Poet · Minstrel · Reluctantly Modern
A Renaissance bard stranded in the modern world—armed with melody, wit, and an unwavering certainty that thou couldst do better.
Where to begin
Seraphino’s catalog rewards curiosity, but even a grand procession requires a first step. Choose according to temperament.
Fourteen theatrical dispatches on beauty, mortality, history, devotion, and the troublesome distance between the world as it is and the world as it ought to be.
Explore the songs, lyrics & liner notes
Every adventuring class receives the dignity of a proper anthem—and the indignity of an honest portrait.
Explore the songs & liner notes
A theatrical tour through balladry, philosophy, rivalry, and the burden of possessing impeccable judgment.
Explore the songs & liner notesThe newest evidence
Hear the complete new album here, then continue in Spotify or Apple Music as thy allegiance dictates.
The man, the myth, the objection
Born beneath the bells of Michaelmas and educated wherever excellence could be found, Seraphino Aurelius Belladonna is a Renaissance minstrel confronting technology, bureaucracy, heroism, history, and the alarming casualness of contemporary dress.
He regards the present century as an unfinished composition: occasionally brilliant, frequently overproduced, and forever in need of a firmer hand at the lute. Its plumbing has earned his approval. Its automated menus have not.
His songs are theatrical dispatches from a singular mind: part ballad, part satire, part philosophical complaint—and always delivered with complete conviction.
Whether addressing adventurers, philosophers, public officials, or people who stand motionless in doorways, Seraphino grants every subject the dignity of serious music and the indignity of his honest assessment. Beneath the vanity is a stubborn faith that civilization might yet improve—provided it listens.
A history, insofar as history has behaved itself
The surviving account is precise where Seraphino approves of precision and remarkably discreet everywhere else.
Seraphino Aurelius Belladonna is born in Florence on the Feast of Saint Michael—an appropriately celestial beginning, according to its principal beneficiary.
He comes of age amid workshops, chapels, courts, public arguments, and private rivalries. By his own account, Florence taught him that beauty requires discipline, wit requires an audience, and genius should never be left to introduce itself.
At some point in Florence, Seraphino performed what surviving references call the Forbidden Chord. Its construction, purpose, and precise consequences remain obscure. What is certain is that the final resonance left him in the modern age. Seraphino describes the incident less as a miracle than as a scheduling inconvenience.
Now resident in the modern world, he records songs, studies its inventions, and issues corrections where necessary—which is to say, frequently. The century remains on probation.
Frequently raised objections
Seraphino Aurelius Belladonna is a Florentine poet, minstrel, philosopher, and critic of preventable nonsense, born on Michaelmas in 1488 and deposited in this century by the consequences of the Forbidden Chord.
He played the Forbidden Chord. It did not conclude in the same century in which it began. Beyond that, Seraphino considers the question tedious and the chord’s behavior deeply unprofessional.
Seraphino is entirely sincere. The circumstances surrounding him have chosen to be ridiculous.
He speaks perfectly well. Modern English, in his estimation, remains an aggressively abbreviated draft.
Begin with As It Ought to Be for Seraphino’s newest and most expansive statement. Choose A Matter of Class for fantasy adventure and D&D satire, or Age of Perfection to meet the man through art, history, rivalry, and magnificent self-regard.
Theatrical songs shaped by orchestral folk, Renaissance color, character comedy, satire, and an occasionally alarming quantity of brass. Seraphino regards genre as useful chiefly to those arranging shelves.
No. A Matter of Class gives adventurers and their regrettable decisions a proper musical reckoning. Age of Perfection ranges through art, history, vanity, and modern manners. As It Ought to Be turns toward beauty, memory, mortality, devotion, and the question of what remains when performance gives way to truth.
Not at all. Familiarity may reveal additional mischief, but the songs concern recognizable human failings: confidence without evidence, contracts left unread, plans abandoned, and companions who never listen to the healer.
They share Seraphino’s voice, world, and unwavering judgment, but each song may stand alone. The albums reward an orderly hearing; Seraphino accepts that modern listeners have complicated relationships with order.
Among Seraphino’s trusted collaborators are Halo Audelle, Matteo di Verro, and Darrin Steelheart. He selects each voice with care, directs every performance, and graciously permits excellence in his vicinity.
Seraphino owns one lute. The horns, strings, choir, and timpani continue to appear without presenting invoices or satisfactory explanations. He has elected not to discourage them.
Each song has its own page containing a concise account of the piece and Seraphino’s commentary upon its composition. Begin with either album’s track list and choose whichever title appears least likely to improve thy behavior.
Selectively. He admires indoor plumbing, recorded music, and several advances in tailoring. He remains unconvinced by automated menus, public etiquette, and any device that requireth an account before performing its obvious function.
Beyond the music
Observations, declarations, and entirely warranted judgments from a man several centuries ahead of everyone behind him.
Read the volumeAlbums, singles, and other melodic evidence gathered in one suitably modern archive.
Enter the archiveReflections on technology, public etiquette, grocery prices, and other avoidable features of this peculiar century.
Hear the discourse