Soave Dolce Melodia

Daniel Scott and Daniel Thomson of Rune present a duo concert of music from 14th-century Italy. The title, 'Sweet and Gentle Melody', is the ideal to which composer Jacopo da Bologna (fl. 1340-1386) aspired in his music. Refinement, balance, beauty. These qualities lie at the heart of much of the Trecento music.

Yet the sound world of fourteenth-century Italy resists easy definition. This programme explores its full expressive range: the restless dissonances of Lorenzo da Firenze, the smoky rhythms of Matteo da Perugia, and the ecstatic virtuosity of the Faenza Codex.

Together, with beautiful combinations of voice and recorder and clavicymbalum – an early ancestor of the harpsichord – these works offer a vivid portrait of a culture at its height, rich in invention and subtlety. While simultaneously living through profound upheaval, rocked by the Black Death and the schism of the Western Church.

The evening includes a post-concert Q&A discussion at 19:00 about medieval music and Rune’s upcoming projects as Medieval Ensemble in Residence at St Bartholomew the Great.

This concert is part of Rune's residency at St Bartholomew the Great, London.