The viella (also fidula, vièle or vielle) is a medieval stringed musical instrument.
In a broader sense, the term “viella” (or its synonym fidula, or, again, bowed lute) indicates a family of rubbed stringed chordophones, similar to the European one and widespread in various parts of the world, such as East Asia (for example, the Chinese erhu), or the Arab-Islamic world (for example, the rebab).
HISTORY
Hieronymus de Moravia, a Dominican who lived in the thirteenth century, gave a detailed description of the viella of his time, which was five-stringed. But before that time, from some pictorial representations received, the viella had four strings; thus affirms François Joseph Fétis that in the Recherches historiques et critiques sur l’oigine et les transformations des instruments à archet (1856). Martin Gerbert (1774) states that the number of strings was optional and ranged from three to five in the period between the 11th and 13th centuries, when the number of five strings was changed.
There is a capital in Jaca Cathedral (ca. 1080), which depicts King David playing a violin on his throne together with other musicians. On a capital of the portico of the abbey church of Vézelay, a minstrel can be seen carrying a narrow alley with four ropes joined by two. On the western portal of the Cathedral of Chartres (about 1140) a character is carved playing the five-stringed viella. Another viella is shown on the facade of the house of the musicians of Reims and is three-stringed.
The viella was used extensively until the fifteenth century (an era in which it is depicted in great detail, among other things, in numerous panels by Hans Memling and in a famous polyptych by Jan van Eyck). In the 16th century it was supplanted by other bowed instruments, particularly from the family of the violas da gamba, but the scheme of an instrument tuned for fifths and without frets was taken up in the viola da viola (violin, viola and cello). The Latin voice fidula gave rise to the English term fiddle, which is still synonymous with violin or armophone in general.
In iconography, the viella appears to be used both by court instrumentalists (minstrels) and by groups of angels who play and sing in paintings and by clerics: it is therefore likely that it was used in both secular and sacred music. In medieval manuscripts it is never specified whether a part should be performed vocally or with an instrument, but the testimonies of Hieronymus de Moravia and Johannes de Grocheio suggest that clerics who knew how to play the viella were far from rare. Its extension makes it particularly suitable for performing the serious voices (tenor and contratenor) of polyphonic compositions. Numerous pictorial and sculptural images show large vielle that had to be placed on the right shoulder, rather than on the left, to allow the left hand to reach the end of the keyboard. According to the study carried out by Lionel Dieu on Romanesque sculptures in the French area, the different forms of viella can be classified as follows:
pyriform viella, without handle and without keyboard, in which the case is connected directly to the anklet at the height of the nut;
viella with handle but without keyboard (the case of this type of viella can have different shapes: piriform, oval, elliptical);
piriform viella with keyboard but without handle (the keyboard appears at the beginning of the XII century);
oval or semi-oval viella, with handle separated from the case and equipped with keyboard.
These four types, in order, correspond to the evolution of the instrument over time, but the most archaic forms coexist with the more developed forms, still at the end of the XII century.
Following a video in wich I play on a viella with five strings made by italian luthier Marco Salerno a medieval piece: Angelus admobebit abacue phrophetam (from The Play of Daniel)
The Play of Daniel, or Ludus Danielis, is either of two medieval Latin liturgical dramas based on the biblical Book of Daniel, one of which is accompanied by monophonic music.
Two medieval plays of Daniel survive. The first is one of the plays in the Fleury Playbook, a 13th-century manuscript containing ten liturgical dramas; the text is by Hilarius, and no music accompanies it. The play itself dates from c. 1140. The second is a 13th-century drama with monophonic music, written about 1227 to 1234 by students at the school of Beauvais Cathedral, located in northern France. A large portion of the text is poetic rather than strictly liturgical in origin; it closely follows the narrative of the biblical story of Daniel at the court of Belshazzar.
In the US the latter play was revived in the 1950s by Noah Greenberg, director of the New York Pro Musica; a commentary in English, written and performed by W. H. Auden, was used in some of their performances. A recorded 1958 performance by the group at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and featuring boy choristers of the Church of the Transfiguration as satraps and soldiers, was released by Decca, with sleeve notes by Paul Henry Lang and Dom Rembert Weakland, OSB, who had discovered the text at the British Library. Since the New York Pro Musica production it has enjoyed many performances among early music troupes. Also important in the history of modern revivals of the Beauvais Cathedral version, Daniel was the 1985 production of the Boston Camerata, staged by Andrea von Ramm, with musical direction by Joel Cohen. In 2008, The Dufay Collective and William Lyons released their CD, The Play of Daniel on the Harmonia Mundi usa label. A new production of the Play of Daniel by the Boston Camerata, this time under the direction of French-born medievalist Anne Azéma, was presented in Boston in November, 2014. Daniel was played by tenor Jordan Weatherston Pitts.
