Olivier Calmeille
Fr | En
Viola da Gamba
- Quartet
- Viola d'Amore
- In process
At the crossroads of Arts, viola da gamba offers a whole palette of characters, punctuated by its style and its ornaments.
The delicacy and the diversity of its making transports us through all Europe which was inspired by its warmth of tone, evoking the oriental'accents which still seems to flow into its veins.
Bass Viol 6 strings, after Barak Norman (1697)
The table is made by 3 pieces of spruce with a central part arched bent and two sculptured side parts.
During my visits to the Berlin Musikmuseum, I was attracted for a long time by this model of viol, and the construction of this viol brings me further in the methods of manufacture of the English instrument makers of the XVIIth century.
The assembly of neck with a tenon, and the numerous decorations elaborated on the original instrument allow to think about a logic of construction of this period.
Confronted with these elements, I imagine, according to the construction, the methods which would have been able to be used to make this instrument, so by getting closer to the possible ideas of Barak Norman and his master Richard Meares... The marquetries of Fingerboard & Tailpiece are realized by Jocelyn Papon (here in the making).
