Marais studied the bass viol with Monsieur de Sainte Colombe, a highly renowned master who made technical innovations like adding a seventh bass string to the instrument.
Compositional Technique
Marais's Book I is notable for its sophistication, marking a turning point in bass viol repertoire and instrumental music, and he was the first composer to write trios, ushering in French chamber music.
Composition History
Marin Marais's first published work, Pièces à une et à deux violes, Book I, was dedicated to Jean-Baptiste Lully, the Superintendant of the Music of the King, to whom Marais owed much.
Compositional Technique
The Tombeau de Monsieur Meliton is an exclusively French genre, resembling the Plainte, and is characterized by a slow, free, and contemplative tempo with sophisticated expression and bold harmonic vocabulary.
Composer Biography
Marin Marais, the composer, was born in Paris in 1656 to a shoemaker father and grew up in modest surroundings.
Composer Biography
Marais became a choirboy at St. Germain-l'Auxerrois, the parish church of French kings, at the relatively old age of nearly eleven.
Instruments
This album features two 7-string bass viols, one made in 2016 by Judith Kraft after Guillaume Barbey (1687) and another made in 2008 by Judith Kraft after Michel Colichon (1693).
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