Two examples of a transitional style, Marchetto Cara's 'Si bella è la mia donna' and 'Se non soccorri, amore', are performed with two lutes, each taking one of the inner voices.
Instruments
The standard six-course lute, with its three lower courses tuned in octaves, offered a wider range of colors than the contemporaneous Spanish vihuela, which had unison stringing.
Compositional Technique
The frottola genre, central to this repertoire, features a solo voice singing the cantus part, with the lute typically playing two parts below the singer.
Recording & Production
This album was recorded using 20-bit technology, which provides a dynamic range up to 24dB greater and 16 times the resolution of standard 16-bit recordings.
Performer Biography
Robert Meunier, the lute player and director for this album, began his musical career playing guitar in a band in Toronto as a teenager.
Historical Context
This recording celebrates musical traditions that relied on performers like Pietrobono, a famous poet, singer, and lutenist, and the two most popular instruments of the time: the voice and the lute.
Composer Biography
Marchetto Cara and Bartolomeo Tromboncino, leading musical performers on this album, were lutenist singers employed by the Gonzaga family in Mantua and inspired by Marchioness Isabella d'Este.
