Hume, Tobias
Captain Hume's Poeticall Musicke principally made for two Basse-Viols, yet so contrived, that it may be played 8 severall waies upon sundry Instruments with much facilitie
1 The first way or musicke is for one Basse-Viole to play alone in parts, which standeth alwaies on the right side of this Booke.
2 The second musicke is for two Basse-viols to play together.
3 The third musicke, for three Basse-Viols to play together.
4 The fourth musicke, for two Tenor Viols and a Basse-Viole.
5 The fift musicke, for two Lutes and a Basse-Viole.
6 The sixt musicke, for two Orpherions and a Basse-Viole.
7 The seventh musicke, to use the voyce to some of these musicks, but especially to the three Basse Viols, or to the two Orpherions with one Basse-Viole to play the ground.
8 The eight and last musicke, is consorting all these instruments together with the Virginals, or rather with a winde Instrument and the voice.
London, John Windet
GB-Ge, GB-Lbl, GB-Mp, US-Ws
14 pieces ms. in GB-Ob MS. Mus. Sch. D.245-247 Merro
print: IMSLP; Early English Books Online
facsimile: The Scolar Press; Atelier Philidor
modern editions: Joëlle Morton (vocal pieces); Musedita
The collection contains 24 pieces, of which 21 instrumental pieces in 3 parts, 2 songs for voice and 3 instrumental parts, and 1 song for voice and bass viol. The instrumentations proposed in the title at numbers 1-6 refer to the instrumental pieces in the collection.
Two of the instrumental parts are in tablature, one in staff notation. In the case of a performance with 3 bass viols, the third viol must transpose the part a fourth lower.
Three of the instrumental pieces (The Earle of Pembrooke his Galliard, A Merry Conceit, The State of Gambo) had already been published in a version for lyra viol solo in Hume’s The First Part of Ayres, n. 2, 4bis, 34.
A/I: H 7886, ID 990031823
ms. Merro: ID 800271631
Andrew Ashbee, John Merro’s Manuscripts Revisited, «The Viola da Gamba Society Journal», 2013, vol 7, pp 1-19. http://vdgs.org.uk/journal/Vol-07.pdf