Upon a Violl at Sea” – music for the viola da gamba Part I, the 17th century I DII, tk 2 Touch Me Lightly Tobias Hume DII, tk 3 Hark, Hark ca. 1559-1645 from The first Part of Ayres, London, 1605. (viola da gamba) II DII, tk 4 Ayre Simon Ives DII, tk 5 Courant 1600-1662 DII, tk 6 The Hobbyhorse Dance Anon. published by DII, tk 7 A Scotch Tune call’d Sawney John Playford, 1623-1686 from Musick’s Recreation on the Violl, Lyra-way, London, 1652 (viola da gamba) III Partita XIV August Kuhnel DI, tk 5 Preludio 1645-ca 1700 DI, tk 6 Allemande DI, tk 7 Courante DI, tk 9 Giga from Sonate o Partite e une o due viola da gamba col il Basso continuo, Cassel, 1698. (viola da gamba and basso continuo [harpsichord, viola da gamba]) Part II, 1st half of the 18th century I Lection 25 George Philipp Telemann DI, tk 2 Dolce 1681-1767 DI, tk 3 Scherzando from Der Getreue Musikmeister, Hamburg, 1728. (viola da gamba and basso continuo [harpsichord, viola da gamba]) II Pièces de Viole Louis de Caix D’Hervelois DI, tk 14 Prèlude ca. 1670-1759 DI, tk 17 La Montigny Vivement DI, tk 16 La Barvaroise Gravement DI, tk 18 La Tranquardine from Second Livre de Pièces de Viole avec la Basse Continue, Paris, 1719. (viola da gamba and basso continuo [harpsichord , viola da gamba]) III Sonata à viola da gambe attrib. to Georg Friedrich è cembalo obligato Handel, 1685-1759, DI, tk 19 Larghetto perhaps by Johann Matteis DI, tk 20 Allegro Leffloth, 1705-1731 DI, tk 21 Adagio DI, tk 22 Allegro (viola da gamba, obligato harpsichord, viola da gamba) Part III, 2nd half of the 18th century I DII, tk 1 Adagio [wko 187] Carl Friedrich Abel 1723-1787 M.S. Music for Thomas Gainsborough, 1727-1788. (viola da gamba) II Sonata for Viola de gamba solo Carl Friedrich Abel DII, tk 8 Largo DII, tk 9 Allegro DII, tk 10 Tempo di Minuetto M.S. Music book for Elizabeth Spencer Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, 1738-1831 (viola da gamba) III Sonata [k.169] Carl Friedrich Abel DII, tk 21 Allegro DII, tk 22 Minuetto DII, tk 23 Allegretto M.S. Music book for Countess of Pembroke (two violas da gamba) IV Sonata, Opera II, no. 1 William Flackton DII, tk 14 Largo 1709-1798 DII, tk 15 Allegro moderato DII, tk 17 Tempo di Minuetto Six Sonatas…, Opera II, London, 1770. (viola da gamba and basso continuo [pianoforte, viola da gamba]) V Sonata [K.177] Carl Friedrich Abel DII, tk 18 Allegro DII, tk 19 Andante DII, tk 20 Allegro M.S. Music book for Countess of Pembroke (viola da gamba and basso continuo [pianoforte, viola da gamba]) Robert Wayne Moss, viola da gamba; Sarah Glosson, viola da gamba; Michael Monaco, harpsichord & pianoforte. Recorded in the Apollo Room of the Raleigh Tavern at Colonial Williamsburg Instruments Viola da gamba, after Barack Norman, ca. 1700, by George Wilson, Colonial Williamsburg, 1971. Viola da gamba, after Barack Norman, 1692, by Charles Ogle, Eugene, Oregon, 1998. Harpsichord, after Thomas Barton, 1709, by Peter Redstone, Claremont, Virginia, 2002. Pianoforte, after Johannes Zumpe, 1766, by John Watson, Colonial Williamsburg, 1993.   I Tobias Hume (b. ca. 1569–d. London, April 6, 1645) was an English viola da gamba player and composer. He always considered himself to be a professional soldier and a gentlemen amateur musician. Hume attempted to show his chosen instrument as the equal of the lute in solo, ensemble, and continuo playing. He published The First Part of Ayres in London in 1605, only two years before the settlement at Jamestown was established. II John Playford (b. Norfolk, 1623–d. London, 1686), English music publisher, was in business from 1648 until 1684. His most famous publication, The Dancing Master, first published in 1651, was so popular that it was revised and reprinted many times. The 12th edition was published in 1703. The collection of unaccompanied tunes entitled Musick’s Recreation on the Violl, published in 1652, was intended for the use of young players and includes pieces by known composers such as Simon Ives (1600-1662), as well as anonymous tunes in a popular vein. III August Kuhnel (b. Delmenhorst, August 3, 1645–d. ca. 1700) was a German viola da gamba virtuoso and