ABSTRACT
Trecento song texts have significant ramifications for our understanding of musical life in late medieval Italy, it should by now be clear that their value to musicology lies as much in their literariness as in their musicality. Trecento song implies a musico-textual relationship in which text serves music. Although Trecento song is undoubtedly a high art tradition, the poetic texts are often associated with popular lyric, and thus the perception that they are in some way less artistic, less literary, is reinforced. Finally, Senza Vestimenta asks us to fundamentally reconsider our conception of song and of musicologically relevant sources. In this respect, the author discussion here resonates with Blake Wilson, Timothy McGee, and Elena Abramov-van Rijk's recent work on poetic recitation and on unwritten traditions of song in medieval and Renaissance Italy. Idea that musical notation elevates the cultural status of vernacular lyric would seem to bolster the validity of defining this repertoire.
