Piffaro, The French (Italian) Connection
Sunday, February 11, 2024, at 3:00 p.m.
Main Series, Concert 4
St. Philip’s in the Hills Episcopal Church | 4440 N. Campbell Ave., Tucson, AZ Google Map
This performance is generously sponsored by Laurie and John Camm.
“Piffaro performed with suavity and heart…” —New York Classical Review
About the Program
The French (Italian) Connection: Music from the Court of King Charles VIII
The French court of King Charles VIII attracted an abundance of musical talent. Some of the 15th century’s most celebrated composers, such as Alexander Agricola and Loyset Compère, were a part of Charles’s entourage and provided musical entertainments both in times of peace in France and on military campaign in Italy. Throughout this period the European printing revolution was in full swing. In 1501, and in the wake of Charles’s failed Italian campaigns, printer Ottaviano Petrucci published the first significant collection of polyphonic music, the Harmonice Musices Odhecaton. Drawing on this groundbreaking publication, The French (Italian) Connection will demonstrate the interconnected musical tastes of Renaissance Europe and immerse listeners in the cosmopolitan soundscape of Charles’s court.
About Piffaro, The Renaissance Band
“Widely regarded as North America’s masters of music for Renaissance wind band” (St. Paul Pioneer Press), Piffaro has delighted audiences throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, and South America since its founding by Joan Kimball and Bob Wiemken in 1980. Under the direction of Priscilla Herreid, Piffaro recreates the rustic music of the peasantry and the elegant sounds of the official wind bands of the late-Medieval and Renaissance periods. Its ever-expanding instrumentarium includes over 40 shawms, dulcians, sackbuts, recorders, krumhorns, bagpipes, lutes, guitars, and a variety of percussion — all careful reconstructions of instruments from the period.