Giovanni Battista Fontana, born in Brescia around 1571, lived in Venice, Rome, and Padua, where he died in the plague epidemic of 1630. His music amazes us with its mastery of counterpoint, the simplicity and expressiveness of its slow movements, the complexity of its ornamentation, and the elegant vivacity of its short dance sections. Nicknamed ‘dal Violino’ and described as ‘one of the most singular virtuosos the age has seen’, he left us in this work an outstanding example of Baroque instrumental music in its early years.