Les Arts Florissants

This hour, we’re keeping it all in the family—as we explore wind and string instruments of the Renaissance, featuring members of the viol, lute, recorder, shawm, and bagpipe families. Plus, we’ll hear Italian madrigals on our featured release by Les Arts Florissants. So, grab your loved ones and gather round!

Claudio Monteverdi’s long career spanned a period marked by big changes to the Italian musical landscape: transitions between Renaissance and Baroque aesthetics, the rise of the violin family, and the establishment of public opera, to name a few. Join Harmonia on a sonic journey through some of the musical places and spaces he inhabited.

This week on Harmonia, we’ll hear two expressive, complex pairs of pieces from 14th- and 15th-century France—one a pair of ballades by Machaut and Franciscus, the other a pair of motets by Busnois and Ockeghem. Plus, our featured release pairs serious songs with drinking songs from 17th-century France.