Barbara Strozzi Rosand

Barbara Strozzi, "virtuosissima cantatrice": The Composer's Voice

Author(s): Ellen Rosand

Source: Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Summer, 1978), pp.
241-281
Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the American Musicological
Society
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Barbara Strozzi, virtuosissima cantatrice:
The Composer's Voice
By ELLEN ROSAND
BARBARA STROZZI was a singer and the author of eight volume

works published in Venice between 1644 and 1664-. All but on
extant publications are secular; their contents-madrigals, arias,
tatas-place her directly within the cantata tradition of the mid-seve
century, along with such major figures as Luigi Rossi, Giacomo Caris
Antonio Cesti, as well as a host of less well-known composers like Be
Ferrari, Nicol6 Fontei, Filiberto Laurenzi, Francesco Luccio, Fran
nelli, Martino Pesenti, and Giovanni Felice Sances. Objectively,
stands out in this context because of her sex. Indeed, with the notable
of her somewhat older contemporary, Francesca Caccini (1589-c.
is the only known woman among the many aria and cantata com
seventeenth-century Italy, and, one therefore assumes, among the v
women of the period to have pursued a career as a composer an
achieved some measure of public recognition.
Although this historical distinction attracted attention to her wo
in the present century, when the music of most of her contemporar
remained relatively ignored, appreciation of her style was predictabl
to an isolation of its supposedly feminine qualities, "great sponta
quisite grace, marvelously fine taste, and characteristics of true fem
If such an appreciation appears irrelevant as well as polemic
incompleteness, we are now in a better position-with regard to both
cal knowledge and social awareness-to attempt a fuller consider
more just evaluation of a figure like Barbara Strozzi, to measure her
ment within the contexts, social and aesthetic, in which she cre
present study is an attempt to explore some aspects of the milieu
Strozzi lived and worked and to consider some of the connections be
life and her art.
Barbara Strozzi was born in 1619 in Venice;s she lived, appare
I A list of Strozzi's works will be found below, in tootnote 73.

2 Arnoldo Bonaventura, "Le donne italiane e la musica," Rivista musicale itali
(1925), p. 524: ".. . una grande spontanietA, una grazia squisita, una mirabile fine
e caratteri di vera femminilitA."
8 Her baptismal record, in the archives of the parish church of Santa Sofia, now
the church of San Felice in Venice (Battezzati no. 3, 1606-23), is dated 6 Augus
document lists her mother as Isabella Griega and her father as "incerto."
242 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY
many years, in the home of Giulio Strozzi, a renowned poet and leading figure
in the Venetian intellectual scene. First mentioned in a will signed by Giulio in
I628, she is identified as Barbara Valle, daughter of Isabella Garzoni, called
"la Greghetta," Giulio's long-time servant and heir-designate to his Venetian
effects. The will stipulates that, in case of La Greghetta's death, Barbara is to
replace her as heir.'
Twenty-two years later, in his final will of I65o, Giulio named Barbara
the sole heir of his Venetian possessions, which included his unpublished
writings, referring to her as "Barbara di Santa Sofia mia figliuola elettiva, e
per6 chiamata comunemente la Strozzi."6 She had evidently assumed his
surname sometime earlier, perhaps shortly before 1638, since in that year her
name appears in print for the first time as Barbara Strozzi,6 whereas just two
years earlier she had been called merely "la virtuosissima cantatrice" of Giulio
Strozzi.' Giulio's expression "figliuola elettiva" may be interpreted as
"adopted daughter": very likely it was also a euphemism for "illegitimate.'"8
Venice, Archivio di Stato, Notarile, Testamenti chiusi, Atti Erizzo, Busta 1I82.4, 27
April I628: "Dei mobili, scritti, contratti, e danari, che si troveranno al tempo della mia morte
in Venetia ... voglio, e intendo che sia mia legataria Madonna Isabella Garzoni detta la
Greghetta, e questo senza alcun cativo interesse, ma solo per la fedele, e lunga servitft, che
insieme con la figliola mi ha prestata in molti anni, non havendo havuto da me alcuna mercede
ne salario, onde questo legato le sara piui tosto un dovuto pagamento del servitio prestatomi, che
un lascito volontario, e gratuito, che per questo capo dovera esser preferita ad ogni altro, e
mancando lei, vadi tutto questo in madonna Barbara Valle sua figliola, a tal che s'ella
premorisse s'intenda da M' Barbara consegnir il sopradetto benefitio ....
I have been unable to discover when or how Barbara acquired the surname Valle, nor
whether "la Greghetta" (the little Greek, an appropriate diminutive for Griega), was already
Isabella Garzoni when she gave birth to Barbara or whether, perhaps, she married a Garzoni
(or a Valle) afterwards. Could Isabella Griega or "la Greghetta" have been the Venetian
courtesan "la Grega detta anche la Greghetta" mentioned in a poem attributed both to Gian
Francesco Busenello and Giovanni Garzoni, "Epitaffi inscritti al Garzone dalle puttane"? (Cf.
Arthur Livingston, La vita veneziana nelle opere di Gian Francesco Busenello (Venice, 1913),
pp. 245 f., n. 2, and 424.) The poem is preserved in manuscript, I Vmc, Codice Cicogna 1229,
pp. I8 f. (Throughout this article, library sigla are those of the Repertoire Internationale des
Sources Musicales.)
" Venice, Archivio di Stato, Notarile, Testamenti; Notaio Claudio Paulini, B. 799, no. 269,
I January 1650: "pubblicato in morte il 31 Marzo 1652." A third will of Giulio Strozzi, dated
between the two already mentioned, 15 January 1637, and listed among the Testamenti chiusi
(Venice, Archivio di Stato, Notaio Bianchi, 123.99), seems to have disappeared. If found, it
might provide more information about Barbara, perhaps even indicating the date after which
she came to be known as Barbara Strozzi.
6 Veglia prima de'Signori academici Unisoni bavuta in Venetia in casa del Signor Giulio
Strozzi. Alla Molto Illustre Signora la Sig. Barbara Strozzi (Venice: Sarzina, 1638), dedica-
tion to her dated 2o December 1637. The volume contains three Veglie, each with its own title
page; but the title pages bear the same date and dedication to Barbara Strozzi. A general title
page, Veglie de'Signori Unisoni, without either date or dedication, opens the volume.
7 See Nicol6 Fontei, Delle bizzarrie poetiche ... libro secondo (Venice: Magni, I636),
dedication: "Questi armoniosi concenti, detti Bizzarrie Poetiche [furono] animati in gran parte
della penna gentile del Sig. Giulio Strozzi per uso della di lui virtuosissima cantatrice...."
8 Giulio himself was the illegitimate son of Roberto Strozzi, in turn also illegitimate.
BARBARA STROZZI 243
Whatever their actual relationship may h

Giulio's household had significant consequenc
her an early and full exposure to Venetian m
Although a member of an illustrious Floren
been born in Venice in I583, and by I6
considerable importance in the cultural life o
member of a succession of academies and a p
an energetic supporter of theatrical ente
musical, private as well as public. In providing
performed on Venetian stages during the 630
every composer active in the early phase of
inaugurated theaters, and he was involved in
of one of the most important opera house
simo.10 Not the least of Strozzi's claims to fa
that, perhaps more than any other, stimulate
Monteverdi: La finta pazza Licori. Indeed,
libretto and music of this work must be reg
the history of opera."
Through Giulio, then, Barbara Strozzi
intellectual elite of Venice. Indeed, by virt
birth, she was enabled to enter a world whic
members of her sex. A comparative glance
prominent and successful Italian woman co
Caccini, daughter of professional musician
Roberto Strozzi died in Venice. He may have been b

