Ricordanze – a record of love

Description

Ricordanze: a record of love, presents our deepest exploration yet of the haunting and extraordinary music of sixteenth-century nuns who sang their community through siege, plague, and deprivation – from the only surviving manuscript of polyphony from a Renaissance convent. It reveals the musical world of San Matteo in Arcetri, a modest community in the hills outside Florence. The manuscript may well still have been in use a few decades later, when Suor Maria Celeste, daughter of Galileo Galilei, became the convent choirmistress.

Laurie says: “The Biffoli-Sostegni manuscript has captivated me for a decade, which is how long it took me to find where it came from, to reconstruct its contents from its crumbling pages, and to understand its place in both the story of Florence and in the history of women making music. It’s a uniquely important document for both musicians and historians, but I was utterly beguiled by the strange beauty of its music, too. I’m delighted that we’ve been able to bring these works back to life.”