5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Triumphant!, November 30, 2006
This review is from: Canzoni e Danze: Wind Music from Renaissance Italy (Audio CD)
This is truly one of the best albums of Renaissance music currntly available! Purely instrumental! Much of it appears to be music for a royal court event or the like, with much use of brass and wind instruments. There are also many selections for the festival setting, usually involving the bagpipes and hurdy-gurdy. Too many albums of ancient music "pad" the content with monotonous choral polyphonic selections, perhaps starting out with one or two really good instrumental pieces. However, they did not do that in this one!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Listen! Music in the Air! Let's Go to the Plaza!, May 29, 2008
This review is from: Canzoni e Danze: Wind Music from Renaissance Italy (Audio CD)
There are 30 selections of Renaissance instrumental music - some dances, some polyphonic fantasies, some incidental music for courty or urban celebrations. It would have been a common experience in the 15th C to hear in public places the instruments you can see "Piffaro" holding in the cover art. Piffaro means "piper", and most of their instruments are wind - the dounble reed shawms, the narrow-bore trombone, flutes and recorders. Wind players were tradesmen and guild members in the Renaissance, but they were not commonly unable to read music as some have claimed. In fact, many of the manuscripts of elegant vocal chansons that have survived were originally prepared for use by the "piffari" of Ferrara, Verona, etc. There was no wall of separation between vocal music composed by clerics and court favorites and instrumental music that functioned as lively entertainment.
That's what Piffaro brings to life for concerts and recordings. But it's fiendishly hard to make a satisfying concert of 30 short, brilliant, but similar instrumental fantasies, however often one changes horns. I adore this music but it's best in small doses, a piece or two at a time, overheard in a park or before a wedding. Fortunately, with a CD, that kind of listening is possible, and you don't even need to get married!
What makes Piffaro special is not only that they play all those exotic instruments, but that they play them well. If you're old enough to remember David Munrow, the New York Pro Musica, and other Renaissance Faire bands of the 50s and 60s, you may be skeptical that anyone could play a shawm or a crumhorn with finesse, but Piffaro does it. Load this CD on your iPod. It's perfect for outdoors.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Definitely Worth the Listening, January 25, 2004
This review is from: Canzoni e Danze: Wind Music from Renaissance Italy (Audio CD)
Simply lovely. Some whimsical, some more technically serious. In all, definitely worth the money and the time. One of my new favorites.
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