The turn of the 17th century represents not only the golden age of the Venetian Republic, but one of the most variegated moments in the history of Western art music. The innovations of the Venetian School, influential far beyond the confines of it's native lagoon, represent the culmination of a stylistic evolution in a period of aesthetic transition from the high Renaissance to the early Baroque. The instrumental music of "La Serenissima" is celebrated not only for the enormous historical, cultural, and artistic inheritance that it represents, but, quite simply, for it's sheer beauty. La Pifarescha incorporates a fascinating and diverse selection of instruments. Shawms, sackbuts, cornetts, trumpets, bagpipes, dulcians, flutes, fiddles, lutes, viols, percussion, and many others, join together to alternate the sounds of "alta" with the "bassa cappella", offering a highly variable sonority unique to this group. Thus, La Pifarescha traces the evolution from the alta cappella to the noble consort of cornetts and sackbuts, which appeared on the scene during the renaissance and flourished in the early baroque, often expanding it's ranks to include keyboards, strings, and voices.