Hume `Musicall Humors'

Captaine Humes Pavan. A Souldiers Resolution. Deth. Life. Captaine Humes Galliard. Touch me lightly. A Pavane. My hope is decayed. A Souldiers Gailiard. Beccus an Hungarian Lord. The Second part. A Question. An Answere. The new

Cut Good againe. The Duke of Holstones Almaine. Hark! Hark!. The Spirit of Gambo: The Lord Dewys favoret Humorous Pavin. Love's Farewell

Jordi Savall va da gamba Alia Vox 0 AV9837 (70' • DDD) A modern master turns his stylish attention to an English viol pioneer

Tobias Hume (c15701645) was a professional soldier and a 'gentleman' (read amateur) composer, and virtuoso of the bass viol. His Musical! Humors (1605), a large collection of solo pieces, is the first publication devoted to the lyra viol, a style of playing that treated the instrument polyphonically, like a lute. Hume reveals himself as a distinct, even eccentric, personality, and an inventive composer, expanding the viol's normal range with such unusual devices as col legno ('Drum this with the backe of your Bow').

Jordi Savall's cultivated, elegant style is very appropriate for much of the music; occasionally he adopts a more earthy manner to great effect-for example in

A Souldiers Resolution, with its trumpet and drum imitations. When Captain Hume's .

Humors become more reflective, in a piece like Beccus an Hungarian Lord, Savall uses varied bow strokes and dynamic shadings with great artistry, to bring out the music's dignified, sombre character.

In characterising the music so strongly, Savall's rhythms are often very free; the rushing scalic divisions and lingering approaches to cadences balance one another, and prevent the music ever seeming stiff or mechanical. But with such improvisatory freedom it's often quite difficult to follow the basic metre — this is especially so in the Pavanes, where I longed to hear the stately dance measure more clearly emphasised. But I'm very grateful to Savall for extending the Hume discography so effectively and stylishly. It's a finely produced disc, too, with a fascinating essay about the composer by David Pinto. Duncan Druce