The humanist esthetic revolution is centered around the concept of imitatio. Man in the Renaissance discovers the ancient world from which he draws models for his own inspiration. The translation of classical Greek philosophers offers a theoretical support to his research.In the 15th century a new chapter in the Italian history of music starts. The 14th-century madrigal and the ballata are replaced by the strambotto, the "stile moderno" of profane vocality.

 

The strambotto is issued from the popular singers who show off in public or in front of the aristocracy, improvising on the rhythm of the octave rhymes. It perfectly translate the new man's desire, searching to revive the myth of Ancient Greece. As in Alcinous's palace, the poet sang his verses accompanied on the cittern, the viol or the lyre, guided only by his inspiring muse in his improvised creation.

 

Not one note of the most famous singers such as Leonardo GIUSTINIANI, Pietrobono dal CHITARRINO has been preserved. But they must have made a great impression among their contemporaries who called them new Apollos, aoidos of a modern classicism.