Transcript Newman Center Seminar 2 - jessica d. butler, trombonist

Women & Music of the Church
Presented by Jessica Ducharme
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
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
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
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?
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
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.”
Hildegard von Bingen (10981179)
Born in German village of
Bermersheim
Joined religious community
at Disibodenberg at age 8
Jutta von Spanheim- spiritual
guide
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
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.”
Many Talents
Visionary
Composer
Poet
Healer
Religious leader and advisor
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
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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
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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
The 16th Century Church
Reformation 1517
Counter Reformation
Council of Trent (1545-63)
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
Lucrezia Vizzana (15901622)
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
Santa Cristina
Noted for its fine singers,
organists, and
instrumentalists
Attracted women who were
interested in the arts
Supported by wealthy
families
Lucrezia Vizzana, Composer
Studied with her aunt,
Camilla Bombacci
Componimenti Musicali
contains 20 of her motets;
published 1623
Extremely expressive-similar to Monteverdi
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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”
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
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
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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