In Europe, until around 1600, instrumental music held little significance, instead simply following vocal patterns closely. The breakthrough in this field came with the development of counterpoint and imitation techniques. This Renaissance-Baroque revolution, presented in a diverse repertoire at Forum Musicum, will be showcased by the ensemble Filatura di Musica, associated with Łódź. The group will focus on the art of improvisation based on ancient methods, as well as presenting instrumental arrangements of melodies originally intended for vocal performance, preserved in period sources. An important part of the programme will also be the canzoni preserved in the so-called Pelplin Tablature discovered in Pomerania in 1957.

The festival concert will provide an opportunity to hear the same pieces in different musical forms. The 16th-century Spanish composer and theorist Diego Ortiz is the author of the Trattado de glosas – the first printed manual of ornamentation intended for string instrument players. In the second book of this treatise, Ortiz presents his own arrangements, referred to by him as recercadas. Four of these are ornamental versions of the madrigal O felici occhi miei by Jacques Arcadelt, an early French master of this form. The same piece, in a new version, can also be found in the Capricci in musica by Vicenzo Ruffo, published in Milan in 1564. The ensemble, led by Marek Nahajowski, will perform the original and both of these variations of Arcadelt’s composition.

We will also hear several versions of Anchor che col partire by Cipriano de Rore. This love piece, composed by a Flemish musician who was active in Italy, was a true phenomenon. About 20 of the more than a hundred known instrumental versions of his madrigals, arranged by various artists, were based on this work, which was most likely set to lyrics by Alfonso d’Avalos. The members of Filatura di Musica will present an arrangement by Andrea Gabrieli – the leading Italian composer of the second half of the 16th century and a creator of the so-called Venetian school. An adaptation by Riccardo Rognoni will also be performed. This outstanding string instrumentalist is best remembered today as the author of the treatise Passaggi per potersi essercitare…, a work on diminution (a form of musical ornamentation) often compared to Diego Ortiz’s above-mentioned work.