h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I heard Ibi on the radio this morning, playing beautifully a piece by Sainte-Colombe, on a viola da gamba, a copy of one in the Paris Musée de la Musique. The original is an important instrument, being the oldest seven-string bass viol extant, made by Michel Colichon in 1683.

Sainte-Colombe was the first person to add a seventh string to the viol. The invention of methods for winding wire (usually silver) onto silk or gut made it possible to make strings heavy enough to give low notes at high tension without being uncomfortably thick.

Ibrahim Aziz is a professional viol player, and a wonderful teacher. He came to Dublin about fifteen years ago to study medicine, and sat in to listen to one of the Academy viol classes. A friend of mine, a fellow St. Sepulchres member, was running the class for me, as I was then living in Clare. Ibi had studied piano and harpsichord, but he just fell in love with the viol, and when I came back to Dublin in 1998 he enrolled with me as a pupil.

I've had some good pupils in my time, but Ibi just took off like a rocket. Within two years he was playing pieces I have never attempted. Medicine went out the window, and Ibi went to London to study viola da gamba full-time with Alison Crum.

Since then I have gone as a pupil on some of the courses he teaches. I'm looking forward to the next one in March, in Llanarmon, north Wales. I'll bring my wife, her sister, some pupils and possibly my daughter. The family consort.