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03/12/2006
Viola da Gamba revisited
Last night I came across a recording of a viola da gamba piece which is incredibly beautiful. You can find it online
here. It's played by Claas B. Harders, and it's amazing. It's a piece called Prélude en harpégement, by Marin Marais.
When I listened to this piece of music, it brought back a few memories. First off, is the recollection of a CD which I haven't listened to in a while - the soundtrack to the movie "Tous les matins du monde". I didn't really like the movie all that much, mainly because it features Gérard Dépardieu, an actor I don't really care for, and also because I hate it when an actor is playing a musical instrument and the fingers are doing something completely different from what you can hear in the music. Anyway, despite the movie, the soundtrack is full of incredible music, much of it by that same composer, Marin Marais. A few clips are available on this website. In particular I like the Sonnerie de Ste Geneviève (Track 16) and the Improvisations sur les folies d'Espagne (Track 2). Jordi Savall is the gamba player and he's simply amazing.
The other memories it brought back were my days of playing the viola da gamba in the Early Music ensemble at Carleton back in my undergrad days. I did this for a year and it was definitely interesting. The viola da gamba is roughly the same size as a cello, though it's different in quite a lot of ways. First, it has six strings instead of four, with entirely different tuning (there's only one note which is an open string on both the gamba and the cello - everything else required a mental shift). The gamba also has frets, whereas a cello doesn't. The first time I picked up the gamba and saw the frets, I thought, uh-oh, frets, I have no idea how to use frets!! Then there's the bow hold which is entirely different; cello bowing is done with an overhand grip on the bow (i.e., your palm faces down), while gamba bowing is done with an underhand grip (palm facing up). And if that wasn't enough to screw me over, all the gamba music is written in alto clef, which cellists never use. What cellists do sometimes use is tenor clef, which is exactly like alto clef, but one line up! All this to say, it really can mess with your mind to switch between cello and gamba. (Still it was fun anyway!)
The cello as we know it these days is modernized, with the neck set at an angle relative to the body, so that it won't break with the high tension strings we use nowadays. Typically we use synthetic cores wrapped with metals like steel or tungsten. The gamba, however, still uses gut strings, and a correspondingly lower tension. The sound of the two instruments is very different. The gamba is more nasal, and quieter, kind of like a cello with a head cold. (Actually, kind of similar to a cello with a heavy mute in place.) The good viola da gambas, like you hear in these recordings, do "ring" somewhat and have nice sounds, particularly on the bass side. The gamba I was using, however, was a basic beginner model, and sounded like a gamba with a head cold! (Maybe it's related to the fact that I didn't really know much about how to play it. That could have something to do with it too. :-)) Anyway, the nasal sound, I could get used to. What used to bug me was my inability to make lots of noise with it. Cellos are quite powerful instruments and you can really make the windowpanes rattle, which is especially good for playing through a foul mood. Viola da Gamba, not so much. :-) So after a few months of focusing on the gamba, I'd go after my cello feeling like Tim the Tool Man: More Power!!!! Har har har!!!!
Anyway, listening to great gamba music (and seeing the awesome workmanship of gambas at Violworks) suddenly makes me want to play some gamba again!
23:00 Posted in Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this