Piffaro, The Renaissance Band

Piffaro’s latest CD will be released just in time for the Sweet Pipes concert.

Called “Recordari: The Art of the Renaissance Recorder”, it is a compilation of new repertoire recorded this past fall, along with recorder hits from Piffaro’s three Dorian recordings. It is a lovely, mellow album, quite different from the wide variety of sounds in our other CDs, and will be sure to please all those recorder players who love the rich, organ-like sound of Renaissance recorders played in consort.

There is plenty of variety as well, however, with all combinations of high and low instruments, some accompanied by strings. The name of the CD refers to the derivation of the word recorder; the Latin word recordari means “to think over or call to mind”; similarly, the Italian word ricordo means “a souvenir or memento”. There is a reference in the household accounts of Henry, Earl of Derby (later Henry IV), dated 1388, to payments for “i fistula nomine Ricordo” or “a pipe called a memento.”