A Garland of Madrigals
December 14, 2014
This unusual concert featured secular and sacred music by a little-known Italian Renaissance composer, Vittoria Aleotti. Directed by Carmen Cavallaro, the 17-voice women’s choir was accompanied by Debra Lonergan, viola da gamba; Beth Gilford, recorder; and Anne Crawford, chamber organ.
Aleotti was a musical prodigy: as a young child she was present during her older sister’s music lessons, and so astonished her father and the music teacher with what she absorbed that she was given music lessons of her own. She began studying music at the renowned convent of San Vito in Ferrara at the age of 6 or 7. The 21 madrigals that open the concert were written before she entered the convent at age 14, and later published as Ghirlanda de madrigali, a Garland of Madrigals.
At San Vito, where she ultimately became director of music, Aleotti composed the motets that comprise the second half of the Grail Singers’ concert. Published in 1593 as Sacrae cantiones, her motets were the first book of sacred music by a woman to appear in print.
About the Composer
Vittoria Aleotti was born in Ferrara to the prominent architect Giovanni Battista Aleotti, and was mentioned in his will, written in 1631. According to her father, Vittoria became interested in music after listening to her older sister being taught music. Within a year, Vittoria had mastered singing and the harpsichord so well that she was sent to study with Alessandro Milleville and Ercole Pasquini. At the age of 6 or 7, after working with Pasquini, it was suggested that Vittoria be sent to Ferrara’s San Vito, a convent famous for fostering musical talents. By the age of 14, Vittoria chose to enter the convent and dedicate her life to service.
There has been controversy about the composer’s identity, because her sacred motets were published under the name Raffaella Aleotti. Giovanni Battista Aleotti is said to have had five daughters and there is no record of a daughter named Raffaella, so it is assumed that Vittoria changed her name after entering the convent. After 1593, Vittoria is never heard of again, while Raffaella gained fame for her musical abilities.
The convent of San Vito in Ferrara was a music training institution, and Raffaella Aleotti was the music director. No male teachers were brought in to teach the young women. Raffaella directed the concerto grande, an ensemble of twenty-three singers as well as instrumentalists, trained women musicians within the convent, and taught young children in the public sphere. She even taught musical instruments that women were not usually permitted to play such as the cornetti, trombone, violin, viole bastarde, cornamuses (bagpipes), and flutes.
Hercole Bottrigari states in his Il Desiderio of 1594, a dialogue on the musical practice at San Vito: “It appeared to me that the persons who ordinarily participated in this concert were not human, bodily creatures, but were truly angelic spirits. Nor must you imagine that I refer to the beauty of face and richness of garments and clothing, for you would err greatly, since one sees only the most modest grace and pleasing dress and humble department in them.”
About the Music
In 1591, Vittoria published a single madrigal (Di pallide viole), in a musical anthology: Il giardino de musici ferraresi. Two years later, she set music to eight poems by Giovanni Battista Guarini, which her father later sent to Count del Zaffo, who had them printed in Venice by Giacomo Vincenti. This book of madrigals was entitled Ghirlanda de madrigali a quatro voci.
Ghirlanda de madrigali contains eighteen four-voice madrigals for soprano (canto), alto, tenor, and bass. The madrigals are short, with imitative sections that alternate with chordal sections, and with the expected meter changes from duple to triple. Duets and trios are common in the musical fabric. Dissonance is carefully placed both in the melody as well as in the supporting harmonies. In the Grail Singers concert, the top three parts are sung by the choir, and the bass part is played by the viola da gamba.
In the same year as the book of madrigals was published, Raffaella published a book of motets, for which she wrote the dedication herself. Printed by Amadino in 1593, Sacrae cantiones quinque, septem, octo, & decem vocibus decantande, was the first sacred book of music by a woman to appear in print.
The Many Faces of Henry Purcell
May 31, 2015
The Ann Arbor Grail Singers celebrated the genius of English Baroque composer Henry Purcell with a program of sacred motets and operatic excerpts. Directed by Carmen Cavallaro, the 16-voice women’s choir was accompanied by Daniel Foster and Mary Riccardi, Baroque violin; Linda Speck, viola; Debra Lonergan, viola da gamba; Beth Gilford, recorder; and Anne Crawford, chamber organ.
The concert began with Purcell’s sacred works, including the Funeral Sentences written for the funeral of Queen Mary II in 1695 and performed at Purcell’s own funeral later the same year. The motel “Oh Sing unto the Lord” alternates vocal sections with interludes by a string quartet.
After intermission were excerpts from the Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas, which recounts the love of Dido, Queen of Carthage, for the Trojan hero Aeneas, and her despair when he abandons her. The music includes the dramatic witches’ scenes and “Dido’s Lament,” the latter sung by guest artist Norma Gentile.