Word: viols
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...small brass and wind ensemble (augmented by a lone bass viol) had far greater problems to overcome in Varese's Octandre, composed in 1924. One of the major difficulties of this score is that it depends for its effect almost entirely on subtle variations of volume and orchestration for its effect. Moreover, it is written without much care for the capacities of the individual instruments and makes enormous, almost unattainable, demands on the rhythmic accuracy of the players. It is certainly not an aggressively unpleasant work and some piquant arrangements of the brass sonorities were intriguing. Yet, the work seems...
...group of seven dances and secular vocal pieces, most attractive was Non e tempo d'aspettare byMarco Cara, one of the chief musicians at Isabella's Mantuan court. It was played here by lute and viol. The performance of vocal pieces by an instrumental ensemble is a perfectly authentic Renaissance practice...
Brown was the superb soloist in two sonatas for recorder and basso continuo (viol and keyboard) by Handel and Telemann--the two competitors for the top Trendex rating when Bach was generally considered a negligible talent. The first movement of the Telemann was a good example of the Baroque convention of using descending chromatic scale fragments to express sadness. In both works, Miss Olson's viol was far too weak, although she was fine in her two solo recercadas by Ortiz. In Baroque music, the bass line cannot be too strong...
Result: a widespread confusion of high fidelity with screeching strings and piercing piccolos.* Today, the audiophile has relaxed. He still considers a wide-frequency response a must (good rigs now put out from 40 cps, the lowest bass viol note, to 15,000. one of the higher violin overtones), but the highs have become sweeter and less insistent...
...important to realize that all medieval dances, save a handful, exist only as a single line of notes with no further indications. The group chosen was played, as intended, by whatever instrumentalists happened to be available, in this case Gillian Adams and Chester Pearlman, recorders; Mary Davidoff, viol; and John Hollander, lute. The added improvised percussion parts for hand drum, tamborine and triangle were totally authentic. The players also performed two of the earliest polyphonic instrumental pieces...