Viol

The viol (also known as the viola da gamba) is any one of a family of bowed, fretted and stringed musical instruments developed in the mid-late 15th century and used primarily in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The viol family is probably related to and descends primarily from the Renaissance vihuela, a plucked instrument that preceded the guitar. Viols are different in several respects from instruments of the violin family.

Famous quotes containing the word viol:

“The language I have learnt these forty years,
My native English, now I must forgo,
And now my tongue’s use is to me no more
Than an unstringèd viol or a harp.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

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