Giordano dall’Armellina & his conference

Giordano dall’Armellina, musician and expert on European medieval ballads, came to hold a conference at our school about, precisely, medieval English ballads. This way, all the students of the 3rd year had the pleasure to attend a different kind of English Literature lesson. The event lasted almost 2 hours but it didn’t prevent me from appreciating the way in which mister Dall’Armellina managed to keep rousing the interest of the listeners!

When he came to our school the 1st of March, we had the chance not to just read ballads, but to listen to them in their original form, too! Therefore, he succeeded in involving completely all the young public in the story and its development of every ballad. As a matter of fact, he said a lot of things, even adding some aspects we didn’t know at all. For example he talked about ballads we hadn’t yet read, such as the Elfin Knight and the Cruel Sister, and made us listen to ballad so similar but from different countries, like Lord Randal’s case! Don’t you know that just in Italy we found out 150 versions of it? Incredible, isn’t it? …So I can totally claim he had achieved his purpose extremely well; reason for which I’d really advise anyone to persuade his/her English teacher to invite such an important and interesting personage!**…If she or he isn’t already a fan of his!

Giubertoni Giulia