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The compleat violist, or, An introduction to ye art of playing on ye bass viol : with a collection of the psalm tunes ... to which are added some select aires & tunes ... also several lessons, viz. almans, sarabands, courants, Iiggs &c / compos'd for that instrument by ye late famous Benjamin Hely.
The Journal of the Viola da Gamba Society

http://www.vdgs.org.uk/files/chelys/16chelys1987.pdf

Chelys 16 (1987), review (1)
[44]
Benjamin Hely: The Compleat Violist.
Edited by Hermelinde Klemt.
The tutor 'The Compleat Violist or An Introduction to the Art of Playing on the
Viol' published in 1699 is now available in facsimile edited by Hermelinde
Klemt. The English facsimile has been translated into German with the usual
introductory material in German.
It is uncertain whether the tutor itself is by Hely but much of the unaccompanied music in the book was composed by 'the late famous master Benjamin
Hely'. The teaching material itself is of little value to viol players—there is a
section on basic rudiments and only some brief information on holding the viol
and bow.
The bulk of the book consists of a series of graded pieces for unaccompanied
viol. Although the easiest psalm tunes are in the treble clef ('being cheiffly
designed for young Practitioners') they are for performance on the bass viol, the
treble viol having died out some years before; these tunes are ornamented in
seventeenth-century style with shakes, beats, forefalls and backfalls, and thus
throw an interesting light on performance-practice at the end of the century.
There follows a series of airs and dances using treble, alto and bass clefs, again
ornamented appropriately in the same style. It is, however, the later pieces in
the book by Hely which are of the greatest musical worth. The concluding two
suites of unaccompanied bass viol music in A minor and A major (available in
a modern edition together with his 6 Sonatas for two bass viols and continuo in
'The King's Musick' Series) are fine works, each having the customary
Almand, Courant, Saraband and Gigg, which present a challenge to the viol
player.
IAN GRAHAM-JONES

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