Most likely born in Florence around the year 1325, Francesco Landini was blind from early childhood as a result of contracting smallpox and became devoted to music early in life, mastering a number of instruments, including the lute, as well as the art of singing, writing poetry, and composition. Giovanni Villani, in his well-known 14th-century history of Florence, Villani's Chronicle, states that Francesco was also an inventor of instruments, including a stringed instrument called the 'syrena syrenarum', that combined features of the lute and psaltery, and it is believed to be the ancestor of the bandura. As a composer, Landini is today perhaps most famous for his achingly beautiful love songs, which would be given a masterful interpretation by the celebrated a capella vocal ensemble Anonymous 4 on their recording The Second Circle: Love Songs of Francesco Landini. We'll hear a generous selection from this classic album in honor of the anniversary of Landini's death, and much more, on this afternoon's Classical Music With Foley Schuler.
You can hear Foley Schuler's musical selections—and stories behind the music—every weekdat afternoon from 1 until 4 on Blue Lake Public Radio.
