Louis de Caix d'Hervelois
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Louis de Caix d'Hervelois (ca. 1670, France-ca. 1760, France) composer of music almost exclusively for the viol. Most of his other works are transcribed from his viol music. A native of the north of France, almost nothing is known of his life. We have the changing addresses for him which appear in his published music, mentions in passing in contemporary discussions of the viol, and brief mentions in archives. The longest archive text (1697) documents a request by a canon of Sainte-Chapelle, incommoded by the noise of the young chapelain ordinaire Caix learning to play the viol, that Caix practice in a room under the stairs.
Caix's tuneful, graceful music is firmly in the French tradition of character pieces in dance suites. It is among the most idiomatic music written for the viol, its apparent simplicity deepening when interpreted in the light of the traditions of French viol performance practice. The French musicologist Philippe Beaussant wrote of Caix's music and anonymity that
- l'on pourrait considérer Caix d'Hervelois comme une sort de pseudonyme sous lequel se cacherait un personnage réel, dont le nom est: la Viole, en France, au moment où elle est en passe de disparaître. (One might look upon Caix d'Hervelois as a sort of pseudonym masking a person whose name was: the Viol, in France, at the moment when it was just about to disappear.)
Facsimile editions of Caix's music are available from Éditions J.M. Fuzeau, the Société de Musicologie de Languedoc, and from Éditions August Zurfluh, the latter also sponsoring an Association Caix d'Hervelois.
[edit] References
- Beaussant, P. (1977). Liner notes in Caix d'Hervelois, Louis de, Pièces de viole, 1. livre. 3. livre, Selections [sound recording]. France: Auvidis-Astrée.
