After Abel there were no German gambists of conspicuous importance to mention. From the middle of the last century the gamba was more and more neglected, in consequence of the violoncello being brought forward, and the younger geniuses devoted themselves by preference to this instrument, which approached more nearly to the violin, then at the summit of all instrumental music. Amongst stringed instruments, which had shared the same fate as the gamba, belong the Viola bastarda and the Viola di Bordone (English, Barytone). The first instrument was in shape somewhat thicker than the gamba and was provided with six or seven strings.[38] In order to increase the resonance, as many steel strings were introduced under the fingerboard and bridge, which were tuned to the same pitch as those above, like the Viola d’amore. Another variety of the gamba was the barytone, which was cultivated in the last century. In Leopold Mozart’s violin tutor is found the following description of it: “This instrument has from six to seven strings like the gamba. The neck is very broad and the back part hollow and open, down which nine or ten brass or steel strings are run beneath, which are touched and pinched by the thumb; so that, at the same time as the principal part is played with the bow on the upper cat-gut strings, the thumb by striking the strings stretched under the neck of the instrument can play the bass; and therefore the music must be arranged specially for it. Moreover, it is a most agreeable instrument.” From this description it is evident that the barytone was a bass instrument resembling the Viola d’amore. The barytone in its time was much liked in Austria. Several Austrian composers, as Cybler, Weigl, and Pichl, and at their head Joseph Haydn, composed for this instrument. The latter was incited to it by his benefactor, the Prince Esterhazy, who looked with particular favour on the barytone. Haydn wrote no less than 175 pieces for it.[39] The tuning of the strings on the fingerboard of the barytone was on the same principle as that of the gamba. The Viennese, ANTON LIDL, who was born about 1740, was much esteemed as a most distinguished barytone virtuoso. Gerber says of him, “that he rendered still more perfect his instrument, which had been invented about the year 1700. It is in shape like the Viola da gamba, except that it has brass strings at the back, which are played at the same time with the thumb. These lower strings he increased to twenty-seven and the semitones were played with them.” He must have been an extraordinary artist on this instrument. The author of the _Almanack_ of 1782 says: “His performance united the most charming sweetness to German vigour, the most surprising syncopations with the most harmonious melody.” According to Burney, Lidl was no longer living in 1789. Up to 1783 he had published, in Amsterdam and Paris, Duets, Quartets, and Quintets--altogether seven works. His compositions for the gamba were not published.