Baryton

It is similar in size to the latter instrument and likewise has six or seven[1] strings of gut (typically D G C E A D, although scordatura was used), arranged over a fretted fingerboard and played with a bow.

The plucked strings are on the right; they are reachable by the player's thumb from the rear, where the back of the instrument's neck is left open.

[4] Early evidence for the existence of the baryton is found in Marin Mersenne's work Cogitata Physico-Mathematica (1644).

According for Fruchtman, "Mersenne stated that the English constructed a viol or lyre much admired by King James.

The thumb of the left hand plucked the metal strings, which were made to sound with the bowed notes.

[6] The instrument was never particularly popular, but "it acquired a certain cachet in courtly circles, particularly in south Germany and Austria" (Pamplin).

[4] The Haydn-era baryton was different from earlier versions in a crucial respect: the sympathetic strings were tuned a full octave higher than previously.

In 1934 he ordered a copy of an instrument by Simon Schödler (1782) from the renowned luthier, Ferdinand Wilhelm Jaura in Munich.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the name of the instrument is a loan word from French baryton or Italian baritono, and ultimately derives from Greek bary- + tonos 'deep-pitched'.