Bestiarium
Animals in Medieval Music
4 singers and instrumentalists
The Bestiaria, compilations that collected a concise description of real and fantastic animals together with considerations of a moral nature, flourished throughout Europe from the XIIIth century onwards and became an incredibly long lasting literary genre. The polyvalence of the animal in medieval art and literature is testified also in music; the anthology of our program aims precisely to give an idea of the great variety of inspiration that quadrupeds, birds and fish offered to the creativity of the time.
The musical repertoire of the XIVth century is extraordinarily rich in compositions (madrigals, cacce, Italian ballads, French virelais) in which real animals such as sparrow hawks, eagles, cuckoos, sheep and hunting dogs appear. But also fantastic creatures are sometimes evoked, becoming metaphors of human weaknesses and virtues.