MUSIC 301/501

Women in Music

Baroque Music Part I

Baroque Era (Late 16^th Century through about 1720 or -30)

·        General traits:

·        Interest in dramatic music continued to rise

·        Investigations of ancient treatises led to experiments leading to opera

·        Madrigals were conceived with utmost drama in mind (chromaticism)

·        Two parallel lines of development for a while:

1.      Continuation of the old way of doing things: Palestrina style

2.      Experimental, radical approach: Monteverdi

·        Early Baroque was music was often very simple where melody imitated speech patterns: monody

·        Baroque music often uses basso continuo or at least has a polarized quality

·        The most defining characteristic of Baroque music is affect

·        Some increase in activities of women composers: more visible; composed in more genres

What did women achieve between 1570-1700?

·        Composition:

·        Many madrigals published in final decades of 16^th century (few composers)

·        Women continued to write lots of vocal music in 17^th century

·        Women wrote a little polyphonic sacred music by 1600, more in 17^th

·        By the late 17^th century women were writing some instrumental music

·        Performing:

·        In early 17^th C, girls were brought to courts to be trained as singers

·        Polyphonic Music in Convents:

·        From late 16^th Century on there are many accounts of music-making at convents, esp. San Vito in Ferrara and convents in Milan

·        Private Instruction in Music: gradually grew in popularity over church-based schools

·        Some of the most prolific women composers were educated by famous composer parents in courts (e.g. Francesca Caccini, Barbara Strozzi)

·        Music Printing:

·        Availability of music through printed sources meant more models to study

Deterrents for Women 1570-1700:

·        Scarcity of professional posts for women:

·        Most “music employers” did not employ women

·        Negative attitude toward Women's Creativity:

·        Women experienced confinement to domestic realm

·        Music might "deflect them from concerns more appropriate to intended roles as wives and mothers"

·        Restrictions on music making in convents:

·        Council of Trent curtailed activity, “enclosure”

Some Italian Composers:

·        Francesca Caccini (1587-~ 1640; daughter of Giulio) singer at Medici court

·        Trained by her famous father, lived at the court that would employ her

·        Only two works survive in print:

·        Il Primo Libro: collection of songs for one or 2 voices (publ. 1618); many contained virtuosic ornamentation.  Some sacred, some secular

·        Dramatic works for court incl. Il ballo delle zigane ("Ballet of the gypsies," 1615; not published) and La Liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina (opera, "Liberation of Ruggiero from the Island of Alcina" (a sorceress) 1625)

·        Barbara Strozzi (1619-64):

·        Also daughter (illegitimate) of famous figure in music world, Guilio, poet for many operas incl. Monteverdi's

·        She wrote mostly secular cantatas

·        Isabella Leonarda (1620-1704) (life overlaps Bach and Handel)

·        Daughter of noble family, entered convent at age 16

·        Wrote mostly religious works; late in life wrote some instrumental