1. Women & Music of the Church
Presented by Jessica Ducharme

2. Last week...
Overview of the developments in music of the Catholic Church
Different forms of chant: Byzantine, Ambrosian, Old Roman, Gregorian
Development of Notation
Music in the Liturgical Mass
The Divine Office

3. Items of Discussion Trends in feminist musicology
Setting the stage for women musicians in the Church
Hildegard von Bingen
Lucrezia Vizzana
Nuns of Avignon
Recommended Reading and Viewing

4. Trends in Feminist Musicology
Pre-1970s
Women had vanished from concert programs, library shelves, and music textbooks
1970s
Interest in feminist musicology
1980s
Studies on women in music appear in textbooks
1990s
Surge in feminist musicology and music criticism

5. Questions to Consider...
How do we assess the quality of our discoveries?
Do we admire them simply because they were composed by women?
Should we try to find ways of dealing critically with these artists?
Are the premises of these composers the same as those of their male contemporaries?
Did women sometimes try to write in ways that differed from what they heard around them?
Is is possible to write music as a woman?

6. Items to Consider When Evaluating the Music of Female Composers and Musicians
Talent
Access to Education
Financial Stability
Time to Create
Encouragement by an Inner Circle
Acceptance by Society
Survival of the Music

7. Janet Baker-Carr, 2001
“The eye delights in new sensation. Not so the ear, which seeks patterns and is grateful for repetition. If in hearing a new piece the ear does not recognize a familiar structure or pattern, the listener is prevented from participating and responding and so is unable to find the significance or meaning of the whole....Only as the patterns and relationships become familiar does the music itself become evocative and significant. This is why most people go to concerts to hear a beautiful performance of music that they know.”

8. Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)
Born in German village of Bermersheim
Joined religious community at Disibodenberg at age 8
Jutta von Spanheim- spiritual guide

9. Hildegard von Bingen Took vows as a Benedictine nun in 1112
Studied with Jutta and Volmar
Had visions at an early age
1136, Jutta died and Hildegard became magistra
1155 relocated to Rupertsberg

10. Sharing Her Visions
“I was forced by a great pressure of pains to manifest what I had seen and heard. But I was much afraid...I indicated this to a monk who was my magister. Astonished, he bade me to write these things down secretly, till he could see what they were and what their source might be. Then, realizing that they came from God, he indicated this to me, with great eagerness.”

11. Many Talents Visionary Composer Poet Healer
Religious leader and advisor

12. Hildegard’s Music Never studied music!
Symphonia contains 70+ settings of her own poetry, 43 are antiphons, 18 are responsories, and 14 are longer pieces-- sequences, hymns, and 3 unclassified songs

15. Hildegard’s Ordo Virtutum
Morality play with music
Unusual because it is not a supplement to the Mass, but an independent Latin play
Used in the convent when nuns professed their vows
Sung in plainchant
Characters: Patriarchs and Prophets, 16 Female Virtues (including Humility, Love, Obedience, Faith, Hope, Chastity, Innocence, and Mercy), a Happy Soul, and Unhappy Soul, a Penitent Soul, and the Devil

17. Hildegard, the First Woman To:
Accepted as an authoritative voice on Christian doctrine
Receive expressed permission from a pope to write theological books
Preach openly for mixed audiences of clergy and laity
Author of first known morality play and scientific writings on sexuality and gynecology (female perspective)
Only 12th century playwright who is not anonymous
Official biography includes a first-person memoir

18. The 16th Century Church Reformation 1517 Counter Reformation
Council of Trent ( )
Pope Pius V put an end to “open” monasteries... clausura
Nuns became unseen, veiled, and cloistered
No polyphony, only plainchant
Publishing music was nearly impossible for nuns
Inner/Outer Church

19. Lucrezia Vizzana ( )
Only nun from Bologna Italy with published music
1598 entered convent of Santa Cristina (Camaldolese Order)
2 sisters and 3 aunts were also at Santa Critina

20. Santa Cristina
Noted for its fine singers, organists, and instrumentalists
Attracted women who were interested in the arts
Supported by wealthy families

21. Lucrezia Vizzana, Composer
Studied with her aunt, Camilla Bombacci
Componimenti Musicali contains 20 of her motets; published 1623
Extremely expressive-- similar to Monteverdi

23. Drama at Santa Cristina
After Lucrezia published Componimenti Musicali 1623, problems arose in the convent
3 nuns reported “un-virtuous” acts at the convent (untrue)
Convent was under rule of the Arch Bishop
Constant battles, threat of ex-communication
Lucrezia eventually went “mad”

24. Ancient Music, Modern Nuns
Nuns of Avignon date back to 6th century
Cloistered-- day revolves around prayer, singing, working, and meditation
Signed a record deal with Decca Records 2010

25. VOICES, Chant from Avignon
Decca Records conducted a search to find the world’s finest female singers of Gregorian chant
Search covered 70 convents from the US to Africa

27. Recommended Reading and Viewing
VISION, From the life of Hildegard von Bingen
Searching for Lucrezia (documentary)
Disembodied Voices by Craig Monson
From Convent to Concert Hall by Glickman and Schleifer