Viola d’amore made in Constantinople / Istanbul, 19th Century

This Viola d’amore is owned by the Horniman Museum in London.

I was particularly interested to examine this instrument because, during my time in Istanbul on a Winston Churchill travel Fellowship in 2017, I learnt that the Viola d’amore had been used in Ottoman/Turkish classical music during the 18th-19th Centuries, and is still played in Turkey and across the Middle East today. I could find very little information about the historical use in this region however, apart from some early black and white photos showing musicians in Istanbul playing the flat backed viola d’amore.

I have since been on the lookout for surviving Violas d’amore that were made or played in Istanbul, and I came across this particular instrument through a meeting with the instruments conservator at the Horniman museum.

The Viola d’amore, or ‘Sînekeman’ as it is called in Turkish (roughly translates to fiddle of the upper chest), is a fairly well recognised instrument in the Turkish music tradition and there are players using the instrument today such as Hasan Esen & Alper Asutay in Turkey as well as Jasser Haj Youseff who is of Moroccan origin. All of these players play the VdA in a style suited to middle Eastern music & scales, and, using a different bow and playing style, create a sound quite different from what one would expect to hear from a VdA in western Europe playing Baroque music.

If the Viola d’amore originated in Western Europe as a wire strung version in the mid-late 1600’s, as early documentation suggests, presumably the instrument found its way to Constantinople during the 18th Century and became accepted into Ottoman chamber music due to its suitability both in terms of sound and playability. It is possible that the viola d’amore was then adapted to suit a Turkish playing style, or a similar sympathetically strung instrument was developed, because there are other traditional instruments with sympathetic strings found in the region, such as the Kemençe of the Black Sea and the Cretan Lyra. Which came first, or what took influence from what, remains unclear.

Either way, the Viola d’amore continues to hold connotations to Moorish culture in its sound, aesthetics and name, and one could easily interpret the name as ‘Viola da mori’, (which in Italian translates to ‘viola of the moors’) instead of the more common interpretation ‘Viola of Love’ (named after its sweet angelic sound).

The instrument examined below draws no conclusions but does add to the rich and fascinating history of the viola d’amore.

The label inside shows the name Fab. Chateaureynaud, suggesting a maker of French origin. Unfortunately the date couldn’t be read, even under U.V. light, but the museum acquired this instrument 1898 and this maker is thought to have been working between 1850-1880.

In form and dimension, this instrument has a body length of 38cm and a string length of around 35cm. The body stop is approx. 200mm and the neck length is 150mm, placing it firmly in the range of a medium/small Viola. The outline lies somewhere between that of a Viol and a Violin, with Violin-esque bouts combined with gamba style corners. I couldn’t tell what wood it is made from underneath that dark varnish, but the front and back are both arched and fluted in a similar manner to a Violin family instrument and the back contains a geometric pattern made with purling and burn marks.

The notable characteristic of this instrument is its stringing arrangement; it has six playing strings and three sympathetic strings, but the playing strings are grouped together into three courses like the stringing of a Lute, Oud or 12- string guitar. Slots on the bridge and nut show this clearly, and if the order of the sympathetic strings is any guide, then the lowest pitched strings were positioned in the middle (the middle sympathetic string is thickest suggesting lowest pitch). The middle slots on the bridge look largest as well, re-inforcing this idea. The slots on the nut vary wildly in size and position but do also imply three groups of two.

Below we can see the sympathetic strings attached into the bottom block with harp/zither style tuning pins, and held at the other end simply with nails inserted into the face of the peg box.

The scroll is unlike any other I have seen as it flows in the opposite direction, curving back away from the nut and peg box, instead of returning inwards as on a typical Violin, and six machine heads are fitted for tuning the playing strings. The scroll is extremely wide with four turns, like a ‘del gesu’ on psychedelics!

Two lines of light wood purfling run down the length of the fingerboard, dividing it into three visual sections, again indicating the position of the courses of strings, and light grooves can be seen worn into the ebony from the strings.

The tailpiece has the same light purfling around the outside and three main holes, each with two slots coming out to hold the strings.

Below we can see the channel carved into the neck and underside of the fingerboard for the sympathetic strings to run through.

It remains to be known whether this instrument was made as a one-off, or was more commonly recognised for a particular style of playing in Turkey at that time.

If anyone has any more information or knows of other similar instruments from Istanbul, please do get in touch!