CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Jordi Savall

Weill Recital Hall
Wednesday, October 31st, 2007 at 7:30 PM

Jordi Savall, Viola da Gamba

TOBIAS HUME From Musical Humors
·· The Spirit of Gambo
·· Duke John of Polland his Galliard
·· A Humorous Pavin
·· A Souldiers Galliard
·· Harke, Harke

·· Captain Humes Pavin
·· The New Cut
·· A Question
·· An Answer
·· A Souldiers March

·· My Hope Is Decayed
·· Loves Farewell
·· Whoope Doe Me No Harme
·· A Souldiers Resolution
·· A Pavin
··Captaine Humes Galliard
·· The Duke of Holstone's Almaine
·· Beecus an Hungarian Lord his Delight
·· What if a Day
·· Good Again
SIMON IVES The Harp-way Sharp Tuning
·· Coranto
·· Almaine
·· La cloche
·· Saraband
ANON. The Bag-pipe Tuning
·· Simon the King
·· I Have Been a Piper
·· Hunt Is Up
·· Room for Cuckolds

Encores:
MARAIS MARIN MARAIS Muzette in G Minor
Improvisations on a Folk Melody from Brittany

Program Notes:

By Liam Byrne

TOBIAS HUME Musicall Humors from The First Part of Ayres (1605)
Born circa 1579; died April 16, 1645 in London.

Though rarely heard nowadays, playing “the Lyra-way” was historically one of the most significant performing traditions in the viola da gamba repertory. The viol’s special ability to combine the lyrical expressivity of the violin with the lute’s capacity for chordal play is most fully explored and exploited by this 17th-century English genre. A defining characteristic of the lyra viol, whose name refers to the style of playing rather than to a different type of instrument, was that it could be tuned in any of about 50 tunings. This represents the largest flourishing of scordatura (from the Italian scordare, “to mistune”) in musical history, the idea behind which is that changing the way an instrument is tuned will significantly alter its tone, resonance, and feel. Each tuning thus gives the composer a new palette of sound colors, timbres, and chord voicings to work with.

Though Tobias Hume’s pieces are undeniably lyra viol music in character as well as prescription, nearly all of them are written for the viol in standard tuning rather than in a variety of scordatura. As his title might suggest, Hume did not follow a composer’s usual career path. He first served as an officer in both the Swedish and Roman armies, and then with his 1605 and 1607 publications went into musical battle against England’s erstwhile favorite instrument, the lute. His music succeeds more by its humor and strength of character than its compositional brilliance, though he ardently displays the viol’s versatility by including pieces in a range of styles previously championed by the lute. In addition to solo viol music, his First Part of Ayres includes songs to be accompanied by the lyra viol, duos for two lyra viols, and even an “Invention for two to play upon one viol,” a rejoinder to John Dowland’s earlier publication of a piece for two to play on one lute.

Captaine Hume’s Pavin is the composer’s answer to Dowland’s chart-topping piece “Lachrimae.” Like its model, the piece’s atmosphere is rife with the self-indulgent melancholy so much in vogue during this period in England. Thick, plaintive chordal passages alternate with rapid, ornamental scales. Melodically, Hume often jumps quickly between the extreme high and low registers of the viol, creating a dramatic soundscape of tension. The Souldier’s Galliard is a particularly brawny example of an athletically demanding dance form in triple time, characterized by great leaps with lots of ornamental leg-fluttering in midair. Full chords mark out the main beats of the measure, and quick scales imitate the rapid motion of a dancer’s feet, making it an ideal vehicle for a soldier, whether dancer or player, to demonstrate his prowess and virtuosity.

At the other end of the spectrum, Love’s Farewell displays the viol’s special cultivation of sweetness and light. It seems to depict two lovers who cannot bring themselves to part. Their farewell dialogue consists of a series of short phrases, each of which reunites them at its end with a return to the cozy comfort of the same G-major chord. Hume pushes the viol’s technical envelope in Harke, Harke, which contains the first-ever indication of col legno (hitting the strings with the wood of the bow), as well as alternation between plucking and bowing.


The final set of Hume’s pieces opens with a Pavin, a slow and stately dance consisting of three repeated sections. It is in the pavan (to use the more common spelling) that Hume is most harmonically adventurous, and this is no exception. In A Souldier’s Resolution, he demonstrates a somewhat campy wit for which he is better known. A vaguely programmatic piece, it begins with full crunches of chords followed by militaristic arpeggios and quick scales. It carries on with imitations of kettledrums and trumpets, closing with a cheery little chord progression under which is written “March away.”

SIMON IVES Pieces in the Harp-way Sharp Tuning
Baptized July 20, 1600, in Ware, Hertfordshire; died July 1, 1662, in London.

