‘SMALL DIPPER’ 7/7 VIOLA D’AMORE
Birds-eye maple back & ribs. Apple neck with carved head and pierced acanthus style relief carving.
Carved Spruce soundboard with flame shaped sound holes. Marquetry fingerboard and tailpiece consisting of Ebony, Box & Lemon wood. Ebony pegs with bone pips.
Linseed Oil & Pine Resin varnish with natural pigments.
String length: 34cm.
Photos; Jason Evans
“The instrument is a joy to play and has helped me develop my composing - I have recently completed a project involving a storyteller where all the music was composed on this new instrument - it’s inspiring to play and it’s breadth of tone and ability to translate my thoughts into sound is unsurpassed.. It’s also a marvel to look at - the workmanship is exquisite and every detail is perfect.”
This Viola d’amore was made for English fiddle player John Dipper to his own specifications and tuning and he currently plays this instrument with several duos and ensembles (The Emily Askew Band, Dipper Malkin, Patterson Dipper, English Acoustic Collective and Purcell’s Polyphonic Party).
You can hear this Viola d’amore on various recordings, two of which were in the top 10 of The Times on Sunday’s 100 albums of the year for 2018.
“I mainly play traditional folk music from various manuscripts dating from around 1651 as well as song accompaniment and my own compositions. I’m also using this Viola d’amore as an instrument to accompany storytelling - and as I have my own tuning system - I am able to employ drones across whole octaves of melody playing.”