Pardessus de viole

The pardessus de viole is the highest-pitched member of the viol

family of instruments. It is a bowed string instrument with either
five or six strings and a fretted neck. The pardessus first appeared
in the early 18th century, and was commonly played by women,
particularly in French-speaking countries.

Contents
Description
History
References
External links

Description
Pardessus de viole
The pardessus de viole is the smallest of the viol family. Its size is
similar to the violin's, and its range is correspondingly similar.[1]
The strings are made of gut (like on any bowed string instrument until the 1970s) and the top string was
tuned to g'',[2] a fourth higher than the top string of the treble viol. Like the treble viol, the pardessus de
viole was almost never used to play accompaniment chords, but was always a melody instrument.[2] When
played, it is played upright on the lap with a bow.[2]

Unlike the treble viol and other viol instruments, the pardessus usually has only five strings. The five string
pardessus is tuned in fifths and fourths (g, d', a', d'', g''), while six stringed pardessus are tuned like other
viols in fourths with a third (g, c', e', a', d'', g'' or g, c', f', a', d'', g'').

History
The pardessus de viole was invented around the year 1700. Violins had begun emerging in Italy, and the
pardessus was developed to allow people accustomed to viols to play violin music.[1] With a sound more
reminiscent of the viol to audiences unaccustomed to the sound of the violin, musicologist Annette
Otterstedt has characterized the pardessus as a hybrid between viols and violins.[1]

The pardessus was often played by women, as the method of holding the pardessus in one's lap was
considered more lady-like than holding a violin on the shoulder.[2] The pardessus was most popular in
French-speaking countries,[3] but by 1770 it was starting to disappear from the landscape as viols generally
were being eclipsed by the louder stringed instruments of the violin family.[1]

References
 1. Otterstedt, Annette (2002). The Viol: History of an Instrument (https://books.google.com/book
s?id=4swIAQAAMAAJ&q=otterstedt,+annette). Basel: Barenreiter-Verlag. pp. 146–8.
ISBN 3-7618-1152-7.
2. Green, Robert (1982). J.M. Thomson (ed.). "The pardessus de viole and its literature". Early
Music. Early Music America. 10 (3): 301–307. doi:10.1093/earlyj/10.3.301 (https://doi.org/10.
1093%2Fearlyj%2F10.3.301). ISSN 0306-1078 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0306-1078).
3. Sutcliffe, Richard (28 January 2007). "About the Pardessus de Viole" (http://users.skynet.be/
richardsutcliffe/pardessus.htm). Retrieved 16 December 2012.

External links
Tina Chancey describing and playing a pardessus de viole (https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=BBHYoq00EZA)
Discussion of the pardessus, with a performance beginning at 17:05 (https://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=KhJ1vXmIlqI)
Painting of a noblewoman holding a pardessus (http://weheartit.com/entry/10096351?group
=A&imgres=)

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This page was last edited on 5 October 2021, at 04:31 (UTC).

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