which he had donated the funds for a chapel. Indeed,
church in which Barbara was baptized lends further c
born a Strozzi. See Pompeo Litta, Dellefamiglie cele
tavola XIX.
SComposers who collaborated with Giulio Strozzi during the I630s and '40s included
Claudio Monteverdi (La Proserpina rapita, 1630), Francesco Manelli (La Delia, 1639),
Francesco Sacrati (La Finta pazza, 1641), Filiberto Laurenzi, Tarquinio Merula, Carlo
Crivelli, Alessandro Leardini, Benedetto Ferrari (La Finta savia, 1643), and possibly Francesco
Cavalli (II Romolo e Remo, I645), but see below, n. 62.
t0 For further information on Strozzi's life and works, in addition to Litta, Famiglie, see: Le
glorie degli Incogniti overo gli huomini illustri dell'accademia de'Signori Incogniti (Venice:
Valvasense, I647), pp. 281 ff.; Claudio Sartori, "La prima diva della lirica italiana: Anna
Renzi," Nuova rivista musicale italiana, I (1968), pp. 432 f.; Sartori, "Un fantomatico
compositore per un'opera che forse non era un'opera, ibid., V (1971), p. 797, n. 0o; Lorenzo
Bianconi and Thomas Walker, "Dalla 'Finta pazza' alla 'Veremonda': Storie di Febiarmo-
nici," Rivista italiana di musicologia, X ('975), PP 410 f., and Benito Brancaforte and
Charlotte Lang Brancaforte, La primera traduci6n del 'Lazarillo de Tormes' por Giulio Strozzi
(Ravenna, I977), pp. 8 f.
" See Monteverdi's especially revealing correspondence with Alessandro Striggio on the
subject of Strozzi's libretto among the letters of 1627: Domenico de'Paoli, ed., Claudio
Monteverdi: Lettere, dediche, e prefazioni (Rome, 1973), letters 91-104, pp. 240 ff.
from infancy, suggests that such an environment may have been essential for
the development of a female composer.12
For most of Barbara's career-first as a singer, later as a composer-the
guiding and sustaining hand of her father is perceptible in the background.
From at least as early as 1634 Giulio arranged for her to sing informally at his
home, where she was evidently heard and appreciated by various letterati and
musicians. At least one of these, Nicol6 Fontei, was inspired to compose two
volumes of songs for her, his Bizzarrie poetiche of 1635 and 1636, a project
most likely encouraged by Giulio, who supplied most of the texts himself."
Soon thereafter, in 1637, Giulio institutionalized her performances with
the creation of an academy, the Accademia degli Unisoni, designed, at least in
part, to exhibit her talents to a wider audience;14 its meetings continued to be
held in his own house. A publication of that academy, Le Veglie de' Signori
Unisoni (1638), which is dedicated to Barbara, cites the members by name
and describes three of their gatherings."' These consisted of discourses by the
various academicians, rhetorical exercises on typical debating subjects. While
the topic of the first session was whether slander stimulates or inhibits virtue,
the second and third sessions both concerned love: what fortune a particular
flower will bring in love, and whether love causes happiness or unhappiness.
And these presentations were liberally interspersed with music.
Barbara Strozzi apparently functioned as mistress of ceremonies, suggest-
" For the most up-to-date biographical information concerning Francesca Caccini see
Liliana Pannella, "Francesca Caccini," Dizionario biografico degli italiani, XVI (Rome, 1973),
pp. I9 ff.
" Bizzarrie poetiche [vol. i] (Venice: Magni, 1635); dedication signed 13 September
163 5: "A V. S.... consacro queste armonie, uscitemi dalla penna per compiacerne principal-
mente la gentilissima, e virtuosissima donzella la Signora Barbara.
"Ella diede a me occasion di comporle, e a V. S. di sentirle alcuna volta honorar di quella
Gratia, ch'e nata per agguagliarsi all'altre Gratie, e quasi decima sorella per avanzarsi con l'etA
sopra il choro dell'altre Muse.
"I1 Signor Giulio Strozzi, chi porge campo franco a si degni gareggiamenti, mi somministr6
l'armi delle parole." For the relevant passage of the dedication to vol. II of the Bizzarrie
poetiche, see above, n. 7.
" The founding of academies came naturally to Strozzi. He had already established one in
Rome, the Ordinati (I6o8), and another in Venice, the Dubbiosi (see Francesco Saverio
Quadrio, Storia e ragione d'ogni poesia (Bologna, 1739), VII, p. 8; and Michele Maylander,
Storia delle accademie d'Italia (Bologna, 1926-30), II, pp. 224 f., and IV, p. 140).
15 See above, n. 6. The Veglie provided the chief source of information about the Unisoni to
subsequent scholars: see, e.g., Emmanuele Antonio Cicogna, Delle iscrizioni veneziane (Venice,
1824-53), V, pp. 278 f and 663. Regarding the probably brief life span of the group, Cicogna,
p. 279, theorizes: "lo tengo fermo che questa accademia abbia avuta corta vita, perche lo
Strozzi pochi anni dopo la sua fondazione, forse nel 1645, dovette girsene a Roma; ed avendola
egli eretta nella propria casa, e consacrata ai distinti talenti, ed al valor nel canto, e, sto per dire,
viepiu alla bellezza e alle grazie della sua figliuola adottiva, ch'era corteggiata da'suoi adoratori
e perci6 stesso accademici, non e fuor di ragione ch'abbia ad un tratto cessato nella dura
dipartita, e tanto piui che ci mancano sin qui documenti a poterne prolungare la sua esistenza."
See also Maylander, Storie delle accademie, V, pp. 396 f.
BARBARA STROZZI 245
ing the subjects on which the members were t

judging the discourses, and awarding prize
performed songs during the course of the m
one occasion, she read both sides of an ar
academy's most illustrious members, Giova
teo Dandolo. The subject of this debate, to wh
whether tears or song be the more potent we
been explicitly designed for Barbara herself."
The members of the Unisoni mentioned
figures in the cultural life of Venice. Moreove
belonged as well to an older and much larg
demia degli Incogniti. Indeed, the Unison
musical sub-group of the Incogniti, whose
have included music."' The Accademia degl
by the patrician Giovanni Francesco Loreda
any importance in Venice, and many fro
belonged to the group, which represented
force in mid-seicento Venetian society. T
libertine philosophy derived in part from
Cesare Cremonini at the University of Pad
1" Veglia seconda, p. 4: "Havevano i Musici fatta po
con applauso, e con ammiratione de gl'ascoltanti; q
quest'Aria gl'Academici al Discorso." And the text of
follows on p. 5. At the end of the same session she
Barbara invit6 la Virtci de gli Academici per la futu
cant6." And there follows another text, which b
Unfortunately, no music for these texts has as yet co
works or those of her contemporaries.
Barbara Strozzi was evidently not the only musician
make several references to. groups of singers (e.g., p.
secolo"). For the intriguing possibility that Monteverd
below, n. 34.
17 Although not mentioned in the Veglie, the text of this debate was printed twice in the
same year and by the same publisher as the Veglie. See La Contesa del canto e delle lagrime.
Discorsi academici. Recitati dalla Sig. Barbara Strozzi nell'academia de gli Unisoni (Venice:
Sarzina, 1638), I Vmc Op. Cic. 400. 17; and Giovanni Francesco Loredano, Bizzarrie
academicbe (Venice: Sarzina, 1638), pp. 182 f. This text is discussed in fuller detail below,
pp. 278-80.
" For some idea of the nature of their meetings, see the Discorsi academici de' Signori
Incogniti havuti in Venetia nell'academia dell'Illustrissimo Signor G. F. Loredano (Venice:
Sarzina, 1635)-
"1 For general information on the Incogniti, see Michele Battagia, Delle accademie vene-
ziane (Venice, 1826), pp. 41 ff., and Maylander, Storia delle accademie, III, p. 205. Biogra-
phies of io6 of the members, including a portrait of each, are printed in Le glorie degli
Incogniti. For a more specific discussion of the Incogniti within the context of I7th-century
libertinism, see Giorgio Spini, Ricerca dei libertini. La teoria dell'impostura delle religioni nel
seicento italiano (Rome, 950o), pp. 139 If Further bibliography on various aspects of the
academy is found in Bianconi and Walker, "Dalla 'Finta pazza'," p. 4x8, n. I65.
The academy comprised poets, philosophers, historians, and clerics-all of

them prolific writers-and their publications included a large number of
popular novels and romances, poetry of various kinds, letters, historical and
religious tracts, academic discourses, and opera librettos.20 In fact, the Incog-
niti membership rolls listed nearly every name associated with the opera
libretto in Venice of the I 640s, the decade that witnessed the establishment of
opera as a regular, seasonal occurrence, a central part of Venetian life.21
Among the Incogniti librettists we find Gian Francesco Busenello, Giacomo
Badoaro, Pietro Paolo Bissari, Nicol6 Beregan, Giovanni Battista Fusconi,
Scipione Errico, Maiolino Bissaccioni, and, of course, Giulio Strozzi. Other
members, although they did not actually write librettos, provided the subject
matter, the invenzioni, on which librettos were subsequently based.22
The nature of Barbara Strozzi's relationship to the Incogniti is somewhat
ambiguous. Although her contact, through the Unisoni, with various Incogniti
is documented by the Veglie and by her settings of some of their poetry, she
was evidently not considered an official member of the academy. Whether this
was because she was a woman or a musician is uncertain, since neither of these
groups seems to have been represented among the elite membership. Although
occasionally invited to attend academic meetings as special guests, women
evidently were not traditionally admitted to membership in academies-at
least not in Florence, and there is no evidence to suggest that Venetian
academies were any more liberal in this regard.23 Musicians-who, on the
20 A number of the Incogniti publications are briefly described in Cicogna, Saggio di

