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Vernacular poetry in Renaissance Italy was typically created and disseminated by improvising singer-poets. This is the first comprehensive study of cantare ad lyram (singing to the lyre), the dominant form of solo singing in Italy prior to the mid-sixteenth century, and of the related oral practices of memory and improvisation.
List of contents
Introduction; Part I. The Civic Tradition: The Art of the Canterino: 1. Early history: Ioculatores and Giullari; 2. The Trecento Canterino; Excersus 1: Piazza San Martino: performance, urban space, and audience; 3. The Canterino in the fifteenth century; Part II. The Humanist Tradition: Cantare ad Lyram: 4. Florence: from Canterino to Cantare ad Lyram; Excursus 2: Filippino Lippi's portrait of a Canterino; 5. Cantare ad Lyram and humanist education; 6. Cantare ad Lyram in the courts; 7. Rome: Cantare ad Lyrum at the summit; Epilogue: the sixteenth century.
About the author
Blake Wilson is Professor Emeritus of Music at Dickinson College, Pennsylvania. He is the recipient of grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), Fulbright Program, Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies (Villa I Tatti), and the National Humanities Center. His research interests include the vernacular song cultures of Medieval and Renaissance Italy, Medici music patronage, the musical soundscapes of Italian cities, orality and literacy, and the intersections between aural, visual, and literary cultures. His works have appeared in books, editions, and journals, including the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the Journal of Musicology, Early Music History, Recercare, Rivista Italiana di Musicologia, and I Tatti Studies.
Summary
Vernacular poetry in Renaissance Italy was typically created and disseminated by improvising singer-poets. This is the first comprehensive study of cantare ad lyram (singing to the lyre), the dominant form of solo singing in Italy prior to the mid-sixteenth century, and of the related oral practices of memory and improvisation.
