With this special edition (2 CDs & 100 pages booklet, only in English), Cantus tries to fill an important gap. Given that our most important aim is the diffusion of early music through recordings of the highest musical quality, presented with booklets containing the best possible essays (informative, accessible, readable, updated), we felt that preparing this dictionary (or guide) on the most important instruments used during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance could be useful and important.

The present release is divided in two parts. One, consisting of 2 CDs with 78 musical examples from our own catalogue (some of them still unpublished). The music is presented in chronological order according to a division by families of instruments. Secondly, a booklet of 100 pages, only in English, with over 60 illustrations, divided in various essays written by Cantus' artistic director, José Carlos Cabello. The main one is called "Ex silentio in sonum" (From silence to sound), and covers the origins, development, repertoires and decline of the most important instruments of the periods covered by this edition. It is fully updated, and contains information coming from the latest musicological research. The thick, elegantly printed booklet also includes an extensive essay with substantial annotations on all and every piece selected in the two discs (background, how they were composed, musical structure, instruments used in the performance, etc. In sum, an essential edition that every lover of early music should have: an indispensable set that includes more than 140 minutes of glorious music performed by the who is who of the Medieval and Renaissance music fields, and an informative and complete booklet that combines excellent and updated scholarship and an attractive literary style with a touch of journalistic flow.

Performed by the most important Cantus artists like Ensemble Gilles Binchois & Dominique Vellard, La Reverdie, Currende Consort, Concerto Palatino, Erik Van Nevel, Accademia Strumentale Italiana & Alberto Rasi, Roberta Invernizzi, Juan Carlos Rivera, Musica Antiqua & Christian Mendoze, In Stil Moderno, and many more.

Total time 140 minutes

Special edition: 2 CDs + 100-paged booklet (only in English) for the price of 1 CD