#archiviola

• Archiviola — An experimental period musical instrument or hybrid variant of the viola family, structurally equipped with a keyboard and a continuous bowed rotary mechanism (similar to a hurdy-gurdy or viola organista), designed to produce sustained orchestral sounds. In an organological sense, archiviola represents a Renaissance and Baroque attempt to combine the polyphony of keyboard instruments with the timbral richness and dynamic expressiveness of bowed strings.
• Arciviolata — An alternative historical name or extremely rare variant for the instrument known as 'archiviola'; a type of oversized or hybrid viola from the Italian Renaissance period, structurally designed to extend the grave and polyphonic register through the use of experimental keyboard mechanisms or by adding extra sympathetic strings.