Instrumental vocality in the 16th and 17th centuries

During the 16th century, and until the first third of the 17th century, the vast majority of treatises on the subject of technique and playing of various musical instruments insisted on the importance for instrumentalists to seek to imitate the voice. From these indications was born the idea of instrumental vocality. Many composers began to seek to write instrumental music that would preserve the qualities of the voice, while including certain characteristics specific to the instruments. This program, centered around the idea of instrumental vocality, brings together works by composers, mainly Italian, but also French, Flemish, English and Spanish, who illustrate the main genres of instrumental music of this period, namely canzon, fantasy, and ricercar.