Prices shown exclude VAT. (UK tax is not payable for deliveries to United States.)
See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Tobias Hume - Musicall Humors
“Tobias Hume was a professional soldier and a 'gentleman' (read amateur) composer, and virtuoso of the bass viol. His Musicall Humors (1605), a large collection of solo pieces, is the first publication devoted to the lyra viol, a style of playing that treated the instrument polyphonically, like a lute. Hume reveals himself as a distinct, even eccentric, personality, and an inventive composer, expanding the viol's normal range with such unusual devices as col legno ('Drum this with the backe of your Bow').
Jordi Savall's cultivated, elegant style is very appropriate for much of the music; occasionally he adopts a more earthy manner to great effect – for example in A Souldiers Resolution, with its trumpet and drum imitations. When Captain Hume's Humors become more reflective, in a piece like Beccus an Hungarian Lord, Savall uses varied bow strokes and dynamic shadings with great artistry, to bring out the music's dignified, sombre character.
In characterising the music so strongly, Savall's rhythms are often very free; the rushing scalic divisions and lingering approaches to cadences balance one another, and prevent the music ever seeming stiff or mechanical. It's a finely produced disc, too, with a fascinating essay about the composer by David Pinto.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
|
|
| |  | Alas Poore Men
Theresa Dloughy (soprano) and Eva Reiter (viola da gamba) founded the duo Unidas in 2008. They specialise in English Renaissance music, particularly unknown works. On this CD they perform with guests Christopher Dickie (lute) and Ulfried Staber (bass). Together, they pay tribute to the link between church songs and secular distraction. | | | (also available to download from $13.50) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
|
|
| |  | Poeticall Musicke.... Topographic Long-Range
Lian Fennelly & Pau Marcos (violes de gambe) 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. “...beautifully played by Muller, Liam Fennelly and Pau Marcos” The Independent on Sunday, 17th October 2010 “Marianne Muller brings to the fore Hume's modernity, particularly in the rhetorical Good Again, where he incorporates left-hand pizzicato and what sounds like chords played col legno.” Gramophone Magazine, January 2011 | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
|
|
| |  | Captain Tobias Hume - The Passion of Musick
Le consort de la Belle Feuille: Damien Guillon (counter-tenor); Bruno Boterf (tenor), Pascale Boquet (tenor & bass lute, theorbo), Ariane Maurette, Andréas Linos (viols), Pascal Gallon (bass lute) Nima Ben David (bass viol & direction) | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
|
|
| |
|
