Word: viol
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Vermeer wasn't a great draftsman, and he could be an oddly clumsy one in some details of the human body--though he excelled in virtuoso rendering of inanimate objects, catching the moony sheen of pearls or the precise tautness of a viol's catgut strings. As an analyst of human character, he was quite vapid compared with Rembrandt or Frans Hals...
...into the picture. More obstacles are built into the space between the carpet and the figures at the end of the room. There is a white pitcher on the table, a sky-blue chair with gleaming brass tack heads, and finally the voluptuous mass of a bass viol lying on the floor...
...viol consort Fretwork may well be next on the list of Virgin Classics' fortuitous finds...
Most of the pieces Byrd wrote for the viol consort were based on a plainsong theme, supported by contrapuntal figurations by the accompanying instruments. Though the bare-bones outline of the form itself is admittedly simple, those who simply dismiss Byrd's mantric writing as constricting or stultifying miss the point...
...viol consort playing itself, the technical and artistic execution most enjoyable, and I especially appreciated the carefully treated passages where Byrd deliberately toyed with dissonance...