tobias hume
“To the understanding reader”
The most Excellent inventions of Capt. Tobias Hume
For the Viole de Gambo alone, yet also contrived for other Musicall conceites, and that are to bee plaied by severall viols, treble and basse, the lute, that may be sung to the voice, and sounded on the hurdy-gurdy with much facilitie.Tobias Hume, English mercenary, a rather rugged man of arms, whose only feminine part (says he) was music, composed two volumes of pieces for the viol, published in 1605 and 1607.
His compositions – of bewildering an originality, a humour, yet sometimes much more melancholy: at times ferociously violent, at others delicately sweet – went unoticed at the time.
We were starting to become familiar with his style – his compositions take up more than half of the musical programm of our To.The.Onlie.Begetter. production – we felt a great urge to devote a whole programm to him, and further explore the crazy inventions of this oxymorical soldier.
To explore them, drowning ourselves in them, striving to have a whole span of his changing moods heard, also offering a declamation of his few texts that have passed on to us, as well as the performance of some pieces which might have inspired his compositions (an idea which he naturally firmly denies).
The Obe is delighted to welcome you to this concert, with a most fantastic instrumental faun: Mélusine de Pas (soprano, treble and bass viols), Marie-Suzanne de Loye (bass viol) and Charles Di Meglio (lute, hurdy-gurdy, drums, declamation and direction), in a complete candle-lit show, with costumes, set designs, declamated and sung texts, and of course, music — precisely what a show was thought to be in the Elizabethan era.