Florence

The musical landscape of renaissance Florence reveals a splendid symbiosis of contrasting elements: sacred and secular, foreign and native, highborn and humble. These elements nurtured the development of an unusually vibrant cultural climate within the relatively small confines of a magnificent Italian city. Eya traces these coexisting elements within the cultural and social fabric of Florence from the trecento (late 14th century) through the late 16th century. 

Each part of the program begins with a medieval chant from a local confraternity (lay order) and further explores the varied forms of vocal music that define this rich cultural moment, including lauda (sacred songs in Italian), several generations of the wildly popular Franco-Flemish composers (DuFay, Isaac, Agricola), and works by native Francesco de Layolle composing in the style of the Burgundians.