Baryton

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This object consists of 17 parts, some of which may be located elsewhere.

Artist/Maker	Tielke, Joachim (maker)
Place of origin	Hamburg (made)

The baryton is a stringed instrument, played with a bow like a cello. It is fitted with six strings which supply the melody, and a series of wire strings at the back, which are either plucked with the left thumb or allowed to vibrate freely as the instrument is played.

This example is dated 1686, and was made by Joachim Tielke (1641-1719) of Hamburg, who made a large number of stringed instruments, highly sought after by royalty and nobility. The most famous baryton composer was Josef Haydn (1732-1809) who wrote a large number of pieces for his patron, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy (1714-1790), a Hungarian nobleman and an enthusiastic baryton player.

Object details

Category	Musical Instruments
Object type	Baryton
Parts	This object consists of 17 parts. Baryton Bow (Chordophone Component) Bow (Chordophone Component) Baryton String Baryton String Baryton String Baryton String Baryton String Baryton String Baryton String Baryton String Box Lid Instruction Sheet Instruction Sheet Instruction Sheet Instruction Sheet
Materials and techniques	Carved pine pegbox, pine top and burr maple sides and back, with gilt and stained tailpiece; carved and pierced maple board running parallel to ivory neck Ebony Maple Burr Maple Pine Silk (Textile) Gold Leaf Carving Piercing Purfling Staining Gilding
Brief description	German (Hamburg) 1686. Joachim Tielke and box for strings
Physical description	Belly of pine, with 'flame' holes and with double purfling forming small decorative knots at the indentations between the bottom lobes of the festooned body. Two-piece back with signs of a wax seal. At the base, a ferrule for resting the instrument on the floor, and a hook-bar. The pegbox is carved on the back with figures in relief. A carved triple lion's head forms the finial. On the treble side of the pegbox is a narrow cavity accommodating the boxwood pegs of the six playing strings, which run to a tailpiece in the shape of two savages, carved in wood stained black and partly gilt. The twenty-five wire sympathetic strings run from wrest pins in the main width of the pegbox, thence behind a pierced and carved neck and under a frame, across which is stretched some silk material, to their attachment on a fixed bridge glued obliquely to the belly. Some old holes into the pegbox show that this arrangement has been altered at some time. The instrument is furnished with two bows and also a shaped cardboard box which can be fitted exactly into the hollow behing the neck; this box contains eight spools of brass wire of various gauges, and manuscript sheets and cards giving the gauges and tunings of the sympathetic strings. The corresponding gauges are marked in ink alongside the appropriate wrest pins on the instrument itself.
Dimensions	Total length: 1490mmmm Body length: 69cm Widest bout width: 42cm Measured by NB 2/20: W:1490mm H: 239mm D: 420mm
Production type	Unique
Marks and inscriptions	JOACHIM TIELKE/ IN HAMBURG FECIT/ ANNO 1686 (1) Makers's mark 2) Signature; Latin; Capital; Beneathe pierced and carved board running alongside the neck of the instrument; ink; Tielke; 1686) Translation Jopachim Tielke made [this instrument] in Hamburg 1686
Gallery label	(pre September 2000) BARYTON by Joachim Tielke, Hamburg. 1686, inscribed Joachim Tielke/ in Hamburg fecit/ Anno. 1686. Pine top, maple back and sides, stained maple bridge, maple neck and tuning head, ebony finger board. The tailpiece is decorated with Indians. The instrument has six strings over the finger board and twenty-two sympathetic ones underneath. Museum No.: 115-1865 Non-Keyboard Catalogue No.: 2/6 The baryton was most frequently played in Central Europe from about 1640 until about 1800. Joseph Haydn composed a large number of baryton pieces for his patron, Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy, an enthusiastic player of this instrument. The upper strings were tuned like a bass viol (D-G-c-e-a-d') and played with a bow. The sympathetic strings were either played with the left thumb or allowed to vibrate freely. Joachim Tielke (1641 - 1719) settled in Hamburg in 1667, where he made fine instruments, of which nearly a hundred still survive.
Object history	Bought from M. Baur, Paris, £40. 0. 0. 'Viola da Bardone (see C. Engels Print catalogue)' Conserved 1968 by Reg Dee (V&A Conservation dept.)
Subjects depicted	Lion Indians Venus
