Life after Death: The Viola da Gamba in Britain from Purcell to Dolmetsch. By Peter Holman.
Ian Woodfield
Strikingly titled, Life after Death traces the history of viol in England following its presumed demise late seventeenth century. Once Golden Age Jacobean and Carolingian consort repertories had come to an end, new fashion was for sprightly Restoration violin. It evident that bass member family would still be useful continuo work, but as ensemble instrument English appeared all practical purposes moribund, even if it quit stage on a high note with sublime fantasias Purcell. A handful awkward facts remained puzzle anyone who cared examine this generally accepted narrative more critically. Why, example, London maker John Friedrich Hintz selling tenor viols 1750s 1760s? From whom did artist Gainsborough, ardent admirer viol, acquire his extraordinary collection antique instruments? After brief revival solo 1770s stimulated by career German virtuoso Karl Abel, gradually fell out use again, until Victorian age only name retained some currency. Readers Thomas Hardy could hardly avoid noticing ‘base viol’ (often rustic cello) indispensable rural parish band. Not least achievement Holman’s fine study is demonstration these, many other apparently isolated episodes, form part coherent ‘after-life’ instrument, narrow rich seam playing persisted unbroken throughout eighteenth century and, tenuously, into nineteenth.
Music & Letters