 Cozzolani - Vespro della Beata Vergine by Magnificat, Warren Stewart, and Chiara Margarita Cozzolani (Audio CD - 2004)
Cozzolani - Messa Paschale by Magnificat, Warren Stewart, and Chiara Margarita Cozzolani (Audio CD - 2004)
 Dialogues with Heaven - Cozzolani: Motets by Musica Secreta and Chiara Margarita Cozzolani (Audio CD - 2007)
 Rosa Mistica by Caterina Assandra, Rosa Giacinta Badalla, Chiara Margarita Cozzolani, and Isabella Leonarda (Audio CD - 2000)
 Angels and Shepherds by Philipp Nicolai, Michael Praetorius, Anonymous, and Samuel Scheidt (Audio CD - 1999)
 Cozzolani - Marian Vespers by A AaaUnspecified and Chiara Margarita Cozzolani
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Barbara Strozzi (also called Barbara Valle) (Baptised August 6, 1619, Venice - November 11, 1677, Padua) was an Italian Baroque singer and composer. She was the adopted, and most likely illegitimate, daughter of Giulio Strozzi. Giulio incorporated her into his series of discussion groups, or academies, particularly the "Accademia degli Unisoni", where in she was both called upon to sing, and to contribute to the discourse. Her father arranged for her to study with composer Francesco Cavalli. Until recently, it was believed that Strozzi was a courtesan, since she was unmarried and since her relationship to her father's friends in the Accademia degli Unisoni was referred to as licentious. However, evidence that at least three of her four children were fathered by the same man (Giovanni Paulo Vidman) indicates that she was probably his paramour, or mistress, at least while he was alive. After his death it is likely that Strozzi supported herself by means of her savvy investments and by her compositions. Although she dedicated her publications to several important figures, including Ferdinand II of Austria and Sophia, Duchess of Brunswick and Lüneburg, there is no evidence that these "patrons" directly supported her. Strozzi is unique among both male and female composers for publishing her works in single-composer volumes, rather than in collections. Her output is also unique in that it is comprised entirely of vocal chamber music, rather than opera or instrumental music. She published, if not composed, more in this genre than any other composer of her time. In addition to composing, Strozzi was considered to be a virtuosic singer. The vast majority of her works are for Soprano and continuo, suggesting that they were written for Strozzi herself to sing. Her compositions are firmly rooted in the seconda prattica tradition, exemplified in the works of Claudio Monteverdi, but her works have a more lyrical emphasis, based in the strengths of the voice itself. Many of the texts for her early pieces were written by her father Giulio. Other texts were written by her father's friends, and possibly by herself. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Strozzi ============================================================================================ Barbara Strozzi, CANTATES, Judith Nelson, Soprano. Fine recording, exceedingly delighful clarity of soprano Judith Nelson, with William Christie, harpsichord, Christophe Coin, violoncelle, John Hutchinson, harp. Harmonia Mundi HMX 2901114, 2004
CD titled, The New Sappho, with vocal works by Barbara Strozzi and Nicolo Fontei. performed by the ensemble Favella Lyrica, Carol Lewis, Pamela Murray, et al. Koch Int'l Classics #7491, 2000
Barbara Strozzi, Sacri Musicali Affetti, libro I, op. 5 (Venice 1655) - extraits, Concerto Soave, Maria Cristina Kiehr, soprano, Christina Pluhar, arpa tripla, tiorba, Sylvie Moquet, viola da gamba, violoncino, Matthias Spaeter, arciliuto, chitarrone, Jean-Marc Aymes, organo, clavicembalo. Harmonia Mundi l'empreinte digitale ED 13048, released 1995, notes in English, French, Spanish and Italian. (Note: The cover illustration for this CD is from a painting by the Italian woman artist Artemisia Gentileschi,1593-1656. The album received the Penguin Guide's coveted "rosette" award). Barbara Strozzi. 17 songs on CD titled, To the Unknown Goddess: A Portrait of Barbara Strozzi, Catherine Bott, soprano; Paula Chateauneuf, chitarrone, baroque guitar; Timothy Roberts, harpsichord; Frances Kelly, harp. CARLTON CLASSICS, 30366 00412, 1996.
