Notes on the Program | WOMEN AHEAD OF THEIR TIME

by Jeannette Sorrell

Their names were Amanda, Amanda, and Amanda. – Whoops, their names were Laura, Livia, and Anna. Together, they were known as the Tre Donne di Ferrara – the three ladies of Ferrara. Their ensemble won highest renown throughout Italy and southern Germany. Living in the late 1500s, over 300 years before women were allowed to vote in the U.S., these women achieved widespread fame and respect.

At the same time, one of them was murdered by her husband – a count – who went unpunished. Thus, this is a tale of revolutionary women ahead of their time, living in an era when women had no protections. They pursued their artistry despite knowing that prominence and renown as a female professional artist could bring disaster.

The Concerto delle Donne or Consort of Ladies was based at the palace of Ferrara, near Bologna in northern Italy. The ensemble was founded in 1580 by Alfonso II, Duke of Ferrara. Though the three singers were officially ladiesin-waiting of Duchess Margherita Gonzaga d’Este, they were hired primarily as musicians. The ensemble was active for 17 years, until the Duke’s death in 1597. Contemporary diarists, commentators, and music publishers praised the women as “virtuose giovani” (young virtuosas). Several of the greatest poets of the time wrote poems in their honor – both as individuals and as a trio.

Alfonso d’Este - Duke of Ferrara (Titian)

The Concerto delle Donne also brought international prestige to Duke Alfonso and his court. As the trio’s fame spread across Italy, it inspired similar ensembles, including at the powerful court of the Medici family. The musical innovations established by the Tre Donne and their director and composer, Luzzascho Luzzaschi, were important in the development of the madrigal. The ensemble’s signature style of florid, highly ornamented singing inspired composers of the time, including Gesualdo and Monteverdi.

O dolcezz’amarissime d’amore

Thanks to their success, the Tre Donne also revolutionized the role of women as professional artists in Italy. They were paid salaries and received dowries and apartments in the ducal palace. By 1600, thanks to the work and success of the Tre Donne, a woman in Italy could have a viable career as a musician, independent of her husband or father.

The End of the Ensemble: When Duke Alfonso died in 1597 without a direct heir, Pope Clement VIII took the opportunity to annex Ferrara to the Papal States through strong pressure. Alfonso’s family and courtiers had to abandon Ferrara in disarray. This brought an official end to the Concerto delle Donne. In addition, one of the ensemble’s singers had already been murdered weeks earlier by her husband. Thus, 17 years of beautiful artistry came to a tragic end. However, the legacy of the Tre Donne lived on through the musical style they created, which spread throughout Europe and remained prominent for 50 years.

Musical Style. The greatest musical innovation of the Concerto delle Donne was the use of multiple ornamented upper voices – from one voice singing diminutions (16 th -notes or 32 nd -notes) above an instrumental accompaniment to two or three voices singing varying diminutions at once. Many listeners found this practice remarkable and striking. The style was imitated by composers such as Gesualdo, Monteverdi, and a bit later, Barbara Strozzi. This type of singing requires extraordinary lightness in the quick ornamentation. The music is also somewhat complex rhythmically, as the notes are used in service of the poetic lyrics rather than the other way around.

Barbara Strozzi – A Woman on her Own

Barbara Strozzi | The Viola da Gamba Player (Bernardo Strozzi)

Barbara Strozzi, composer of the solo madrigal Che si può fare, was among the last composers and performers in this style. She was renowned for her poetic ability as well as her compositional talent. With eight volumes of her music published in her lifetime, she was considered the most prolific composer – man or woman – of printed secular vocal music in Venice in the mid-17th century. She achieved this without any support from the Church or consistent patronage of the nobility.

Giulio Strozzi | portrait by Tiberio Tinelli | Galleria degli Uffizi (Florence)

In baroque Venice, there were thousands of illegitimate children. One of them, it seems, was Barbara Strozzi. Scholars believe she was the illegitimate daughter of Giulio Strozzi, a politically influential poet and librettist in Venice, and his servant Barbara Isabella. Giulio referred to Barbara as his “adoptive daughter” and played an instrumental role in helping her establish her musical career. As a child, Barbara survived the plague in Venice. She was soon noticed for her captivating singing and her ability to accompany herself on the lute or theorbo. Her father arranged for composition lessons for her with the prominent composer Francesco Cavalli. By the age of fifteen, Barbara was described as “la virtuosissima cantatrice di Giulio Strozzi” (Giulio Strozzi’s virtuosic singer). When Barbara was a teenager, Giulio actively started to publicize her musical talents. He established an academy that welcomed musicians into the privileged social circle. This academy ensured performance opportunities for Barbara, as well as semi-public performances of her own works.

Barbara Strozzi never married, but she had four children with the Venetian nobleman Giovanni Paolo Vidman. Vidman, a patron of the arts, was already married before he met Strozzi. It is assumed that Strozzi was his concubine. In a letter written after Barbara’s death, it is reported that she “was raped by Count Vidman, a Venetian nobleman.”

