In the Stacks
Featuring Musica Spira
- Paula Maust, Musica Spira Artistic Director, Harpsichord
- Grace Srinivasan, Musica Spira Artistic Director, Soprano
- Amy Domigues, Viola da gamba
- Crossley Hawn, Soprano
In this section
Program
Barbara Strozzi (1619–1677)
I baci, Op. 2
Lagrime mie, Op. 7
Mercé di voi, Op. 1
Lucrezia Vizzana (1590–1662)
Paratum cor meum Deus
Filij Syon
Omnes gentes
Antonia Bembo (c.1640-c.1720)
Lamento della Vergine
Isabella Leonarda (1620–1704)
Sonata No. 12, Op. 16
Adagio
Allegro, e presto
Vivace, e largo
Spiritoso
[Adagio]
Aria, allegro
Veloce
Isabella Leonarda
Bonum est confiteri Domino, Op. 7
Maria Xaveria Peruchona (c.1652–after 1709)
Vos aures suaves
Barbara Strozzi
La Vittoria, Op. 1
Program Notes
Women have been actively involved in the process of music-making since antiquity, although their contributions have often been overshadowed in our historical narratives. Seventeenth-century Italy, in particular, was home to significantly more female composers than any other region in Western Europe. Across the century, women flourished as composers in Italian courts, in convents, and even as independent publishers of their own works. Perhaps one of the reasons we have so much surviving music from the pens of Italian women is that Italy prioritized educational opportunities for women of all social classes much earlier than other countries in Western Europe. Women also published under their own names in Italy, rather than anonymously as they often did elsewhere, and convents in Italy sustained a rich musical tradition for centuries. Today’s program features music by five Italian women who lived and worked in a variety of settings. Although their music has largely been erased from the canon, they were some of the most prolific, respected, and highly-paid composers of their time.
Barbara Strozzi is often credited with codifying the seventeenth-century cantata genre in her eight collections of published vocal works, which she produced without the financial support of either the church, a patron, or court. Born the illegitimate daughter of the esteemed poet Giulio Strozzi, Barbara was raised in the elite intellectual circles of Venice. As a teenager, she began performing her own music for members of the Accademia degli Incogniti, an organization of musicians, writers, and philosophers known for promoting opera. Performing in Academy meetings was taboo for a woman, and Barbara’s character was regularly debated in vitriolic satires. Despite this slander, she published 125 vocal works, rendering her one of the most prolific composers of her time. Strozzi’s music is daring and distinctive, particularly in the ways she uses unusual harmonic progressions and dissonance to create emotive text painting.
Lucrezia Vizzana’s 1623 book of motets was the only collection of music published by a seventeenth-century Bolognese nun. Music-making in convents elicited frequent ecclesiastical reprimands and was often considered to be a dangerous spectacle. Despite constantly-changing regulations about what instruments were permitted in the convent, the types of music allowed to be sung at various services, and who could experience that music, the nuns in Vizzana’s convent creatively devised ways to continue their musical practices. This aroused much suspicion and jealously from several of the most devout sisters, who sent a letter to the Archbishop accusing the musical nuns of violating their vows. This resulted in an extraordinary series of dramatic events—violence erupted, the convent fell into disarray, and Vizzana ultimately retired early and suffered from mental instability for the remainder of her life.
After her petition for divorce on the grounds of physical abuse was denied, Venetian singer and composer Antonia Bembo fled to Paris to begin a new life. Upon her arrival, she sang for Louis XIV who was so impressed with her musical abilities that he awarded her a lifelong pension. Bembo then sought refuge in a convent dedicated to educating women, where she resided for the rest of her life. Her “Lamento della Vergine” portrays Mary’s profound anguish after Jesus’s crucifixion. It is likely Bembo felt a deep personal connection to the text, as she suffered tremendous heartbreak when she was forced to leave her three young children behind with her husband.
