Music 301/501

 Women in Music

Renaissance

Renaissance: approx 1450-1600.  A time of "revival;" philosophy and art developed at very accelerated pace

·        Many precipitating events; some very important ones:

·        Invention of printing press/moveable type 1454 by Gutenberg

·        Fall of Constantinople (1453): Byzantine culture alive there until this time; with invasion, scholars ran for lives with ancient manuscripts and art

Renaissance development can be categorized by geography: Northern and Italian

·        Northern came first: grew out of French supremacy in artistic things through middle ages.  "Northern" includes French, Dutch and Belgian composers

·        Most Northern Renaissance composers wrote both sacred and secular

·        Most powerful French court in 15^th Century was Burgundian: Dukes of Burgundy owned huge amounts of land until 1477 when the court was taken over by the French King

·        Artists from Burgundy scattered to other cities: Ghent, Antwerp, Brussels

·        Women seldom mentioned in accounts of Northern renaissance, probably because of their diminished political power and lack of  training in polyphonic music

·        England: Less affected by male-dominated circumspections of continental European countries

·        Educated people (including some women) would study the Quadrivium (in Liberal Arts, the so-called “upper group” or mathematical disciplines: arithmetic, music, geometry and astronomy) as well as the rhetorical or lower group, the Trivium (grammar, logic and rhetoric)

·        Italian (musical) Renaissance made rapid progress in 16^th C: Italians recruited northerners to fill most important music jobs; learned from them; gradually grew to outpace the teachers

Background: 15^th Century Italy:

·        Evidence mostly deals with upper class

·        Through 15^th Century Italian secular music modeled French (chanson); beginning in 16^th C, Italians more independent

·        Women in 15^th C Italy were still excluded from participation in church services and therefore musical composition.  Composers usually began education as choir boys with instruction in voice and keyboard; later, often had careers as singers, choirmasters, organists in church or at court.  This avenue not open to women

·        Well-born 15^th C Italian women were encouraged to learn to sing in social situations, as were men.  Considered important social grace; might become courtiers, people who live at court to grace it with their accomplishments

·        Treatises by Barberino, Catiglione, Boccaccio describe what is expected of courtiers

16^th Century Italy

·        There were many courts in Italy: Ferrara, Venice, Mantua, Rome, Florence, etc; at courts, leaders were mostly friendly rivals: competed for best composers and performers, most lavish entertainments

·        A professional group was established by Duke Alfonso II d'Este at his court at Ferrara around 1580, known as the concerto delle donne

·        The group had more specialized abilities than courtiers

·        Very popular idea, copied at other courts

·        This arrangement led to establishment of specialized group of singers to perform madrigals

·        Another career path: Commedia dell' arte (literally theater by professionals)

·        On the rise by mid-16^th century

·        Quasi-improvisatory: stock characters participated in stock situations

·        Female characters sometimes played by men, but many troupes had women members.  Part of this theater tradition included singing

·        Stature of commedia dell' arte actresses helped aristocrats see that women could be professional performers and could sing

·        One actress, Vincenza Armani, had great reputation for acting and singing, even wrote madrigal poetry and set to music

·        See http://italian.about.com/library/weekly/aa110800b.htm for additional information on Commedia dell’arte

·        Principal musical form of 16^th century is Madrigal: polyphonic vocal work for mixture of vocal ranges

·        In early days ranges could often be manipulated to be covered by men's voices; later madrigals had intricate high parts: difficult for falsetto to cover

·        Madalena Casulana: Venetian; born ~1540?

·        One of the only women to have fame as composer in 16^th C

·        Wrote madrigals: some published in anthologies that included other composers; then her own collection (1566 - 70)

·        These were first compositions by a woman to be published

·        Dedications of collections showed she was trying to attract a sponsor in the way usually done by men