The Modenese firebrand, lute virtuoso, composer, poet and artist Bellerofonte Castaldi (1580–1649) set his own poems to his own music in a lyrical style that captured the dynamism of the emerging Baroque. Castaldi’s dance-songs and madrigals for one, two or more voices – drawn from his monody collection Primo mazzetto (Venice, 1623) and the manuscript Modena 239 (c. 1670) – framed his hopes, dreams and disappointments with fresh and unforgettable melodies.