Women and Music in Sixteenth-Century Ferrara (New Perspectives in Music History and Criticism, Series Number 28)

The musica secreta or concerto delle dame of Duke Alfonso II d'Este, an ensemble of virtuoso female musicians that performed behind closed doors at the castello in Ferrara, is well-known to music history. Their story is often told by focussing on the Duke's obsessive patronage and the exclusivity of their music. This book examines the music-making of four generations of princesses, noblewomen and nuns in Ferrara, as performers, creators, and patrons from a new perspective. It rethinks the relationships between polyphony and song, sacred and secular, performer and composer, patron and musician, court and convent. With new archival evidence and analysis of music, people, and events over the course of the century, from the role of the princess nun musician, Leonora d'Este, to the fate of the musica secreta's jealously guarded repertoire, this radical approach will appeal to musicians and scholars alike. Read more... Cover Half-title Series information Title page Copyright information Dedication Table of contents List of Figures List of Music Examples List of Tables Acknowledgments Note on Music Prints and Translations List of Abbreviations Introduction: Musica secreta Secret Histories: Ferrarese Women in Musicological Literature Secret Combinations: Putting the Histories Together Doing Music History 1 Ferrarese Convents and the Este in the First Half of the Sixteenth Century Music and Convent Life The Este and Ferrarese Convents at the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century The Este and the Convent of Corpus DominiThe Musical Legacy of Caterina Vigri Suor Leonora d'Este The Voci Pari Motets of the 1540s and Their Ferrarese Context Performance Implications Scotto's Voci Pari Collection of 1563 2 Courtly Women and Secular Music in Ferrara in the First Half of the Sixteenth Century Mid-Sixteenth-Century Musical Women: The Noblewoman Mid-Sixteenth-Century Musical Women: The Courtesan The Este Women and Music in the Mid-Sixteenth Century Music for the Noblewomen of Ercole II's Ferrara Bertoldo di Bertoldi and Laura d'Este 3 Princesses and Politics: The Este Women and Music in the 1550sThe Marriage Negotiations for Anna Musical Echoes of the Negotiations in Early Works by Cipriano De Rore The Madrigali d'amore and the Madrigali de la Fama of 1548 Selene and Gli Antivalomeni: Giraldi's Didactic Spectacles Francesco Dalla Viola, Cipriano de Rore, and the Ferrarese Madrigal in the 1550s Traces of Ferrarese Song in Giaches de Wert's Primo libro de' madrigali a quattro voci of 1561 4 Actresses and Ariosto: Spectacle and Song in the 1560s Berchem's Capriccio of 1561 The First Singing Ladies: Lucrezia Bendidio and Tarquinia MolzaSinging Actresses and Ariostean Spectacle The New "New Music" A World Turned Upside Down 5 "Un modo di cantare molto diverso": Ferrara and the New Singing of the 1570s The Bendidio Sisters at Brescello in 1571 The Convents in the Early 1570s The Court in Recovery Leonora Sanvitale and the Farnese Connection Neapolitan Song Before the 1570s Ferrarese Courtly Music in the 1570s Bardi on De Rore: An Outsider's View of the Ferrarese Musical Legacy in the 1570s 6 Margherita's Arrival and the Convents in the First Half of the 1580sConvents and Music in the 1580s The Este Women and the Convents of Ferrara in the 1580s Musical Practice in San Vito in the 1580s 7 Musical Practices of the 1580s Concerto The Commemorative Volumes of the 1580s Lodovico Agostini's Il nuovo Echo (1583) Giaches de Wert's L'ottavo libro de madrigali a cinque voci (1586): The Apotheosis of the Concerto Traces of the Concerto's Performance Practice in the 1580s Repertoire Transposition Bass Lines and Accompaniment Style Ensemble Ornamentation The musica secreta or concerto delle dame of Duke Alfonso II d'Este, an ensemble of virtuoso female musicians that performed behind closed doors at the castello in Ferrara, is well-known to music history. Their story is often told by focussing on the Duke's obsessive patronage and the exclusivity of their music. This book examines the music-making of four generations of princesses, noblewomen and nuns in Ferrara, as performers, creators, and patrons from a new perspective. It rethinks the relationships between polyphony and song, sacred and secular, performer and composer, patron and musician, court and convent. With new archival evidence and analysis of music, people, and events over the course of the century, from the role of the princess nun musician, Leonora d'Este, to the fate of the musica secreta's jealously guarded repertoire, this radical approach will appeal to musicians and scholars alike. -- Book jacket Contents 10 Figures 11 Music Examples 12 Tables 17 Acknowledgments 18 Note on Music Prints and Translations 20 Abbreviations 22 Introduction: Musica secreta 26 1 Ferrarese Convents and the Este in the First Half of the Sixteenth Century 38 2 Courtly Women and Secular Music in Ferrara in the First Half of the Sixteenth Century 80 3 Princesses and Politics: Th e Este Women and Music in the 1550s 114 4 Actresses and Ariosto: Spectacle and Song in the 1560s 164 5 “Un modo di cantare molto diverso”: Ferrara and the New Singing of the 1570s 193 6 Margherita’s Arrival and the Convents in the First Half of the 1580s 242 7 Musical Practices of the 1580s 266 8 Ferrara’s Final Chapter: Court and Convents in the 1590s 314 9 Aft erlife in Mantua 346 Bibliography 366 General Index 398 Index of Compositions 413 Women,and,Music,in,Sixteenth-,Century,Ferrara With new information on four generations of women musicians, this book expands and alters the narratives that scholars and musicians have told about music in sixteenth-century Ferrara. A radical perspective on a familiar repertoire, it proposes a new way of thinking with consequences for music history and performance practice.