Jordi Savall: The Celtic Viol (La Viole Celtique): An Homage to the Irish and Scottish Musical Traditions
1. The Musical Priest / Scotch Mary Traditional Irish 2. Caledonia’s Wail for Niel Gow Simon Fraser (1816 Collection) 3. The Humours of Scariff Traditional Irish 4. Alastair MacAlastair Strathspey by Nathaniel Gow 5. Tom Brigg’s, Jig Ryan’s Mammoth Collection 6. The Globby O, Jig Ryan’s Mammoth Collection 7. Lord Moira’s & Jinrikisha Ryan’s Mammoth Collection 8. Sackow’s (Jig) Traditional Irish 9. Hard is my Fate Traditional Scottish 10. Chapel Keithack William Marshall (1822 Collection) 11. Gudewife, Admit the Wanderer Simon Fraser (1816 Collection) 12. Macpherson’s Lament James Macpherson (ca.1675-1700) 13. Tullochgorum Traditional Scottish Ree 14. Pretty Peggy Traditional Scottish 15. Twas within a furlong of Edinburgh Town H. Playford’s Dancing Master 1696 16. Màiri Bhàn Òg: Mary Young & fair Simon Fraser (1816 Collection) 17. Dowd’s Reel Traditional Irish 18. Lady Mary Hay’s Scots Measure Scottish Dance 19. Carolan’s Farewell O’Carolan (1670-1738) 20. Gusty’s Frolics Donegal Tradition 21. Emigrants Reel Ryan’s Mammoth Collection 22. The Lamentations of Owen Roe O’Neill O’Carolan 23. Princess Beatrice W.B. Laybourn (1835-1886) Book III 24. Prince Charlie’s Last view of Edinburgh Traditional Scottish 25. Trip it Upstairs (Single Jig) Traditional Irish 26. Mrs. McPherson of Gibton William Marshall (1822 Collection) 27. Tuttle’s Traditional Irish 28. Lament for the Death of his Second Wife Niel Go 29. The Gander in the pratie hole Traditional Irish
" My first acquaintance with Celtic music goes back to 1977-78, when we visited Kilkenny to give a concert with Hespèrion XX. During the Festival the streets, squares and pubs were teeming with all kinds of musicians (fiddlers, flute-players...) performing non-stop solo or accompanied (on a guitar or a small harp). What incredible vitality! And it was magical to see so many musicians living their music with that degree of intensity and emotion! I also got to know the music by listening to historic recordings from the 1920s, including those by the brilliant James Schott Skinner and Joe MacLean, as well as concerts by groups such as The Chieftains and others.
Over the last thirty years I have also been absolutely fascinated by the British repertory for the viol, and I have studied, performed and recorded many works for solo viol and viol consort by composers from Christopher Tye to Henry Purcell, including Tobias Hume, Alfonso Ferrabosco, William Corkine, William Brade, John Dowland, William Byrd, Thomas Ford, Orlando Gibbons, John Jenkins, William Lawes, John Playford and Matthew Locke, as well as anonymous Elizabethan and Jacobean composers. But it was the discovery of manuscripts such as the Manchester Gamba Book, containing more than 30 different tunings or scordatura tunings for the viol, and in particular the bagpipe tunings, which made me realize that the viol also had a very real connection with an ancient Celtic tradition which had been forgotten, just as the very existence of the instrument had sunk into oblivion after the death of the last violists such as K. F. Abel, who in his lifetime astonished audiences with the beauty and expressiveness of his improvisations on the viola da gamba. Charles Burney writes of him as follows: “I have heard him modulate in private on his six-stringed base with such practical readiness and depth of science, as astonished the late Lord Kelly and Bach, as much as myself.”
JORDI SAVALL Bellaterra, 20th February, 2009 Translated by Jacqueline Minett