composer. He was a musician of the Saxon court in 1669. During the 1680s, Kuhnel was active as a performer in London. The London Gazette (November 23, 1685) announced a performance of his own works. Kuhnel’s Sonate o Partite a une o due viola da gamba col il Basso Continuo (a collection of 14 suites and sonatas) was published in Cassel (now Kassel) in 1698, one year before the city of Williamsburg was established. IV Georg Philipp Telemann (b. Magdeburg, March 14, 1681–d. Hamburg, June 25, 1767) was the most prolific composer of his day and widely regarded as the leading German composer of the mid-18th century. His music shows the charming melodic lines, clear divisions, and transparency of the “Galant” style. Telemann was also fond of using elements borrowed from folk music. Der Getreue Music–Meister (a series of lessons for various instruments and voice) was published in Hamburg in 1728-29. V Louis de Caix D’Hervelois (b. ca. 1670–d. 1759) was a French viola da gamba virtuoso and composer. He was, along with Marin Marais and Antoine Forqueray [“le père”], one of the three great viola da gamba virtuosi active in Paris during the first part of the 18th century. He published five volumes of Pieces de Viole avec la Basse-Continue in Paris in 1709, 1719, 1731, 1740, and 1748. His music displays a genuine gift for melody. VI The Sonata a viola da gamba e cembalo obligato has for many years been attributed to Georg Friedrich Handel (1685-1759), the most famous composer in England in the first half of the 18th century. While it is true that Handel’s name attached to a composition would improve sales, it is almost certain that he had nothing to do with the creation of this work. Many names have been put forth as the composer of this work, some more likely than others. One good candidate is the German child prodigy Johann Matteis Leffloth (1705-1731). VII William Flackton (b. Canterbury, March, 1709–d. Canterbury, January 5, 1798) was an English organist and composer of both church music and chamber works. He held the organist post at Faversham from 1735-1752. Flackton published his Six Solos…, Opus II dedicating the work to Sir William Young, 1st Baronet, and Lieutenant Governor of His Majesty’s Island of Dominica. In the preface to these sonatas, Flackton thanks Carl Friedrich Abel: “The Author takes this Opportunity to acknowledge his particular Obligations to Mr. Abel for inspecting this work in Manuscript before it went to press…” VIII Carl Friedrich Abel (b. Cothen, December 22, 1723–d. London, June 20, 1787), German born composer and viola da gamba virtuoso, was the last great viola da gambist in England. He studied with his father in Cothen. When his father died in 1737, Abel moved to Leipzig, where he worked with Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1759). Five years later he was named court viola da gambist in Dresden. Abel was forced to flee Dresden in 1757 when the army of Friedrich the Great sacked the city. He arrived in London in time for the 1758-59 concert season. In 1762 Abel was joined in London by J.S. Bach’s youngest son, John Christian Bach (1735-1782) and as musical business partners, the two great virtuosi/composers dominated the English music world well into the 1780s. The works presented here are drawn from manuscripts compiled for Abel’s friend Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) and his student Elizabeth Spencer Herbert, Countess of Pembroke (1738-1831). The bass viola da gamba [bass viol; basse de viole] is a bowed string instrument. Held in the legs of the player, the viol usually has six strings (tuned – D-G-C-e-a-d’) and carries seven tied-gut frets on the neck. It has a carved arched soundboard and usually a flat back. Unlike with the members of the violin family, the bow is held underhand. Because viols are more lightly constructed and strung than the violin family, they are more resonant but less powerful in tone, and are therefore less suited to large ensembles or performance spaces. In chamber music, however, the unique character of the viol was exploited by numerous composers throughout the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. Changes