bibliografia veneziana (Venice, 1847), pp. 558 f. (nos. 4228-33).
21 The attendant changes in the conception of opera during this period, and its development
from an essentially private, academic entertainment to a commercial theatrical undertaking, are
fully discussed in Bianconi and Walker, "Dalla 'Finta pazza'," pp. 41o ff.
22 One such member was Pietro Michele. See his Rime... parte prima (Venice: Guerigli,
1642), where a prefatory note signed by Niccol6 Bertini and dated 20 November 1642 informs
the reader that a libretto printed just a short time earlier, under the title Amore innamorato, by
Giovanni Battista Fusconi, was actually Michele's own Psiche, which in turn was based on a
subject provided by Loredano himself. Bianconi and Walker, "Dalla 'Finta pazza'," p. 422, n.
179, suggest that a thorough investigation of Incogniti collections such as the Cento novelle
amorose dei signori accademici (Venice: Guerigli, I651) might reveal additional sources for the
subject matter of various librettos of the period. In a more general way, the Incogniti's libertine
philosophy would seem to provide a key to the interpretation of some of these same librettos,
particularly such problematic texts as Busenello's Incoronazione di Poppea. For a tentative
interpretation along these lines, see Francesco Degrada, "Gian Francesco Busenello e il libretto
della Incoronazione di Poppea," Claudio Monteverdi e il suo tempo, ed. Raffaello Monterosso
(Verona, 1969), pp. 81 f.
28 For Florentine academic traditions, see Eric W. Cochrane, Tradition and Enlightenment
in the Tuscan Academies, i69o-i8oo (Chicago, 1961), pp. 5 f. See also Edmond Strain-
champs, "New Light on the Accademia degli Elevati of Florence," Musical Quarterly, LXII
(1976), pp. 514 tf.
Sixteenth-century Ferrara, however, offered a striking and exceptional example of an
academy for women: the gatherings of "nobilissime e graziosissime dame," during which three
renowned ladies, Tarquinia Molza and Lucrezia and Isabella Bendidio, contributed to the
BARBARA STROZZI 247
other hand, often enjoyed full academic st

from the Incogniti, although their partici
course, clearly documented.24
Despite the fact that, there were no
Incogniti, the academy itself, involved w
intellectual issues of the day, was manif
feminism. Academic concern with the pos
sparked by the appearance of a series of
pseudo-scientific, intentionally polemic
academic discussions as well as to the musical en
(Ferrara, I585), passim, and Angelo Solerti, Fer
I900), pp. I86 ff. and 205 if
The presence of women at some meetings of th
the occasion for an academic publication by the
Paolo Bissari, Le scorse olimpiche (Venice: Valv
volume cites the presence of female guests amo
discourses delivered at the academy (and publish
Musiche, il nome di quell'accademia, la maestA del
ricerchi altezza, e gravith di materie, quanto per a
per che concetto non s'ammetta, che soave non
moreover, are specifically directed toward justifyi
mies. In the first one, "Le dame academiche," aft
famous women, living and dead, Bissari invokes
tanto io mi dilungo, & inaveduto non vedo, che sove
giA proposi, e che lasciata ogni altra, una sola Tar
habili le donne alle scienze? il mostro questa Dam
primaria, in nessuna seconda: Chiedesi forse se s
ammessa questa, or6, discorse nelle pi6i famose
Dame? l'institui questa nella gran corte di Ferr
Alfonso, che ben vide refflesso da questa il pii b
The Incogniti evidently hosted women as guest
writings makes the distinction quite clear. In his di
la donna, Introduttione al problema" (Bizzarrie
seconda, p. I65), he refers to one of the female g
versata nelle vaghezze de i Poeti, e nella dottrine d
bellissima presenza i nostri congressi; mentre att
d'un Discorso mi ricerc6, se amasse pill ardentem
of his own argument in favor, naturally, of men as l
the woman who offered arguments in support of h
conversation by admitting that he was moved by h
all'eloquenza di questa Signora sono riniasto se
allows the lady to have the last word only becau
"Essendo dunque sopravenuta l'hora di propore il Pr
le nostre differenze, & a risolvere con la vost
ardentemente dell'huomo." The argument was clear
meeting.
24' Academies of musicians and poets were a specialty of late-i6th- and early- I 7th-century
Florence, and i6th-century Venetian academies certainly included musician members. See, for
example, the Accademia Veneziana seconda, founded in 1593, whose statutes required that a
musician be included among the members; see Domenico Maria Pellegrini, "Prospetto
dell'Accademia veneziana seconda," Giornale dell'italiana letteratura, XXXII (1812), p. 364.
whether women had souls or even belonged to the human race.25 The
Incogniti fueled the fire of this debate by encouraging publication of these and
other similar pamphlets and by writing some of their own; this activity must
be viewed as part of their fundamental desire to explode accepted dogma, a
feature of their libertine posture. For a number of them the problem of women
cloistered in nunneries took on special importance: These represented ideal
objects of interest for the Incogniti, a natural fusion of their anti-clerical and
licentious predilections.26
In addition to being fashionable, the feminist issue, both pro and con, well
suited the Incogniti's particular brand of salacious iconoclasm. The intentional
ambiguity inherent in the issue for them, as well as its centrality to their
concerns, is epitomized by their adoption for the emblem of the academy the
motto Ignoto Deo. One of several invented justifications for the origin of their
name, this motto appears on the title page of one of Loredano's many
lascivious volumes, the Sei dubbi amorosi (1647). It is inscribed at the base of
a veiled statue, which Loredano identifies as the unknown woman whose
questions provided the raison d'gtre of his book. In his characteristically
irreverent manner, he equates her with the unknown god worshipped by the
Athenians, as reported by St. Paul.27 Similarly veiled women, although
unaccompanied by the motto, grace the title pages of several subsequent works
by Loredano as well.28 That the symbolic god of the Incogniti should be a
veiled woman seems quite appropriate: their objectives and ideals, their
infusion of irreverence into serious moral issues, their insistent association of
religion and sex-all this seems quite properly symbolized in the worship of
such an idol.
25 Cf. Spini, Ricerca dei libertini, pp. 203 If

26 For a discussion of the polemics of feminism during the I7th century, in addition to Spini
(n. 25 above), see Emilio Zanette, Suor Archangela monaca del Seicento veneziano (Venice-
Rome, 1961), pp. 211 ff. The illustrious Incognito Busenello was particularly interested in the
ambivalent feelings of women cloistered in nunneries. See, on this subject, Livingston, La vita
veneziana, pp. i6o fE, and 254 f. Indeed, Busenello addressed a number of his love poems to
Venetian nuns: see his Sonetti morali ed amorosi, ed. Arthur Livingston (Venice, I911), pp.
107 f.
An allusive and exceedingly topical confirmation of Unisoni (and Incogniti) involvement in
the feminist issue occurs in the Veglia seconda de Signori Unisoni, p. 47. The speaker is the
cleric Giovanni Battista Toretti. Having described a lengthy dream sequence in the realm of
Cupid, he reports that he was rudely awakened by the printer Giacomo Sarzina, who brought
him six of his Apologie, recently gone to press, in favor of "Lusso, e de gl'Ornamenti
Donneschi." This is a reference to Toretti's rejoinder to a much-publicized anti-feminist satire
by Francesco Buoninsegni, the Satira menippea contro il lusso donnesco, which had appeared
in Venice in 1638. In fact, Toretti's response, inspired by Loredano, was actually published by
Sarzina in the same year (see Zanette, Suor Archangela, p. 258).
27 Sei dubbi amorosi, reprint in Loredano, Opere, II (Venice: Guerigli, i656), p. 5: ...
Gli Atheniesi eressero un Tempio a un Dio non conosciuto, non sarA dunque gran cosa, che
v'adori senza conoscervi."
" For a full discussion of the iconography of the Incogniti emblem see Lionello Puppi,
"Ignoto Deo," Arte veneta, XXIII (1969), pp. 169 ff.
BARBARA STROZZI 249
The rhetorical stance assumed by the

female sex did not, however, preclude res
women. The correspondence of Loredano,
nun Archangela Tarabotti indicates that h
a writer and her position as an ardent and
may well have enjoyed a similar respec
initiate into their occult world, for her
the academy's trademark: the inscriptio
of the page normally reserved in her othe
Compared to the ambiguity surrounding
Barbara's position within the Unisoni
publicly acknowledged as its hostess an
evidently raised questions in the minds of
seventeenth-century Venetian observer
evoked the traditional association between
well documented in Cinquecento Venice
describing meetings of the Unisoni finds
every aspect of the academy, including th
script, some seventy-five folios in length,
29 See Loredano, Lettere ... parte prima ... dec

