Cloistered Composers at St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate Church, London on Thursday 9th November 2023

Please note: This concert is in the past and has already taken place.

Cloistered Composers

Add to my Calendar 09-11-2023 19:30 09-11-2023 21:30 36 Cloistered Composers Aleotti, Assandra, Cozzolani, Leonarda, Vizzana – few people will have heard their names before. These Renaissance composers chose convent life over secular society’s traditional tasks. In the safety of the cloisters’ shadows they could follow their faith, enjoy an excellent education and avoid an arranged marriage to a partner of their family’s political preference. In return, they provided their abbeys with polyphony aplenty, gaining local notoriety as organists, singers, directors and composers. Aleotti’s un-convent-ionally flamboyant madrigals were highly regarded; Leonarda was nicknamed the “Muse of Novara”; and Cozzolani's choir of nuns, the “white and melodious swans”, were hailed as the best singers in Italy. Patriarchal prejudice restricted these women’s reputations. Adverse Archbishops and contrary Cardinals found their music frivolous, unfit for religious rites or public performance. The complexity of Aleotti’s compositions was criticised for “making holiness give way to pleasure”… Orlando Chamber Choir sings these talented women’s wonderful works out of history’s shadows into the concert light. To add contrasting colours, the programme also includes majestic mass excerpts and motets by De Victoria – who, being a man, could enjoy the protection of the priory as a priest yet travel free into the limelight as he pleased. St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate Church, London DD/MM/YYYY

Details

St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate Church
Bishopsgate
City of London
London
EC2M 3TL
England

Thursday 9th November 2023
7:30 PM

Programme

Chiara Margarita Cozzolani – Deus in adjutorium
Chiara Margarita Cozzolani – Laetatus Sum
Tomas Luis de Victoria – Gaude Maria Virgo
Tomas Luis de Victoria – O lux, et decus Hispaniae
Tomas Luis de Victoria – Missa Trahe me post te
Tomas Luis de Victoria – Versa est in luctum
Raphaella Aleotti – Miserere
Raphaella Aleotti – Audivi vocem
Donna Lucrezia Vizzana – Protector Noster
Caterina Assandra – O dulcis amor Jesu
Isabella Leonarda – Littanie della beata vergine Maria
Isabella Leonarda – Dixit Dominus
Raphaella Aleotti – Hor che la vaga aurora
Raphaella Aleotti – Baciai per haver vita
Raphaella Aleotti – Io v'amo vita mia

Performers

Lucy Goddard – Conductor

Orlando Chamber Choir

Programme Note

Aleotti, Assandra, Cozzolani, Leonarda, Vizzana – few people will have heard their names before. These Renaissance composers chose convent life over secular society’s traditional tasks. In the safety of the cloisters’ shadows they could follow their faith, enjoy an excellent education and avoid an arranged marriage to a partner of their family’s political preference.

In return, they provided their abbeys with polyphony aplenty, gaining local notoriety as organists, singers, directors and composers. Aleotti’s un-convent-ionally flamboyant madrigals were highly regarded; Leonarda was nicknamed the “Muse of Novara”; and Cozzolani's choir of nuns, the “white and melodious swans”, were hailed as the best singers in Italy.

Patriarchal prejudice restricted these women’s reputations. Adverse Archbishops and contrary Cardinals found their music frivolous, unfit for religious rites or public performance. The complexity of Aleotti’s compositions was criticised for “making holiness give way to pleasure”…

Orlando Chamber Choir sings these talented women’s wonderful works out of history’s shadows into the concert light.

To add contrasting colours, the programme also includes majestic mass excerpts and motets by De Victoria – who, being a man, could enjoy the protection of the priory as a priest yet travel free into the limelight as he pleased.

Orlando Chamber Choir - Cloistered Composers

Your events at Classical Events