Earthly Angels

EARTHLY ANGELS MUSIC FROM 17TH CENTURY NUN CONVENTS MILANESE GIRLS SENT TO BECOME NUNS In the Duchy of Milan in what is now northern Italy, it was a common practice in the 17th century for young girls to enter a convent. In many cases, this was because of circumstances rather than devotion and could not be described as voluntary: at the time, the dowry that a bride’s family was expected to pay her groom on marriage had become incredibly large and hence in many cases unaffordable. According to Robert L. Kendrick (Celestial Sirens, 1996), as many as 75% of the daughters of some aristocratic families in Milan became nuns around the turn of the 17th century; in the second half of the 17th century, the percentage was 48%. This meant that many daughters of the nobility – in some families, all of them – faced a lifetime behind convent walls. Although the girls had no say in the matter, their families did make contributions to ensure that their living conditions in the convent were reasonable. The nuns of some convents were very well known in the surrounding community and had both an inner church (chiesa interiore) for their own de- votions and an outer church (chiesa esteriore) that visitors could attend. These two churches were separated by a wall, so that there was no visual contact between the nuns and the visitors. Sound, on the other hand – speech and song – passed freely through openings near the ceiling. Masses were officiated in the outer church. MUSIC IN THE CONVENTS Monastic life was largely governed by the nuns and their families. Music was seen as a suitable occupation, and in most convents nuns were given musical training. Two thirds of the 41 convents that existed in Milan around the year 1600 are known to have practiced polyphonic music-making, indicating a musical education of a high quality. The convent of Santa Radegonda, centrally located adjacent to the Cathedral of Milan, was particularly known for its musical activities and even then was a venerable institution, having been in existence since before the year 870. Filippo Picinelli wrote of the finest singers in all of Italy, particularly one Cozzolani: “Le Monache di Santa Radegonda di Milano, nel possesso della musica sono dotate di così rara isquisitezza, che vengono riconosciute per le prime cantatrici d’Italia. (…) Frà queste Religiose, merita sommi vanti Donna Chiara Margarita Cozzolani, Chiara di nome, mà più i merito; e Margarita, per nobilità d’ingegno, rara, ed eccellente, che se nell’anno 1620. iui s’indossò quell’abito sacro, fece nell’essercitio della musica riuscite così grandi;” The nuns of Santa Radegonda in Milan are in possession of a music of rare exquisite- ness and are recognised as the finest singers in Italy. [...] Among these sisters, excep- tional notice is merited by Donna Chiara Margarita Cozzolani – Chiara [=bright] by name but even more so by ability, and Margarita [=pearl] like the rare gem of noble ingenuity and excellence that she is. She took holy orders in 1620 and achieved greatness in the practice of music. The nuns financed their professional activities by allowing visitors from all around Europe to listen to their music for a fee, and thereby their reputation spread. Cozzolani was a prominent musician and composer in northern Italy in her lifetime, and she published four collections of her compositions. Sadly, only two of these have survived. The instrumentation of the nuns’ music depended on the musicians and singers that were available in the convents at any given time. Therefore all the vocal parts (even tenor and bass) were written for the nuns. Also, the nuns were limited to instruments that were to hand. At Santa Radegonda, the focus was on vocal works with continuo, while Isabella Leonarda at Collegio di Sant’Orsola in Novara also produced virtuoso pieces for violin. A WOMAN’S CHASTITY AND SEXUALITY In those days, a woman’s chastity was her most important characteristic and her most cherished asset. Contemporary medicine drew a parallel between a woman’s mouth and her womb, and to avoid becoming agitated it was best to keep the mouth closed. Lodovico Dolce wrote: “E per raccoglier le molte parole in una, bellissima laude della Donna è il silentio.” [To put it briefly, a woman’s most beautiful song is silence.] Beyond the convent walls, there was a constant tug-of-war between chastity and ruination; in the convent, by contrast, the nuns were always out of sight of their listeners and lived their lives aloof from the world around them. The Virgin Mary was an important role model for the nuns, and Jesus was an object of longing. According to Kendrick, the Eucharist was associated with the physical presence of Jesus. Isabella Leonarda’s work Volo Jesum begins with a declaration of longing for Jesus: “Volo