LAUDA. — The spiritual l., extraliturgical religious songs in the vernacular, developed in the 13th century in Umbria and then in Tuscany, with the emergence of the various penitential confraternities (Companies of the Laudantes or Laudists or Laudesi, of the Disciplinati, the Flagellati, the Battuti, etc.); they spread throughout Italy and beyond the Alps and, in terms of their duration, continued until the 19th century, although they no longer exhibited anything more than the distant offshoots of the artistic phenomenon that had culminated in the 16th century and had produced, as its direct offshoot, the musical oratorio of the 17th century.
The history of the l. does indeed comprise the two great monodic and polyphonic genres, but, in reality, even when it is polyphonic, the distinctive type of its texture is exquisitely monodic, since the melodic predominance of the upper voice is evident; with the customary homorhythm and the simplicity of the harmony, given the popular character of such songs, this was bound to impress itself upon the attention and memory of unsophisticated performers. Even when, with Animuccia and the other composers of the 16th century, the l. flourished contemporaneously with the full apogee of polyphony, its lines already reveal the imminent triumph of accompanied monody, which in it is prepared by the function—not polyphonic-contrapuntal, but rather harmonic-instrumental—through which the other voices support the melody sung in the upper register. Chronologically, the first historical phase of the l., extending from the 12th to the 15th century, comprises the development of three forms: lyrical, narrative, and dialogic; the first extends from the beginnings to the 14th–15th centuries; the second is entirely contained within the 16th century; the third emerges at the end of the 16th century, only to be immediately supplanted in turn by the recitative style, with which it would develop, in the full 17th century, into the musical oratorio. The setting of the first phase is Umbria, in particular, with the beginning of the Franciscan movement (the Canticle of the Creatures of s. Francis, despite the silence of the musical staff left blank in cod. 338 of Assisi, allows us to glimpse the world of melodious life that was fermenting in the Saint’s ardent outpourings); Tuscany followed, likewise teeming with Congregations and Confraternities. The codices of Cortona and Florence transmit texts by Jacopone da Todi, Ugo Panziera da Prato, Garzo dell’Incisa, and others, interwoven with fresh melodies that unite the springtime lightness of popular song with the composed majesty of a not-distant Gregorian inspiration, producing in Italy a phenomenon analogous to that which occurred in Germany with the emergence of the geistliches Lied and in France with Provençal spiritual lyric poetry and the beginnings of religious troubadour lyric poetry. While the vernacular languages detach themselves from the Latin stock, in the musical sphere the fresh sap of popular song breaks free, in youthful fashion, from the austere hieratic character of Gregorian chant and, while preserving its echoes in ear and soul, sings of the Faith and its mysteries, the Passion and its torments, with the new and vibrant accents of humanity belonging to the penitents who swarm, singing the praises of the Cross, along the sun-baked roads of Italy.
The principal sources for this earliest period are constituted by the Laudario di Cortona (cod. 91), from the end of the 13th century; cod. Magliabechiano II (1-122, National Library of Florence), from the first half of the 14th century; cod. 180 of Arezzo; the Laudario di Pisa (ms. 852) of the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal in Paris; the Laudario dei Battuti of Modena, from 1377; the Laudario di Udine (Civic Library), from the 14th century; that of Borgo S. Sepolcro (14th–15th centuries), etc.
The second phase, polyphonic, arose at the beginning of the 16th century and reached its culmination shortly after the middle of the century, with the figure of Giovanni Animuccia, who made the l. an art form, bringing its harmonic structure to the timbral and spatial richness of the double choir. The poetic texts are no longer based solely on the patterns of the virelai, chanson, and ballad, as those predominant in the preceding phase, but also, and especially, on the madrigal type, which, from the almost embryonic form of seven verses, reaches the more expansive form of Anerio’s epic-dramatic compositions. The authors, however, are still for the most part drawn from the lyrical-devotional repertory of the 14th and 15th centuries. Among the most illustrious names are Bianco da Siena, Feo Belcari, Girolamo Benivieni, Castellano de' Castellani, Francesco d'Albizzo, Lorenzo de' Medici, Girolamo Savonarola, etc. For the 16th century, mention must first be made of the collections printed in 1500 and 1507 by Ottaviano Petrucci da Fossombrone and studied in depth by K. Jeppesen (v. BIBLICA).
The l., having reached with Animuccia an artistic level hitherto unknown, entered a field exceptionally fertile in possibilities of development: the setting of the Congregation of the Oratory, founded by s. Filippo Neri, thanks to whom it would be incorporated into the historical period of the Catholic Reform. By assigning the l. a privileged place in his devotional exercises, using it as an introductory and concluding song into which the sermon was inserted, s. Filippo gave it the bipartite division that foreshadowed the structure of the great oratorios of the 17th century. The Filippine l., therefore, which is the direct predecessor of the vernacular oratorio, just as the motet is that of the Latin oratorio, first took shape in the simple songs performed at the gatherings of the few faithful disciples around s. Filippo; it reached the apex of the polyphonic style with Animuccia; it found in the Diletto spirituale of s. Verovio (1586) its most effective expression of the monodic style; and in 1619 (Teatro armonico of Anerio) passed into the new airs of the recitative style, which is tantamount to a prelude to the oratorio proper. Among the collections of Filippine l. printed in the second half of the 16th century, the principal ones may be cited: 1563: I. I. by G. Animuccia; 1570: II. I. by the same; 1577: III. I. by F. Soto; 1583, 1588, 1591: first four books by F. Soto; 1598: V. I. by Soto; 1599: Tempio armonico della B. V., edited by p. Giovenale Ancina. Among the poets, A. Manni and Giovanni Ancina are chiefly remembered; among the musicians, G. Animuccia, Palestrina, Victoria, Soto.
Once its great offspring, the oratorio, had arisen, the l. continued to live a limited and meagre life, in the popular songs performed at gatherings, processions, and pilgrimages. Even today, some musicians devote attention to this traditionally popular art form, but it no longer fulfils the social function it once did.