Madrigals Volume 1 Vox Altera Ensemble

in 1998 gavin bryars wrote a set of madrigals for the hilliard ensemble, working within the spirit and aesthetic of those from the italian renaissance. by coincidence the first four settings were written on mondays and he took the decision to write the remaining nine on mondays too. this strategy clearly committed him to writing at least seven books of madrigals. the second book (tuesdays) is for a 6-part group and sets petrarch sonnets in the original 14th century italian. there are 14 madrigals for this book and an extra madrigal ('marconi's madrigal'), written for the centenary of the first transmission of a radio signal - a single letter - across the atlantic ocean. petrarch continues to be a source of inspiration for bryars' vocal music and the album includes the first madrigal from the fourth book (thursday), which consists of 8-part settings of longer poems, commissioned by villa i tatti for vox altera, who perform all the works here. the fifth and sixth books are under way. the title for this recording - al suon dell'acque scriva ('let him write to the sound of the waters') - comes at the end the seventh madrigal in book two.