Entwyned performance

Tomorrow, November 7, I’ll be playing my first concert with Entwyned, a Baroque trio featuring Dr. Dee Hansen on traverso, Eric Hansen on archlute, and myself on bass viol.  Music begins at 3pm at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church of Milford, CT.  The program features a number of Partitas and Sonatas for the entire trio as well as works drawing from more popular sources (of the time).  I will be playing a few selections from the Manchester Gamba Book, a manuscript “discovered” in the early 1900’s which is notated almost entirely in tablature and features 22 different tunings for the instrument.  In this case I will be playing selections using standard viol tuning.  These works are meant to be played on the lyra viol, still a bass instrument but smaller than a standard bass viol.  I am fortunate and grateful to be playing on a beautiful lyra made by David Rubio and on loan to me from Martha McGuaghey.

More information about the Manchester Gamba Book can be found here:

http://vdgsa.org/pgs/manchester/Introduction.pdf

 

Lyra viol after Richard Meares

 

Bach Gamba Sonata

You can now find a recording I made of the first of J.S. Bach’s Sonatas for Viola da Gamba and obbligato continuo on the Media page (just the first movement at this point).  Obbligato here refers to the fact that the harpsichord part is fully notated for both left and right hands.  Most often, in Baroque compositions, only the bass line and what are known as “figures” are supplied for the keyboard player.  The performer must then fill in the absent notes in order to appropriately accompany the primary voice.  In this case, however, the harpsichord finds itself on equal ground with the gamba and in many moments comes dangerously close to overpowering its stringed partner.

What you hear in my recording is a bass viola da gamba, however, the instrument is part of a family of viols which come in many different sizes.  Below is a picture of the great Spanish gamba player, Jordi Savall, with a treble gamba that looks to be of very early origins, perhaps even Medieval:

 

The gamba is a cousin to many ancient stringed instruments such as the horse head fiddle of Mongolia or the erhu of China.  Savall has done much to bring attention to this connection by performing traditional folk music on the gamba.  See this fantastic example of a Turkish traditional tune: