Daniel Speer (1636-1707)

Daniel Speer was born in 1636 in what is now Wroclaw, Poland, but was active as a musician, teacher and writer in southwest of Germany from approx. 1665 on. Speer was closely associated with the city of Göppingen, where he taught in the Latin school and later acted as town cantor. He was also a writer of stories and political pamphlets, which at one point led to his imprisonment. However unpopular he may have been with the authorities, however, he must have been valued in Göppingen, for the town council and townspeople lobbied to have him released. Speer died in Göppingen in 1707. His book of music instruction, which he subtitled the "Musical Four-Leafed Clover", covers music directing, the art of keyboard and continuo playing, instrument theory and, as the fourth leaf, composition. The third chapter deals with string and wind instruments, and provides a short introduction to each followed by example pieces, usually duets or trios, highlighting that instrument. The sonatas for viola da braccio (what Speer called the "viol-braccio" or "braz") could belong to the earliest pieces written especially for that instrument as opposed to the viola da gamba.

Of the viola da braccio Speer writes:

On the
VIOLA DA BRACCIO:

How high and how low does a viola go, how is it tuned, and how many strings does it have?

Like a violin, the viola has four strings, but they are thicker because the viola's body is larger. The strings are also fingered like on a violin, except that they are tuned differently: the thickest string to C, the second to G, the third to D and the fourth to A.

The only difference between playing the viola and playing the violin is that the viola player must be able to read the alto and tenor clefs. But whoever can play the soprano clef on a violin can also play the alto clef on a viola, simply by pretending that he is playing a violin in the soprano clef.

N.B. Even though it is possible to play some pieces that are written in the soprano or mezzosoprano clefs on a viola, the alto viola is seldom played higher than a C.

N.B. A tenor viola is seldom played as high as the fourth string, or A.

The first of Speer's two sonatas for 2 viole da braccio is scored for two alto violas and continuo, the second for one alto viola and one tenor viola plus continuo. Speer notes that they could also be played on the viol. To make it easier for modern players to enjoy these pieces, I have set both viola parts in alto clef throughout and modernized the accidentals. Corrections of obvious mistakes in the original are marked in the PMX source.