Louis de Caix d'Hervelois
Encyclopedia
Biography
Caix d'Hervelois wrote music almost exclusively for the violViol
The viol is any one of a family of bowed, fretted and stringed musical instruments developed in the mid-late 15th century and used primarily in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The family is related to and descends primarily from the Renaissance vihuela, a plucked instrument that preceded the...
. Most of his other works exist as transcriptions from his viol music. A native of the north of France, almost nothing is known of his life. However, his changing addresses appear in his published music as well as in passing in contemporary discussions of the viol, and in brief notes archives. The longest archival text (1697) documents a request by a canon
Canon (priest)
A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....
of Sainte-Chapelle
Sainte-Chapelle
La Sainte-Chapelle is the only surviving building of the Capetian royal palace on the Île de la Cité in the heart of Paris, France. It was commissioned by King Louis IX of France to house his collection of Passion Relics, including the Crown of Thorns - one of the most important relics in medieval...
, annoyed by the noise of the young chapelain ordinaire Caix learning to play the viol, that Caix practice in a room under the stairs. Louis de Caix d'Hervelois was a pupil of the great Marin Marais
Marin Marais
Marin Marais was a French composer and viol player. He studied composition with Jean-Baptiste Lully, often conducting his operas, and with master of the bass viol Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe for 6 months. He was hired as a musician in 1676 to the royal court of Versailles...
.
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
Philippe Beaussant
Philippe Beaussant is a French musicologist and novelist, an expert on French baroque music, on which he has published widely. He is the founder of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, of which he was the artistic adviser of 1987 to 1996. He has also been a producer of musical programs for...
wrote of Caix's music and anonymity:
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- « 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. »
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- "One might look upon Caix d'Hervelois as a sort of pseudonymPseudonymA pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
masking a person whose name was 'the Viol of France,' just at the moment when it was about to disappear."
- "One might look upon Caix d'Hervelois as a sort of pseudonym
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 last of which also sponsors the Association Caix d'Hervelois.