Catherine and I have slightly different styles: she sholds hers on the
collar bone, I hold mine lower, on the breast.

Again, we differed there too! She holds hers with thumb on stick, I
play with thumb on hair. I looked at a lot of paintings from this
period and found that illustrations of both types of bow-hold seem
equally common! But there is more research to be done here I think.

Ah - a good question! We had hoped to have some bows specially made
too, but couldn't find the right model in time. So we used 17th century
models, one by Hans Reiners, one by... can't remember, need to check!
Both short fixed-frog bows. We hope to have bows made in due course -
one of the viola players in the ensemble, Emma Alter, is a bow maker
who is currently researching appropriate 17th century models so we look
forwadr to the results.

The "cello" was the large bass violin you can see in some of the
pictures on the site; based on a 17th century Italian anonymous
original. I will need to check the viola details for you! This is
really the beginning of a big project, and we are still in the process
of deciding about viola models - we also need to raise a lot more money
before we can get any more instruments made!! But I am very excited
about the prospect.

Thanks for looking at the site: I'm glad you enjoyed it and am always
pleased to answer questions

Best wishes

Oliver Webber