The Black Plague of the 14th century had Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron, a literary masterpiece about 10 Florentine authors, holed up in quarantine, who entertained themselves by telling stories. The result was 100 tales.

Now, the Library of Congress announced today it will premiere a series of 10 commissions of new music from composers across America in The Boccaccio Project, a musical response to our current plague.

That early moment in history parallels the quarantine and social distancing phenomena we have been experiencing worldwide in recent months, the Library of Congress news release stated.

Curators in the Library’s Music Division asked 10 pairs of composers and performers to write brief solo works to be premiered over the course of 10 days — June 15 to June 26. The composers and performers are working remotely, and once the new commissions have been recorded, they will be released on the Library’s digital platforms and by the artists.

The release of the commissions over 10 days is a nod to the “Decameron’s” structure, the release said.

Since the Library’s concert series was founded in 1925, more than 600 works have been commissioned under the auspices of the Library’s gift funds.Read More »