Viola tenore

Viola tenore 1. in 17th- and 18th-c. Italy, probably the *tenor violin; 2. tenor violin introduced by Hermann Ritter in 1905, with a body length of 72 cm. (28¼ in.). The strings were tuned G0 d0 a0 e1, and the instr. was played in cello position. Cf. Tenor-viola. See also: viola alta, viola bassa (26). Besseler, Heinrich. Zum Problem der Tenorgeige. Heidelberg, 1949.