Isabella Leonarda wrote more than 200 musical works in every sacred genre of her time and was the first known woman in Western Europe to publish a book of instrumental sonatas. She joined an Ursuline convent in Novara at age sixteen and remained there for the rest of her life, holding every position in the convent including mother superior. Musical practices in Novara were also often subject to ecclesiastical reprimands, and Leonarda was careful to note in the dedication to her tenth collection of music that her duties to the convent were never interrupted by her musical activities. Rather, she purportedly gave up hours of sleep to compose! Leonarda’s music reached far beyond the enclosed walls of the convent organ loft. In his 1701 Museo novarese, an account of the most important individuals in Novara, Lazaro Agostino Cotta wrote “Isabella Leonarda, who for the singular merit which she holds in the art of music, could be rightly called, par excellence, the ‘Muse of Novara.’”
Maria Xaveria Peruchona lived and worked in the same convent in Novara as Isabella Leonarda. Like Cozzolani, she was born into an aristocratic family and educated in music and singing at home before she joined the convent at age sixteen. Little is known about her musical activities within the convent, aside from her 1675 book of exquisite and virtuosic motets for one to four voices.
~Program notes by Paula Maust, 2023
About the Ensemble
Musica Spira (Music Breathes) brings the underrepresented stories of early modern women musicians to life through thought-provoking programs that shed light on women’s multifaceted contributions to music history. Co-Directors Grace Srinivasan and Dr. Paula Maust combine scholarly research with innovative musical programming to create concert themes that “draw musical traditions of the past and present into renewed conversations about the importance of life and values” (The Wilson Center). Founded in 2016 and based in the Baltimore, MD-Washington, D.C. area, Musica Spira’s recent programs include “The Ugly Virtuosa,” “Forth From Her Pen,” and “An Extraordinary Innovation.” They have performed on concert series at the Indianapolis Early Music Festival, the Peabody Institute, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Bloomington Early Music Festival, the Walters Art Museum, the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and the Society of Historically Informed Performance series in Boston.
About the Artists
Grace Srinivasan
Praised for her “beautiful vocalism” (San Francisco Gate) and engaging presence, soprano Grace Srinivasan has established herself in the Baltimore-Washington area as a performer of a wide spectrum of repertoire ranging from medieval chant to contemporary compositions.
A graduate of Peabody Conservatory and a Washington, D.C. area native, Grace sings professionally as a cantor and soprano at St. Stephen Martyr Catholic Church, section leader at Temple Sinai, and at Washington National Cathedral as a staff soprano. Grace has sung with ensembles throughout the region, including the Washington Bach Consort, Cathedra, and Chantry, and has performed on concert stages across North America from Boston to the Dominican Republic.
Grace serves as resident music director for the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company in downtown Baltimore and is a co-founder of the early music duo Musica Spira, which highlights music by early modern women. An occasional screen actor, she appeared in the PBS docudrama Enemy of the Reich as Noor Inayat Khan.
Paula Maust
Paula Maust is a performer, scholar, and educator dedicated to fusing research and creative practice to amplify underrepresented voices and advocate for social change. She is the creator of expandingthemusictheorycanon.com, an open-source collection of more than 500 music theory examples by historical women and/or people of color. A print anthology based on the project will be released with SUNY Press in December. Additionally, she is an Early Modern Area Editor for Grove Music Online’s extensive gender and sexuality revision project. Paula’s research has been published in Women and Music and the Journal of the International Alliance for Women in Music, and she regularly presents her work in lectures across the United States.
As a harpsichordist and organist, Paula has been praised for combining “great power with masterful subtlety” (DC Metro Theater Arts) and as a “refined and elegant performer” (Boston Musical Intelligencer). As the co-director of Musica Spira, she curates provocative lecture-concerts connecting baroque music to contemporary social issues focused on women. Paula performs extensively as a continuo player with numerous ensembles in the region, including the Washington Bach Consort, the Folger Consort, Third Practice, and the Handel Choir of Baltimore.
Paula is an Assistant Professor of Music Theory at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. She holds degrees in harpsichord from Peabody (DMA ’19, MM ’16) and in organ from the Cleveland Institute of Music (MM ’12) and Valparaiso University (BM ’09).
Crossley Hawn
Crossley Hawn is a DC-based soprano, known for her ability to perform across various musical styles. She has been a soloist with a range of notable ensembles, including The Folger Consort, The Washington Bach Consort, Chatham Baroque, The City Choir of Washington, Cathedral Choral Society, Choralis, The Thirteen, Cathedra, Musica Spira, The Reston Chorale, Maryland Choral Society, and Maryland Summer Chorus. Crossley has also sung with True Concord, Kinnara, Chorosynthesis, Chantry, Bridge, The District Eight, and the U.S. Air Force Singing Sergeants.
