Lauda (It.: ‘praise’; pl. laude [laudi])
- Blake Wilson
Extract
(It.: ‘praise’; pl. laude [laudi])
The principal genre of non-liturgical religious song in Italy during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. In its monophonic form, the lauda also constitutes the primary Italian repertory of late medieval vernacular song, and is distinguished from most neighbouring repertories in its strictly urban, non-courtly context. The religious lauda endured into the 19th century, and extant repertory remains an important source of popular Italian texts and music.
Changes in the form and style of the lauda were conditioned largely by the shifting currents of religious devotion, politics and styles of music and poetry. The lauda arose in the city-states of central Italy during the 13th century, and was a product of the complementary forces of mendicant (especially Dominican and Franciscan) urban missionary zeal and the emerging guild-based communes of Tuscany and Umbria. The early lauda took shape in close proximity to the practice and the affective rhetorical style of mendicant preaching. The roots of the lyrical ...
