In a few weeks I'll be delivering a lecture recital about the relationship between the viol and the cello in the eighteenth century. I've decided to call it 'A forgotten rivalry'. I don't know if this blog will ever survive these first few lines, but I thought it would be good to try and at least use it as a place where my ideas and various bits and pieces could be stored and developed. Anyone interested can access the project and see it taking shape.

I will begin with some pictures which I'm aiming to include in the lecture. The first is Carl Friedrich Abel with a seven string bass gamba, by Thomas Gainsborough. The seventh string is used in at least one of his 27 unaccompanied pieces.