As a member of Eya Medieval Music, an award-winning female trio, Crossley has showcased her gift for interpreting and performing medieval music. In opera, she has performed various roles including Dido/Dido and Aeneas, Giannetta/L’Elisir d’Amore, Drusilla/L’Incoronazione di Poppea, and Susanna/Le Nozze di Figaro. Other operatic highlights include Adele/Die Fledermaus, Suor Dolcina/Suor Angelica, Amahl/Amahl and the Night Visitors, and Serpina/La Serva Padrona.
Crossley has participated in numerous noteworthy events throughout her career, including performing for a wedding at the White House, singing David Lang’s the little match girl passion with the composer in attendance, performing in chamber choirs for two Popes, and serving as cantor at Justice Antonin Scalia’s funeral. She has performed across seven different countries throughout her career. She is currently employed at The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and the Washington National Cathedral.
In addition, Crossley has served as Project Manager and ensemble singer for Experiential Orchestra’s GRAMMY-winning premiere recording of Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Prison. She is also an Artistic Director of Bridge Voices, a professional vocal chamber ensemble specializing in new works for voices and winner of three film festival awards for an original film, America, You’re Beautiful.
Amy Domingues
Amy Domingues performs on the cello and viola da gamba. Her early career found her honing her ensemble skills as a session cellist, recording and touring with rock and experimental bands in the USA, Europe, and Japan. Later, armed with a strong interest in music history, Amy turned her focus to the viola da gamba. Following several years of study, including masterclasses with Wieland Kuijken, Paolo Pandolfo, and Philippe Pierlot, she earned a master’s degree in Early Music from Peabody Conservatory. Amy has enjoyed an ambitious career as a historically informed musician, performing on baroque cello and viola da gamba with groups as varied as The Valencia Baryton Project, The Folger Consort, Hesperus, and The Washington Bach Consort. Amy is a founding member of Sonnambula (Ensemble in Residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art 2018-2019), and co-founder of Corda Nova Baroque. She is an avid educator and maintains a private studio of cello and gamba students. Ms. Domingues has served as faculty at the Madison Early Music Festival, the Conclave of the Viola da Gamba Society, and appears on over 70 albums, most recently Sonnambula’s world premiere of Leonora Duarte’s Sinfonias (Centaur Records). She is a multiple recipient of the District of Columbia Commission on the Arts and Humanities Fellowship Grant. Amy resides in Washington, DC with her husband and two cats.
Translations
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Barbara Strozzi: I Baci
I Baci
Oh dolci, oh cari, oh desiati baci!
Unite l’alme vanno sul labro ad incontrarsi.
Col bacio l’alme sanno nel cor gran colpi darsi.
Vezzosette si accordano, viperette si mordano;
ma sono i lor dolcissimi furori grand union dei
cori.
Oh dolci, oh cari, oh desiati baci!
Bacia, mia bocca, bacia, e taci.Kisses
Oh sweet, oh dear, oh desirable kisses!
United souls come on these lips to meet,
With a kiss these souls are able to strike at the
heart.
Charmingly they reconcile, spitefully they bite,
But it is in their sweet battle that hearts are joined.
Oh sweet, oh dear, oh desirable kisses!
Kiss my lips, kiss, and be silent.Translation by Rosemary Galton
-
Barbara Strozzi: Lagrime Mie
Lagrime mie, à che vi trattenete?
Perché non isfogate il fier dolore
Che mi toglie’l respiro e opprime il core?
Lidia, che tant’adoro,
Perch’un guardo pietoso, ahi, mi donò,
Il paterno rigor l’impriggionò.
Tra due mura rinchiusa
Sta la bella innocente,
Dove giunger non può raggio di sole;
E quel che più mi duole
Ed’ accresc’al mio mal tormenti e pene,
È che per mia cagione
Provi male il mio bene.
E voi, lumi dolenti, non piangete?
Lagrime mie, à che vi trattenete?
Lidia, ahimè, veggo mancarmi
L’idol mio che tanto adoro;
Sta colei tra duri marmi,
Per cui spiro e pur non moro.