Recordings http://www.goldbergweb.com/en/busquedas/?words=STROZZI&restrict=/en/discography/
My Collection STROZZI barb. Choir Lamento del marchese cinq-mars Sergio Vartolo Soloists, capella di st. Petronio < xml="true" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" prefix="o" namespace=""> Strozzi barb. Choir Merce di voi Sergio Vartolo Soloists , capella di st. Petronio Strozzi barb. Soprano Cantata l'Astratto Judith Nelson Christie-cembalo Cristophe Coin-cello, Hutchinso-triple Harp Strozzi barb. Soprano Cantata Non pavento io di te Judith Nelson Christie-cembalo Cristophe Coin-cello, Hutchinso-triple Harp Strozzi barb. Soprano Cantata Lamento:Appresso a I molli argenti Judith Nelson Christie-cembalo Cristophe Coin-cello, Hutchinso-triple Harp Strozzi barb. Soprano Cantata Lamento: Au'l Rodano severo Judith Nelson Christie-cembalo Cristophe Coin-cello, Hutchinso-triple Harp Strozzi barb. Soprano Cantata Luci belle Judith Nelson Christie-cembalo Cristophe Coin-cello, Hutchinso-triple Harp Strozzi barb. Soprano Cantata Moralita amorosa Judith Nelson Christie-cembalo Cristophe Coin-cello, Hutchinso-triple Harp Strozzi barb. Soprano L'Eracito amoroso "Udite amarti" Susanne Ryden Musica Fiorita Strozzi barb. Soprano Costume de' grand "Godere e lasciare" Susanne Ryden Musica Fiorita Strozzi barb. Soprano L'amante segreto "Voglio, voglio morire" Susanne Ryden Musica Fiorita Strozzi barb. Soprano Amor dormiglione "Amor, non dormir piu" Susanne Ryden Musica Fiorita Strozzi barb. Soprano Lamento "Lagrime mie, a che vi trattenete?" Susanne Ryden Musica Fiorita Strozzi barb. Soprano Serenata con violini "Hor che Apollo e a Teti in seno" Susanne Ryden Musica Fiorita Strozzi barb. Soprano Begl'occhi, bel seno "Voi pur , begl'occhi" Susanne Ryden Musica Fiorita Strozzi barb. Soprano Cantata "Sino alla morte mi protesto" Susanne Ryden Musica Fiorita Strozzi barb. Soprano La soi ta mi re do "La mia donna, perche canta" Susanne Ryden Musica Fiorita Strozzi barb. Soprano Core che reprime alla lingua di manifestare il nome della sua cara. Susanne Ryden Musica Fiorita Strozzi barb. Soprano La vendetta Susanne Ryden Musica Fiorita
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Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/isabella-leonarda-isabella-calegari
Biography Isabella Leonarda, the name chosen by or perhaps for Isabella Calegari, when she became an Ursaline nun, is a remarkable figure in the history of Western music. It was not at all unheard of for women to compose music in times gone by, but in virtually all such instances, the music written is vocal: sacred motets -- such as we might expect nuns (for most woman composers in earlier times were nuns) to produce -- and/or secular madrigals. It is indeed unusual to find a seventeenth-century Italian woman like Leonarda putting together textless instrumental music in the new Italian Baroque fashion.
CD titled, Leonarda La Musa Novarese, Gruppo Vocale Musica Laudantes, directed by Riccardo Doni; Cappella Strumentali Del Duomo Di Novara. Soloists: Loredana Bacchettal, soprano; Caterina Calvi, contralto; Gianluca Ferrarini, tenor; Luca Ferracin, bass. OPS 30-206, recorded 1997. (Includes notes and slipcase, highly recommended). Isabella Leonarda, her acclaimed Sonata Duodecima, on CD titled In Stil Moderno, with compostions by Girolamo Frescobaldi, Giulio Caccini, and others. Ingrid Matthews, Wild Boar Records #9512, 1996.
