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1/11 Thread: On cats and music. My dad loved classical music, and he became enamoured with the viola da gamba after seeing the film "Tous les Matins du Monde." Most evenings he'd spend the last hour on the couch listening to viol music while petting... medieval.org/emfaq/misc/tlm….
2 ... our cat Grisette as she lay on his lap. That was the only time & place she allowed herself to be petted for more than a minute. She'd started life as a stray cat & never got totally used to being touched (it took me a month of daily feeding to earn her trust when we met...
3 ... She was young, probably just recently weaned, & feral. She'd hiss at me if I got too close. After a month she finally started rubbing my leg to ask for more food, and she'd follow me around any time I was outside. Then she disappeared, only to reappear a few weeks later...
4 ... with a tiny kitten in tow. They moved in shortly thereafter.) Over time she grew to enjoy the sound of the viol on it's own, and she'd come, lay down and just listen to it if it was being played in some other part of the house. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viol
5 Grisette died yesterday of kidney failure. I realized something was wrong on Friday when she became lethargic and stopped eating. Saturday morning she seemed better, but in the afternoon she started going downhill again and started losing her balance. By then the vet...
6 ... was closed for the weekend. I took her in yesterday and the blood work showed her kidneys had failed. It all happened so fast. At least she didn't have to suffer long. I've still got two cats, but I miss her.
7 Anyway, I started listening to some viola da gamba music again last night. I didn't sleep enough for a morning earworm, so I thought I'd share some pieces by Jean de Sainte-Colombe & his student Marin Marais, the subjects of that wonderful film and some of Grisette's favorites.
8 "Les Pleurs" by Sainte Colombe, solo version performed by Jordi Savall. This is a section of "Tombeau Les Regrets." More here: classicalplus.gmn.com/classical/work…
9 "Tombeau Les Regrets" by Sainte-Colombe. Here's Wikipedia on Tombeaux: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tombeau
10 "Tombeau pour Monsieur de Sainte Colombe" by his presumed student Marin Marais (1656 – 1728.) More tombeaux here: lelutindecouves.blogspot.com/2010/10/lart-d…
11a That cat settled the question of whether they grieve for their humans afaic. When my dad died she was wrecked. She wouldn't eat, she'd get on his bed and whine, she disappeared for a week (maybe she was looking for him) & when she came back she still wouldn't eat & still...
11b ... called for him. Over time she got better & after 6 months she started getting on my bed at night which became a new official petting zone. She slept on one side of me every night until last night. I keep looking for her out of habit, but she's gone. I'm gonna miss her.
Here's a new article on that film “Tous les Matins du Monde” which I mentioned at the start of this thread: "How a Movie Helped Fuel a Viola da Gamba Revival." It's an amazing film, I highly recommend it.
Here's another short piece from the film. This isn't the whole thing, just an excerpt: Jordi Savall -- Improvisations Sur Les Folies d'Espagne (extrait)
This is the whole piece, with other instruments. Enjoy! Jordi Savall - Folías de España
I made a new post about the viola da gamba and the film on MetaFilter @metafilter, if anyone wants to check out the thread:
@PhillipWSerna @ViolsInSchools @thegambageek @VdGSA @AnnaRemig @ACRONYMENSEMBLE @LeStrangeViols @earlymusicTO @MaraisThe metafilter.com/179619/The-vio…
@PhillipWSerna @ViolsInSchools @thegambageek @VdGSA @AnnaRemig @ACRONYMENSEMBLE @LeStrangeViols @earlymusicTO @MaraisThe metafilter.com/179619/The-vio…
17/ Here's another thread with some viola da gamba music composed by Captain Tobias Hume (1569 - 1645)
@threadreaderapp unroll please.
