Laude: Joy and Mystery

Lionheart celebrates the medieval wellsprings of Christmas, Italian style. The “Laudario” of the title is a priceless 13th-century manuscript that contains not only the earliest surviving music of the Italian lauda (devotional song) tradition, but the earliest collection of poetry in the Italian language as well. Combining original scholarship with its own vibrant, engaging performance style, Lionheart gives new life to the charming and joyful melodies that have remained locked within this manuscript for centuries.

The program brings together this very early, chant-like repertoire with later styles that grew out of it, culminating in the sublime harmonies of the Renaissance composer Innocentius Dammonis, a mysterious monk whose music was first published in Venice in 1508. Three short liturgical dramas from an ancient Paduan manuscript provide a mystical and theatrical element to the program.

Audio