The viola da gamba, Marais' preferred instrument, resembles the human voice more than the violin or lute due to its overtone structure.
Cultural Impact
The 1991 film "Tous les matins du monde" (All the Mornings of the World), featuring Jordi Savall's Couplets de Folies, helped popularize the viola da gamba for a wide audience.
Composer Biography
Marin Marais, a central figure in French Baroque music, was born in Paris in 1656 to a shoemaker, not a musical family.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Baroque aesthetics, influenced by Aristotle, considered the value of an artwork to be tied to its degree of imitation, whether of human character or nature.
Instruments
The bass viol used in this recording was custom-built by Dominique Freguin, based on an original Michel Collichon instrument, using 17th-century techniques to achieve an authentic French viol sound.
Historical Context
In 1740, Hubert Le Blanc called Marais, Forqueray, and Caix d'Hervelois the "three rulers in the empire of the viol," in a text defending the instrument against the violin and cello.
Compositional Technique
The viola da gamba's unique construction allows it to combine melodic lines and broken chords, bridging 'violinistic' and 'lutenistic' styles.
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