| Music by Lombard Nun Composers, 17th c. Music of the Lombard Nuns. CD titled Rosa Mistica: musiche di monache lombarde del Seicento (Music of the Lombard Nuns of the 17th century). Works by Isabella Leonarda, Maria Xaveria Peruchona, Caterina Assandra, Chiara Margarita Cozzolani, Rosa Giacinta Badalla, Biana Maria Meda, Claudia Sessa and Claudia Francesca Rusca. Cappella Artemisia TACTUS TC 600003 (Allegro Imports) 1999.
| Song texts of 16 villancicos by Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz on CD titled Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz : le Phenix du Mexique (the Phoenix of Mexico). Ensemble Elyma - Cor Vivaldi Els Petits Cantos de Catalunya. Les Chemins de Baroque K17, #K617122, 1999/2001
"This splendid tribute is addressed to Juana Ines de la Cruz, an exceptional figure in seventeenth century Mexico, when she was indisputably the leading light of the literary world. "(...) By no means a negligible part of her Obras, the villancicos of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz were printed in Madrid (1689) and Seville (1692), which allowed them to travel all over the Spanish colonial empire and thus to come to the attention of the talented musicians of the Real Audiencia de Charcas (in present day Bolivia) where they were to take on the dimensions revealed (thanks to the research of the musicologist Bernardo Illari) by the present recording."
| CD titled Musica de la Puebla de los Angeles: Music by Women of the Mexican, Cuban, and European Baroque, performed by the ensemble Ars Femina. Music by Teodora Gines, Maria Paterina, Gracia Baptista, Sor Juana Ines De la Cruz, Anna Ovena Hoijer, Lucrezia Vizana, Chiara Margarita Cozzolani, Maria Joachina Rodrigues, Maria Xavera Peruchona, and Guadalupe Ortiz. Ars Femina, NANNERL 004, 1996. Recordings Source:http://www.amazon.com/
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Biography Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre (full name Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre; born Élisabeth Jacquet, March 17, 1665, Paris – June 27, 1729, Paris) was a French musician, harpsichordist and composer. Elisabeth Jacquet was born into an important family of musicians and masons in the parish of Saint-Louis-en-l'Ile, Paris. A childhood prodigy, she played the harpsichord, recorder, and various small viols[1] before King Louis XIV to inaugurate her career as a virtuoso performer at the age of five. At the court of Louis XIV she was noticed by Madame de Montespan, and was kept on in her entourage. Her original marriage to the court clerk Anton La Rue ended in failure. During this time, he restrained her compositional output and restricted her activities.[2] She later married the organist Marin de La Guerre in 1684 and left the court. Thereafter she was known as Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre. After her marriage she taught and gave concerts at home and throughout Paris, and gained much acclaim. A quote from Titon du Tillet speaks of her
Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre was one of the few well-known women composers of her time. Recently there has been a renewal of interest in her compositions and a number have been recorded. Her first publication was her Premier Livre de Pièces de Clavessin, printed in 1687. It was one of the few collections of harpsichord pieces printed in France in the 17th-century, along with those of Chambonnières, Lebègue and d'Anglebert. On 15th March 1694, the production of her opera Céphale et Procris at the Académie Royale de Musique was the first written by a woman in France. The next year, 1695, she composed a set of trio sonatas which, with those of Marc-Antoine Charpentier, François Couperin, Jean-Féry Rebel and Sébastien de Brossard, are among the earlist French examples of the sonata. The next few years heralded the deaths of almost all of her near relations: her only son, mother, father, husband and brother Nicolas, and were understandably not productive of music. 1707 saw the publication of Pièces de Clavecin qui peuvent se jouer sur le Viollon, a new set of harpsichord pieces, followed by six Sonates pour le Viollon et pour le Clavecin. These works are an early example of the new genre of accompanied harpsichord works, where the instrument is used in an obbligato role with the violin; Rameau's Pieces de Clavecin en Concerts are somewhat of the same type. The dedication of the 1707 work speaks of the continuing admiration and patronage of Louis XIV:
She returned to vocal composition with the publication of two books of Cantates françoises sur des sujets tirez de l'Ecriture in 1708 and 1711. Her last publication, 15 years before her death, was a collection of secular Cantates Françoises (c. 1715). In the inventory of her possessions after her death, there were three harpsichords: a small instrument with white and black keys, one with black keys, and a large double manual Flemish harpsichord Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89lisabeth_Jacquet_de_La_Guerre ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre, Sonate, on CD titled L'Art de L'Archet, vol 2. A very fine album which rightly combines Jacquet de la Guerre with Marin Marais. Jaap Schroeder, violon; Philippe Foulon, Viole da gamba; Ketil Haugsand, harpsichord. ADDA, 1990 / 1998.
