Viola da Terceira
The viola da Terceira (also viola Terceirense) is a stringed musical instrument of the guitar family, from the Portuguese islands of the archipelago of the Azores, associated with the island of Terceira. History The viola and other string instruments were brought during the Portuguese maritime expansion to the Azores, Madeira, Cape Verde, Brazil and other locales, becoming common in the populations. Due to its importance in Portuguese music it likely arrived in Angola, Goa and Macau, and as far as Hawaii by the 19th century, where it became the forerunner of the ukulele. These early cordophones, the violas, had characteristics identical to the modern instruments, and great importance along the Iberian Peninsula, where it appeared in iconography, poems and diverse literature. The chronicler Gaspar Frutuoso, who identified it as just a "Viola", suggested that it first arrived in the Azores in the second half of the 19th century, brought the first settlers. There is little documentation that dates the arrival of the Portuguese Violas de Arame in the islands of the Azores. In the second quarter of the 15th century, Santa Maria and São Miguel were the first islands to be settled. It is likely natural that these early string