1676), pp. 24, 233, 318, 320, 413, and 418. The sarc
cast doubt on the sincerity of some of the more
concerning Tarabotti's works in letters addressed to
the letter to Giovanni Polani praising Tarabotti
Tarabotti evidently corresponded regularly with
among them Bissari, Giovanni and Matteo Dando
members of the academy, in fact, seem to have bee
her correspondence (Tarabotti, Lettere (Venice:
volume to Loredano: "... Conoscendo, poscia epi
ammirate in altri, risolvo di raccoglier tutte le Lett
lei persona ..." (p. 3); and her dedication is follow
Giovanni Dandolo, which defends the letters, in ad
as being worthy of publication. His letter concl
ch'havete fatto del mio giuditio, e vi prego darm
30 In addition to its lack of dedication, Strozzi's
of her father in i652-differs from her other v
shorter, it contains only i i pieces-fifty-five pages
of which contain well over i oo pages of music. M
piece in the collection, the lament on pages 15-2
before in her Op. 2, the only instance of a repetitio
features, the brevity of the volume and the reuse o
have been hurried for some reason. Since not a sin
plausible to suggest that the poets may have been I
the volume as a kind of compliment or tribute to t
that Loredano may have been responsible for these
lament text for the Incogniti is discussed below,
form of the motto, Ignotae Deae, possibly be read
page of the Sei dubbi amorosi (see above, n. 2 7), wh
even though it is supposed to symbolize a woman
in the form of dialogues and letters;3a the final two letters, in their own
defense, are purportedly signed by Giulio and Barbara Strozzi.32 The second
and third satires are dated 23 November and 2 1 December 163 7, and the rest
of the contents of the manuscript probably originated at about the same time,
that is, perhaps slightly before the appearance of the Unisoni publication, the
Veglie.33
Although the author of the Satire is not named, a signature at the end of
3' Satire, et altre raccolte per I'Academia de gl' Unisoni in casa di Giulio Strozzi (I Vnm
Classe X, codice i 15 (7193)). The manuscript comprises the following sections: i (ir-13V):
"Sentimenti Gioiosi Havuti in Parnaso per l'Accademia de gl'Unisoni"; ii (Sr_-28r): "A
Giulio Strozzi. L'Accadempico senza nome," signed "Di Parnaso li 23 Novembre 1637. Dei
Sentimenti Gioiosi avuti in Parnaso per l'Accademia de gl'Unisoni, Parte Seconda"; iii (3 Ir
47v): "Li furti Del Vendramino dalle muse puniti"; iv (5IrS3r): "Copia di lettera scritta al
Ecc.mo Crasso di ragguaglio dell'ultima Academia dello Strozzi," signed "Di Venetia li 21
decembre 1637, L'Incognito"; v (55r-62r): "De i sentimenti gioiosi in Parnaso per
l'Accademia de gl'Unisoni"; vi (63 -65r): "All. m.to Illre come Frattello II Sigr Giulio Strozzi.
Venetia," signed "L'academico spensierato"; vii (67r-70'): "Condoglianza fatta avanti la
maestA d'Apollo dal Sig. Giulio Strozi per una Satira uscita fuori con [tral di lui l'anno 1637";
viii (73r-74v): "Difesa della Sigra Barbara Strozzi per la Quinta Satira fatta sopra
gl'Unisoni."
Two other manuscript versions of excerpts from the Satire are located in the Biblioteca
Correr in Venice: Miscellanea P. D. 3o8C/IX contains both satires i and ii and is dated 23
November; Codice Cicogna 2999/18, "Sentimenti Giocosi havuti in Parnaso Per l'Achademia
delli Unissoni" contains satire i. (This may be the manuscript to which Cicogna (Iscrizioni
veneziane, V, p. 279) referred as Correr Miscellany ioo8.)
32 The letter signed "Barbara Strozzi" is at once too insipid and too bawdy to have been
written as a serious defense, while "Giulio's" letter only succeeds in compounding the insults it
ostensibly attempts to counter.
3 Although the Marciana Satire manuscript is in a single hand, its two different dates (23
November and 2 I December 163 7) and two ostensibly different signatures ("L'Incognito," and
"L'academico spensierato") suggest that it is probably a contemporary copy of various satires
written at slightly different times, possibly by different authors. The manuscript versions of
satires i and ii in the Biblioteca Correr, moreover, are different enough from each other and
from the more complete Marciana manuscript to indicate that both they and the Marciana
manuscript were copied from another source, or more probably several others. In fact, this
evidence seems to indicate that anti-Unisoni satires, particularly satire i, may have been in
general circulation late in 1637. Could the satires have preceded the Veglie de Signori Unisoni?
Could they have provoked a published response?
Although the Veglie bear a dedication date of 20 December 1637, the full title page
indicates that the volume was not published until 1638. More veneto, this means it appeared
after March ist, more than two months (and possibly as much as fourteen months) later than
the date of its dedication; and it follows the two dated satires, ii and iii, by approximately the
same length of time. Since the first satire is obviously earlier than the second, even though it is
undated, we may assume that it preceded the Veglie by more than three months.
In fact, it is clear from its contents that the first Veglia, at least, was a response to the first
satire. The debating topic of the Veglia, whether slander increases or detracts from virtue ("Se
la maledicenza sia sprone, 6 freno della Virtd")-the only non-amorous subject in all the
Veglie-is specifically directed toward the satire. Various debaters proclaim the impotence of
slander in the form of satires, and one of them, Vincenzo Moro, speaks directly to the issue of the
effect of slander on academies, concluding, positively, that "... le maledicenze sono formenti,
sono sproni alle virtuose operationi dell'Academie..." (p. 32).
Furthermore, the debate reported in the first satire, the dressing of Cupid, is not published
BARBARA STROZZI 251
one of them ("L'Incognito") and their pervas

an Incognito may indeed have been responsib
against Barbara Strozzi's virtue we might
description of her distribution of flowers to
to distribute the flowers after having alread
somewhat earlier, among the comments on h
be [chaste] are very different; all the same, I
since as a woman with a liberal upbringing s
lover, yet she nevertheless concentrates all h
in the Veglie although the first Veglia contains sever

which Cupid was clothed. The discussions described
hand, are all recognizable from the Veglie. (At least
Cupid, that delivered by Loredano, was published, a
Bizzarrie accademiche, 1638, pp. 93 ff., where it is fo
were published in the Veglie.)
"' Satire ii (Marciana MS, I8r) discusses the ident
Various Incogniti names are mentioned and disca
Pallavicino, and Toretti, and the speaker finally concl
"perche egli non pu6 sofferire in Venetia altre
everything in the Satire, the veracity of this rem
Loredano (as well as the other Incogniti mentioned) w
Unisoni.
It seems possible that Busenello was responsible f

caustic against Paolo Vendramin. Not only had the t
but Busenello was a notorious satirist; further, he w
surely knew the Satire well since he mentions them
Cardinal Ottoboni in Rome in 1639; in tone and style
Satire. See Arthur Livingston, "Una scappatella d
Francesco Busenello," Fanfulla della domenica, XXX
surmises elsewhere (La vita veneziana, p. 97), th
Busenello.
According to the Satire, the Unisoni seems to have

