The electric viol

    The viola da gamba's glory spans two and a half centuries and finishes without an instrumental successor at the end of the 18th century. The harpsichord, the recorder and the lute share this sad destiny, and are confronted with the piano, the flute, and the guitar which remplace them. The viol on the other hand never found a successor and this gap was sorely felt. Of course there was the arpeggione in the 19th century which lasted quite a while and for which Schubert wrote a superb sonata, but between the prestigious career of the violin and its family which evolved between the sonata and the symphony like a fish in the derives of romanticism and that of the guitar which held a meek role at the end of this period, there is a great lacking of a harmonic bowed instrument. The rediscovery of "baroque"
instruments at the end of the XIXth century and above all in the 1960's and 70's saw the soul of this splendid instrument which is the viola da gamba revived and rapidly contemporary composers began to be interested in it.

"Contemporary music" uses amplified sound almost exclusively, therefore minimizing the questions of volume levels which have always been something to reckon with : one doesn't put a trumpet and a lute together. The electric viol arrives to take its righteous place in the universal instrument bank. Small double bass which flies, bowed guitar, harmonic cello? It is all of this and much more : an "old" instrument that is completely new.

 The Alouette model is designed to make its size as small as possible. The tailpiece and the pegbox are one piece. The placement of the tuners is perfectly ergonomic. thus the tuning is very easy.

The instrument has no head.
When the ribs are folded like the wings of an insect, the viol fits into a small bag.