The pieces on the second half of this evening’s program are all to be found in John Playford’s 1652 collection Musick’s Recreation on the Viol, Lyra-way. Playford all but monopolized the English music publishing business during the second half of the 17th century. Though not much of a composer himself, he produced many collections of pieces for instruments ranging from the violin to the flageolet, as well as several important theoretical treatises and books of psalms.

The first set of pieces by Simon Ives are for a viol in the “Harp-way Sharp” tuning, which sets the open strings of the instrument as a major chord. This has the benefit of making certain chords much easier to play and more resonant, but limits the overall range of chords that fit under the hand. The Preludium manages to work around this by avoiding chordal play entirely. The other pieces, however, do not venture far from the main key area, but maintain a charming air of contented simplicity that would be lost if they were transcribed into a standard tuning. La cloche in particular uses the “Harp-way Sharp” tuning to great effect; the left hand occasionally plucks open strings in answer to a bowed melody, creating a bell-like sound.

WILLIAM LAWES Pieces in the High Harp Flat Tuning
Baptized May 1, 1602, in Salisbury; died September 24, 1645, in Chester.

William Lawes was perhaps the most daring, rule-breaking and quirky English composer of the 17th century. His brilliance is best appreciated in the viol consort genre, but Lawes’s pieces for lyra viol demonstrate the composer’s keen skill and unmistakable imagination. “High Harp Flat” tuning is much like “Harp-way Sharp,” except the open strings spell a minor chord with a slightly different voicing. Lawes, however, is not limited by the tuning. Instead, he takes full advantage of High Harp Flat’s particular deviations from the normal viol sound. As a result, the player suffers not a few contortions of the hand in the Almain, and overcomes large leaps with the bow in the sprightly Saraband. Such is the pain and pleasure of William Lawes.

ANONYMOUS Pieces in the Bag-pipe Tuning

For the final set, in “Bag-pipe tuning,” Playford instructs the player to switch the fourth and fifth strings of his instrument, thereby placing the new third and fourth strings an octave apart. With the top two strings also in fifths and octaves with the others, the result is an open drone, not unlike the groan of a bagpipe. Consequently, these pieces all exploit the richness of such a sonority whilst being limited to rather rustic melodic patterns, such as in the rollicking Room for Cuckolds that closes the program.

Copyright © 2007 by The Carnegie Hall Corporation

Liam Byrne is a specialist in English viol music.

Jordi Savall, Viola da Gamba
Jordi Savall is an exceptional figure in today’s music world. For more than 30 years he has been devoted to the rediscovery of neglected musical treasures: 30 years of research, study, and interpretation, both as gambist and musical director. He has restored an essential repertoire to all those with ears to hear it. Beyond the happy few who already revered the instrument, he has created a wide audience for the viola da gamba, an instrument so refined that it takes us to the very brink of silence. Together with Montserrat Figueras, he has founded three ensembles— Hespèrion XX, La Capella Reial, and Le Concert des Nations; together they explore and create a world of beauty and emotion that reaches out to millions of music lovers worldwide and has established them as the leading exponents of so many neglected musical gems.

One of the most multifariously gifted musicians of his generation, he has built a his career as a concert performer, teacher, researcher, and creator of new projects, both musical and cultural, which makes him one of the principal architects of the current revaluation of historical music. The pivotal part he played in Alain Corneau’s film Tous les matins du monde (“All the Mornings of the World”), which won a César award for the best soundtrack; his intense concert activity (140 concerts per year); recording projects (six per year); and more recently the creation of his own record label, Alia Vox, is proof that early music does not have to be elitist or of interest to only to a minority, and that it can and indeed does appeal to an increasingly large and young audience.

Like many other musicians, Jordi Savall began his musical training at the age of six as a member of the boys’ choir of Igualada (Barcelona), the town where he was born, and later studied the cello at the Barcelona Conservatoire, from which he graduated in 1964. In 1965, he began to teach himself the viola da gamba while studying early music. In 1968 he began his specialist musical training at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland, where in 1973 he succeeded his own master, August Wenzinger, and continues to give courses and master classes.

He has recorded over 160 CDs. Mr. Savall’s numerous awards and distinctions include Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (1988) from the French Ministry of Culture and Communication; the Sant Jordi Cross (1990) awarded by the Generalitat (Autonomous Government) of Catalonia; Musician of the Year (1992), awarded by Le Monde de la Musique; Soloist of the Year (1993), awarded by Victoires de la Musique; the Gold Medal for Fine Arts (1998) from the Spanish Ministry of Culture and the Arts; Honorary Member of the Konzerthaus, Vienna (1999); Doctor honoris causa of the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium (2000); Victoire de la Musique in recognition of his professional achievements (2002); the Gold Medal of the Parliament of Catalonia (2003); and the German Preise der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik (2003).

Mr. Savall plays a seven-string viola da gamba by Barak Norman (London, 1697).