Hume, T: A Question from The first part of ayres for the viole de gambo alone

Marianne Muller - fierce player of viola da gamba, recently applauded for her outstanding interpretation of Folies d’Espagne of Marin Marais on Zig-Zag Territoires - brings us solo and consort pieces of Tobias Hume - captain and eccentric English composer of XVIIe century. Committed to her instrument, Marianne Muller commissions to contemporary composers new pieces for viola di gamba... Eric Fischer created a piece dedicated to Tobias Hume.

Little is known of Hume’s life. Some have suggested that he was born in 1569 because he was admitted to the London Charterhouse in 1629, a pre-requisite to which was being at least 60 years old, though there is no certainty over this. He had made his living as a professional soldier, probably as a mercenary. He was an officer with the Swedish and Russian armies.

His published music includes pieces for viols (including many solo works for the lyra viol) and songs. They were gathered in two collections, The First Part of Ayres (or Musicall Humors, 1605) and Captain Humes Poeticall Musicke (1607). He was a particular champion of the viol over the then-dominant lute, something which caused John Dowland to publish a rebuttal of Hume's ideas.

Hume was also known as a prankster, as some of his somewhat unusual compositions illustrate. His most notorious piece was "An Invention for Two to Play upone one Viole". Two bows are required and the smaller of the two players is obliged to sit in the lap of the larger player. This work was notated in tablature and is indeed technically possible to play. His instructions to "drum this with the backe of your bow" in another piece, "Harke, harke," constitute the earliest known use of col legno in Western music.

Eric FISCHER has composed more than 200 works, which range from pieces for solo instrument to symphonic form by way of every type of instrumental forces and the most diverse experiences, including chamber music, electronics, vocal works, incidental music for the theatre, improvised music, and pieces for period instruments. His openness to encounters of all kinds has led to other highly unusual artistic exchanges.

This CD provides a representative survey of the evolution of music for the bass viol from its beginning until its extinction at the times when the Viennese classic style emerged.

The programme is framed and punctuated by works by two main figures of violplaying, Tobias Hume (c.1569-1645), whose First Part of Ayres was the first volume of music written expressly and exclusively for the bass viol ever published in print; and Marin Marais (1656-1728), gamba-player at the court of Louis XIV. Inserted in this framework are pieces by Johannes Schenck pupil of Marais’ and active in Amsterdam and Düsseldorf, by the pupil of Marais, Louis de Caix d’Hervelois, as well as works by Karl Friedrich Abel (1723-1787).

Ralph Rousseau Meulenbroeks showed his prodigious talent at an early age playing the piano and (bass) guitar at the age of eight. He later combined double bass studies with a masters and Ph.D. in physics. He has played double bass in the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, working with major conductors such as Riccardo Chailly, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, and Nikolaus Harnoncourt.