of cultured Venice. One intriguing passage, in the fift
since it concerns Claudio Monteverdi's musical par
tantly, asserts his guiding role in the origins of publi
dialogue reads as follows: "Momo: [Strozzil gode di f
del continuo 11 Monteverde, che mi fA compassione n
con quelle sue poesie bizare, e fantastiche. Apollo: A
Momo: Vi vien condoto non so perch&, et Dio voglia n
tutti li altri sono per capitare una di queste sere con
Aristotile: Se non vi sara in atto vi potrA essere in po
tutto."
If this satire actually dates from late 1637 or early 1638, and if these remarks can be trusted
(in fact, satiric intent does not seem particularly appropriate here), it documents Monteverdi's
retroscena involvement in the earliest Venetian operas, even though his own works for the stage
did not begin to appear publicly in Venice until the revival of Arianna in 1640.
W "Bella cosa donare i fiori dopo aver dispensati i frutti" (44r)
. ,"... 11 professare & l'essere sono termini differenti, tuttavia io anco la vedo castissima,
mentre potendo e come femina, ? come educata in liberta passarvi il tempo con qualche amore
ella nondimeno impiega tutte le sue affettioni in un castrato" (i2v).
later, her relationship to a castrato is offered as the explanation for her never
having become pregnant !
To be sure, a strong link between courtesans and music existed during the
sixteenth century in Venice,88 and music was not considered a particularly
suitable occupation for a well-brought-up woman.89 That a similar connection
still existed in the seventeenth century is illustrated by the colorful history of
such singers as Anna Maria Sardelli, notorious for her combination of
amorous and musical exploits.40
It would be unfair, on the basis of the slanderous (even if jesting) remarks
in some anonymous satires against her and the traditional yet general associa-
tion between courtesans and music making, to venture an opinion on the
morals of Barbara Strozzi-unfair, and perhaps irrelevant. Nevertheless, in
view of the nature of her music, her choice of texts, her subject matter, her
concentration on love themes (which will be discussed in detail below), it is not
inconceivable that she may, indeed, have been a courtesan, highly skilled in the
art of love as well as music.
If the anonymous Satire impugned her virtue, her musical talents were
celebrated, on the other hand, by a number of different observers. First and
most specifically, in 1634, Nicol6 Fontei praises her "bold and graceful
manner" of singing.4' The Veglie are more expansive, if less specific, in their
87 "Che ringratii pure la moda, overo l'infeconditi di castrati?" (25r).
8" See Rita Casagrande, Le cortigiane veneziane nel cinquecento (Milan, 1968), pp. 189
and 99, for a brief discussion of some of the Venetian courtesans who were particularly well-
known for their musical abilities. See also the description of the funeral of the famous
courtesan-musician Angela Trevisana in Marino Sanuto, I Diarii, ed. Rinaldo Fulin et al.,
XIX (Venice, 1887), col. 138: "[A dl I6 Ottobre 1514] In questa matina, fo sepulta a Santa
Catefina Lucia Trevixan, qual cantava per excellentia. Era dona di tempo tuta cortesana, e
molto nominata apresso musici, dove a caxa sua si riduceva tutte le virtui. Et morite eri di note,
et ozi 8 zorni si fari per li musici una solenne messa a Santa Caterina, funebre, et altri officii per
l'anima sua."
"9 See Pietro Aretino's declaration (published in his Primo libro de le lettere of 1538) that
"i suoni, i canti e le lettere che sanno le femmine [sono] le chiavi che aprono le porte della
pudicizia loro," and-as if confirming this judgment-Pietro Bembo's response to his daugh-
ter's request to learn to play an instrument (1o December 154I): "Quanto alla gratia che tu mi
richiedi, che io sia contento che tu impari di sonar di monacordia, ti fo intender quello che tu
forse per la tua troppa tenera etA non puoi sapere: che il sonare e cosa da donna vana et leggera.
Et io vorrei che tu fossi la pi6 gentile e la pidi casta et pudica donna che viva ... e contentati
nell'essercito delle lettere

Einstein, The Italian Madrigalet(Princeton,
del cucire 1949),
... ." Both
I, pp. statements
94 f., I8I f are quoted and translated in Alfred
4o See Bianconi and Walker, "Dalla 'Finta pazza'," pp. 441 f. Musical and sexual activities
were linked in a variety of ways during the seicento; musical terms were frequently overlaid
with sexual meaning, as in Busenello's poem in Venetian dialect, "Tastizi su sto tasto da vu
soli," (quoted in Livingston, La vita veneziana, p. 2 37) or the text of the last piece in Barbara's
Op. 2: "La mia donna perche canta, non vuol dir ne si ne no; Ma parlar sempre si vanta, con la
sol fA mi re do...."
41 "S'io potessi portar nel libro lardita, e leggiadra maniera con la quale questa pudica
Sirena [la Barbara] e solita di spiegarle [queste armonie], varrebbe assai A V. S. I'esser un
nuovo Ulisse, acci6 con l'innata & ammirata sua prudenza si potesse difender dalle lusinghe del
canto." Fontei, Bizzarrie poetiche... [vol. I], dedication signed 13 September I634.
BARBARA STROZZI 253
admiration. The dedication of the volum

rhetorical appreciation of her feminine ch
and these compliments are echoed and emb
in the volume.'8 In the descriptions of t
likened to that of Amphion and Orpheus a
the spheres, and her grace is compared to
Her voice is praised, again in general, almo
Giulio Strozzi printed in the Glorie de
general and less informative are two poem
the Incognito Pietro Michiele, for "Bar
indeed almost grudging, these brief poe
Barbara-barbaro conceit; and they prai
mentioning her voice.4"
Even taken all together these passages f
volumes of Applausi and Glorie publishe
day.4 Yet, although they provide little
critical description, they do, nonetheless,
activities as a singer. Contemporary ref
ever-by far the more remarkable aspect
hardly more specific. The Veglie, for exam
music performed at the Unisoni meetings
have written at least some of it, no co
Loredano, in an undated letter to a friend
that "had she been born in another era
usurped or enlarged the place of the m
42 ".... Ragionevolmente si possa stimare un
vagheggiare le sue bellezze si diletta lo sguardo, e
Inchineranno dunque il merito di V.S. questi fogli
A colori della sua virti'; e mentre portano in f
l'ammiratione de' suoi pregi in ogni cuore, che hab
la melodia d'un Angelo...."
4" See the sonnet by Francesco Belli, "Bella,
prima, p. [81), and the anonymous sonnet "Per l
Fiori nell'Academia de gl'Unisoni," "Questa (Am
prima, p. 7I).
" Veglia seconda, pp. 4, I I7; Veglia prima, p. 67.
45 p. 28I.
4" Pietro Michiele, La benda di Cupido ... terza parte (Venice: Guerigli, 1648), pp. 296 f.
The first, addressed to "Barbara Cantatrice (Ad istanza d'Amico)," begins "Barbara sei di
nome." The second, "(Per la medisima)," opens "Chi Barbara ti chiama."
4' See, for instance, Teatro delle glorie della Signora Adriana Basile (Venice: Deuchino,
1623); Applausi poetici alle glorie di Leonora Baroni (Bracciano: Fei, 1639); Glorie della
Signora Anna Renzi Romana (Venice: Surian, 1644); Echi poetichi all'armonia musicale della
Signora Isabella Trevisani Romana (Bologna: Ferroni, 1648).
a "La musica [dei madrigali] della Sig. Barbara Strozzi, che se fosse natta in altro secolo,
haverebbe al sicuro 6 usurpato, 6 accresciuto il luogo alle muse" (letter addressed to Domenico
Andreis in Loredano, Lettere, II (Geneva: Widerhold, 1669), p. 249).
activity as a composer is, of course, the music itself. Yet the very preservation
of her compositions represents a highly unusual phenomenon.
Although numerous contemporary reports and descriptions bear witness
to the existence of highly skilled female singers who graced the courts and
theaters of seventeenth-century Italy, we know of very few compositions by
women of the period. It is difficult to believe, however, that such publicly
acclaimed singers as Adriana Basile, her equally renowned daughter Leonora
Baroni, or Ippolita Recupito (Cardinal Montalto's celebrated singer) did not
also write music, at least for their own use. There seems no reason to assume
that, in this respect, they would have differed in ability from esteemed and
famous male singers like Francesco Rasi or Sigismondo d'India, to mention
only two of the ubiquitous male singer-composers of the early part of the
century.
Several female singers, in addition to Strozzi and Caccini, are known to
have written music. Adriana Basile, for example, in a letter of 162o, refers to
one of her own works,"' and her compositional abilities as well as those of her
two sisters, Vittoria and Margherita, are evidently taken for granted by
Monteverdi when he suggests, in a letter of 161 6, that the three of them
compose as well as sing their own parts in a forthcoming Mantuan entertain-
ment.50 And a contemporary report implying that as a composer Adriana was
inferior in talent to Francesca Caccini at least confirms public awareness of her
compositional activity.51
" See Adriana's letter of 26 June to Isabella of Savoy and Isabella's response, printed in
Alessandro Ademollo, La bell'Adriana ed altre virtuose del suo tempo (Citta di Castello, 1888),
pp. 264 f.
'0This is Monteverdi's much-quoted letter of 9 December I616 concerning his dis-
satisfaction with the "favola marittima delle nozze di Tetide," in which he articulates his theory
of the affections. ".. . Vedendo che in questa pidi deitati che altro parlano, le quali mi piace
udire le deitati cantar di garbo, direi che le tre Sig.re Sorelle cioe Sig.ra Andriana et altre le
potrebbero cantare et altresi comporsele, cosi il Sig.r Rasco la sua parte, cosi il Sig. D. Francesco
parimenti, et via discorendo neli altri Sig.r' et qui imittare il Sig.r Cardinal Mont'Alto che fece
una comedia che ogni sogetto che in essa intervienevi si compose la sua parte" (de'Paoli, ed.,
Lettere, p. 87).
51 See the report by Antimo Galli, a Florentine agent in Rome, on Gian Battista Marino's
comparison-test of Adriana and "La Cecchina," quoted in Anna Maria Crin6, "Virtuose di
canto e poeti a Roma e a Firenze nella prima metr del seicento," Studi seicenteschi, I ( 960), p.
I 80o: "... Ritrovandomi io seco [con Marino], il che succede spesso. sentendoli celebrare
l'Adriana l'invitai a voler sentir la Cecchina, et poi giudicare, ma l'huomo non potendo credere,
che si trovasse altro soggetto non mi diede quasi occhio pure alla fine ci si lass6 condurre, talche
rimase chiarito, tanto piti che per farne maggior esperienza mand6 subito all'improviso per il
suo poema dell'Adone et trovatole certe ottave le cant6 all'improviso senza ne anche haverle
lette con tanto stupore suo, che nulla pidi, et tornato la sera seguente dall'Adriana con le istesse
ottave si avide della differenza, onde torn6 hiersera dalla Cecchina celebrandola sovra tutti i
soggetti di questa professione, essendo stato forzato a confessare che questa sia di molto pitd
sapere, et padrona dell'arte, et in quell'altra alquanto miglior voce, et artifiziosa negli affetti, et
cosi va celebrando per tutta Roma il valore della Signora Francesca ..." (letter to Dimurgo
Lambardi, Florentine Secretary of State, i i November 1623).
BARBARA STROZZI 255
Seventeenth-century references to com

