Synopses & Reviews
Piecing together 200 years of convent history, this engaging narrative tells the story of the nuns of Santa Cristina della Fondazzagifted singers, instrumentalists, and composers who used music to circumvent ecclesiastical authority and to forge links with the world beyond convent walls. Craig Monson reconstructs the daily lives of Italian nuns, often in their own words, and relates their musical life to the broad social context in which it unfolded. He introduces a virtually unknown nun composer, relating her family history and how the convent allowed her creativity to flower. The study is meticulously researched, marvelously detailed, and entertaining to read.
In sixteenth- and early-seventeenth-century Bologna, approximately one-seventh of the entire female population lived behind convent walls. Santa Cristina became home for a number of gifted women musicians, many from among the upper classes, who sought "respectable" musical careers. Monson documents the struggle of these women as they fought to maintain their musical and ritual traditions in the face of persistent opposition from church officials. Figuring prominently in the story of Santa Cristina is Lucrezia Vizzana (1590-1662), Bologna's only published nun composer, who entered the convent at the age of eight.
This study is as much about social and cultural history as it is about music. The discussion ranges widely beyond musicology to draw upon art, social and political history, labor history, theology, and gender studies.
Synopsis
"The story of Vizzana and her convent is unusually vivid, startlingly well-documented, and concrete. And it is told with wit, passion, and directness."Suzanne G. Cusick, author of
Valerio Dorico"This book undertakes, with great success, the task of presenting both Lucrezia Vizzana as a notable composer, and her convent as an important moment in the history of women, religion, and the arts in early modern Italy. It adds an important piece to the gradually developing picture of women's artistic lives in pre-modern Europe. Monson offers the best evidence to date that (contrary to common assumptions held even by scholars in the field of early modern studies) women were active in music making, and (contrary to the way early modern monastic life for women has been most often understood) life behind the convent wall was not devoid of aesthetic pleasures."E. Ann Matter, author of The Voice of My Beloved
"[A story of] how, in concert and with guile, convent women learned to outmaneuver the authorities. Alongside his sympathetic portrayal of the 'disembodied voices' that emanated from behind the cloister screen and his careful analysis of the music composed by Vizzana, Monson revives the cacophony of strong-willed women fighting for power within the house and their noisy struggles with ecclesiastical authorities to regain lost privileges. The research is impressive; the account captivating."Elissa B. Weaver, University of Chicago
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 327-339) and index.
About the Author
Craig A. Monson is Professor of Music at Washington University in St. Louis. He is the editor of The Crannied Wall: Women, Religion, and the Arts in Early Modern Europe (1992).