STATES OF A SIGH
For three musicians: traverso, viola da gamba and theorbo.
An exploration of the "voice of the soul" in French Baroque instrumental music.
During the Grand Siècle, French music cultivated a deeply intimate aesthetic. In contrast to exuberant Italian virtuosity, Gallic composers sought a restrained eloquence—an emotion suggested rather than exposed. In this context, instruments were not merely technical tools, but emanations of the human voice: sensitive extensions of the body and the soul.
Among them, the viola da gamba held a privileged place. In his 1687 treatise, Jean Rousseau stated that the viol "imitates the human voice better than any other instrument, and thus possesses an incomparable sweetness." The flûte traversière, for its part, was described by Hotteterre as being capable of producing "the most tender inflections, the most natural sighs."
And among the plucked strings, the theorbo and the Baroque guitar provided that blend of rhythm and resonance, capable of sustaining, underlining, or fading the musical discourse like an invisible thread of breath.