Introducing the Viola da Gamba — Transcript

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1. 0:49My name is Jonathan Manson, I'm one of the principal cellos of the Orchestra
2. 0:53of the Age of Enlightenment and I also play the viola da gamba known as the bass
3. 0:57viol in english. The viol family actually grew up alongside the violin family for
4. 1:03about 300 years, it was a rich and illustrious history.
5. 1:06They weren't ancestors as is commonly thought but they coexisted actually very
6. 1:12nicely together and the three main sizes of the viola da gamba are the bass, which is
7. 1:18the solo instrument for much of that time, the tenor viol which is roughly the
8. 1:23size of the viola, the treble viol which more or less is equivalent to the violin
9. 1:28in terms of size and pitch and the three together formed the bulk of the viol
10. 1:34consort music, much of which was written in England which is a huge repertoire.
11. 1:38They all have a fairly lightweight resonant construction. They have flat
12. 1:43backs and sloping shoulders which you might recognize from the modern double
13. 1:47bass, that's pretty much the only member of the viol family that's survived into
14. 1:50the modern orchestra and they all have six strings apart from this one which
15. 1:55has seven because it's a copy of a french instrument from the end of the
16. 1:5917th century when they were interested in extending the range of the instrument
17. 2:03downwards to make it more useful as a solo instrument and for continuo but
18. 2:08in general they have six strings tuned in fourths
19. 2:15with a third in the middle
20. 2:17and then down again in forths to make two octaves and then this one has the
21. 2:22extra A down the bass register. They always have frets and these are old gut
22. 2:31strings which have passed their used by date and we tie them on quite tightly
23. 2:36they are slightly adjustable but you don't want them flapping around too much
24. 2:40and the advantage of frets is that they give you a clarity in the sound because
25. 2:45it's the hard edge of the gut which is actually stopping the string.
26. 2:51Which effectively makes all the notes open strings in a way because it's not your
27. 2:55finger which is touching the string at that point and that combination of
28. 3:00frets and the tuning in fourths also could be quite familiar if you know
29. 3:06instruments from the lute and guitar families, it's actually much more closely
30. 3:10related to other plucked instruments than it is to members of the violin
31. 3:15family in that respect and the fact that it's got this chordal tuning is also
32. 3:20extremely useful for a lot of the solo repertoire. French composers in
33. 3:25particular reveled in the sonorities of the instrument.
34. 3:44And another feature of the viol family instruments is that we hold the bow in a
35. 3:49completely different way from the violin family. We hold it underhand with
36. 3:54the middle finger directly touching the hair and that means the
37. 3:59strong stroke is the opposite direction that's the equivalent of our down bow
38. 4:04which you would play like this on a cello and the fact that you're in direct
39. 4:10contact with the hair also means you can feel the string quite literally through
40. 4:14your fingers rather than mediated by a piece of wood. So that also gives you a
41. 4:19very intimate contact with sound production and I think all of these
42. 4:23features together mean that composers could use the viol in a very different way.
43. 4:30The music was often written for quite small spaces, sometimes people's
44. 4:34houses, sometimes the smaller rooms in your Palace and in those spaces the viol
45. 4:41really thrives because it has a particular intimacy and warmth and a
46. 4:46vocal quality which was very much prized by composers during that time.
47. 4:52In the 18th century as performing spaces got bigger and public concerts demanded bigger
48. 4:59spaces and orchestras got bigger and the flashy Italianate concertos became more
49. 5:05fashionable, viols simply couldn't compete really with violin family instruments
50. 5:10and ultimately by the end of the 18th century they died out but Bach was one
51. 5:15of the composers who even though the viol was going out of fashion clearly
52. 5:19appreciated some of the very special qualities of the instrument. He wrote
53. 5:23three beautiful sonatas for the instrument together with harpsichord and
54. 5:27he also used the instrument in both his great passions that St John Passion and
55. 5:32the St Matthew Passion.
56. 6:18He uses the gamba very differently in the St. Matthew Passion, it's a little
57. 6:23bit earlier in the story and there's a lot more action involved. He uses very
58. 6:27cleverly the idea of the gamba as it was featured in France at the time of Louis
59. 6:34XIV the great sun king who particularly loved the viola da gamba and it's a very
60. 6:40French style of writing which uses a great deal of nobility in the over dotting
61. 6:45and these large leaps which are often found in the writing of the French
62. 6:51viol composers of the time and he uses that to convey the wonderful sense in
63. 6:58which the heavenly King, Christ, who was about to be crucified is in some
64. 7:03way reflected in the glory of the earthly king Louis XIV
65. 8:00As you can hear the viola da gamba is an enormously versatile instrument ,it has
66. 8:05this huge range from all the way below the cello range
67. 8:13through a strong tenor into the alto
68. 8:23right up into the violin register, into the treble register and it's this
69. 8:28quality I think, together with the fact that you can play chords very easily in
70. 8:33this tuning
71. 8:40which also mean that you can basically accompany yourself and a lot of the solo
72. 8:45repertoire was in fact designed to be played without any accompaniment at all
73. 8:49because you can add in all the harmonies that you need along the way. I think you
74. 8:54can hear this quite nicely illustrated in a very jolly chaconne by the celebrated
75. 8:59French viol player Marin Marais.