Death, Drunkenness, & Dancing

Other composers on our program include the great Claudio Monteverdi, as well Stefano Landi and Samuel Capricornus. The “Passacaglia della Vita” (Dance of Life) that opens our program comes from an anonymous manuscript but is attributed to Landi. The text is an ironic litany about the inevitability of Death – Bisogna morire, we all must die. Thus, it serves as a kind of transition from our last program, RESILIENCE, which explored music from past plagues and pandemics. The original of this Landi piece is for two sopranos and lute or harpsichord, but I arranged the piece to feature all three of our Amandas as well as strings and plucked instruments.

Samuel Capricornus

Samuel Capricornus was a Czech/Hungarian composer who was trained by Italians, as most musicians were in baroque times. Eventually, he became Kapellmeister (music director) in Stuttgart. There, he had trouble getting along with his musicians, just as Bach did 50 years later. Musicians complained to the authorities that Capricornus made them play music that was too difficult. In his defense against these allegations, Capricornus complained about the musicians’ unruliness, gluttony, and drunkenness, saying that the cornetto players played their instruments “like a cow horn.” To me, Capricornus’ “O Felix Jucunditas” (O Happy Delight) seems to evoke a smoky room with delightfully drunken musicians or rather, monks. Like Orff’s Carmina Burana, the image of de-frocked monks who are having a jolly good time seems to emerge. If a hint of jazz comes through the smoky haze in our performance, we hope you won’t mind.

When you have three beautiful Amandas together, music becomes a party. The theme that runs through our entire program is the lively Ciaccona – a kind of party dance and chord pattern that was extremely popular throughout southern Europe around 1600. The Ciaccona was one of the popular “jamming tunes” or “ground basses” that everyone knew. In fact, so many composers wrote virtuoso variations on the Ciaccona ground bass that it was impossible to keep Ciacconas out of our program. Ciaccona pieces in this program include Falconieri’s Ciaccona for Two Violins, Ferrari’s “Amanti, io so vi dire,” and parts of Mazzocchi’s “Sdegno, campion audace.” Monteverdi’s “Quel Sguardo sdegnosetto” is also a type of Ciaccona.

Andrea Falconieri

Our program opens and closes with the alluring sounds of Spain, where many Italian musicians visited and soaked up the ambiance. We begin with the haunting traditional melody “El Cant dels Ocells” (Song of the Birds) performed by our Spanish violinist Francisco Fullana, and return to Spain at the end for a final Ciaccona party. Juan Arañes’ “Un Sarao de la Chacona” (A Chacona Party) is a setting of the folk Ciacconas heard in the Spanish villages in baroque times. The songs tell the stories of villagers – men, women, and children – who sang together, danced together, and shared laughter and stories together.

In a stressful and difficult week in our own country’s history, we thought that a party might be good medicine. Please feel free to dance in the aisles, while wearing your mask.

© Jeannette Sorrell | Cleveland, November 2020

MEET THE TRE DONNE

The Tre Donne di Ferrara all came from upper-class backgrounds, but they would not have had entrée into the court of Ferrera were it not for their musical talent. One came from a minor noble family; one was the daughter of a wealthy tutor; and one came from a prominent family of artists.

Laura Peverara or Peperara (c. 1550 –1601) was a virtuoso singer, a harpist, and a dancer. She was born in Mantua and grew up in courtly society since her father was a tutor of princes. Laura was especially praised for her singing of solo madrigals.

Livia d’Arco (c. 1565–1611) was the daughter of a minor Italian noble from Mantua. She arrived at the court of Ferrara around the age of 15 – perhaps sent because of her musical potential. She began studying the viola da gamba with the court’s maestro di capella (music director) Ippolito Fiorini and with the court’s principal organist, Luzzascho Luzzaschi, who served as director of the Concerto delle Donne. Poems were written in Livia’s honor, including by the great poets Torquato Tasso. In 1585 she was married to Count Alfonso Bevilacqua.

Anna Guarini, Contessa Trotti (1563 –1598) was one of the most renowned singers of the era. She was the daughter of the famous poet Giovanni Battista Guarini, author of Il pastor fido. She began her employment with the Ferrara royal family at the age of 17, and immediately attracted attention for her beautiful singing. She also played the lute. In 1585 she was married to Count Ercole Trotti in what was probably an arranged marriage. Trotti was much older than Anna. There is also evidence that the marriage was not happy. In 1596 she was accused, evidently without justification, of having an affair with Ercole Bevilacqua, a prominent political and military advisor to the Duke. Bevilacqua had to flee Ferrara. Duke Alfonso ordered Trotti not to harm Anna. However, after the Duke’s death in 1597, Trotti murdered Anna with a hatchet while she lay ill with a fever. Her own brother, Girolamo, served as the murderer’s accomplice. Trotti was never punished. Instead, he was pardoned by the new Duke who was put in place by the Vatican.