#ClassicsaDay #WomensHistoryMonth Week 3, 2024
By Ralph Graves
The #ClassicsaDay team has made Women’s History Month the March theme since 2017. The challenge remains: post classical music videos from female composers on your social media channels. There are plenty of options when it comes to 21st- and 20th-century composers.
What continually surprises me is how much music is yet to be discovered from earlier centuries. And also how much of it was known at the time, but somehow fell into obscurity. Here are my discoveries for the third week of #WomensHistoryMonth.
3/18/24 Chiara Margarita Cozzolani (1602–1678) Bone Jesu
Cozzola was a Benedictine nun who also composed for her convent. Four collections of her music were published during her lifetime, although almost half are now lost.
3/19/24 Claudia Francesca Rusca (1583-1676): Canzon Prima à4 ‘La Borromea,’ Canzoni Francesi à4
Rusca was a nun at a convent in Milan. Her only collection of music was written for use inside convents. The Sacri concerti à 1–5 con salmi e canzoni francesi (Milan, 1630) existed only in manuscript.
3/20/24 Leonora Duarte (1610–1678): Sinfonia VII
Duarte was a talented composer and keyboardist from Antwerp. Her only surviving works are a collection of seven symphonies written around 1650.
3/21/24 Sulpitia Cesis (fl. 1619): Angelus ad Pastores
Cesis was a nun who spent most of her life in a convent. She was also a noted composer and lutenist. Her fame rests on a single collection of Motetti Spirituali, published in 1619.
3/22/24 Barbara Strozzi (1619–1677): O Maria (Sacri Musicali Affetti, Op. 5)
Strozzi’s salons were well-known in Venice. The intelligentsia would gather to hear her perform (and sing) her compositions. Eight volumes of her vocal works were published during her lifetime.