Se la morte m’è gradita,
Hor che son privo di spene,
deh, toglietemi la vita,
Ve ne prego, aspre mie pene.
Ma ben m’accorgo che per tormentarmi
Maggiormente la sorte
Mi niega anco la morte.
Se dunque è vero, o Dio,
Che sol del pianto mio
Il rio destino ha sete,
Lagrime mie, à che vi trattenete?My tears, why do you restrain yourselves?
Why you do not vent the fierce pain
that deprives me of my breath and oppresses my
heart?
Lidia, whom I adore so much,
gave me a look full of piety,
her father’s severity imprisoned her.
The beautiful innocent
is locked up between two walls,
where no sunbeam can reach;
and what gives me more pain
and adds more torments and grievances to my
pain
is the fact that my beloved
suffers because of me.
And you, grieving lights [the eyes], do you not cry?
My tears, why do you restrain yourselves?
I see how I miss Lidia,
the idol that I adore so much;
she is between hard marble
so I faint but I do not die.
If death is welcome for me
now that I do not have hope,
Oh! take life away from me,
I beg you, my bitter sorrows.
But I understand well how Fate,
in order to torment me more,
is refusing me death.
If therefore it is true, O God,
that my hostile fortune is thirsty
only for my crying,
My tears, why do you restrain yourselves?Translation by Alvise Stefani
-
Barbara Strozzi: Mercé di voi
Mercé di voi, mia fortunata stella,
Volo di Pindo in fra i beati chori,
E coronata d’immortali allori
Forse detta sarò Saffo novella.
Così l’impresa faticosa e bella
Sia felice del canto e degl’amori,
Che s’unisco le voci i nostri cori
Non disunisca mai voglia rubella.
O che vaga e dolcissima armonia
Fanno due alme innamorate e fide,
Che quel che l’una vuol l’altra desia,
Che gioisce al gioir, ch’al rider ride,
Né mai sospiran, che’l sospir non sia
D’una morte che sana e non uccide.Thanks to you, my star of good fortune,
I fly from Mount Pindo among the blessed choirs,
and crowned with laurels of immortality
I will perhaps be considered a new Sappho.
Let the difficult and beautiful undertaking
be joyful with song and cupids,
so that our hearts united by voices
may never be disjoined by conflicting desires.
Oh what blithe and sweet harmony
two faithful souls in love make,
for what one wants the other desires,
They rejoice with each other’s joy, laugh with each
other’s laughter,
and never sigh except with the sigh of death
that heals and doesn’t slay.Translation by Richard Kolb
-
Lucrezia Vizzana: Paratum cor meum
Paratum cor meum Deus
Paratum cor meum cantabo
et psallam in gloria mea
Exurge gloria mea
exurge psalterium et cithara
Exurgam diluculo
Confitebor tibi in populis
Domine et psallam tibi in nationibus
Alleluia.Prepare my heart, God
I will sing my heart out
and dance in my glory.
Arise my glory,
get up the lyre and the harp.
I will get up early,
I will confess to you among the peoples.
Lord, I will sing praises to you in the nations
Alleluia. -
Lucrezia Vizzana: Filij Syon
Filij Syon exultate et laetamini in Domino Deo
vestro
Quia hodie nobis terra facta est caelum
In stellis de caelo in terram descendentibus sed
sanctis in caelo ascendentibus quia effusa est
copiosa gratia spiritu sancti et universam orbem
operata est caelum et ideo Filij Syon exultate et
laetamini in Domino Deo vestro.Children of Zion, rejoice and be glad in the Lord
your God, because today the earth has become
heaven for us.
In the stars descending from heaven to earth, and
the saints ascending in heaven, because abundant
grace was poured out by the holy spirit and the
whole world was made heaven. -
Lucrezia Vizzana: Omnes gentes
Omnes gentes cantate Domino mirabilia amoris
magni et enarrate omnes laudes eius dicite in
gentibus inventiones amoris
Venite fratres ad convivium magnum et comedite
Iesum nostrum Agnum purum Agnus
immaculatus est Iesus noster
Sumite carnes vestri dulcis Dei ad sanguinem eius
currite velociter
Ad mensam eius venite alacriter
Venite fratres ad laudandum Deum creatorem
vestrum simul et meum
AlleluiaSing all the nations to the Lord the wonders of his
great love, and tell all his praises, tell the
discoveries of love among the nations.
