Lina Tur Bonet & Jadran Duncumb - L'entropia (20250 [Hi-Res]

In physics, entropy measures the degree of disorder in a system and the associated arrangement possibilities. Lina Tur Bonet chose this term as the title for her new CD on GLOSSA, on which she - together with theorbist Jadran Duncumb - interprets Italian violin music of the so-called stylus phantasticus.

This style developed in Italy in the late 16th century from the practice of improvisation. It is characterised by extremely expressive playing in which short, sometimes dissonant and bizarre figures, sometimes extreme chromaticism, rapid virtuoso runs and sections with ostinato bass are combined as in a free improvisation.

Johann Mattheson confirmed this impression in his book Der vollkommene Kapellmeister in 1739: 'For this style is the freest and most unrestrained way of setting, singing and playing that one can imagine, since one soon comes up with these and then those ideas, since all kinds of otherwise unusual passages, hidden ornaments, meaningful turns and embellishments are produced, without actual observation of the act and tone; sometimes hasty, sometimes hesitant; sometimes monophonic, sometimes polyphonic; sometimes also for a short time after the act: without sound-mass; yet not without intention to please, to hurry and to astonish. '