About

Possessing the finesse of courtiers and the irreverence of jesters, Retrossance is a Renaissance fusion string band just as at home with a passamezzo as it is with the music of Pokemon. Believing, as Petrarch did, that “sameness is the mother of disgust, variety is the cure,” the ensemble plucks (figuratively, for they use bows) favorite pieces from across eras and genres, drawing connections and posing contrasts in the search of a place where antiquity meets the avant garde. From medieval estampies to Irish jigs, 16th-century polyphony to 8-bit video game music, these merry minstrels do not stand on principle. Nor do they stand at all—they sit to play the viola da gamba, an ancient instrument that, like the music they perform, endures precisely because of how good it sounds.

Demo Tracks

A gorgeous melody by the 12th-century troubadour Giraut de Bornelh (1138-1218), arranged into a rollicking popular medieval dance form.
Irish trad meets Renaissance improvisation in this bass line-inspired mashup.
The quintessential genre associated with viola da gamba, no performance would be complete without the lush, weaving textures of a fantasia.