But in England an instrumental style in its own right emerged that was not based on improvisation but on sophisticated compositions, indebted to the left-hand fingering technique of the lute. How this came about is still in the dark. The instrument appears, complete with a highly developed playing technique, plainly without any evolutionary predecessors among the English Court circles. This suggests an ingeniously planned construction by a few highly qualified players who—inspired perhaps by Italian ideas—were exploring new ways. But right-hand techniques could not be taken over from the lute, and this is where a new bowing technique developed within only a single generation.

Illustration
Lyra viol after Henry I Jaye, London 1624; Musée de Musique Paris, E73; built by Neil Hansford; open string length 66.2 cm

The genesis and development of composition is equally mysterious.Based on lute polyphony—applicable only within narrow restrictions on a bowed instrument because adjoining strings must be used—new compository methods were tried, initially “breaking up” and virtually redistributing original compositions by arranging polyphonic consort pieces. In extreme cases this system of ”breaking up “ got out of control: all melodic aspirations were abandoned for the benefit of ravishing sounds, with redoubled and multiplied notes and a complete disregard for hoary rules of counterpoint, which seems astonishing at this early period and differs fundamentally from compositions for several lutes. Whilst lute trios and quartets are mostly conceived for lutes of different sizes, lyra viol trios and quartets are always for same-size instruments (with very rare exceptions), taking turns as bass or treble.

The reasons for this new order are probably dictated by the instrument itself. Real polyphony as on a lute is not a possibility on a viol. This would constitute a first instance in European musical history where a composition technique is not imposed on an instrument for reasons of counterpoint rules (thus permitting the use of this music on other instruments too), but where a playing technique virtually bends the rules vice versa to suit its requirements. Forbidden parallels, ringing on dissonances or wallowing in sound rather than in melodic lines were novel and unheard-of. Unfortunately we have no contemporary comments regarding this musical revolution.

Such a thing could only succeed in a sphere in which the practice of music had grown into a pastime of well-bred, educated society, the way it had then become fashionable at Court after the death of Queen Elizabeth I. These circles were scientifically interrested and fond of experiments, and as part of such experiments the viol was strung with a second set of metal strings resonating sympathetically and incessantly to the gut strings (a way of enrapturing the audience more than ever), which made it the predecessor of barytone and viola d’amore. This invention was not long-lived, however, but vanished by or just after the middle of the 17th century, presumably because of its weather-induced “capriciousness”, requiring players capable of carrying out repairs on their own instruments.It is likely that courtly players were skilled in this, considering that making instruments and instrumental proficiency were much more closely entwined than nowadays.

Wide-ambitus tunings (two and a half octaves on the open strings) came up simultaneously with the sympathetic strings. This intial period of the lyra viol should be regarded as the “professional era”, and its protagonists were “top of the bunch”: Alfonso Ferrabosco, Thomas Ford, William Corkine, William Lawes, and John Jenkins. It lasted roughly until the Civil War (c. 1640).

The second period is the “dilettante era”, in which the instrument continued to be played by professionals on the one hand—e.g. John Jenkins—, but increasingly became the hobbyhorse of more or less proficient amateurs on the other. The entire set-up was simplified accordingly: Sympathetic strings disappeard together with polyphony and the great pavans, resembling fantasias, and almains, playing techniques grew more lightly accommodating and pieces more agreeable. Wide-ambitus tunings went out of fashion to be replaced by chordal tunings, which are basically the same as those of the baroque lute imported into England from France. Simultaneously the repertoire—two-part lessons in analogy to the French pièces—resembled that of the lute increasingly.

Significant differences between lute and lyra viol continued to exist, however. Lutes had continually acquired new bass courses since before 1600, whereas viols went on with their six strings, although it would have been theoretically quite possible to add a seventh or eighth string. Attempts in this direction—for example by William Young—remained isolated cases, and the seven-stringed viol did not become popular until the second half of the century in France.

Early sources (John Playford, Peter Leicester, Christopher Simpson) describe the lyra viol as a bass viol smaller than a division viol, and much smaller than a consort bass. But in practice these differences were probably less drastic, particularly between lyra viol and division viol, because they were seen as interchangeable on occasion (Thomas Mace).As a purely soloistic instrument (there are few works for two or three lyra viols, and extremely rare traces of lyra viols in mixed consorts, and that only in late sources to boot), the lyra viol was independent of current tuning pitches, and a remark by Peter Leicester suggests that the tuning pitch was determined by each particular instrument. Presumably this changed later when the division viol merged with the lyra viol, sometimes a harpsichord joined in, and the whole musical culture of Europe moved toward the orchestra and common fixed pitches. These questions are very complex and need further research..

Originating from England the instrument also took root on the Continent, although not under its English name but referred to as “Viola bastarda”. As early as 1619 Michael Praetorius described the instrument with sympathetic strings, which led to some confusion subsequently, because this German term must not be confounded with the Italian viola bastarda, which was played figuratively, and the corresponding English term is division viol. On the European mainland the chordal viol developed into a favourite dlettante instrument, too, and its less accomplished afficionadoes were a source of some ridicule. It is a fair assumption that many instruments of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, often regarded as standard types of viol and employed to play baroque thorough bass today, with comparatively short string lengths and—where surviving—flat fingerboards would rather have been intended for such soloistic hobby purposes.

To accommodate the profusion of tunings the music was written down in French lute tablature. Whilst some prints of the professional era bear witness to the advanced level of playing techniques and the high esteem in which the instrument was held, its popularity is testified above all by the innumerable manuscripts; most of these naturally in England, but also in Holland, Germany, and Scandinavia, but nowhere south of the Alps. This style of private music-making on the viol lived on into the early 18th century. Only a single print saw several new editions: John Playford’s “Musick’s Recreation for the Viol Lyra-way”, but this was steadily simplified from one edition to the next, thus illustrating the gradual decline of the instrument at the same time.

In the 20th century it was preeminently Frank A. Traficante who recovered the instrument from oblivion.

Select literature:

• Traficante, Frank A.: Music for the Lyra Viol. The printed Sources, in: The Lute Society Journal 8 (1966), pp. 7-24

• Traficante, Frank A.: Lyra Viol tunings: "All Ways have been Tryed to do It". in: Acta Musicologica 42 (1970), pp. 183-205

• Traficante, Frank A.: Music for the Lyra Viol: Manuscripts Sources, in: Chelys 8 (1978/79), pp. 4-22

• Annette Otterstedt, Die englische Lyra viol - Instrument und Technik, Kassel 1989
• Annette Otterstedt, The Viol – History of an Instrument, Kassel 2002

Annette Otterstedt (translated by Hans Reiners 2026)