One of the best compilations of Jacquet de la Guerre ever! The recording is titled: THY HAND HAST DONE THIS "Judith" and Other Works of Jacquet de la Guerre. includes 2 cantates and Sonata in D minor for Violin, 1707; also a Cantate Le Lis et La Rose by Andre Campa (1660-1744). Centaur CRC 2670, 2004 A snip from an introduction to CECILIA'S CIRCLE at Midwestern Historical Keyboard site: "Cecilia's Circle draws together four young women skilled in the traditions of the Baroque, nourished by their passion for works by women composers of that era. Beginning first as a duo, soprano Janet Youngdahl and harpsichordist Vivian Montgomery were energized by their discoveries of manuscripts by women composers. Over the course of many late nights, the dusty manuscripts became living music, and the fresh and lively sounds of this group took form..." Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre, Le Sommeil d'Ulisse - Isabelle Desrochers / Les Voix Humaines (same name but different group than above), ABM 100, 2003. This very well-received, award-winning album includes 5 marvelous compositions by Jacquet de la Guerre: Prelude pour clavecin en la mineur (1687); Le sommeil d'Ulisse (ca. 1715); Chaconne pur clavecin en la mineur (1687); Sonate pour violon & basse continue en re mineur (1707); and Sanson (1711). The following is excerpted from the liner notes, regarding the recording's centerpiece, a French cantata titled Le Sommeil d'Ulisse: [Jacquet de la Guerre's] third book of Cantate françoises comprises three pieces, instead of the usual six: Semele, Lille de Delos and Le Sommeil d'Ulisse. The composer gave the following explanation: "As the cantatas I present to the Public are rather long, I have decicded to limit them to three. I have accompanied them with symphonies which are in keeping with the subjects; and I hope by their diversity to keep them from being tedious." Elisabeth Claude-Jacquet de la Guerre: Harpsichord Suites, performed by Carole Cerasi on the 1636 harpsichord in the Cobbe Collection at the National Trust property Hatchlands Park, England. Winner of the 1999 Gramaphone Best Baroque Instrumental Recording. Metronome MET CD 1026, 1998/2001. See sound samples:
Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre, Les Pieces de Clavecin, Blandine Verlet, performed on the harpsichord, dated 1624, from the Unterlinden Museum in Colmar. Auvidis, E 8644, 1998 Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre (updated), Sonates pour le Viollon, 1707. Ingrid Matthews, baroque violin; Byron Schenkman, harpsichord; Margriet Tindemans, viola da gamba. (Six Suites employing obligato bass, rendering in effect Sonates en trio, a form which had not yet found expression in France.) Wildboar 9601, 1996.
