Jordi Savall returns to us, not as a conductor, but as an instrumentalist, to promote the consort of viols with his ensemble Hespèrion XXI. Fantasies, battles and dances. The Golden Age of Consort Music (1500-1750) will be presented Sunday in Quebec, Monday in Montreal and Tuesday in Ottawa.
Montreal music lovers are in luck: it is precious to be able to hear the fine inflections of a consort of viols in the fine acoustics of the Maison symphonique. In Quebec, spectators will enjoy the warmth of the sounds of the Palais Montcalm. Because Jordi Savall is returning to his roots: the viola and the repertoire for ensembles of this family of instruments, the consort.
“At the beginning of the sixteenthe century, new instruments enter the scene compared to the instruments of the Middle Ages, analyzes Jordi Savall. There are two families of bowed instruments. The family of arm viols, which later became the violin and its variations. It features treble, alto, tenor and bass, four-string instruments tuned in fifths. The other family mixes the hurdy-gurdy and the medieval lute and borrows the bow from the hurdy-gurdy. These six-stringed instruments are tuned like the lute [quarte, quarte, tierce, quarte, quarte] and also feature soprano, alto, tenor and bass, plus violone or double bass. Jordi Savall points out that arm instruments are those of popular music or dance, because they can be played standing up, while violas da gamba, played seated, are intended for chamber music.
The best of all countries
“The soft sound lent itself to dialogue. We played in a circle in families of a certain education. It started in Italy, Spain, then went up to France, Germany and England. There, it became so popular that if you were invited to lunch in a house and you didn’t know how to play, you risked finding yourself in a very embarrassing situation! »
This enthusiasm explains the number of English composers who were interested in the consort. ” Our program The Golden Age of Music for Consort takes the finest examples of this art in each culture”, sums up the chef and gambist. Jordi Savall says that in Italy and Spain, the ensembles had four viols, in Germany five, a figure that could rise to seven in England.
“This music is surprisingly rich. There are dances like The King of Denmark’s Galiard, slow and expressive works like Semper Dowland Semper Dolensa portrait of Dowland by himself, shiny pieces like Sopra La Battaglia by Giuseppe Guami, highly sought-after pieces in terms of sound like Durezze and ligature by Giovanni Maria Trabaci, with constant games of dissonance or Four-note Pavan by Ferrabosco, where the soprano voice plays four notes while the other voices embroider very rich counterpoints. »
The consort of viols was not killed by the invention of the quartet: “The quartet came later, says Jordi Savall. What killed the consort of viols was the orchestra, with instruments capable of conquering larger venues with their more powerful sonorities. With the consort of viols, we joined at the time a hundred people, but not more. After Bach, the music evolves towards a more concerted music. But the evolution was also aesthetic, advocating, in the XVIIIe century, “the Italian style, with a more brilliant, more virtuoso music”, whereas the consort of viols rests on the equality of voices.
“Nobody dominates in this musical democracy”, concludes Jordi Savall.