People and the Trinity: Alta Trinità Beata
Aurelio Porfiri
There are not many pieces in honor of the Most Holy Trinity that are commonly known and sung by choirs around the world.
I remember, when I was substitute organist for the Vicariate of the Vatican City in St. Peter’s Basilica, I would often assist choirs singing at the evening Mass. One of the most frequently recurring pieces in their repertoire was a polyphonic version of Alta Trinità Beata, a piece whose opening text reads:
“Alta trinità beata, da noi sempre si’ adorata! Trinitade gloriosa, unità maravilliosa, tu se’ manna savorosa a tut’or desiderata.”
This lauda is taken from a Cortonese manuscript (No. 91) dating to the mid-13th century, known as the Laudario di Cortona, which gathered vernacular laude texts used by a local confraternity.
The melody preserved in the Laudario does not correspond to the one later used in the polyphonic version, which some attribute to the milieu of the laudi of St. Philip Neri. The lauda from Cortona has a longer text, including these beautiful stanzas referring to Abraham:
“Abraàm en trinitade intese la deitade: li angeli li for mostrati en figura humanata. Quando vidde tre figure adorò un creatore, e ‘mperciò da te, Segnore, la so fé fo confirmata.”
These are highly significant texts paired with melodies whose performance practice remains a subject of scholarly debate—such as in Raffaello Monterosso’s 1960 study Il linguaggio musicale della Laude dugentesca. More recently, musicologist Marco Gozzi of the University of Trento has dedicated numerous studies to this repertoire, offering compelling hypotheses for melodic reconstruction and fascinating interpretative proposals.
As mentioned, the polyphonic version is certainly more popular than the monodic one—a setting that is relatively accessible for choirs of all types. The homorhythmic structure of the text supports a dignified execution even by choirs of moderate technical ability.
