Celestial Sirens: Nuns and Their Music in Early Modern Milan

by Robert L. Kendrick

Overview

The most famous musicians of early modern Milan were its cloistered nuns, despite the efforts of church officials to limit their musical lives. This book details the cultural context, religious traditions, musical styles, and personal meaning of the music written by and for them from the late sixteenth to the early eighteenth century, and outlines the ways in which their status as female virgins was—and was not—central to the musical expression of their piety.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198164081
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/01/1996
Series:	Oxford Monographs on Music
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	577
Product dimensions:	9.28(w) x 6.24(h) x 1.66(d)

About the Author

Harvard University

Table of Contents

	List of Illustrations	xiii
	Maps	xiii
	Glossary of Ecclesiastical Terminology	xiv
	List of Abbreviations	xvii
	List of Music Examples	xix
1.	Religious Women in Milan: From 'Counter-Reformation' to 'Early Modern Catholicism'	1
2.	Patrician Institutions and their Medieval Heritage	27
3.	From Social Disciplining to Spiritual Recreation	58
4.	Conflict and Renown	90
5.	Monastic Musical Traditions	123
6.	Nuns' Music in the Milanese World-view	153
7.	Ad usum Sanctimonialium	177
8.	Continuity and Innovation from Antegnati to Rusca	209
9.	A Nun's Music among the Genres of Mid-century Lombardy	268
10.	Spirituality and Style in Cozzolani's Music	304
11.	Solo Motets and their Background from Cozzolani to Badalla	366
12.	Conclusion	415
	Appendices
A.	Documents	433
B.	Female Monasteries in the Diocese of Milan, c. 1600	474
C.	Printed Music Dedicated to Nuns in the Diocese, 1592-1679	478
D.	The Works of Sessa, Rusca, Cozzolani, Calegari, and Badalla	499
E.	A Reconstruction of Benedictine Vespers at S. Radegonda	507
F.	Two Compositions by Milanese Nuns	511
	Bibliography	531
	Index	549

Editorial Reviews

"Intriguing....This book contains a wealth of newly published archival information that will interest anyone concerned with ritual and performance circumstances of polyphonic music in women's religious orders during this important period in musical history."—Choice

"Kendrick's ability to navigate the larger currents of sixteenth-and seventeenth-century Milanese culture in order to contextualize the practices of the city's female monasteries is only one of the many strengths of this impressive study....Celestial Sirens is an essential addition to the library of any historian with an interest in the sacred music of Seicento Italy."—Journal of the American Musicological Society

"[Kendrick's] skills as social historian and musicologist are clearly evident and well exercised, making his work a sound contribution in both fields."—Church History

"...Kendrick provides the English-speaking reader with an erudite exploration into the subject of nuns' music...[his] praiseworthy achievement will prompt further exploration of this complex history and bring to light more of the compositions of these musical women inside the cloister."—The Catholic Historical Review

From the Publisher