13 Titles - Viola da Gamba Society

Example 11. Extract from Thomas Baltzar, Prelude in G and the`Preludium T.B.’[28] The next five pieces, an allemande and a sarabande in B flat and anallamande with its ‘variatio’, a courante and a sarabande in G minor, can alsobe confidently ascribed to Baltzar, not least because they are written in thesame elaborately polyphonic style as the C minor prelude and his other soloviolin music. The allemande in B flat, no. 2, with its style brisé mixture ofarpeggios and simulated polyphony in flowing semiquavers, is particularly closein style to Baltzar’s C minor allemande in The Division-Violin, as is the variationin semiquavers added to the G minor allemande no. 4 - a piece that has severalwritten-out measured trills. Three more pieces, the C major suite nos. 49-51, asit happens the only other ones in the collection without attributions orconcordances, may also be by Baltzar; the allemande is also rather morepolyphonic than most of the others in the collection.The appearance of original pieces certainly or probably by Baltzaralongside rather similar pieces arranged from lyra-viol pieces may help toexplain how Baltzar came to write his ‘neat lute-fashioned lessons’ for soloviolin, and how the collection came to be copied into F. 573. I wouldsuggest that it was Baltzar himself who, struck by the virtuosity of his viol-