Clemens: Frisque et gaillart

The elegant, keyless, cylindrical flute of the sixteenth century had a reedy, penetrating sound, closer to the cornetto than to any other wind instrument of the day. It had an impressive range of two and a half octaves and an evenness of tone quality that would not be matched again until the nineteenth century.

The pieces on this recording focus on repertoire for the renaissance flute consort, almost all of which was originally vocal music.