You may have been taken by the very evocative album jacket for Hélène Plouffe’s latest recording but are still wondering what a viola d’amore is. Is it the ancestor of the violin, is it played like a guitar?

Actually, the viola d’amore is a bowed, stringed instrument that started appearing at the end of the 17th century, initially in the Salzburg, Munich, and Bohemian regions and later in Italy, France and other European countries. Its origins are obscure, but it is likely that it evolved from instruments coming from the Middle East, Turkey and India, where instruments with additional resonating strings were common.  The viola d’amore, like the viol, has sloping shoulders, flat back, high ribs and a rosette but it is played like a violin or viola held under the chin. It usually has a carved head instead of a scroll, the most common one being a blindfolded cupid, giving its name to the instrument.

The majority of violas d’amore have fourteen strings – seven playing strings and seven additional resonating or sympathetic strings – that go through the bridge and between the fingerboard and neck of the instrument. During the Baroque period, it was common practice to tune the viola d’amore in the key of the individual piece. Joseph Maier listed 16 different tunings for viola d’amore in his 1732 treatise Museum musicum. By the end of the 18th century, the tuning settled into one tonality though, which is the one that is most often used today: A - D - A - F’ - F#’ - A’ - D”

The viola d’amore was very popular during the Baroque and Classical periods. Composers who wrote for the instrument include Johann Sebastian Bach, Christoph Graupner, Georg Philip Telemann, Antonio Vivaldi, Alessandro Scarlatti, Pietro Locatelli, Christian Petzold, Johann Joachim Quantz, Joseph Leopold Eybler, as well as Johann and Carl Stamitz.

To listen to the album….

International Women’s Day yesterday. Why not prolong the event with the discovery of a female composer from the Baroque era, Francesca Caccini? She is featured on Shannon Mercer’s new album, Viva Rosa, to be released today.

Born in Florence in 1587 and often nicknamed “La Cecchina” (the singing bird), Francesca Caccini is the daugther of Giulio Caccini, a prolific and respected composer  who wrote several books of madrigals including La Nuove Musiche and numerous reference books. Along with her brother Pompeo and sister Settimia, she was a member of the Concerto Caccini, an ensemble whose notable performances included singing at the marriage of Henri IV of France and Maria de Medici in 1600. Four years later, when the king heard her in Paris, he was profoundly moved. “You are the best singer in France,” he unequivocally stated and immediately offered her a position at court, but the Florentine officials refused to release her from her engagement. In 1607, Francesca gets a position with the Medici as a teacher, singer, vocal coach and composer of lyric and chamber music.

The testimonies from that period are unanimous: Francesca Caccini was a remarkable musician, known as a singer but also as a polyvalent instrumentalist who mastered the luth, the guitar and the harpsichord. Having received a humanist education from the very start, she was also a respected poet and most probably wrote most of the texts of the collection presented here, excepted Difpiegate (a text by Ceba).

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The following interview with Arvo Pärt was conducted at the composer’s home at Mustamäe, November 28, 1978. Filmed by Andres Sööt, the dialogue (at times, Arvo’s wife Eleonora seconds his husband behind the screen) and the rehearsal of the soon-to-be-premiered Italian Concerto at the concert hall Estonia became the basis for the film-portrait entitled Arvo Pärt in November 1978. The conversation, which lasted more than an hour was painstakingly transribed and shows a rare glimpse in the mind of the composer… You can read it by clicking on the Articles tab of the Arvo Pärt Information Archive.

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It was last night at the St-Paul Hotel that was launched Angèle Dubeau & La Pietà’s latest album, dedicated to the contemporary composer Arvo Pärt. Here is how Angèle Dubeau talked about the composer:

“His music has touched me deeply in the last few years, as does the music of Philip Glass. Even if he’s really different, Pärt has a unique signature. To draw a faithful portrait of this exceptional composer, I had to search for raw material: music of deceptive simplicity, freed from all artifice, in which silence becomes music. All-wisdom, this language calms me and it is almost with devotion that I performed this luminous and vibrant music.”

To listen to the album…