Elisabeth-Jacquet de la Guerre, Sonates for one and two violins, with viole or violoncelle obliges. Ensemble Variations. Christine Plubeau, Viole de gambe. French import. Accord. 205, 782 / MU750 Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre: CD titled "Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre, Portrait," Susanne Ryden, soprano; Musica Fiorita. Daniela Dolci, harpsichord and direction. Two CD-set. Good selection of vocal and instrumental works by Jacquet de la Guerre, period instruments. PAN CLASSICS 510 121-2, 1999/2000. Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre, CD titled Concert Spirituel includes two of her biblical cantatas, Judith (1708) and Samson (1711), with Sonatta à trois parties (c. 1695). With music by Marais, Couperin and Drouart de Bousset. Performed by the Jerusalem Consort, ACROBOLENO, AAOC-94332, 1999. Recordings http://www.goldbergweb.com/en/busquedas/?words=Guerre&restrict=/en/discography/
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Camilla de Rossi (fl. 1707 – 1710) was an Italian composer. Several women are known to have composed music in northern Italy and Austria during the period 1670-1725. Of those women, though there is no remaining biographical information, Camilla de Rossi by far has the most surviving works. The only known biographical detail about Camilla is her Roman citizenship. She always signed the title pages of her manuscripts as Romana, or a woman of Roman descent. Rossi composed four oratorios for solo voices and orchestra, all of which were commissioned by Emperor Joseph I of Austria and were performed in the Imperial Chapel. All of Rossi’s surviving works demonstrate an intimate knowledge of stringed instruments and, as Barbara Garvey Jackson describes, "a keen interest in tone color". Her pieces call for a combination of ensembles with chalumeau, archlute, and strings. While her four movement sinfonia, "Il Sacrifizio di Abramo," reveals her knowledge of instruments, strings in particular, but also demands a chalumeau, an instrument first heard in 1707, one year before her sinfonia was performed for the first time in 1708. Where she learned these skills as a musician and as a composer are entirely unknown as of today. Especially given the fact that she was a woman from Rome, she would not have hade access to the musical gatherings fostered by the pope and his cardinals. Although we may not know very much about Camilla de Rossi and her music, after listening to her compositions one thing is for sure: Camilla de Rossi was one talented composer. Works
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camilla_de_Rossi ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Romana Camilla de Rossi, Sacrifizio di Abramo" (1708) (complete oratorio). Weser-Renaissance, directed by Manfred Cordes, with Susanne Rydén, soprano; Ralf Popken, alto and Jan Strömberg, tenor. Libretto (by Francesco Maria Dario) in Italian and English, excellent liner notes in German, English and French. The famous and beautiful lute sinfonia in this oratoria amounts to an early lute concerto. Classic Produktion Osnabrück, CPO 999 371-2. 1996. (This recording is one of the most beautiful and remarkable CD's by an early woman composer -- also available from Tower Records mail order 1-800-ASK-TOWER). Romana Camilla de Rossi (listed as Camillo de Rossi in one entry at Amazon, but otherwise correctly as Camilla): her Oratorio, "S. Alessio", composed in 1710, probably in Rome. The second of Camille de Rossi's four extant oratorios to be recorded. Performed by Ensemble Musica Fiorita, Daniela Dolci, harpsichord and direction, world premiere recording, Pan Classics 510 136, 2001 Recordings
CCD released by Pan Classics, Sound Arts Switzerland Camilla de Rossi detta La Romana, 17th Century Baroque Chamber Ensemble "Musica fiorita" - Basel. Musical Director: Daniela Dolci Antonia Bembo (c. 1640–c. 1720) was an Italian composer and singer. She was born in Venice and died in Paris. She was the daughter of Giacomo Padoani, a doctor, and married Lorenzo Bembo in 1659. She moved to Paris before 1676, possibly to leave a bad marriage. There she sang for Louis XIV. Louis granted her a pension and housing at Petite Union Chrétienne des Dames de Saint Chaumont, a religious community. She was a contemporary of Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre. Six volumes of Bembo's music survive in manuscript in six volumes at the Bibliothèque nationale de France as the Produzioni ormoniche, most of them dedicated to Louis XIV. These contain a certain amount of autobiographical information, which has been corroborated through other sources. She was taught by Francesco Cavalli (who also taught Barbara Strozzi) by 1654 and wrote in all the major genres of the time, including opera, secular and sacred cantatas, petit and grand motets. Her work is a combination of French and Italian styles. She uses the virtuosic elements of Italian style of the period, as well as French dance forms. Much of her work is for soprano voice with continuo accompaniment. Her opera was L'Ercole amante (1707), to a libretto by Francesco Buti. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonia_Bembo
