Brilliantly Baroque 2018
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activities
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Baroque 2012
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Baroque 2011
- concerts :
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- Neauphle-le-V
- ThoiryEglise
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- April
2010
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2009
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- 2008
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- Musicians
Next baroque music course :
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Viola da gamba, Henry Jayes, London 17c ( J. Vazquez Collection ) -More Photos and documentsabout this collection : see Orpheon pages
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The viola da gamba is not a predecessor of the violin, but is a completely different family altogether. It first appeared in Valencia, ca. 1470 - 1480 and was in vogue until about the French Revolution, although some still played the viol until 1800. Unlike the violin, whose form was already firmly standardized by the middle of the 16th C., the viola da gamba was built in a wide variety of shapes and forms: no standard model was ever attained nor striven for. Indeed the divergences in construction principles during the period from 1480 to 1780 yielded remarkably different acoustical results, so that one cannot really speak of "the" viola da gamba. An Italian viol of the Renaissance has literally very few things in common with, say, an English Tudor viol or a French viol serving His Majesty in Versailles. Each instrument has thus to be examined individually. But this is the exciting thing about this multifaceted "family" of instruments which you are about to get to know… The viol was an outspokenly aristocratic instrument; as it formed an integral part of the education of a gentleman, like lute, harpsichord, singing. It was used principally for serious music in cultured surroundings, as opposed to the violin, which in the beginning was used by professional musicians and minstrels for accompanying dancing and entertainment and thus was not considered suitable for persons of gentle breeding. The Viola da gamba in Consort Music In the Renaissance,
all instruments were built in families, representing the ranges
of the human voice: Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass. The viol consort
was made up of instruments of different sizes: treble, tenor
and bass being the most common. Two trebles, two tenors and
two basses constituted a "chest of viols", which
would ideally have been built by the same maker, although the
literature for consort counts works of from two to up to seven
players. Due to its delicate, rich and finely nuanced tone,
the viol was employed preferentially in polyphony, either in
combination with voices (motets, madrigals, chansons) or in
the instrumental forms derived from these vocal models (ricercare,
canzona, tiento, fantasia). It is principally in the Fantasia
- the polyphonic form par excellence - that the greatest English
masters - Byrd, Ferrabosco, Coperario, Lawes, Gibbons, Purcell
- excelled: the most erudite thoughts, the most sublime poetry
found expression here. In quality, these works cannot only
be favourably compared with the very best in the poetical and
theatrical genres of their English contemporaries, but also
with the best of chamber music of all periods. Like all instruments of the Renaissance, the viola da gamba came in all sizes, representing the different ranges of the human voice. These are called: Treble
viola da gamba (tuning: d",a',e',c',g,d) In addition to this, a smaller member was added in France in the 18th Century, the pardessus de viole, tuned one octave higher that the tenor (g",d",a',f',c',g), but sometimes having only five strings
next page : the violin family >>> les Batteries (le Sieur de Sainte Colombe) : José Vázquez et Lucia Krommer ,viola da gamba about the William Turner viols : audioguide from the last exhibition in Froville la Romane
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At
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