erably better preserved than the works the
have been particularly struck by the com
women. The Frenchman Andre Maugar
remarks on Leonora Baroni's abilities as
"... she is endowed with a lively intellect,
distinguishing bad from good music, which
and in fact she even composes ... ."52 And th
writing from Padua in 1645, raves about t
nico Bassano "that played and sung to nin
skill and addresse as few masters in Italy ex
divers excellent pieces. I had never seene any
She presented me afterwards with two re
musiq."'
Such observations may not offer entirely objective testimony, however, for
their response to women composing may perhaps also be interpreted as
evidence of the noteworthiness of the phenomenon. Still, they do confirm that,
despite the lack of extant music, women did compose. In fact, creating at least
some of the music they performed may well have been such an integral aspect
of their activity that it was simply taken for granted, viewed as a normal part
of the performer's task. If such music has not survived, part of the reason must
lie in the fact that it was neither printed nor copied in manuscripts. It may
have been partly or totally improvised, and thus never committed to paper,
even originally."' For wjhatever the reason, it was apparently not prized as an
object independent of its performance.55
For most of these musicians, vigorously sought after and generously
rewarded by the highly sophisticated and competitive courts of seventeenth-
century Europe, composition was evidently merely an adjunct to performance.
As women they were celebrated for their physical attributes, their beauty,
52 Response faite d un curieux sur le sentiment de la musique d'Italie, 1crite d Rome le ler
octobre z639 (Paris, 1639): "Je me contenterai seulement de vous dire, qu'elle est dou&e d'un
bel esprit, qu'elle a le jugement fort bon pour discerner la mauvaise d'avec la bonne musique,
qu'elle l'entend parfaitement bien, voire m&me qu'elle y compose ..." (passage quoted in
Alessandro Ademollo, I primi fasti della musica italiana a Parigi (Milan, n.d.), pp. 8 f.)
" Memoirs of lohn Evelyn, Esq., Comprising his Diary from z641 to 1705-6, ed. William
Bray (London, n.d.), p. I73-
5" Improvisation such as that of Adriana Basile and Francesca Caccini described above, n.
51, evidently played an important role in performances by the leading chamber singers of the
day. Leonora Baroni, for example, was also known for her improvising skills (see Ademollo,
Primi fasti, p. 12).
55 Evidently their private, occasional function rendered inappropriate the publication of
most i7th-century cantatas. We owe the preservation of cantatas by such major figures as
Carissimi and Luigi Rossi primarily to the interests of various patrons who collected their works
in manuscript.
their voices. As musicians they were appreciated for their public, ornamental
value, for their abilities as performers.
Against this background, Barbara Strozzi's determination to publish her
works assumes a special significance. Despite the precedent of Francesca
Caccini,"' she herself must have been well aware of her unusual position as a
publishing composer, for she alluded rather self-consciously to her femininity
in the prefaces of several of her publications. In Opus I she writes: "I must
reverently consecrate this first work, which as a woman, I publish all too
anxiously, to the Most August Name of Your Highness, so that under
an oak of gold it may rest secure against the lightning bolts of slander
prepared for it";57 and in Opus 2: "The lowly mine of a woman's poor
imagination cannot produce metal to forge those richest golden crowns worthy
of august rulers."" With all their conceit, these statements have the modest,
even self-deprecating tone typical of dedicatory messages. Yet by Opus 5
Strozzi could explicitly dissociate her creative efforts from the condition of her
sex. Her dedication of that volume concludes: ".. . and since feminine weak-
nesses restrain me no more than any indulgence of my sex impels me, on
lightest leaves do I fly, in devotion, to !bow before you.""5 She makes no
mention of her femininity at all in her last three dedications. Perhaps by then
she had gained recognition for her works.60 Indeed, there is evidence to suggest
that she had achieved a new peak of success between the publication of her
Opus 5 in I655 and of her Opus 6 in I657: compositions by her appear,
along with those of such figures as Francesco Cavalli, Giovanni Rovetta, Pietro
Antonio Ziani, Horatio Tarditi, and Maurizio Cazzati, in two collections,
both published in I656. Bartolomeo Marcesso includes her among the
"5 Although apparently a prolific composer, Francesca Caccini published only two works: II
primo libro delle musiche a una e due voci (Florence: Pignoni, 1618), and La liberazione di
Ruggiero da l'isola d'Alcina (Florence: Cecconcelli, I625). See Panella, "Caccini."
SI1 primo de' madrigali, dedication to Vittoria della Rovere: "... devo . .. la prima opera,
che come donna, troppo arditamente mando in luce, riverentemente consacrarla all'
Augustissimo Nome di Vostra Altezza, acci6 sotto una Quercia d'oro resti sicura da i fulmini
dell'apparecchiata maledicenza. ...
58 Op. 2, dedication to Ferdinand III of Austria and Eleanora Gonzaga: "Non pu6 la vile
miniera del povero ingegno d'una Donna produrre metallo da fabricar richissime corone d'oro
al merito de gli Augusti ... ." The complete preface to Op. 2, along with the table of contents, is
given in Lorenzo Bianconi, "Weitere Ergainzungen zu Emil Vogels 'Bibliothek der gedruckten
weltlichen Vokalmusik italiens aus den Jahren 500oo-I700' aus italienischen Bibliotheken,"
Analecta musicologica, VII, 9 (1970), PP. 185 f.
5" Op. y, Sacri musicali affetti, dedication to Anna of Innsbruck: "... e gia che tanto non
m'arestan le debolezze di Donna che piti non m'inoltri il compatimento del Sesso, sopra
lievissimi fogli volo devota ad'inchinarmi."
60 Interestingly, the dedications of Francesca Caccini's two published works contain no
references at all to her femininity. But she, unlike Strozzi, was publicly recognized and
rewarded as a composer early in her career. For an English translation of Caccini's preface to
her Primo Libro, see Carolyn Raney, "Francesca Caccini's 'Primo libro'," Music and Letters,
XLVIII (1967), pp. 353 f.
BARBARA STROZZI 257
"diversi eccellentissimi autori moderni" who

corona, and she is one of the "soggetti emin
Francesco Tonalli's collection of Arie. In
the latter volume.61
Barbara Strozzi's public stature as a com
from those of other female singers who also
And this seems to have been the profess
sioned for his daughter. From the beginn
proper training in composition, for it was u
her to study with the leading composer i
encouragement of Barbara's creative efforts
1644, for which he himself provided the tex
through his numerous contacts in Florence,
same volume to the Grand Duchess of Tus
Although Giulio clearly stood behind B
her second publication, five years later, his i
61 Full bibliographical information on these two v

