Ayre from the Compleat Violist - Benjamin Hely - 1699

With some major events from the year of publishing in the video. score (without ornaments) You can order a facsimile here: The compleat violist : or an introduction to ye art of playing on ye bass viol : wherein the necessary rules & directions are laid down in a plain & familiar method : with a collection of the psalm tunes set to the viol as they are now in use in the churches where there are organs : to which are added some select aires & tunes set according to ye divers manners of playing by the G sol re ut cliff, the C sol fa ut cliff & ye fa ut cliff : also several lessons, viz. Almans, sarabands, courants & Iiggs &c I feel so free to copy and paste here an article from: Chelys 16 (1987), review (1) [44] Benjamin Hely: The Compleat Violist. Edited by Hermelinde Klemt. The tutor ’The Compleat Violist or An Introduction to the Art of Playing on the Viol’ published in 1699 is now available in facsimile edited by Hermelinde Klemt. The English facsimile has been translated into German with the usual introductory material in German. It is uncertain whether the tutor itself is by Hely but much of the unaccompanied music in the book was composed by ’the late famous master Benjamin Hely’. The teaching material itself is of little value to viol players—there is a section on basic rudiments and only some brief information on holding the viol and bow. The bulk of the book consists of a series of graded pieces for unaccompanied viol. Although the easiest psalm tunes are in the treble clef (’being cheiffly designed for young Practitioners’) they are for performance on the bass viol, the treble viol having died out some years before; these tunes are ornamented in seventeenth-century style with shakes, beats, forefalls and backfalls, and thus throw an interesting light on performance-practice at the end of the century. There follows a series of airs and dances using treble, alto and bass clefs, again ornamented appropriately in the same style. It is, however, the later pieces in the book by Hely which are of the greatest musical worth. The concluding two suites of unaccompanied bass viol music in A minor and A major (available in a modern edition together with his 6 Sonatas for two bass viols and continuo in ’The King’s Musick’ Series) are fine works, each having the customary Almand, Courant, Saraband and Gigg, which present a challenge to the viol player. IAN GRAHAM-JONES The rest of that issue: ernst stolz