Women & Music of the Church

1. Women & Music of the Church • Presented by Jessica Ducharme

2. Last week... • Overview of the developments in music of the Catholic Church • Different forms of chant: Byzantine, Ambrosian, Old Roman, Gregorian • Development of Notation • Music in the Liturgical Mass • The Divine Office

3. Items of Discussion • Trends in feminist musicology • Setting the stage for women musicians in the Church • Hildegard von Bingen • Lucrezia Vizzana • Nuns of Avignon • Recommended Reading and Viewing

4. Trends in Feminist Musicology • Pre-1970s • Women had vanished from concert programs, library shelves, and music textbooks • 1970s • Interest in feminist musicology • 1980s • Studies on women in music appear in textbooks • 1990s • Surge in feminist musicology and music criticism

5. Questions to Consider... • How do we assess the quality of our discoveries? • Do we admire them simply because they were composed by women? • Should we try to find ways of dealing critically with these artists? • Are the premises of these composers the same as those of their male contemporaries? • Did women sometimes try to write in ways that differed from what they heard around them? • Is is possible to write music as a woman?

6. Items to Consider When Evaluating the Music of Female Composers and Musicians • Talent • Access to Education • Financial Stability • Time to Create • Encouragement by an Inner Circle • Acceptance by Society • Survival of the Music

7. Janet Baker-Carr, 2001 • “The eye delights in new sensation. Not so the ear, which seeks patterns and is grateful for repetition. If in hearing a new piece the ear does not recognize a familiar structure or pattern, the listener is prevented from participating and responding and so is unable to find the significance or meaning of the whole....Only as the patterns and relationships become familiar does the music itself become evocative and significant. This is why most people go to concerts to hear a beautiful performance of music that they know.”

8. Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) • Born in German village of Bermersheim • Joined religious community at Disibodenberg at age 8 • Jutta von Spanheim- spiritual guide

9. Hildegard von Bingen • Took vows as a Benedictine nun in 1112 • Studied with Jutta and Volmar • Had visions at an early age • 1136, Jutta died and Hildegard became magistra • 1155 relocated to Rupertsberg

10. Sharing Her Visions • “I was forced by a great pressure of pains to manifest what I had seen and heard. But I was much afraid...I indicated this to a monk who was my magister. Astonished, he bade me to write these things down secretly, till he could see what they were and what their source might be. Then, realizing that they came from God, he indicated this to me, with great eagerness.”

11. Many Talents • Visionary • Composer • Poet • Healer • Religious leader and advisor

12. Hildegard’s Music • Never studied music! • Symphonia contains 70+ settings of her own poetry, 43 are antiphons, 18 are responsories, and 14 are longer pieces-- sequences, hymns, and 3 unclassified songs

15. Hildegard’s Ordo Virtutum • Morality play with music • Unusual because it is not a supplement to the Mass, but an independent Latin play • Used in the convent when nuns professed their vows • Sung in plainchant • Characters: Patriarchs and Prophets, 16 Female Virtues (including Humility, Love, Obedience, Faith, Hope, Chastity, Innocence, and Mercy), a Happy Soul, and Unhappy Soul, a Penitent Soul, and the Devil

17. Hildegard, the First Woman To: • Accepted as an authoritative voice on Christian doctrine • Receive expressed permission from a pope to write theological books • Preach openly for mixed audiences of clergy and laity • Author of first known morality play and scientific writings on sexuality and gynecology (female perspective) • Only 12th century playwright who is not anonymous • Official biography includes a first-person memoir

18. The 16th Century Church • Reformation 1517 • Counter Reformation • Council of Trent (1545-63) • Pope Pius V put an end to “open” monasteries... clausura • Nuns became unseen, veiled, and cloistered • No polyphony, only plainchant • Publishing music was nearly impossible for nuns • Inner/Outer Church

19. Lucrezia Vizzana (1590-1622) • Only nun from Bologna Italy with published music • 1598 entered convent of Santa Cristina (Camaldolese Order) • 2 sisters and 3 aunts were also at Santa Critina

20. Santa Cristina • Noted for its fine singers, organists, and instrumentalists • Attracted women who were interested in the arts • Supported by wealthy families

21. Lucrezia Vizzana, Composer • Studied with her aunt, Camilla Bombacci • Componimenti Musicali contains 20 of her motets; published 1623 • Extremely expressive-- similar to Monteverdi

23. Drama at Santa Cristina • After Lucrezia published Componimenti Musicali 1623, problems arose in the convent • 3 nuns reported “un-virtuous” acts at the convent (untrue) • Convent was under rule of the Arch Bishop • Constant battles, threat of ex-communication • Lucrezia eventually went “mad”

24. Ancient Music, Modern Nuns • Nuns of Avignon date back to 6th century • Cloistered-- day revolves around prayer, singing, working, and meditation • Signed a record deal with Decca Records 2010

25. VOICES, Chant from Avignon • Decca Records conducted a search to find the world’s finest female singers of Gregorian chant • Search covered 70 convents from the US to Africa

27. Recommended Reading and Viewing • VISION, From the life of Hildegard von Bingen • Searching for Lucrezia (documentary) • Disembodied Voices by Craig Monson • From Convent to Concert Hall by Glickman and Schleifer