Dear friends,
Here is a little trifle, a passepied from 1743. It was originally found in a booklet in a bass pipe of the church organ (during a restoration) at Viane, a small village in Flanders, Belgium. The document contained some 100 dances, marches and airs, 4 pieces for harpsichord and some religious songs. It was written mainly in pencil.
Here's the original piece in handwriting (darkened a bit).
As you can see, the original only provides a melody line, which is mostly the case with these older documents. Musicians at that time were supposed to know the practice of improvising the other voices in the usual harmonies. Since it's a dance, the bass line is important and functions as fundament and rhythm basis.
For this passepied I've used 3 period instruments: the oboe da caccia, the traverso and the baroque soprano recorder, together with the Dimension Strings.
Enjoy!
Jos (= Max Hamburg)
Paspie (Petrus Josephus Van Belle - J. Wylin)