ALL assignments are DUE before class. NO credit for late work.

Topics  

• From Medieval iconography to pre-Renaissance. Questions / review.

• The lauda "Canticle of the Creation" by Saint Francis of Assisi. Quick research.

• Additional research: Giotto

• Jacopone da Todi: Lauda

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WRITING

1) Poetry's purpose is to trigger emotions. What is the dominant emotion you experienced while reading S. Francis's Canticle? Do you think this is what the author intended to convey? And what is the image / verse you liked the best? What did it do to you?

2) How effective was Branduardi in translating those messages into a musical form? Was the style adequate? Predictably 'antiquated'? Too light? Too solemn?

3) Jacopone's lauda can be understood only within the context of a certain kind of interpretation of Christianity that focuses almost exclusively on the suffering of Jesus, brought to the absolute extreme. (Don't forget that throughout history mass murderers and martyrs frequently have been justified as the purest expression of true faith.)

Question: gruesomeness notwithstanding, can Jacopone's lauda be admired for creativity and imagination? Can we put aside revulsion and enjoy the esthetics of his work? Or is too much just too much?
Try, if you can to push yourself and find something positive to say. Describe your attempt, and if you succeeded.
(Personal reminiscence: in high school, for fun my friends and I would write stanzas elaborating on Jacopone's themes and we would read them to one another to see who could come up with the most inventive scenarios.)

4) Extra credit. Listen to the soundfile while you read the version of the "Canticle" in contemporary Italian.
WRITING: Free topic, free association, stream of consciousness.