Chapter 8 - The Suites for Two Bass Viols and Organ

Summary

LAWES’S development of formal structures to accommodate elaborate divisions is perhaps best observed in his pieces for two bass viols and organ. Seven survive, one of which is incomplete. Both autograph scores (GB-Ob, MS Mus. Sch. B.2) and parts (GB-Ob, MSS Mus. Sch. D.238, D.240 and D.229) have fortunately survived. In the string partbooks the pieces appear to be arranged into suites: a suite in g (pavan and two aires); then four pieces in C, although it is unclear whether Lawes intended these as two pairs – Pavan ﹛104﹜ and Alman ﹛105﹜, and Aire ﹛106﹜ and Corant ﹛107﹜ – or as one suite. The relationship between these pieces in the autograph sources is complex. In B.2 they are in the following order: Pavan ﹛101﹜, Aire ﹛102﹜, Aire ﹛103﹜, Corant ﹛107﹜, Pavan ﹛104﹜, Alman ﹛105﹜ and Aire ﹛106﹜, with the lute suite between Pavan ﹛101﹜ and Aire ﹛102﹜. In the partbooks they come in the order suggested by the VdGS numbers. Moreover, the bass viol parts of Aire ﹛106﹜ are complete in D.238–40, but only the bass line of the first strain of the organ is in D.229; the organ and some of the second viol part is missing in B.2.

COMPOSITIONS for two equal bass viols with organ accompaniment appear to have begun with Coprario. Although the genre is likely to have largely developed from the tradition of setting solo bass viol divisions to an organ accompaniment (see below) the equal lute duets that developed in the late sixteenth century may also have served as a model. Twelve pieces by Coprario for two bass viols and organ survive. They are through-composed, essentially bi-sectional fantasias, formally similar to many fantasias by Ferrabosco; they contain only occasional, and undemanding, division passages. Andrew Ashbee has suggested that Coprario probably composed the duos between 1617 and 1625 for performance in the Prince Charles’s household. This seems likely, given that they are compositionally more mature than his viol consorts or lyra-viol trios. Coprario’s duos also appear to be the earliest examples in England of consort music with an independent organ accompaniment conceived as a harmonic foundation.