All' Improvviso: Ciaccone, Bergamasche, & un po' di Follie...

Featuring

Christina Pluhar
Lucilla Galeazzi
Gianluigi Trovesi
Marco Beasley
L'Arpeggiata
Maurizio Cazzati

Santiago de Murcia
Marcello Vitale
Anonymous (Traditional)
Antonio Bertali
Girolamo Frescobaldi
Francesco Lambardi
Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger
Andrea Falconieri
Lucas Ruiz de Ribayaz
Luigi Pozzi

Did you know?

1/7

Interpretation

For this album, the performers aimed to integrate the rules of a long-disappeared culture and master historical instruments and music, embracing the interpretative and improvisational freedom of 'ancient' music.

Composer's Artistic Vision

The history of ostinato basses in Italy began around 1600, a time of great musical upheaval with the emergence of new instruments and a new musical language, reflecting musicians' thirst for artistic freedom and novelty.

Compositional Technique

The 'alfabeto' notation for baroque guitar, invented in the early 17th century, allowed guitarists to improvise rhythm and melody, construct pieces as they wished, and determine their duration.

Historical Context

Many 17th-century Italian ostinato basses originated as traditional dance-songs imported from South America and the Mediterranean, over whose harmonic schemes various song texts were improvised.

Compositional Technique

Ostinato basses, which are repeating bass lines, have always fascinated musicians and form the basis of traditional Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and South American music.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Agostino Agazzari, a 17th-century Sienese composer, advised lutenists to play with invention and variety, avoiding constant fast runs and discordant divisions, especially when playing with other instruments.

Historical Context

The 'chitarra spagnola', a newly invented five-course Baroque guitar imported from Spain via Naples, was responsible for the widespread use of ostinato basses in 17th-century Italian instrumental music.