Bawdy Banchieri

I hadn't heard of the Italian Renaissance composer Adriano Banchieri (1567 -- 1634) until the directors of the early music ensemble with which I perform decided to mount one of the Italian Renaissance composer's pioneering madrigal comedies, Festino nella sera del giovedì grasso ("Entertainment for the eve of Carnival Thursday") this summer. A madrigal comedy is a collection of madrigals strung together to present a comical story.

And the Festino is pretty nuts. In one of the movements, we all make different animal noises. I'm not talking about the flittering, rhythmic birdsong of a Janequin chanson that makes the listener think of owls and sparrows and cuckoos, but could just as easily not be about birds at all. I'm talking full-on dogs barking and cats meowing right in the middle of a piece of music.

Local music scholar Jospeh Sargent wrote a sweet little preview article about our concerts for San Francisco Classical Voice. Click here to read it. And click here to buy tickets to come and see/hear San Francisco Renaissance Voices perform Banchieri's carnivalesque Festino on August 8 (at San Francisco's 7th Avenue Performances in the Inner Sunset) and August 9 (at Alameda Presbyterian Church).