The violoncello da spalla is a four- or five-stringed instrument, bigger than the viola, and tuned in the range of the common violoncello.
The pioneering work on the violoncello da spalla done by Lambert Smit (Netherlands) and Sigiswald Kuijken (Belgium) met with considerable scepticism, if not rejection, in the world of ancient music. However, after considerable research on repertoire and in libraries and music instruments musea, I was able to prove that the instrument had indeed existed. I built my first spalla for Sigiswald Kuijken, director of the Belgian ensemble La Petite Bande.
Nowadays spallas are used in renowned baroque ensembles such as La Petite Bande and Bach Collegium Japan and played by known soloists such as Sigiswald Kuijken, Ryo Terakado and Sergey Malov.