More about Antonia Bembo - http://www.goldbergweb.com/en/magazine/composers/1999/03/10964_2.php It may come as something of a surprise to learn that at least four of the Venetian students of Francesco Cavalli were women: the singer-composer Barbara Strozzi, the nobles Betta Mocenigo and Fiorenza Grimani, and the young singer Antonia Padoani. In 1654 Padoani’s father, the medical doctor Giacomo, wrote to the Duke of Mantua, Carlo II Gonzaga, to report on the progress made by his daughter in her lessons with the great maestro di cappella of Saint Mark’s. Further correspondence in that year identifies her as “la figlia che canta” (“the singing girl”). Beyond this one indication of her music-making and the dedication of Produzioni armoniche—in which she describes herself as having “qualche talento nel canto” (“some talent in singing”) with which she was introduced to the king—no other mention of her musical activity has yet been located in Paris or in Venice. Yet a musical career she clearly had, one which allowed her to compose a great deal of music. Following Produzioni armoniche, she wrote many more works in most of the current vocal genres of the day: a five-voice occasional Divertimento, two Te Deum settings, psalm settings on Latin and French texts, and an opera, all of these preserved uniquely in manuscripts at the Paris Bibliothטque Nationale. Born around 1640 to Dr. Padoani and Diana Paresco, Antonia studied music and letters with two private tutors--in addition to Cavalli, she had a Latin teacher—a luxury usually available only to the patriciate. Clearly her parents wanted the best for their only child. In addition to the letter that Padoani wrote to the duke about her progress with her distinguished teacher, further correspondence from 1654 reveals her in very fine musical company indeed; her father considered a match for her with the illustrious guitarist Francesco Corbetta (c. 1615-81). As if to adumbrate Padoani’s connection to the Mantuan court, we learn that the first position held by Corbetta had been in service to the Gonzaga, a decade before this meeting with the Padoanis. Corbetta, not one to stay anywhere for long, had soon obtained a passport from Mantua with which he had meanwhile traveled to Vienna, Brussels, Hannover, Spain, and... Paris. Might it have been Corbetta’s praise of the French court when he met the young Antonia that inspired her youthful admiration for the monarch, one that she described as dating from childhood and that her alter ego Clytie poetically fashioned as “since the cradle”? Antonia’s music teacher, too, may have furthered her curiosity about France. As the foremost Italian opera composer of his day, in 1660 Francesco Cavalli accepted an invitation to Paris to stage a dramatic work upon the occasion of the king’s wedding to Maria Teresa of Spain. Despite competition and tensions with the opportunistic Jean-Baptiste Lully, during his stay Cavalli managed to produce L’Ercole amante on a libretto by Francesco Buti, a dramatist with nearly two decades experience in France. Doomed to failure because of production delays in the opera house itself, the opera did not please the French public and Cavalli returned to Venice in 1662 in low spirits. When Bembo took up the libretto again and entirely refashioned L’Ercole amante in 1707, she made a tacit connection to her teacher: as a Venetian composer in Paris using the same libretto for an entirely new setting, she underscored her musical pedigree. Despite her father’s efforts to marry her to Corbetta, the union did not take place and the guitarist continued his European travels without ever permanently attaching himself to any country, court, or person. Doctor Padoani may have been disappointed that his daughter could not or would not take on the musical career that he may have envisioned for her. Instead her interests turned toward a Venetian nobleman; in 1659 she married Lorenzo Bembo (1637-1703), a descendent of the patrician family’s best-known member, Pietro Bembo (1470-1547). The newlywed couple lived in the Padoani home in Venice for the first year of their marriage. Significant conflicts between her father and husband surfaced almost immediately, but her allegiances were with the latter in the early years of their marriage. Three children were born to them at the Padoani’s Paduan home: Diana, Andrea, and Giacomo. Following Dr. Padoani’s death in 1666, Antonia and Lorenzo returned to Venice to live in the parish of San Moisט, near St. Mark’s. Soon thereafter Lorenzo joined several nobles conscripted in the final battles of the War of Candia at Crete (1631-69). Left on her own to care for the three young children, Antonia later wrote that during his absence they had very little on which to subsist. Alas, this declaration appeared in legal papers in which she sued for divorce. After Lorenzo returned from Greece, the marriage quickly disintegrated and the two lived separately in Venice. The divorce request drawn up by Antonia in 1672 charged Lorenzo with physical brutality, infidelity, stealing her belongings, and