Marais’ first book of viol pieces was published in 1686. Even so, this was not the first published viol music in France : le Sieur DeMachy beat Marais to the task with his own book of solo music for bass viol published in Paris a year earlier. The bass viol in seventeenth century French society in the hands of virtuosi was heard much like its close cousin the lute- as an unaccompanied solo instrument. Nicolas Hotman left us with approximately 45 pieces for solo bass viol, while le Sieur Dubuisson’s surviving works amount to over a hundred. Sainte Colombe is the most prolific of the unaccompanied bass viol composers with over 170 pieces to his credit as well as 67 Concerts à deux Violes Esgales or duos.

In this context we see Marais’ first book published. There is no indication that he ever intended anything else than a solo bass viol, or (in the case of two suites in the same publication) duos for bass viols. Two years after Marais’ publication the violist Jean Rousseau reports in a letter (1688) “everyone is playing (Marais’) music”.

The following year Marais published a premier in France: a “basso continuo” part for his first book. This is the first time in France that an accompaniment is published for the viol or any other instrumental music in France. Marais blames the long process involved in engraving the copper plates, “When I published my first book for one and two viols, I sincerely wished to add the basso continuo part, which is essential. But engraving is a long process, which obliged me to leave it to this day…”

This work immediately places the solitary bass viol in the context of a small chamber group. The harpsichord as well as a second bass viol is mentioned in the continuo books but Marais particularly enjoyed the theorbo saying “I have figured all the basses, to play them on the harpsichord, or on the theorbo, which goes quite well with the viol, which plays the solo part”. Among Marais’ colleagues at court was the harpsichordist François Couperin and the guitarist and theorbist Robert de Visée with whom Marais often collaborated.

Marais’ autograph will from the same year, the 8th of June 1709, gives us insight into his calm manners, equitable spirit, and problems with his son Vincent who would subsequently die alone and in great debt.

Marais’ first book includes typical French suites of dances, starting with a Prelude. Besides the duos mentioned above, (two suites) Marais composed his first Tombeau for M. de Méliton a touching tribute to another viol player, and fellow Sainte Colombe pupil. Influenced as all French viol players were by the great English virtuosi, Marais adds a set of “divisions on a ground” or variations on a bass at the end of the basso continuo book.