Thelauda (Italian pl.laude) orlauda spirituale was the most important form ofvernacular sacredsong inItaly in the latemedieval era andthe Renaissance.Laude remained popular into the nineteenth century. Thelauda was often associated with Christmas, and so is in part equivalent to the English carol, French noel, Spanishvillancico,[1][2][3][4] and like these genres occupies a middle ground between folk and learned lyrics.[5]
Originally, thelauda was amonophonic (single-voice) form, but apolyphonic type developed in the early fifteenth century. The earlylauda was probably influenced by the music of thetroubadours, since it shows similarities in rhythm, melodic style, and especially notation. Many troubadours had fled their original homelands, such asProvence, during theAlbigensian Crusade in the early 13th century, and settled in northern Italy, where their music was influential in the development of the Italian secular style.
A monophonic form of thelauda spread widely throughout Europe during the 13th and 14th centuries as the music of theflagellants; this form was known as theGeisslerlied, and picked up the vernacular language in each country it affected, includingGermany,Poland,England andScandinavia.
After 1480, the singing oflaude was extremely popular inFlorence, since the monkSavonarola (and others) had prohibited the dissemination of any other style of sacredvernacular music. Many ofJosquin'smotets andmasses are based on melodies he heard inlaude during his sojourns in Italy around this time.
Laude had a resurgence of popularity again at the time of theCounter-Reformation, since one of the musical goals of theCouncil of Trent was to increase the intelligibility of text, and the simple, easily understoodlaude provided an ideal example.
The significance of thelauda diminished as the oratorio evolved. However, tunes[6] and lyrics[7] continued to influence later music.
Song Latin songs, notably 13 Latin antiphons preserved in theBobbio Abbey, have sometimes been called "Latinlaude," however, which more closely resemble the Latin language version of the Italian ballata.[8]
^Viola Luther Hagopian.Italian ars nova music: a bibliographic guide to modern editions (1973), p. 36. "Lacking the international flavor of other European lyric monodies, the Italian lauda in its simplicity more nearly resembles improvisation and reflects the popular oral tradition."
^Thomas Gibson Duncan.A companion to the Middle English lyric (2005), p. 166. "Much closer in form to the English carol are the Italian lauda and the Spanish villancico. Both lyric genres are interesting, not because they can be assumed to have in any way contributed to the rise and popularity of the English carol ..."
^Julie E. Cumming.The Motet in the Age of Du Fay (2003), p. 333. "See Strohm, REM, 327–39: the English cantilena and carol, the Italian lauda, and the Central European cantio"
^Tess Knighton, Álvaro Torrente.Devotional music in the Iberian world, 1450–1800: the villancico (2007), p. 9. "Their influence can be found in the origin of several forms of devotional music in the Middle Ages, including the Italian lauda, the Franch[sic] noel or the English carol."
^Richard Leighton Greene.The early English carols (1977). "Like the English carol, the Italian lauda occupies the middle ground between folk-song and learned lyric; it is the production of an individual author, but directed to an audience without special education or refinement, and patterned ..."
^Iain Fenlon.Early Music History: Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Music: Volume 1 (2009), p. 168. "As Jennifer Bloxam has suggested in a recent study of motets by Compere, Obrecht and Brumel that incorporate the text and tune of an Italian lauda, Beata es Maria, perhaps these melodies circulated as part of the Italian lauda tradition ..."
^Lionel Adey.Hymns and the Christian "Myth", p. 81. "The last of these appears to have been the Italianlauda "Discendi, amor santo" byBianco da Siena (d.1434), of whichR. F. Littledale's beautiful translation (1867) in Vaughan William's setting has become one of the few classics of modern hymnody."
^Christopher Kleinhenz, John W. Barker.Medieval Italy : an encyclopedia: Volume 2, p. 612. "These pieces often are called Latin laude, but their relationship to the Italian lauda is tenuous. The best-known are the thirteen songs for the nativity or for the Virgin recorded in a fourteenth-century antiphonary from Bobbio."
The New Harvard Dictionary of Music, ed. Don Randel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1986.ISBN0-674-61525-5.
Richard H. Hoppin,Medieval Music. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1978.ISBN0-393-09090-6.
John Joseph Fiore,The Canzonetta Spirituale in the late sixteenth century in Italy. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago, 2009. UMI number 3386989, ProQuest.
