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Music for the #Renaissance #transverse #flute #Consort

Writer's picture: Stefano SabeneStefano Sabene

LABYRINTHUS, CD Aulicus Classics - January 2025
LABYRINTHUS, CD Aulicus Classics - January 2025

Labyrinthus, artist's CD


With this recording, I am inaugurating a new season of my creativity.


In the Traverse Consort project, historical performance practices intersect with digital audio overlay, allowing me to simultaneously embody the roles of performer and interpreter. This expressive necessity arises from my extensive solo and directorial experience in #orchestral and #polyphonic contexts, with ensembles such as the Orchestra Mozart Sinfonietta and the Schola Romana Ensemble.


Through the Traverse Consort, I am able to crystallize the inner image of the work and its sonic realization in a single moment, without the mediation of an #ensemble or the contribution of other #flutists.


In addition to the musical #performance, I have overseen other components of this CD: the audio—from recording to editing to mastering—graphic design and imagery, as well as fine art photography. This leads to the idea of the project as a deeply personal expression, encapsulated in the definition of a "CD d’artista."


Thank you to Aulicus Classics for publishing this project.


LABYRINTHUS, Booklet
LABYRINTHUS, Booklet

The Repertoire


The vastness of #musical production between the #Renaissance and early #Baroque is immense; however, the repertoire considered suitable for the #traverso consort is nearly residual.


I have chosen pieces and composers that are rarely or not at all explored by the traverso consort. One of my goals is to contribute to the expansion of the traverso #repertoire, including through a program of musical editions.


This exploration encompasses various aspects of the musical world of the time: vocal and instrumental works, sacred and secular compositions, dance pieces (#Attaignant), and works based on ostinatos and tenors (#Josquin, #Ortiz). It also includes madrigals and villanelles from #Willaert to #Marenzio and #Gesualdo, as well as the instrumental language of #Frescobaldi and #Trabaci, leading to the emergence of the Seconda Prattica, inaugurated by #Monteverdi, marking the beginning of the melodrama era. Notably, Giovanni Pierluigi da #Palestrina is the most represented composer, as he embodies the peak and fulfillment of polyphonic language while being infrequently performed by the traverso consort. His works include beautiful selections from the Canticum Canticorum and other motets.



The modal transpositions were performed according to the practices of the time, typically at intervals of a fourth or a fifth. In some cases, I applied a more pragmatic approach—one that I believe aligns with Renaissance musicians' practices—such as in Josquin's La Spagna, where I transposed the protus from D (suitable for recorders, for example) to E, allowing the piece to be perfectly playable on the traverso.


The program also features a tribute to Leonardo, in which I interpret, in the form of a #Renaissance #ricercare, the sequences of notes that #Leonardo da Vinci—whose original compositions remain unknown—used in his rebuses, which were favored pastimes at the Milanese court of Ludovico il Moro.


In vocal productions, the text, although absent, has determined the expression, meter, and instrumental articulations.


Ultimately, this CD aims to evoke the creative vitality of a unique moment in our history when music played a central role.


LA SPAGNA, Josquin Des Prez

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