August 5, 2019. It’s not every day we have an opportunity to mark a 400th anniversary, even in classical music circles. This week, we’re excited to celebrate the work of Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677)—one of the most important composers of 17th-century Venice.
(Incidentally, August 6th is the date of Strozzi’s baptism— her birth date has never been confirmed.)
Barbara’s father, poet Giulio Strozzi, was a driving force in her artistic and professional development. As a member of the Venetian circle of intellectuals known as the Accademia degli Incogniti (Academy of the Unknowns), he was well connected and influential.
He founded an offshoot of that group, called Accademia degli Unisoni (Academy of the Like-Minded), which Barbara led, directing discussions and performing, showcasing her vocal prowess, for which she had become renown.
In Donne Barroche: Women Composers from the Baroque Period, we have an album delivering much more than Strozzi. Her Italian and French contemporaries are also well represented—including Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre, Antonia Bembo, Rosa Giacinta Badalla, Isabella Leonarda, and Bianca Maria Meda.
While some of these women composers of the Grand Siècle were nurtured by culturally minded, socially well-positioned families—a bit like Strozzi—the rest had musical lives born out of convents and other female religious institutions, which, it turns out, at this point in history, were fertile settings for developing such talents.
Particularly noteworthy among the non-Strozzi works on this album is Violin Sonata No. 2 by Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre, with dissonances rivalling those of Strozzi.