62 The preface to her Op. 2 provides this inform
dalla mia fanciullezza mio cortese precettore...." Al
students, Strozzi is the only composer thus far know
teacher. Cavalli must have been a member of Giuli
least one important opera, La Veremonda, first perf
Walker, "Dalla 'Finta pazza'," p. 449, for the attribu
p. 394, n. 71, for the convincing redating of the o
rather than 1652. Strozzi may also have collaborated
e Remo of I645, although the traditional ascription to
called into question (see Thomas Walker, "Gli erro
melodramma nel seicento, ed. Maria Teresa Mura
" His authorship is attested in Barbara's dedicati
[sono] tutti scherzi di colui, che, sin dA fanciulletta,
and is confirmed in the bibliography of Giulio's work
degli Incogniti, p. 282.
"6 Vittoria, in turn, may have presented Barbara to
whom the composer dedicated her Op. 5 I11 years lat
Bianconi and Walker, "Dalla 'Finta pazza'," pp. 4
dedication to Op. i, implies the intervention of som
passage asserting Giulio's authorship of the texts q
ricevuto in ogni tempo tanti affettuosi aiuti della bon
in condurmi all'impiego di questi, e d'altri molti armo
prima opera..,. consacrarla all'augustissimo Nome d
to determine the identity of any member of Barbara
possibility, however, is Monsignor Francesco Zati, V
Duke Ferdinand; Zati probably arranged the dedica
Archangela Tarabotti's controversial Antisatira-to
political problems surrounding the dedication of Tar
Archangela, pp. 256f.) Indeed, Vittoria della Rover
disposed toward the creative efforts of women. Fo
general and nuns in particular, see Enrica Vivian
(Florence, 1946), pp. 61 and 67 f.
Of its twenty-six texts only two are definitely by him, and these were not
written specifically for her but were taken from opera librettos performed
several years earlier."6 When he died early the following year, in March of
1652, Giulio left Barbara as his chief heir;" according to his will, however, he
died a rather poor man. The list of possessions bequeathed to Barbara is paltry
indeed: a few books, a bed with a canopy, the clothing in an old box, some
pieces of silver "which would not even weigh one hundred ounces," a few
paintings and other "gentilezze" of little value, and, finally, his compositions
and writings. Nor did he even leave enough money to cover the cost of his
burial or to satisfy his own charitable wishes. In fact, he indicates that Barbara
herself has some money of her own and requests that she use it on his behalf,
"remembering how much I have done for her by raising her and setting her
on the path of virtue.""'67
Thus, despite her designation as his main heir, Barbara clearly gained
nothing financially from the death of Giulio Strozzi; if anything, she incurred
extra personal expenses if she actually carried out his wishes to the letter."8
5" Op. 2, no. 4: "Godere, e lasciare, costuman gl'amanti; Costume de grandi, parole gii
poste in musica per l'occasione della Finta pazza dello Strozzi"; and Op. 2, no. 9: "La vendetta
e un dolce affetto; La vendetta. Parole poste in musica per il Romolo, e Remo dello Strozzi."
The second of these texts does indeed occur in the libretto of Romolo e Remo (Venice: Surian,
1645), p. 91, at the beginning of Act III, scene i i. The other piece, however, presents more of a
problem. Since Finta pazza was one of the most widely performed operas of the period, the
libretto exists in many different versions, not all of them reflecting Strozzi's original text (see
Bianconi and Walker, "Dalla 'Finta pazza'," p. 400, n. 97, and p. 424, n. i85). I have not
located a libretto that actually contains the text used by Barbara Strozzi, and by Carlo Cossoni,
in his Op. 7, Libro primo delle canzonette amorose a voce sola (Bologna, 1669), mentioned in
Sartori, "Un fantomatico compositore," p. 797. Sartori suggests that the text might have been
sung-perhaps even by the famous creator of the opera's leading role, Anna Renzi-as a kind
of occasional addition to one of the many performances of the opera. But whether or not the text
was ever performed as part of the opera itself, there is no evidence to suggest that Barbara's
setting was ever used at such a performance.
" Strozzi died suddenly ("all'improviso") on 3 1 March I652 at the age of 69 (archives of
the parish church of Santi Apostoli, Libro de morti 1644-57).
67 See above, n. s. "Lascio a lei la cura, come mia herede e commissaria di far qualche
limosina agli ospedali di questa citti, che certo se ne resentira la sua borsa, perche il mio, merce
della mala fortuna provata ogn'hora, non val tanto, che possa estendermi in opere dovute alla
Christiana pietA. Ma s6 ch'ella lo fart volontieri ricordandosi di quanto ho fatto per lei in
allevarla, e metterla sul cammino della Virti'."
In stipulating that Barbara's own heirs should serve as his in the event that she die before
him, Strozzi mentions the possibility of her having children, though without indicating whether
in fact she has any at the moment ("allora sostituisce mia herede l'herede che ella farA della sua
robba, o figliuoli, o altri").
" There is some evidence to suggest that, in fact, she failed-in the direction of excess,
however-to comply fully with his wishes, at least with regard to his tomb. According to the
will, Strozzi wished to be buried wherever Barbara thought best, but preferably in Santi
Giovanni e Paolo, "dove quei padri gia mi fecero gratia ... con questa inscrizzione. Julij
Strozzai ossa. vixit-obijt-senz'altre lode, o cirimonie." But the inscription actually found on
Strozzi's tomb in Santi Giovanni e Paolo, affixed to a wall in the chapel of the Madonna della
BARBARA STROZZI 259
The source of Barbara's financial suppor

uncertain. The next phase of her career
secure a living as a professional compose
Ferdinand III of Austria and Eleanora of
marriage may in fact have been an atte
employment or some more permanent p
after all, renowned as one of the chief
musicians.69
Her publication of several more volum

many years-dedicated to a variety of impo
suggests that she was still in search of sup
of Opus 7, the last of this series of volum
that she had been receiving financial he
that she was far from prospering.7 Five
lications and nothing at all is known of he
her Opus 8 in 1664.
From the evidence presently available
survived Giulio Strozzi by scarcely mo
argued that, were it not for Giulio, Ba
career at all. His own precarious financial
from providing her with the dowry requi
alternative, even if he possessed the requi
the daughter of a man with Giulio's libe
have been actively committed to anothe
appears to have been a champion of fem
among the unpublished prose writings list
Pace, was slightly less modest: "Haec lulius Stroz

cultor pro sua devotione scripsit et in manus nos
cribed in the manuscript notes for the continuatio
Codice Cicogna 201I, busta 502, no. 639, p. 41.
9 The employment of increasing numbers of Itali
the I7th century has been amply documented. Se
Hof-Musikkapelle in Wien von 1543 bis 1867 (
Barocktheater am wiener Kaiserhof," Jabrbuch der
19y 1-52 (Vienna, I955); and Herwig Knaus, Die M
Oberstbofmeisteramtes 1637-1705, 3 vols. (Vien
70 Strozzi's dedicatees included Anna of Austria
Francesco Carafa, Prince of Belvedere and Mar
Cavalier and Procurator of San Marco, Ambassad
and future Doge of Venice (Op. 7, 1659). Her f
Sophia, Duchess of Braunschweig and Liineburg.
n Referring to Sagredo as her guardian deity ("m
his generous contribution to music his continuing
been favored and protected with the profuse gr
favoriti e protetti con profuse gratie dall' E. V ... .").
260o JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY
degli Incogniti is a work entitled Elogii delle donne virtuose del nostro secolo;
lib. 2.72" His legacy was clearly more than financial. He provided Barbara
Strozzi with opportunities that only a man of his interests and connections
could have provided for a daughter, the possibility of aspiring to a career, of
becoming a professional composer.
II
With the exception of one volume of sacred songs, Barbara Strozzi's

oeuvre, as already noted, consists entirely of secular vocal music.73 Although
the title pages of her publications offer madrigals, ariettas, arias, and cantatas,
these titles were evidently not binding on the actual contents of the volumes,
which include pieces called "lamento," as well as a "serenata." Distinctions
between these various terms are not particularly clarified by the published
music, nor are they always confirmed by the titles affixed to individual
pieces.74
72 The work was probably never printed in its entirety. The only part of the Elogii known to
us is Strozzi's eulogy of the singer Anna Renzi, "Elogia di Giulio Strozzi, tratto dal libro
secondo de'suoi Elogii delle donne virtuose del nostro secolo," published in Glorie della Signora
Anna Renzi Romana, pp. 5-12.
78 Strozzi's works include the following prints:
[Op. I]: Il primo de'madrigali. .a due, tre, quattro e cinque voci (Venice: Vincenti, 1644)
[I Bc; I Fn]
Op. 2: Cantate, ariette e duetti (Venice: Gardano, 16yi) [GB Lbm; I Fnj
Op. 3: Cantate ariete a una, due e tre voci (Venice: Gardano, I654) [GB Lbm]
Op. 5: Sacri musicali affetti (Venice: Gardano, I655) [PL Wul
Op. 6: Ariette a voce sola (Venice: Magni, 1657) [I Bc]
Op. 7: Diporti di Euterpe overo cantate d& ariette a voce sola (Venice: Magni, 1659) [GB Gu;
I Bc; US Wlc]
Op. 8: Arie (Venice: Magni [detto Gardanol, 1664) [I Bafl It will be noted that no Op. 4 is
listed. Although Francois-Joseph F&tis (Biographie universelle des musiciens, VII (Paris, I870),
p. I6I) listed an Op. 4, Cantate a voce sola, no such volume has been mentioned since then.
The scarcity of surviving copies of the other seven volumes makes it plausible to regard Op. 4,as
lost; yet the appearance of Op. 3 and Op. y in consecutive years suggests that Op. y may
possibly have been Op. 4 misnumbered by Gardano, and that Ft&is may have been mistaken.
Works by Strozzi are also found in several anthologies. A motet, "Quis dabit mihi" (alto,
tenor, bass), appears in Bartolomeo Marcesso, ed., Sacra corona, motetti a due, e tre voci di
diversi eccelentissimi autori moderni (Venice: Magni, i616 [I656'; US Wlc], reprinted in
Antwerp: heirs of P. Phal~se, 1659 [16592, B Br (St), and GB Och (no B)]. Two arias,
"Rissolvetevi pensieri" and "Chi brama in amore" (both from Op. 6), are found in Francesco
Tonalli, ed., Arie a voce sola di diversi auttori (Venice: Vincenti, I656) [GB Lbm].
Manuscript works ascribed to Strozzi include: "Aure giacche non posso" (soprano) I MOe,
MS P (from Op. 8); "Presso un ruscello algente" (soprano) I Vc, Coll. Correr II, no. 48;
"Rissolvetevi pensieri" (soprano) GB Lbm, MS y9 (i681), fol. 3 I" (from Op. 6); "Havete
torto" (soprano) and "Un amante doglioso" (bass) D KI, MS Collection of cantatas, fol. 34
(from Robert Eitner, Biograpbhiscbe-bibliograpbiscbes Quellen-Lexikon, IX [Leipzig, 19031, p.
3 15). A manuscript collection attributed to her, Diporti d'Euterpe overo madrigali a due voci
col basso (166o) (I Vnm Classe IV, codice 726 (1o364)), although it bears the title, the
approximate date, and the name of the same dedicatee as her Op. 7, is not her work. Its contents
are inconsistent with her style and probably date from a considerably later period.
7" For example, according to their title pages, Opp. 2, 3, and 7 should contain "cantate" as
BARBARA STROZZI 261I
While the composer's distinction between "aria" an

