Myth, Sallust tells us, is the relation of ‘things that never happened, but always are’. Ever since the fourteenth century, music has drunk deep from the source of myths. When composers were not dealing with sacred history, with the great morality tales of Christ, they turned to myth as to a great art and a matchless repertory of exemplary stories.

Metamorfosi Trecento is a musical exploration of myths and of the polyphony of the late Middle Ages. The ancient myths, foremost among them Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and their medieval transpositions are extremely present in the repertory of the Ars Nova: Narcissus lost on a fatal voyage, the stories of Daphne’s dream, Philomela, the myth of Orpheus, Callisto . . .

The lutenist Michele Pasotti and the singers and instrumentalists (fiddle, recorder, clavicymbalum, Gothic harp etc.) of the ensemble he founded in 2005, La Fonte Musica, bring these wondrous tales back to life with a beauty and artistry we wished to share with you.

• anon.: Tre Fontane
• Bologna: Madrigale - Fenice 'fu e vissi
• Bologna: Madrigale - Si come al canto
• Bologna: Non al su’ amante più Diana piacque
• Caserta, P: Par le grant senz d’Adriane
• Firenze, D P: Non più infelice
• Landini, F: Sì dolce non sonò chol lir’ Orfeo
• Machaut: Phyton, le mervilleus serpent, B38
• Padova: Strinçe la man
• Perugia, M: Già da rete d'amor
• Perugia, N: Qual perseguita dal suo servo Danne
• Piero: Sì com’al canto della bella yguana
• Solage: Calextone, qui fut dame
• Teramo: Je suis navrés - Gnaff'a le guagnele
• Vitry: In nova fert/Garrit gallus/Neuma