Search - Tobias Hume :: Tobias Hume: Musicall Humors, London 1605

A Great Musical Mercenary

Il Condottiero | 04/11/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Hume was a for-profit man of arms during his day who moonlighted as a viol composer, and a fine musician he was. Savall gets the full measure of this music, inspired by a lifetime of study. If one wants a taste of life as seen through the optics of a mercenary during the Thirty Years War, you cannot do better than this disc. Heartily recommended.

-Il Condottiero"

Melancholy Delight

Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 12/06/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It might seem paradoxical that lusty England in its Golden Age, the age that produced Shakespeare and Sir Francis Drake, also produced a great legacy of music marked by a pervasive melancholy, the music of Dowland, Byrd, Lawes, Tye, and... Captain Tobias Hume. Civic life in England around 1600 was no doubt brimming with optimism and opportunity, but on the ground on the level of individual survival, it must have been an arduous and uncertain struggle for many if not most. Hume is a prime example. Little is known about his military career except that it wasn't very rewarding. Born in 1569, in the year 1624 he retired to a charity institution for broken-down soldiers, where he died in 1645 after unsuccessfully petitioning the King for support. In 1605 and 1607, when he was in his thirties, he published two books of music, from which these Musicall Humors are taken. They are beloved of viola da gamba players for their melancholy whimsy. Hume himself must have been a skilled gambist; these pieces are among the first to treat the newly-popular gamba as a solo instrument, and also among the first to exploit the possibilities of notating gamba music in tablature, opening the way to considerable virtuosity. One has to see something of a thwarted genius in Captain Hume, a composer of great originality whose penury limited his scope.



The music we have, however, is a small treasure comparable to the poetry of Thomas Wyatt or the plays of Christopher Marlowe. No one has treated it with as much reverence as Jordi Savall, the premiere virtuoso of the viola da gamba in modern times. This CD features Savall doing what he does best, playing the lyra (tablature) gamba in all of its melancholy grace. Savall has produced a number of recordings of Hume's music, notably including "Poeticall Musicke" on DHM, a performance with a 'broken consort' (mixed ensemble) of artful Elizabethan dances and songs. The musicians on that disk include some of the superstars of Early Music: Bruce Dickey on cornetto, Paul Hillier and Montserrat Figueras singing, and Savall himself.



All in all, this CD of Musicall Humors (note the pun on Hume's own name) is a "balmy" performance in both common senses of the word. That is, it's a delightful musical diversion, and an odd exhibit of musical eccentricity. In Hume's case, those two senses seem inseparable."

A SPECIAL CD

Alvaro Mateos | spain | 05/24/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Well after 2 years owning this CD, I think its time to pay tribute to one of the most beloved CDs I own. Why ¿? Well because it is special, I would never expect such a cheerful and old daily musical surprise. Played so well by Savall-Hesperion as they are used to.



It is also one of the best recordings I own, fortunatelly transfered into a only-CD (avoid hybrid sacd, when playing only CD transport) and this is important when you really expect to hear the armonic textures, timber and transitories of Savalls Barac Norman instrument.



I give it five stars, missing six or seven...!

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