L'Achéron

The Sainte-Colombe son is as mysterious as his father, made famous by his incarnation on the big screen by Jean-Pierre Marielle in Tous les matins du monde (Alain Corneau, 1991). Some traces of this son can be found across the Channel, in London and Edinburgh around 1700, but above all the Pièces de viole presented here, in a manuscript comprising five suites, including a Tombeau pour Mr de Sainte-Colombe le père. 

The score, for viola alone, gives a general feeling of harmonic 'lack', and many performers often add chords to fill this void: the version proposed here offers a reconstruction of a continuo part that has probably been lost, in imitation of the Pièces de Viole of composers of the same generation as the son Sainte-Colombe (Marin Marais, Caix d'Hervelois, Antoine Forqueray). Written according to the customs of the past by François Joubert-Caillet, the music of the son Sainte-Colombe comes back to life with the bass and the harmonic support it requires, allowing us to rediscover a sublime, profound music that is too little known.

Cast (2 or 3 musicians)

François Joubert-Caillet bass viol 
Sarah van Oudenhove bass viol
Yoann Moulin harpsichord