I couldn’t end the week on yesterday’s post about the Anderthalb, that fascinating but undeniably sour instrument that I’ve never been able to disassociate from its hostile, punch-and-judy origins. So I wanted to celebrate to its emotional opposite, one of the great instruments of the renaissance, the viola della cooperazione.

The viola della cooperazione, sometimes known as the ‘shared viol’ or simply the va-dc, was one of many multi-necked stringed instruments to emerge in the sixteenth century. The French luthier Alexandre Voboam (c.1634–1692) made double-necked guitars, the nineteenth century saw the Viennese ‘contraguitars’ of Stauffer and Scherzer, and modern acts from Aerosmith to ZZ Top have kept the tradition alive — to say nothing of Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick, with his five-necked Hamer guitar. But while these instruments were designed for soloists, the va-dc was designed for two performers, who manipulated its multiple fretboards in tandem. This required considerable coordination, and a certain intimacy, explaining why some of history’s most famous va-dc virtuosos have been related, such as Giovanni Battista Vitali (1632–1692) and his son Tomaso Antonio (1663–1745), and Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (1644–1704) and his niece Hayley.

Published February 3, 2023. Copyright © 2023 Jonathan Hoefler.