Come, brethren, to the great feast, and eat our
Jesus, the pure Lamb, the spotless Lamb is our
Jesus.
Take your sweet flesh of God and run quickly to
his blood.
Come eagerly to his table.
Alleluia
Come, brothers, to praise God, your creator, as
well as mine,
Alleluia. -
Antonia Bembo: Lamento della Vergine
Lamento della Vergine
D’Onnipotente Padre unico Figlio
confitto in duro tronco
sovra il calvario esangue lacero,
et anelante quel gran verbo divino
temea la morte, al suo morir vicino
Atra nube il sol copria
Si ascondeano gli astri ardenti,
e piangeano, e piangeano gli elementi,
gli elementi al gran pianto di Maria.
Ella che fra i singhiozzi dal profondo dell alma
angosciosi sospir mesta traea
contro la morte crudel così dicea:
che fai, che tenti? Che tenti, che fai?
Tiranna pessima ombra dolente che nulla sei.
Pria ch’il ciel fosse
fu il tuo fattor tutt era vita,
tutt’era vita e non t’è dato trar dall’aterno
l’esser di morte se vita eterna è il Sommo Dio
Staccato dal ramo di planta fatale
il fallo d’amore di è frutto mortale,
con pena infinita cangiò trista sorte
quell’arbor di vita in arbor di morte.
Dunque se l’huomo diè vita a la morte
contr’il mortal sfoga il tuo sdegno atroce
nostro spietato e rio
che non può morte dar la morte a Dio.
Che fai, che tenti? Che tenti,che fai?
Tiranna pessima ombra dolente che nulla sei.
Larva diliguati, fantasma involati
Cadi nel baratro, scendi in obli,
che vincer non può Dio e altri che Dio.
Volgeva in tanto al Padre il moribondo ciglio,
il Re del cielo e presso a l’ultima hora,
così con flebil voce
sciolse gli ultimi accenti in su la croce.
Padre , caro Padreperch è mi lasci ohimè.
L udì la trista lvladre e svenuta cadè.
Ma perché trino et un voler superno
Così dispose ne l’empirea corte
In dar la morte al suo fattor eterno
Tremò, sudò,
impallidì, la morte.The only Son of the Almighty Father,
Crucified on the hard trunk at Calvary,
his body bloodless and torn,
And longing for the great divine word,
Feared death, as it came near.
Black clouds covered the sun,
The burning stars hid themselves,
And the elements cried and cried again
At the great lament of Mary.
With sobs from the depths of her soul
She heaved anguished and mournful sighs,
And spoke thus to cruel Death:
“What are you doing, what are you tempting?
Tyrant, terrible shadow, you are nothing.”
“Before heaven existed,
Your creator existed, and all was life,
All was life, and you cannot create from eternity
The state of death if God Almighty is life eternal.”
“Plucked from the branch of a fatal plant,
The fault of love bore mortal fruit,
With infinite pain sad fate changed
That tree of life into a tree of death.”
“Therefore, if man gave life to death
Wreak your atrocious rage against mortals,
Cruel and ruthless monster
For Death cannot make God die.
“What are you doing, what are you tempting?
Tyrant, terrible shadow, you are nothing.”
“Ghost disappear, phantom, fly off!
Fall into the abyss, descend to oblivion,
For none other than God can vanquish God.”
Then did the dying one turn his eye to his Father
The King of Heaven, at his last hour,
So in a feeble voice
He pronounced his last words on the Cross:
“Father, beloved Father,
Alas, why dost Thou forsake me?”The sorrowing mother heard this, and fainted.
But because the triune and supernal will of the
Trinity
So decided in the Court of Heaven,
In giving death to its eternal maker
Death itself trembled, sweated, and turned pale. -
Isabella Leonarda: Bonum est confiteri Domino
Bonum est confiteri Domino et psallere nomini
tuo Altissime.
In quem caelestes Aulici Divinae fedis proceres
desiderant prospicere.
O quam suave, o quam iucundum, o quam bonum
est.
Nil dulcius degustat Anima mil suavius delibat
spiritus.