Jesum dilectum, Amo Christum amantem, et suspiro invocantem in me spiritum rectum.” I desire Jesus; I love Christ, the loving one; and I sigh for Him who seeks a righteous spirit in me. It is rare to find such physical attraction described in sacred repertoire. Besides the text, the affects of the melody – its emotional shapes – express lamenting sighs and cries for Jesus. This is a very personal and very carnal notion. At the core of the work, however, is the strong feminine subject and her direct approach to and contact with the object. “Sanguis emundat, lac me purificat, sanguis me recreat, lac refocillat, sanguis inebriat, lac me laetificat. O vulnera, ubera, o sanguis, o lac, aurea vulnera, ubera dulcia.” With blood [he] saves me, with milk [she] purifies me, with blood [he] revives me, with milk [she] heals me, with blood [he] intoxicates me, with milk [she] delights me. O wound and breast, O blood and milk; golden wound, sweet breast. This extract from the duet O quam bonus est by Cozzolani goes even further in its physical coexistence with the body and blood of Christ and also the nourishing breast of the Virgin Mary. The vocal parts are written for two sopranos, and they often repeat the same phrases in the same tessitura. This lends a suggestive and meditative intensity to the text, expressing the spiritual and corporeal longing for Jesus and Mary and for the bliss of heaven. THE COMPOSERS & THEIR WORKS Isabella Leonarda (1620–1704) was a prolific composer who published 20 collections of music. She also published a collection of trio sonatas for violin and basso continuo in 1693. How could she write music at such a pace? She was born into a noble family that was able to provide her with a sound musical education, both as a child and after she had taken the veil. In the convent, she eventually advanced to become Abbess, in which position she presumably could allow more time for her music. We know very little about Maria Xaveria Perucona (c.1652–c.1709). She was born into a noble family in Novara and entered a convent, the Collegio di Sant’Orsola in Galliate, at the age of 16. She is best known for the publication Sacri concerti de motetti a una, due, tre, e quattro voce, parte con Violini, e parte senza (1675). Leonarda and Perucona lived their lives in geographic proximity: Novara and Galliate are only 7 km apart. Rosa Giacinta Badalla (c.1660–c.1710) was a nun at Santa Radegonda like Coz- zolani but was almost 60 years younger than her. Badalla’s musical idiom is explosive and surprising in both its melodic development and its modulations. She wrote hair-raising coloratura for voices, and the tessiturae of her vocal parts are higher than those of her older colleagues. Both Badalla and Cozzolani wrote a number of secular works in addition to their sacred music and must thus have had contact with the musical world outside the convent. The duet O quam bonus es by Chiara Margarita Cozzolani (1602– c.1677) is written for two intertwined soprano voices and basso continuo. The text is a detailed description of Jesus at his Mother’s breast: how her milk heals and his blood saves, and the tight bond between the two. The melodic writing and the intense text breed a suggestive and meditative atmosphere that is very much a corporeal experience. Claudia Rusca (1593–1676) was a nun at the Umiliate convent of Santa Caterina in Brera. She was a well-known singer, organist and music teacher. Her only known published collection of music was destroyed in a library fire in 1943. Benedetto Re (dates not known) was conductor (maestro di cappella) at the Cathedral of Pavia from 1606 to 1626 and is chiefly remembered as the composition teacher of a nun named Caterina Assandra. This music was created in a unique setting. The music of these earthly angels is quite extraordinary in many ways, not least in how it combines text and music in a bodily, internalised and emotional way. The idiom is highly personal and thereby represents a unique feminine voice within the Church. Kajsa Dahlbäck, Translation: Jaakko Mäntyjärvi EARTHLY ANGELS The early music ensemble Earthly Angels was founded by Kajsa Dahlbäck in 2016 for her second doctoral concert at the Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki. Nowadays Earthly Angels consists of early music professionals from around Europe with a solid core of Finnish top players. It is an ensemble of high profile for vocal chamber music mainly from the 17th and 18th centuries and looks forward to many groundbreaking projects in the future. Earthly Angels focuses on a close, embodied relationship between text and music, on finding new interesting music from the early music repertoire and on making the early music meaningful for audiences today.

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