in musical styles and performance requirements (including larger venues and ensembles) eventually caused the viol’s decline in popularity and use. R. W. Moss Biography Robert Wayne Moss graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in 1976, having majored in 17th- and 18th-century performance practice on the viola da gamba. At Oberlin he studied viola da gamba with Catherina Meints and had master classes with August Wenzinger. Mr. Moss has appeared as a soloist and a member of various ensembles in the United States and Europe, and has served as associate faculty for viola da gamba at North Texas State University, Southern Methodist University, Rice University, The University of Texas – Austin, and The College of William and Mary. He also helped coach early performance practices with The American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. For the last 26 years, he has been a member of the Governor’s Musick, the performing ensemble of Colonial Williamsburg. Michael Monaco was trained in 18th-century music performance at the Mannes College of Music in New York City. He has been principal keyboardist for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation since 1997, and greatly enjoys playing on the historic instruments in daytime and in evening programs as a member of The Governor’s Musick. Michael has a special love for the unsung English keyboard music popular in the 18th century. Sarah Glosson, Ph.D., is on the applied music faculty at The College of William and Mary, teaching viola da gamba. She has performed with the Governor’s Musick for the past seventeen years on both baroque cello and viola da gamba. Prof. Glosson has recently completed her Ph.D. in American Studies at The College of William and Mary. Her research deals with the history of literary fandom in America. I. Music’s Place in Colonial Times “Perhaps the grave and wise regard music as a frivolous and enervating luxury… Electricity has likewise, by some, been considered merely as … amusement to the curious… However the identity between lightning and electric fire, first proved by Dr. Franklin, has led him to one of the most useful discoveries… In a similar manner it has … been said of music, that it is indeed a charming resource … but, say the sour and worldly, what is its use? Music has indeed ever been the delight of…princes, and the most elegant amusement of polite courts; but at present, it is so combined with things sacred and important as well as with our pleasure, that it seems necessary to our existence: it forms a considerable part of divine service; … it is essential to military discipline; and the theatres would languish without it … [and] there is hardly a private family in a civilized nation without its flute, fiddle, its harpsichord, or guitar.” So says Charles Burney (1726-1814), English music historian, critic, and composer about music’s place in 1770s society. A century and a half earlier, in the 17th century, most men granted that music was a worthwhile activity even if only to make life more pleasant: “As great men have many cares to hinder their delights, so have they much choice of delights to sweeten their cares. Among which more elected and almost divine pleasures, Humanity must needs give Musicke a supreme worth…” Captain Hume’s Poeticalle Musicke, 1607. More extreme and puritanical individuals railed against all the arts and music in particular: “That which is always accompanied with effeminate lust-provoking music is doubtless inexpedient and unlawful unto Christians.” Histriomastix, William Prynne, 1632 By 1700 more reasonable and same opinions prevailed: “Music is a science peculiarly productive of a pleasure that no state of life, public or private, secular or sacred; no difference of age or season; no temper of mind or condition of health exempt from present anguish; nor, lastly, distinction of quality, renders either improper, untimely, or unentertaining.” Samuel Pepys in a letter to Oxford University, 1700 The rising prosperity (and respectability) of the middle and working classes in England and her colonies allowed an increase