Tenor violin

Tenor violin (Fr.: taille de violon; Ger.: Tenorgeige), large-sized viola in existence since the mid-16th c., tenor member of the violin family, as its name indicates. It became obs. in the 18th c. A tenor-sized 3-string violin is depicted on the fresco of Saronno Cathedral dome, painted by Gaudenzio Ferrari ca. 1535; a taille de violon is mentioned in France in 1553. Zacconi in 1592 listed a tenor viola da braccio tuned F0 c0 g0 d1, and Banchieri in 1609 had a bass viola da braccio tuned G0 d0…