Lentorama 2022: It Happened on Easter

Day 23: Tobias Hume switches from composing to decomposing

Unless you are a fan of viol music or have read the novel Loot and Loyalty by Jerzy Pietrkiewicz, it's unlikely you've heard of Tobias Hume. A Scot who served as an officer in the Swedish and Russian armies, he spent his non-military time composing music for the viol, which he felt was superior to the lute. This got him crosswise with Sting's favorite luteist, John Dowland, though it didn't seem to go beyond publishing a refutation of Hume's ideas.

Hume was occasionally whimsical (or eccentric, depending on your point of view) with his compositions, such as the one that would require two people to play the same viol, with one sitting in the lap of the other. He also had a work that required the player to hit the viol with their bow, which was odd for the time but is considered the first use of the technique now called col legno, which shows up in works by Mozart, Hayden, and Radiohead (among others).

The combination of military and musical careers apparently didn't go as well for Hume as you might think, as in his later years he became a resident of the London Charterhouse, an almshouse for older men of a higher than average station (such as gentlemen, soldiers, merchants, and servants of the royal family). During his time at Charterhouse he game himself a promotion to colonel (records indicate he never had a higher rank than captain), a title he used when publishing writings saying he could quell the rebels in Ireland or make the king 20 million pounds if given his own navy for three months. 

Howe entered Charterhouse at Christmas in 1629 and died there on Easter, April 16, 1645.