The Unknown Traveller

Description

Since releasing their debut album, Tears of a Lover, (BBC Music Magazine choice album of the month) in 2017, Fieri have developed their passion for the music of the 16th and 17th century Italian masters and created this second album, The Unknown Traveller. Musica Transalpina is an anthology of Italian madrigals published in 1588, which were ‘Englished’ by an unknown gentleman for the English public to enjoy. The album features Italian and Franco-Flemish masters alongside some lesser known composers and one of England’s finest, William Byrd. The concept of meaning ‘emerging' via translation of texts from something unintelligible to something understandable became the basis for a new commission by Ben Rowarth, ‘Short Walk of a Madman’. Recent refugee crises have sparked much debate surrounding the nature of national borders, identity, and the inhumane treatment many immigrants experience. Rowarth’s composition reflects the narrative and human emotions involved in the journey of an individual attempting to escape from a place of hardship only to be disappointed at what they find on arrival at their destination, loneliness.