Ricercar’s recording of the complete cantatas of Matthias Weckman is now followed by a presentation of his chamber music. His sonatas for four instruments were intended for the concerts given by the Hamburg Collegium Musicum, the harpsichord pieces are very much in the style of his friend J.J. Froberger, and the various German songs are an example of the works that Weckman supplied for the official occasions of Hamburg municipal life.

Selma y Salaverde’s music is at once lively, sparkling, and surprisingly virtuosic. Like all other instrumentalists of his time, he made use of every type of stylistic device, mixing the dynamics of dance forms with variations on famous songs and crowning the blend with a feeling for touching emotion. His music possesses the same emotions as Monteverdi’s, but is intended for instruments alone.

From the middle of the 15th century in Naples, there was a great ferment due to the contact between Spanish and local cultures, with a strong impulse toward development in instruments and musical forms. Of the instruments, there are some that knew a period of grace but then fell into disuse; among these are the buttafuoco and the sordellina. This CD gives an overview of instruments and pieces typical of this period.

As the golden century was glimmering its last stars, the arts entered a period of pessimism and disillusionment made of scorned loves and tales of cloak and dagger. Music expressed these themes through satirical or moralistic poems, turned into courtly or theatrical songs. The Tonos Humanos, the only known piece of José Marin, stands on this ground with the poetry of Lope de Vega, and is made of great musical originality. The madrigal form and chromaticism of this work greatly developed the harmonic role of the guitar.