The viola pomposa is played on the arm and has a range from C3 to A6 (or even higher) with fingered notes.

However, others such as Charles Sanford Terry and Dmitry Badiarov have argued that there is insufficient evidence to make that claim (read Terry, 1932 [5]), with Badiarov referring to Bach's invention of the viola pomposa as a myth.

Among the late Baroque and early Classical composers who used the instrument are Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767; two sections of Der Getreue Musikmeister), Johann Gottlieb Graun (c. 1703–1771; a double concerto with flute), and Christian Joseph Lidarti (1730–1795; at least two sonatas).

By 1800, the instrument was used by principals of major orchestras, although no written scores were published in that century, apart from antiquarian or modernized editions (one of the Lidarti sonatas, heavily edited and with an added cadenza, was republished around 1904).

Late in the twentieth century, several contemporary composers independently rediscovered its potential because of the development of the new synthetic & steel strings, more stable and cheaper than the gut ones.