In 2008, a new production, staged by Drew Minter with musical direction by Mary Anne Ballard in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the noted Cloisters production of 1958, was created, also at the Cloisters. The show has been reprised in subsequent seasons, in 2012 at the Cloisters and in 2013 and 2014 as part of the Twelfth Night Festival at Trinity Church Wall Street.
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🇮🇹 La viella (anche fidula, vièle o vielle) è uno strumento musicale a corde del Medioevo.
In un’accezione più ampia, con il termine “viella” (o il suo sinonimo fidula, o, ancora, liuto ad arco) si indica una famiglia di cordofoni a corde sfregate, simili a quello europeo e diffusi in varie parti del mondo, quali l’Asia orientale (per esempio, il cinese erhu), o il mondo arabo-islamico (per esempio, il rebab).
Storia
Hieronymus de Moravia, domenicano vissuto nel XIII secolo, diede una descrizione dettagliata della viella dei suoi tempi, che era a cinque corde. Ma prima di quell’epoca, da alcune rappresentazioni pittoriche pervenuteci, la viella aveva quattro corde; così afferma François Joseph Fétis che nelle Recherches historiques et critiques sur l’origine et les transformations des instruments à archet (1856). Martin Gerbert (1774) afferma che il numero delle corde era facoltativo e andava da tre a cinque nel periodo fra l’XI e il XIII secolo, epoca in cui venne modificato il numero di cinque corde.
C’è un capitello nella cattedrale di Jaca (1080 ca.), che raffigura il re Davide che suona una viella sul suo trono insieme ad altri musicisti.
Su un capitello del portico della chiesa abbaziale di Vézelay, si vede un menestrello che porta al fianco una viella con quattro corde unite a due a due.
Sul portale occidentale della Cattedrale di Chartres (circa 1140) è scolpito un personaggio che suona la viella a cinque corde.
Un’altra viella si trova raffigurata sulla facciata della casa dei musicisti di Reims ed è a tre corde.
La viella fu usata correntemente fino al XV secolo (epoca in cui è raffigurata in grande dettaglio, fra l’altro, in numerose tavole di Hans Memling e in un celebre polittico di Jan van Eyck). Nel XVI secolo fu soppiantata da altri strumenti ad arco, particolarmente dalla famiglia delle viole da gamba, ma lo schema di uno strumento accordato per quinte e senza tasti fu ripreso nelle viole da braccio (violino, viola e violoncello). La voce latina fidula ha dato origine al termine inglese fiddle, tuttora sinonimo di violino o cordofono da braccio in genere.
Nell’iconografia la viella appare impiegata sia da strumentisti di corte (menestrelli) sia da gruppi di angeli che suonano e cantano nei dipinti e da chierici: è quindi verosimile che fosse impiegata sia nella musica profana che in quella sacra. Nei manoscritti medievali non è mai specificato se una parte debba essere eseguita vocalmente o con uno strumento, ma le testimonianze di Hieronymus de Moravia e di Johannes de Grocheio suggeriscono che i chierici che sapevano suonare la viella fossero tutt’altro che rari. La sua estensione la rende particolarmente adatta ad eseguire le voci gravi (tenor e contratenor) delle composizioni polifoniche.Numerose immagini pittoriche e scultoree mostrano vielle di grandi dimensioni che dovevano essere appoggiate sulla spalla destra, anziché sulla sinistra, per permettere alla mano sinistra di raggiungere l’estremità della tastiera.
Secondo lo studio compiuto da Lionel Dieu sulle sculture romaniche in area francese, le diverse forme di viella si possono classificare come segue:
viella piriforme, senza manico e senza tastiera, in cui la cassa è connessa direttamente alla cavigliera all’altezza del capotasto;
viella con manico ma senza tastiera (la cassa di questo tipo di viella può avere forme diverse: piriforme, ovale, ellittica);
viella piriforme con tastiera ma senza manico (la tastiera compare all’inizio del XII secolo);
viella ovale o semi-ovale, con manico separato dalla cassa e dotato di tastiera.
Queste quattro tipologie, nell’ordine, corrispondono all’evoluzione dello strumento nel tempo, ma le forme più arcaiche coesisono con le forme più sviluppate, ancora alla fine del XII secolo.
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