Convictu Caelitum percipit gaudia congressu
numinum suscipit iubila.
In tanto amoris incendio in dulcis ardoris deliquio
plus cupit plus ardet plus abit anima mea in dulces
flammas iam ardet anima in molles faces iam
languent viscera.
In nodos amoris ligari cupio cum sponso Iesu in
flammis ardoris comburi ambio cum mea vita
quam suave quambonum o quam iucundum, o
quam suave, o quam bonum est nunc plausus
honores decanto veraces in Dominum meum.
Nam fastus amores fugaci mendaces o felix
tropheum sic anima psalens triumphans in fe sic
spiritus gaudens o Iesu prote.
In cantibus ergo cor meum laetare in Domino meo
cor meum laetare nam in te solo me care Iesu nam
in te solo me dulcis amor congaudet spritus
liquescit anima.It is good to confess to the Lord and sing praises to
your Most High name.
Into whom the nobles of the heavenly Court of the
Divine faith desire to look.
Oh how sweet, oh how pleasant, oh how good it is.
The soul tastes nothing sweeter than the spirit is
sweeter.
Convinced, the Celestial perceives the joys of the
meeting of the gods and rejoices.
In such a fire of love, in the sweet blaze of passion,
it desires more, it burns more, my soul goes into
sweet flames, my soul already burns into soft
torches, my body is already aching.
I desire to be tied in the knots of love with my
bridegroom Jesus, I desire to burn in the flames of
ardor with my life, how sweet, how good, oh how
pleasant, oh how sweet, oh how good it is now I
am applauding and singing true praises to my
Lord.
For the pride of fleeting, lying loves, O happy
trophy, so the soul singing triumphant in faith, so
the spirit rejoicing, O Jesus’ face.
In songs, then, let my heart rejoice in my Lord, let
my heart rejoice, for in you alone, Jesus, for in you
alone my sweet love will delight me, and my soul
will melt. -
Maria Xaveria Peruchona: Vos aures suaves
Vos aure suaves vos stellae lucentes si vobis
ridentes sunt faces in Caelis. Tam belle tam clareut splendens in terris non iam plus tardate sed cito
venite volate monstrate.
Ipso sole clarior ipsa luce pulchrior iustus et beata
cecilia in terris splendent in quorum solemnitate
olympus super tartari fremunt et terra ridet o
gaudium verum o cara festivas.
Dicite mortales si forsan desideratis audire
triumphos prelia victorias glorias in quibus
triumphavit.
Ne tanta facta desineant breviter dicam in mundo
fallace caduco mendace.
Qui visit pugnando qui sprevit honores.
Nunc inter dulcores iam vivit regnando in
saeculorum saecula.You are sweet to the ears, you shining stars, if the
torches in the heavens are smiling at you. So
beautiful, so bright, shining on the earth, do notslow down any longer, but quickly come and fly.
Brighter than the sun itself, more beautiful than
the light itself, the just and the blessed Cecilia
shines on the earth in whose solemnity Olympus
roars above the Tartars and the earth laughs, O
true joy, O dear festivals.
Tell mortals, if perhaps you desire to hear the
triumphs, the victories, the glories in which he
triumphed.
I will say briefly that so many facts should not end
in a deceitful, fleeting world.
He who visits by fighting who despises honor.
Now he lives among the sweet ones, reigning for
ever and ever. -
Barbara Strozzi: La Vittoria
Il gran Giove non si gloria
D’altre belle esser amante;
Gode solo il dio costante
Quando in seno è di Vittoria.
La Vittoria d’un bel Rovere
Al suo Giove adorna il crine,
Nel cui verde in aure e brine
Già la Gloria venne a piovere.
Nacque già nobil primitia,
Già gli rese il ciel fecondi;
Ma d’Etruria anco i sei mondi
D’alti Eroi voglion dovitia.Great Jupiter glories in being
the lover of no other beauty
the steadfast god is content only
in the affections of Victory.
Victory of a beautiful Rovere (oak laurel)
adorns the hair of her Jupiter,
from which glory rains down
in green and golden frost.
Now the noble heir is born,**
already heaven has made her fertile;
but from Tuscany the six worlds
of great heroes will yet give riches.Translation by Richard Kolb