Between Oral and Written Tradition: Reconstructing ‘Lost’ Singing Practices of Quattrocento Italy.

The subject of Bovi's research will be to reconstruct the particular vocal style of little-known song forms of late medieval / early Renaissance Italy. Sources such as surviving music compositions of later periods, contemporary literary chronicles and court payment records give hints about a ‘lost’ style of singing, that is, ‘lost’ in the sense that music historians and singers today have no clear idea about how these performances were sung - they were normally not written down in music notation as compositions. Further hints are given by regional traditions of orally-transmitted music in areas of Italy today. By making a synthesis of modern and historical data, against a background knowledge of written medieval music, it will be possible to approach the singing styles of such fascinating song forms as aer veneziano, siciliane and giustiniane.

Prof. dr. h.c. Ton Koopman, prof. Frans de Ruiter, prof. dr. Dinko Fabris