Venice 1535
Using the new medium of printing, Silvestro Ganassi publishes a detailed book on how to play the recorder.
1542
Following the success of the first book, Ganassi publishes a tutor for the Viola d’arco, an instrument so new that the luthiers have not yet agreed on its shape. In this Regola Rubertina and its sequel Lettione Seconda, he shows aspiring Viola d’arco players everything they need; from how to hold the instrument and how to tune the strings and frets, to which instruments form a consort, or how to arrange polyphony or compose a ricercar.
Basel 2026
Viols combine with lutes and flutes in music by the masters Josquin, Willaert, Verdelot, and more.
Sven Schwannberger – Transverse flute, recorder, lute
Ryosuke Sakamoto – Viola d’arco, lute
Leonardo Bortolotto – Viola d’arco
Elizabeth Rumsey – Viola d’arco; direction
Free entry – Donations
Sat 25 April 2026, 18:15
Take part in a ReRenaissance hike in the Reigoldswil region before the concert.
For further information, please write to info@rerenaissance.ch
Kirche Reigoldswil, Chilchägerten 14, 4418 Reigoldswil
Sun, 26 April 2026, 18:15
Barfüsserkirche, Basel
I’ll be there
by David Fallows
The earliest evidence of viol consorts is in reports of the third (and last) wedding of the notorious Lucrezia Borgia, when she married Alfonso d’Este in 1501. There was apparently a consort of six viols, among whom Alfonso himself played. Where they found six-voice instrumental music in 1501 nobody knows. There is no hint in the reports to say what music they played. So far as the written record goes, there were at most four compositions in six voices available at the time, three of them Agnus Dei movements of Josquin masses, the fourth a bizarre arrangement on John Bedyngham’s song known as O rosa bella.
But we know a little more from Ganassi’s Regula rubertina of 1542 (forty years later), which included details of how to tune and play viols in various different sizes. The concert includes examples of polyphonic ensemble music from those missing forty years. This is music you hardly ever hear. It will be a very special event.
Sat Stadtkirche Liestal
Sun Barfüsserkirche, HMB
Sat Klosterkirche Dornach
Sun Barfüsserkirche Basel
Sa Nydeggkirche, Bern
Su Barfüsserkirche, Historisches Museum Basel
Kirche Reigoldswil &
Barfüsserkirche Basel
Martinskirche
Basel
Barfüsserkirche
Historisches Museum Basel
