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The Radio 3 Boards > The Music Boards > Music Through The Ages > Baroque Music > Graupner - Schmaupner
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Author Topic: Graupner - Schmaupner  (Read 423 times)
richard barrett
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« on: 18:31:00, 02-08-2007 »
Far be it from me to extol the virtues of a little-known Baroque composer on the grounds of his having written for a little-known instrument, but I've just been listening to the Premier Livre (1701) of suites for pardessus de viole and continuo by Louis Heudelinne, played by Simone Eckert and "Musique des dames" (on the Christophorus label) and thought I ought to recommend it here. The general stylistic area of the music is in the Marais/Couperin region, but there's quite some individuality in it, and the tone of the instrument is what the word "silvery" could have been invented for - all the quasi-vocal articulations and intimate qualities of the lower viols sound very attractively delicate on an instrument whose range is more similar to the violin. Each suite has at least one piece without continuo accompaniment, and, as often in this repertoire, the sarabandes, rondeaux and chaconnes bring out the best in this composer (whom we've never heard of because he didn't hang out in Versailles). Ms Eckert's approach isn't as, well, "baroque" would be the word I suppose, as Jordi Savall's might be, but I don't think these pieces are likely to be recorded by anyone else in the very near future.
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #1 on: 23:27:48, 02-08-2007 »
Aha, I was just looking longingly at a pardessus de viole hanging on the wall at the Early Music Shop in London this morning, too.  However, I didn't have the nerve (after a gap of 20+ years since I last touched a viol of any size) to pick the thing up, even though one is allowed to Wink

However, as someone who long ago played in student viol consorts, I have the utmost admiration for anyone who can cajole a pleasing and enthralling sound from the smaller instruments of the family, whose tone is often sadly shrill in the hands of the unskilled (whereas really anyone can pull a nice sound from a 7-string bass).
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
-  Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
oliver sudden
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« Reply #2 on: 23:39:12, 02-08-2007 »
Wasn't Heudelinne the chap who called himself Scardanelli in odd moments?

Hm. I note that there are three threads with Graupner in the title. Not a bad effort considering he asked for all his manuscripts to be burned after his death...  Wink
« Last Edit: 23:42:02, 02-08-2007 by oliver sudden » Logged
richard barrett
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« Reply #3 on: 23:41:13, 02-08-2007 »
Just give it a listen. You'll like it. You too, Garnett, once you've finished smirking at the back there.
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #4 on: 23:42:48, 02-08-2007 »
I shall certainly give it a listen. But what exactly is little-known about the treble viol?  Cheesy

One of the things that saddens me a little about the Hespèrion XX(I) recordings of viol consort repertoire is J Savall's way with the treble, I'm afraid... he does manage to make the thing sound just that little bit too sentimental just that little bit too often. Shame because that's the only serious blemish on some still-flabbergasting recordings.
« Last Edit: 23:44:43, 02-08-2007 by oliver sudden » Logged
Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #5 on: 00:04:53, 03-08-2007 »
Quote from: oliver sudden on 23:42:48, 02-08-2007
But what exactly is little-known about the treble viol?  Cheesy


The indefatigable Ephraim Segerman (who surely knows more about strings and tunings of pre-1800 stringed instruments than most living souls) contends that the pardessus wasn't a treble, but was strung a fourth higher:

http://www.nrinstruments.demon.co.uk/PardQuin.html

You'd have to have catlines on the upper strings or the break-rate would be staggering...  I think catlines were only produced from the C17th onwards,  when the upper viols in the rest of Europe were already being displaced by fiddles...
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
-  Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
richard barrett
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« Reply #6 on: 00:10:15, 03-08-2007 »
Quote from: oliver sudden on 23:42:48, 02-08-2007
I shall certainly give it a listen. But what exactly is little-known about the treble viol?  Cheesy
A pardessus isn't the same thing as a treble viol, you know. Apart from which, what's little-known about it is its solo repertoire, I think.

Quote
One of the things that saddens me a little about the Hespèrion XX(I) recordings of viol consort repertoire is J Savall's way with the treble, I'm afraid... he does manage to make the thing sound just that little bit too sentimental just that little bit too often. Shame because that's the only serious blemish on some still-flabbergasting recordings.
Not round here, squire. I love what he does with it.
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #7 on: 00:55:16, 03-08-2007 »
Quote from: richard barrett on 00:10:15, 03-08-2007
A pardessus isn't the same thing as a treble viol, you know.

Oops! 0-15, Mr Sudden.

(Still not a fan of Savall's treble playing though... Wink)
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