in spending on and the enjoyment of leisure activities such as music. The enjoyment of music at public concerts, the theatre, or in amateur performances at home quickly became an important part of the pursuit of happiness. Mastering music’s challenges involved considerable efforts of time and fortune even in the colonies: “The Subscriber, living at Mr. Nicholson’s, in Williamsburg, proposes to Teach Gentlemen and Ladies on the Organ, harpsichord or spinet, and to instruct those Gentlemen that play other instruments, so as to enable them to play in concert.” Cuthbert Ogle, Virginia Gazette, March 28, 1755 II. The Viola da gamba in Colonial Virginia. On May 14, 1607 three small ships, the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery, landed just over one hundred English men and boys on a low swampy island in the James River. These men and boys established the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. Music has been a part of Virginia’s history from its earliest days. Recent archeological excavations at Jamestown Island have unearthed, among the hundreds of thousands of artifacts, fragments of musical instruments from as early as 1608. By the time John Utie arrived in Jamestown in 1620 with his viola da gamba, the pattern of Virginia’s planter society was established. In the early 17th century, the violin (i.e. fiddle) was held in low esteem, considered fit only for professional musicians and not for gentlemen amateurs. This occasions an interesting slander case in Virginia court records: “A Court helde the 16th August, 1624 at Jamestown… Ensign John Utie complayneth against William Taylor for speaking Divers reproachful speeches and slanderous words… Thomas Passmour sworne … sayth that he hurde Wm. Taylor cale Mr. Utie fiddling Rogue and Rascall… Henry Woodward sworne … sayth he hurde Wm. Taylor cale Mr. Utie fiddling Rogue and Rascall and that he was a fiddler in England and got his living by fiddling… William Taylor answers … He confesseth that he called Mr. Utie fiddler, because he saw him play upon a Violl at Sea: and saith that he hurde others say that he was a musitione in England.” By the time Williamsburg was established as Virginia’s new capital in 1699, many households, such as that of Thomas Jordan, had one or more musical instruments on hand: “A True & Perfect Inventory of all Goods & Chattles of Thomas Jordan … … a pair of very old Virginalls, a bass viol unfixt… Surry County Court, July 6, 1686 The 18th century saw the gradual decline of the viola da gamba’s popularity; however it remained in use throughout the century as an instrument proper to both men and women. “October 10, 1743. Henry Carter of Lancaster, Co., Va., will probated… …a pair of silver shoe buckles, a viol, twelve leather chairs…” III. The Viola da gamba in Colonial America In the other colonies as in Virginia, use of the viola da gamba was widespread throughout society: “Ran away from his master, Mr. Andrew Gilman of Exeter, on the 18th of November last, and Indian man servant named Covy, about 27 years of age: He is a short thicke fellow, has a very grum voice, and a smooth face, speaks very good English, can read and write, and plays on a Viol.” Boston Evening Post, December 26, 1737 “To be sold by a Gentleman who lodges at Widow Dorcy’s, nigh the shipyards … Two fine violins, a girls six-stringed bass viol,… New York Mercury, August 13, 1759 “James Joan hereby acquaints the publick… He teaches the violin, bass-viol, and German flute…the manufacture of violins, bass-viols, etc. is still carried on by him at said place, in the greatest perfection, from two to ten guineas price.” Boston News Letter, September 6, 1770 “Martin Foy, Has for sale, at his house in Pear-Street… A collection of musical Instruments, German flutes…, Cremona violins…, French Horns…, an elegant Bass Viol…” Pennsylvania Journal, Feb. 6, 1772 “[The British] stole and carried off [your] musical Instruments, viz. a Welsh harp… a set of tuned Bells which were in a box [and a] viola da gamba.” Letter from Sarah Bache to her Father [Benjamin Franklin] in Paris, after the British evacuated Philadelphia in June,1779