Rasi's monodic pieces fall into two main formal types: the madrigale, with free musical form for metrically free texts, and the aria, where the same music repeats for stanzas of rhymed lines.
Composer Biography
Rasi was the undisputed protagonist of Claudio Monteverdi's celebrated opera L'Orfeo (1607) as a virtuoso singer.
Album & Artwork
The album's concept is inspired by Francesco Rasi's poetic anthology, La Cetra di Sette Corde (The Kithara of Seven Strings), which is divided into seven parts, each dedicated to an influential person of his age.
Composer Biography
Rasi's life was marked by both triumphs and continuous travel, but also by debts and even murders, including a death sentence for a double crime of passion.
Composition History
Rasi, along with Giulio Caccini and Jacopo Peri, engaged in the earliest experiments of vocal music for solo voice accompanied by continuo.
Recording & Production
The recording features ritornellos (short instrumental passages) composed by the instrumentalists in the style of the period, based on a harmonic progression used by Monteverdi.
Composer Biography
Francesco Rasi (1574-1621) was an all-round artist: composer, singer, and poet, active during the transition from Renaissance to Baroque music.
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