Tra quante regione ("Amongst all the regions") is a ballata by the late medieval and early renaissance composer Hugo de Lantins. As with another vocal composition by Guillaume Dufay entitled Vasilissa ergo gaude, Lantins' ballata celebrated the marriage of the Italian princess Cleofa Malatesta with the Byzantine Despot of the Morea Theodore II Palaiologos. The marriage took place on 21 January 1421 or sometime in 1422 in Mystra. The actual date and place of the first performance remain disputed
Tra quante regione el sol si mobele |
Amongst all the regions the sun so mobile |
Tu fosti albergo di Elena regina, |
Thou wast the home of Queen Helen, |
Ora possedi cosa piu divina |
Now thou possessest a diviner thing, |
Quest'en le lode e le possance c'hay |
These are the praises and powers thou hast |
References
- F. Alberto Gallo, Giulio Cattin, La polifonia nel medioevo, Torino 1991, p. 104
- Leofranc Holford-Strevens, "Du Fay the Poet? Problems in the Texts of His Motets", Early Music History, Vol. 16, (1997), p. 102
- Silvia Ronchey, "Orthodoxy on Sale: The last Byzantine and the lost Crusade", in Proceedings of the 21st International Congress of Byzantine Studies, London, 21–26 August 2006, p. 323
- Iain Fenlon, Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Music, Cambridge University Press, 1997, p. 106, footnote 29
- Both the original text and the English translation are found in Iain Fenlon, Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Music, Cambridge University Press, 1997, p. 106