1 - Ayre and Divisions for two Viols and Organ (RC 45) - 04:24 2 - Sonata a 2 viol d. gamb. [cum basso continuo] (in d) - 04:21 3 - Ayre and Divisions for two Viols and Organ (RC 46) - 03:36 4 - Ayre a 2 Viols cum basso continuo - 02:05 5 - Courant a 2 Viols cum basso continuo - 03:05 6 - Aria a 2 Viols cum basso continuo - 03:07 7 - Saraband a 2 Viols cum basso continuo - 01:50 8 - Ayre and Divisions for two Viols and Organ - 03:23 9 - Fantasia a 2 Viols com basso continuo - 03:33 10 - Ayre a 2 Viols cum basso continuo - 04:52 11 - Fancy (Fantasia) a 2 Viols cum basso continuo - 03:44 12 - Courant a 2 Viols cum basso continuo - 02:28 13 - Ayre and Divisions for two Viols and Organ (RC 37) - 03:57 14 - Ayre a 2 Viols cum basso continuo - 03:45 15 - Alman a 2 Viols cum basso continuo - 02:41 16 - Alman (Ayre) a 2 Viols cum basso continuo - 04:23 17 - Ayre and Divisions for two Viols and Organ (RC 63) - 05:06 18 - Sonata a 2 viol d. gamb. [cum basso continuo] (in g) - 05:15 19 - Ayre and Divisions for two Viols and Organ (RC 44) - 06:23
The recent rediscovery of the Italian repertoire for viola da gamba has convincingly shown the legacy that the viola bastarda virtuosos left behind and exported to the rest of musical Europe of the seventeenth century. The practice of improvising passaggi on a polyphonic texture (madrigal or motet) was maintained in England during the seventeenth century, but it was applied to new Airs that did not necessarily exist in tabulature, as was the case with the viola bastarda repertoire. Pieces were subsequently reduced to a bass line only, or ground bass, on which the instrumentalist recreated a composition for several voices at the keyboard. . On this new composition the viol player improvised his passages, which in their basic scheme were an elaboration of the initial Italian practice. During the long life of John Jenkins (Maidstone, 1592 - Kimberley , 27 October 1678 ), and because of the great political upheavals in England and changing fashions, compositions for consort of viols gradually gave way to the new style of the Italian triosonata. To this stylistic change belong presumably the two sonatas ( Tracks 2 and 18). Here the instrumental model of Italian practice and taste is echoed, in which the triosonata for two violins reached a level of formal and aesthetic perfection that greatly influenced musical Europe. The dialogue between the two solo instruments and the artifice of playing double stops and chords, typical of the viola da gamba, recalls the preceding violin compositions of Salomone Rossi , Biagio Marini and Carlo Farina. In addition to the viola da gamba , in fact, Jenkins devotes much of his musical production to the violin . Both Sonatas are compositions that meet the rules of rhetorical eloquence , perfect constructions of a perfect discourse , and are splendid examples of oratory in music.