|
After supper, instruments were sent for, and the queen decreed that a dance should begin, which Lauretta was to lead whilst Emilia was to sing a song, accompanied on the lute by Dioneo. No sooner did she hear the queen's command than Lauretta promptly began to dance and she was joined by the others, whilst Emilia sang the following song in amorous tones (Translation by G. H. McWilliam. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972).
Members of the ten-person brigata play music after breakfast and sing and dance before and after supper. A complete ballata text, sung by designated members of the brigata, is inserted at the end of each day of storytelling. Thousands of singing birds accompany the brigata to the Valley of the Ladies and bird songs awake Fiammetta on the day she rules. Even the famous passage describing plague-ridden Florence in the Introduction to Day I includes references to music.
Boccaccio makes music's importance crystal clear in the Preface, for after he diagrams the structure of his book (10 days multiplied by 10 people's stories) he says:
"And I shall also include some songs, which these seven ladies sang for their mutual agreement."
Forward
Related Bibliography
|
