ALTHOUGH its repertoire includes music by some of the finest English composers of the early seventeenth century, the definitive account of the lyra-viol and its music has yet to be written. As with composers such as Coprario, Ferrabosco II and Simon Ives, music for lyra-viol forms a significant part of Lawes’s surviving output; this music is, however, understudied. The main reasons for this neglect seem to be because the solo repertoire is considered trivial and because much of the ensemble music is lost or survives incomplete.

Over a quarter of a century ago, Frank Traficante described music for the lyra-viol as ‘any music from the late sixteenth to the early eighteenth centuries notated in tablature and intended for a bowed viol with a curved bridge’. From this description we can immediately see that lyra-viol music does not have to be played on a lyra-viol. The term ‘lyra-viol’ , and the inconsistent ways in which it was applied by seventeenth-century commentators, has led to much scholarly debate. First, the term was applied to a specific instrument: a viol slightly smaller than the consort bass, with lighter strings (of lower action than the consort bass) and a less rounded bridge that those of the consort bass and division viol. The smaller dimensions and other modifications were to facilitate the performance of divisions and chords. In practice, however, a consort bass viol was often used. Second, ‘lyra-viol’ is used in sources to describe a particular tuning, known variously as ‘The leero fashion’ , ‘Liera way’ , ‘Lyra way’ , ‘Leerow way’ and ‘the Bandora set’ . Third, ‘lyra-viol’ is used to characterize the repertoire generally: i.e. the tablature and (usually) altered tunings, regardless of the type of viol actually used in performance (i.e. playing a viol ‘lyra-way’). This is the most useful interpretation and should be borne in mind throughout the following chapter.

A largely English phenomenon, the lyra-viol (or playing the viol ‘lyra-way’) became popular among both amateur and professional musicians in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.