negligence of family support. He denied the accusations and she lost the case. Might it have been the humiliation that she suffered from publicly accusing him and then being proven wrong that made her feel she must escape to a better life that she imagined awaited her in Paris? Like Clytie, was she thus “despised by fortune”? Perhaps then it was not entirely her admiration for Louis XIV that drew her to France, but it would be under his protection that she would find solace and resolution. Poetic license gave Clytie the same liberty, tracing her fondness for the “Sun” since childhood. Perhaps it was Corbetta—her old friend and fellow musician—who helped her to escape. At the time of her departure in winter 1676-77 he had been granted a pass to travel from England “to foreign parts,” perhaps Venice. Antonia did not leave without making careful plans. She took some of her belongings to the homes of various acquaintances in the city, but left her most valuable possessions at the convent of Saint Bernard on Murano, out of Lorenzo’s reach. She entrusted her daughter Diana to the abbess and a friend at the convent; her sons presumably stayed with their father. Bembo’s preface to Produzioni armoniche alludes to her financial difficulties in France; she probably could take along but few of her own possessions and a limited supply of ready money. She wrote that the king had taken mercy on her predicament and offered her shelter in a women’s community, the Petite Union Chrיtienne des Dames de Saint Chaumont (“Small Christian Union of the Women of Saint Chaumont”) in the parish of Notre Dame de Bonne Nouvelle, then on the outskirts of Paris but now located in the ninth arrondissement. Established in the early years of the 1680s, this non-cloistered community offered shelter to women who had been left alone for various reasons. If Corbetta indeed proves to have been Antonia Bembo’s escort from Venice to Paris, she would have needed assistance at exactly the time that the Parisian women’s community was formed. He died in April 1681, when the Mercure de France published an obituary extolling his musical talents. The pension given by the king to the Christian Union provided Bembo with a “room of her own” in the community. In the dearth of documentary evidence about the composer and her music, however, one wonders if her works were performed and, if so, in what way and under which circumstances. As a soprano, she surely sang most of the forty-one pieces of the Produzioni armoniche. But what of the three-, four-, and five-voice works, such as are found in the motets, the psalm settings, the divertimento, and the opera? Did sacred and secular works overlap to the same extent as in seicento Italy, so as to allow their performance in the women’s community? Many of the larger works call for men’s voices; how would these have been supplied? How well acquainted might Antonia have been with her contemporary the composer Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre? Taken together their works constitute the overwhelming majority of music composed by women during Louis XIV’s reign. These and many other questions are treated in my forthcoming book on the composer, Desperate Measures: The Life and Music of Antonia Padoani Bembo. Several scholars join me in editing her works, a few of which have been published and appear in the list above. There are as yet no commercially available recordings to be had—sopranos, especially, take note! We eagerly await recording projects that will one day yield a discography. Works of A. Bembohttp: //philidor.cmbv.fr/catalogue/intro-bembo
Book about Bembo
Music of Antonia Padoani Bembo Review Bianca Maria Meda ( ca. 1665 - ca. 1700)
The two motets in this edition come from Bianca Maria Meda’s only known work, the Mottetti a 1, 2, 3, e 4 voci, con violini. This motet collection, published in Bologna in 1691, contains twelve pieces: two solos (with paired violin accompaniment), two duets, four trios and four quartets (SATB). Though little is known of Meda’s life, she was a nun in the monastery of San Martino del Leano, in Pavia. The two motets presented here were intended for performance within the context of a church service. The texts are written in the first person feminine and express an intimate relationship between the speaker and Christ that identifies the female subject as a cloistered nun. It is probable that these texts were written by a nun from "il Leano," and quite possible that they were written by Meda herself. The texts are an example of imitatio Christi - the desire to suffer as a way of demonstrating passion for, and devotion to, Christ - a common trope in the contemporary writings of women religious. Musically, these motets contrast solo or duet passages with four-part tutti sections, and triple sections with duple. In the version for women’s voices the bass parts of both motets have been transposed up an octave, while the tenor part is transposed up only in one piece. My guestBook
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Italian & French Baroque women composers |
Chiara Margarita Cozzolani 
CPO 999 603-2 [66.12] 
