Music in Trecento Italy and the Soundtrack of Boccaccio's Decameron

In Boccaccio's narrated world, as well as in the overarching tale of the brigata, the prominent musical genre is the secular monophonic ballad. Unlike other late-medieval narratives—such as Simone Prodenzani's Liber Saporecti (c. 1400–1422) and Giovanni Gherardi da Prato's Paradiso degli Alberti (written c. 1420, but reflecting cultural life c. 1390)¹—the Decameron does not present an assortment of historical song titles (except for a few folk songs, as we shall see below); most of its ballads were instead written and described by Boccaccio himself for inclusion in his masterwork. At first sight, the Decameron appears strangely oblivious to the sacred chants of Dante's Commedia; however, a closer look shows that Boccaccio rewrites Dante's soundscape in an allusive way, bringing to the fore the representative musical genre of Florentine mercantile bourgeoisie: the monophonic ballad. While manuscript sources transmit only sixteen monophonic ballads with notated music from the late fourteenth century, it was a popular genre in Trecento Florence, one that did not need to be written down for preservation or performance, but was instead committed to memory.² In addition to the ten ballads sung at the end of each day by a member of the brigata, Boccaccio mentions a few more songs worthy of note. One of these occurs in Dec. 3.7: after seven years of voluntary exile in Cyprus, Tedaldo degli Elisei suddenly recalls his former life when he [End Page S-138] overhears a love song he himself had long ago composed for his still fervent love. We are not offered any detail about the lyrics or music of Tedaldo's song, but we know that it plays a key role in the tale's narrative, triggering the protagonist's decision to return to Florence and setting the plot in motion.

Another ballad seems to kindle an unconscionable passion in Dec. 10.6, when the twin daughters of Neri degli Uberti perform "Là ov'io son giunto, Amore, non si poria contare lungamente" to the delight of Charles of Anjou in wake of his victory over Manfred. And finally, "Muoviti Amore e vattene a messere" (Dec. 10.7)—which Boccaccio attributes to Minuccio d'Arezzo as the composer of the music and to Mico da Siena as the author of the lyrics—plays a vital role in saving the life of Lisa Puccini from her excessive love for King Peter of Aragon. All of these songs, as well as those performed by the ten youths at the end of each day, are secular monophonic ballads, a genre that places emphasis on the lyrical expression of the individual.

How did these ballads sound to Boccaccio and his contemporaries? Elena Abramov-van Rjik argues that the Certaldese probably disliked the idea of his own lyrics being intoned by jongleurs, but admits that in the world of the Decameron this performance occurs frequently.³ Marco Gozzi suggests that we turn to the ten monophonic ballads in the Squarcialupi Codex (Biblioteca Laurenziana, MS Mediceo Palatino 87), five of which were set to music by Gherardello da Firenze and five by Lorenzo Masini da Firenze.⁴ Gozzi points to one song in particular: Gherardello's "Io vivo amando sempre con paura" (Biblioteca Laurenziana, MS Mediceo Palatino 87, f. 28v) might provide a contrafactum⁵ ("same tune") to Boccaccio's "I' son sì vaga de la mia bellezza" sung by Emilia at the end of Day One, as these two ballate mezzane share a similar metrical scheme. The practice of adopting a pre-existing melody for a new literary text, also referred to as cantasi come, was quite common in late medieval Italy. Dante also invited its use in the envoy of his ballad "Per una ghirlandetta": "Le parolette mie novelle, / che di fiori fatto han ballata / per leggiadria ci hanno tolt'elle / una vesta ch'altrui fu data."⁶ The "garment" in question [End Page S-139] could hardly be anything other than a musical setting borrowed from another song. By the same token, Gozzi suggests that Lorenzo's "Donne e' fu credenza" (Biblioteca Laurenziana, MS Mediceo Palatino...