EARLY MUSIC DAY: MICROLOGUS / GIULLARI DI DIO
The Early Music Day is an international celebration of early music, observed on 21 March, the date traditionally believed to be the birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach. The reference to a composer who forged a hallmark bond between the craft of musical composition and spirituality turns this day into a symbolic moment of reflection on the musical legacy of past centuries and its enduring, unabated vitality.
For Misteria Paschalia, the Early Music Day serves as a natural prelude to the festival—an opening that ushers audiences into its aesthetic and atmosphere, a harbinger of the character of the events to follow.
The Giullari di Dio programme is a musical narrative devoted to the origins of the Italian lauda—a form rooted in contemplation, poverty, and direct engagement with the everyday life of medieval Italy. Central to its emergence is St Francis of Assisi, who—according to the earliest accounts—regarded spontaneous singing and music-making as a natural expression of spiritual life, giving rise to joy expressed “alla maniera goliardica”. His attitude engendered a new mode of religious communication, founded on simplicity, emotion, and the vernacular speech of the people.
A central role in this process was played by the figure of the giullare—a fool or jester, an itinerant performer, and a keen observer of reality operating on the margins of official culture, long regarded with suspicion by ecclesiastical authorities. St Francis restored dignity to the figure, elevating it to a role model for preaching the Gospel through song, gesture, and words intelligible to all. In this way, the lauda became a vehicle for communicating spiritual content that supplanted elaborate official rites of devotion. Closely aligned with the living experience of the congregation, it gave rise to a new form of religious culture.
The programme prepared especially for this celebration by Micrologus consists of a selection of laude from the late 12th and early 13th centuries, including works discovered only recently. The concert also presents the European premiere of a musical reconstruction of the hymn Cantico di frate Sole (Cantico delle Creature), based on the most recent interpretation of the earliest surviving sources. Scholarly supervision of the programme was entrusted to Francesco Zimei, director of the ERC Advanced LAUDARE European Research Programme.
The EARLY MUSIC DAY: MICROLOGUS / GIULLARI DI DIO concert is coorganised by the Italian Culture Institute in Kraków. The event forms part of the commemorations marking the 800th anniversary of the death of St Francis of Assisi, Patron Saint of Italy, emphasising his exceptional significance not only for the development of European spirituality but also for the evolution of medieval musical culture and religious language.
Special event on the 800th aniiversary of the death of St Francis of Assisi – patron saint of Italy
World premiere of the reconstruction of Cantico delle Creature
Micrologus:
Patrizia Bovi – vocal, buccina
Gabriele Russo – Medieval fiddle, horn, buccina
Goffredo Degli Esposti – double flute, cornamusa, zufolo, drum
Enea Sorini – vocal, gittern, castanets, tambourine
Peppe Frana – gittern
Lorenzo Cannelli – vocal, hurdy-gurdy, clash cymbals
Federica Bocchini – vocal, bells
PROGRAMME
GIULLARI DI DIO
The Origins of Italian Lauda on the 800th Anniversary of Cantico di frate Sole
PRELUDIO: LA CANONIZZAZIONE
In superna civitate, sequenza (1228)
Toccar de trombette e pifari sopra Stella nova^, lauda
DALLA CHRONICA DI SALIMBENE
Alleluia* (1233)
Ave Maria, clemens et pia, lauda-sequenza
Estampida Sia Laudato San Francesco^ (opr. | arr. G. Frana)
«IOCULATORES DOMINI»
St Francis of Assisi Altissimu, onnipotente, bon Signore** (1225)
Guglielmo da Lisciano alias fra Pacifico (?) A voi gente facciam prego, lauda-serventese
Dami conforto, Dio, et alegrança, lauda-cantilena con il suo saltarello
MISTICISMO E CONTEMPLAZIONE
Oy me, lascio e friddu lu meu core, lauda-serventese
Ranieri Fasani (?) Madonna santa Maria, lauda processionale (1260)
FINALE: FRANCESCO GLORIOSO
Verbum bonum et suave^, sequenza
Iacopone da Todi Amor dolçe, sença pare, lauda-ballata
Sia laudato san Francesco, lauda-ballata
^ instrumental
reconstructed by Lucia Marchi* & Francesco Zimei**
Organizers
