Blog Posts
Two Articles on French Renaissance Viols Published
As the culmination of years of research, I have published the first two academic articles based on my research for this project. The first, published in Early Music History, argues the following: Abstract In sixteenth-century France, the viol emerged as a symbol of cultural refinement enjoyed by men of virtue and as a tool to…
Dessus Viol
This week John Pringle finished the first viol of our planned four-viol consort. The viol arrived this week and will be paired with the two prototype viols John made over the last few years. John will next work on a bass for the consort. This first viol, with a 59 cm string length, will serve…
Gaspard Duiffoprugcar and French Renaissance Viols
Gaspard Duiffoprugcar [Tieffenbrucker] was a member of a German family of instrument builders from the village of Tieffenbruck, near Roßhaupten in Bavaria.For more on Duiffoprugcar see Henry Coutagne, Gaspard Duiffoproucart et des luthiers lyonnais du XVIe siècle (Paris: Fischbacher, 1893). In 1810, Choren and Fayolle, in their Dictionnaire historique des musiciens artistes et amateurs, provided a…
Extending the Longevity of French Renaissance Viols
In his Harmonie universelle, contenant la théorie et la pratique de la musique (Paris, 1636), Marin Mersenne reproduced the woodcut of a five-string viol from Jambe de Fer’s L’Épitome musical des tons, sons et accordz, es voix humaines, fleustes d’Alleman, flesustes à neuf trous, violes, & violons (Lyons, 1556) and noted that this was a kind…
Our Second Prototype Viol and a Prototype Bow
Second Prototype by John Pringle John Pringle has been hard at work making a second prototype based on our new research. He is using this prototype—a treble—to experiment with body design and table construction. Since we are not using a soundpost-bassbar system, John Pringle has decided on a central spine on the table, a solution…
Insights from Brescian Renaissance Viols
One of the most daunting challenges in reconstructing a consort of Renaissance French viols is the lack of extant instruments that can be analyzed. While iconography and treatises are both crucial sources for understanding these instruments, taken together they still leave many questions unresolved. Besides questions surrounding the internal construction of the viols, one pertinent…
First Sounds From Our New Prototype
Our first prototype has arrived from luthier John Pringle. The bass, tuned c’-g’d’-A-E, is now making its first sounds.
Conference Paper on Early French Viols Published
Dr. Romey presented a paper entitled “The French Renaissance Viol Consort: Reevaluating the Sources and Reclaiming the Music” at the International Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Thought at Sam Houston State University from 4–6 April 2013. During the paper he displayed the first prototype made by John Pringle. His spoken paper has been published as…
Prototype is a Reality
I am happy to announce that our first prototype has been built! I will be taking the prototype of the first bass to accompany my talk on the project at the Sam Houston State International Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Thought 3–4 April 2013. Many thanks to John Pringle for all of his hard work…
December Happenings
The project has been silent for a while but that has not been for lack of progress behind the scenes. I am happy to report that John Pringle has begun reconstructing the first viol for the consort. I will present my first paper on this project at the International Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Thought…
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