Summary	The baryton is a stringed instrument, played with a bow like a cello. It is fitted with six strings which supply the melody, and a series of wire strings at the back, which are either plucked with the left thumb or allowed to vibrate freely as the instrument is played. This example is dated 1686, and was made by Joachim Tielke (1641-1719) of Hamburg, who made a large number of stringed instruments, highly sought after by royalty and nobility. The most famous baryton composer was Josef Haydn (1732-1809) who wrote a large number of pieces for his patron, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy (1714-1790), a Hungarian nobleman and an enthusiastic baryton player.
Bibliographic references	London, Victoria & Albert Museum: Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria & Albert Museum. Part II, Anthony Baines: Non-keyboard instruments (London, 1998), p 12, cat. 2/6 [p9] The baryton is a larger instrument, about equal to a bass viol in size. It appeared a little earlier than the viola d'amore—not long after the middle of the seventeenth century. It has six playing strings and a very variable number of wire sympathetic strings which in some cases were tuned to a chromatic scale. The instrument is constructed with an open neck comprising two parallel arms with a broad space between them which is covered by a decorated plate with the fingerboard running to one side. Behind this plate the wires are exposed and can therefore be struck with the left thumb from behind to produce touches of accompaniment and 'lute' effects, in addition to discharging their sympathetic function. Most barytons have a festooned outline of some kind, and sound holes of paired 'commas' are characteristic. The only composer of note for the baryton is Haydn, his patron, the Duke of Esterhazy, having been for a time a lover of the instrument. [p.12] 2/6 BARYTON by Joachim Tielke. Hamburg; 1686. Fig. 14. Inscription painted alongside the fingerboard: Joachim Tielke / in Hamburg fecit / Anno. 1646. Also a printed label inside which reads the same. Belly of pine, with 'flame' holes and with double purfling forming small decorative knots at the indentations between the bottom lobes of the festooned body. Two-piece back with signs of a wax seal. At the base, a ferrule for resting the instrument on the floor, and a hook-bar. The pegbox is carved on the back with figures in relief (Venus in her chariot similar to those in ivory marquetry found on bass viol 1/10. A splendid carved triple lion's head forms the finial. On the treble side of the peg-box is a narrow cavity accommodating the boxwood pegs of the six playing strings, which run to a tailpiece in the shape of two savages, carved in wood stained black and partly gilt. The twenty-five wire sympathetic strings run from wrest pins in the main width of the pegbox, thence behind a pierced and carved neck and under a frame, across which is stretched some silk material, to their attachment on a fixed bridge glued obliquely to the belly. Some old holes in the pegbox show that this arrangement has been altered at some time. Dimensions: Length total 13 5 ; belly 69. Depth 13. Width of bouts 36, 28.5, 42. String length about 67. Museum No.: 115-1865. The instrument is furnished with two bows and also a shaped cardboard box which can be fitted exactly into the hollow behind the neck; this box contains eight spools of brass wire of various gauges, and manuscript sheets and cards giving the gauges and tunings of the sympathetic strings. The corresponding gauges are marked in ink alongside the appropriate wrest pins on the instrument itself. Hellwig's list of surviving instruments by Tielke, mentioned in the notes to bass viol 1/ 10, gives no other baryton by this famous maker. Friedemann and Barbara Hellwig, Joachim Tielke: Kunstvolle Musikinstrumente des Barock (Berlin: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2011), pp.383-87. ISBN 978-3-422-07078-3 HELLWIG, Günther: Joachim Tielke: Ein Hamburger Lauten- und Violenmacher der Barockzeit. (Frankfurt, Musikinstrumentmuseum, 1980), cat. no. 38, pp.186-89 THORNTON, Peter: Musical Instruments as Works of Art. (London, V & A, 1982), Fig. 28-28a, p. 23 'Figures 28 and 28a. In constrast to the Cremonese violin mentioned above, this sumptuously decorated instrument displays the Baroque love of full-blooded ornament, which instrument-makers at the time were accustomed to apply. This baryton, an instrument rather larger than a cello, lent itself particularly well to such treatment. Baryton by Joachim Tielke, Hamburg, 1686; Museum No.115-1865.' Musical Instruments as Works of Art (H.M.S.O., 1968), Fig. 31-32 'Figures 31 and 32 Details of the handsomely carved neck and peg-box of a German baryton -a large relative of the viola d'amore. It comes from the workshops of the famous Hamburg musical instrument-maker, Joachim Tielke, and is dated 1686 (No.115-1865)'
Collection	Furniture and Woodwork Collection
Accession number	115 to B, D to Q-1865

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Record created	May 16, 2001
Record URL	https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O58905/baryton-tielke-joachim/

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