since no piece bears the specific heading "arietta,"75
distinguish clearly between "cantata" and "aria." Ne
marked "cantata" are lengthy, varied works containing
mixture of vocal styles, whereas those marked "aria" are
often strophic or else enclosed by a refrain at begi
Strozzi's own distinctions suggest that at least these
meaning for her, we may apply them to those of he
without labels. Of her eighty-two printed pieces, in addi
madrigals of Opus i and the fourteen Affetti sacri of Op
be termed arias; twenty-five (including the laments and
and complex enough to be called cantatas.76 Within t
gories, however, the variety of form strongly resists ge
As a composer of cantatas Strozzi participates in one
teristic genres of seicento music, one that acquired b
physiognomy during her lifetime. Without rehearsing th
cantata-the origin of the term during the I620s in work
as Berti and Grandi, the increasing articulation betw
leading towards polarization of the two styles, whi
influenced similar trends in the field of opera and
assert that nearly every prominent composer of seve
wrote at least some cantatas.
With her more than eighty cantatas and arias, Str
parable to that of the most prolific contributors to sec
the seicento-such significant figures as Carissimi,
several important features distinguish her contribu
contemporaries. Perhaps most immediately striking is t
of her known cantatas were published, in monograp
herself apparently planned and saw through the press.
well as "ariette," while Op. 6 should contain only "ariette," and Op.
Opp. 2 and 3 both include, as well, a "lamento," Op. 7 two "lame
Op. 8 three "cantate" as well as a "serenata."
75 "Arietta" might seem to refer to a small aria, perhaps a sim
number of pieces in the "arietta" volume, Op. 6, are exceedingly
7' The fourteen Sacri musicali affetti of Op. 5 should probably b
since they share all of the most important features of the secular
lengthy and sectional, some of them contain passages marked "aria,"
the recurrence of a refrain.
77 Formal variety of a similar kind complicates categorization of
most mid-century composers; see the remarks by Eleanor Caluori i
Rossi," The Wellesley Edition Cantata Index Series, Fasc. 3a (We
solution offered by Gloria Rose in "The Cantatas of Giacomo
Quarterly, XLVIII (1962), pp. 207 ff Rose calls all of Carissimi's c
then divides them into four sub-categories; composite, aria, stro
Similar categories might also be adopted for Strozzi's works in a
treatment of them than the present study.
Carissimi and Rossi both wrote more cantatas than she, very few of them ever
appeared in print."7 To be sure, differing traditions of patronage in Rome and
Venice are in part responsible for this disparity. While in Rome vocal
chamber music, like virtually all secular music, was commissioned by private
patrons for specific occasions, the vigorous activity of Venetian printing presses
encouraged the publication of aria and cantata collections, successors to the
monody books of the earlier part of the century, for general use. Indeed, the
development of the cantata and its diffusion throughout seventeenth-century
Italy owes a great debt to Venetian publishers like Vincenti and Gardano. Yet
even within an environment that supported publication, Strozzi stands out:
she published more cantatas than any of her contemporaries, Venetian or
Roman.
Strozzi stands out in a more.fundamental way, however. For most mid-

seventeenth-century composers vocal chamber music represents just one aspect
of their production, which usually also included music for the theater, the
church, or both. In this context, the dimensions of Strozzi's activity-her
exclusive concentration on arias and cantatas-appear particularly limited.
Furthermore, her work is not only restricted virtually to a single genre, but
even within that genre it is confined primarily to the expression of a single
affect: the suffering-sometimes treated highly ironically, even humorously,
more often with great seriousness and intensity-caused by unrequited love.
In this respect, of course, Strozzi's cantatas do not differ appreciably from
those of her contemporaries; however, because she wrote little other music, the
restricted affective content of her cantatas assumes particular significance
within her oeuvre, as a defining characteristic of her style.
Strozzi's texts are, for the most part, limited to the Marinistic love poetry
that flowed with such apparent ease from mid-seicento pens. These poems are
characterized by a basic similarity of form, language, and subject matter:
marked by preciosity and built on elaborate conceits, they frequently concern
the pastoral world of Lilla and her several suitors, and carry such topical
headings as "MoralitA amorosa," or "L'Amante bugiardo." Under these
circumstances, it is difficult to make significant stylistic distinctions among
Strozzi's texts or to recognize individual poetic personalities.
Fortunately, the composer herself identifies a number of her poets; in
addition to Giulio Strozzi, who wrote the texts of Opus i, she names the
authors of several pieces from Opus 2, half of the pieces from Opus 8, and all
IS Only five of Carissimi's approximately 13 35 cantatas, for example, were published while
he was alive, and these appeared, three of them anonymously, in anthologies (see Rose,
"Carissimi," p. 2oy). An even smaller percentage of Rossi's cantatas, six of his approximately
291 (see Caluori, "Rossi," p. XI, n. 53), and none of Cesti's approximately 55 (see David
Burrows, ed., "Antonio Cesti," The Wellesley Edition Cantata Index Series, fasc. I (Wellesley,
1964), preface, p. 5) seem to have been printed during their composers' lifetimes.
BARBARA STROZZI 263
of those from Opus 7.79 Among the sixteen poets she

Giulio Strozzi, were well-known librettists of the
others happened also to be involved with opera, but p
of patrons or theater owners.8x Moreover, several of
of the Accademia degli Incogniti.8"
It seems quite natural that Marinism should have ch
of Strozzi's poets. Marino himself represented somethin
Incogniti, which was one of the most consistent
Marino's reputation in the mid-seventeenth centur
actually one of the earliest biographers of the poet.8"
While most of the poems set by Strozzi are rat
examples of Marinism, some are more interesting. Sev
7 Although no specific works in Op. 6 bear poets' names, B

volume to Francesco Carafa implies that he himself wrote some
gloria, "ch'io mi prometto da questi miei musici componimen
portano d'humilissimo ossequio al Nome glorioso di V. Ec. di ch
investirli quando benignamente ascoltandoli gli degn6 del suo m
isdegn6 per renderla pidi vistosa, vinta la materia dal lavoro, c
d'alcuni suoi poetici contratagli, e ricami. ..."
80 Giuseppe Artale, Aurelio Aureli, Nicol6 Beregan, Pietro
Andrea Cicognini wrote librettos for Venice during the I640s,
8' Marc-Antonio Corraro and Pietro Dolfino both held part-
century Venetian theaters; Corraro was the dedicatee of a numb
been especially responsible for the production of Annibale in
printed in Venice: Batti, i661, note to the reader, p. 7), wh
dedicated to Sophia of Braunschweig.
82Although only two of the poets Strozzi identifies, Giulio
among the Incogniti listed in the Glorie degli Incogniti, sever
members. A number of them were certainly in Loredano's ci
example, was his earliest biographer (see his Vita di Francesco
I662)). It should be mentioned, moreover, that the Glorie list
Several known Incogniti, including Busenello and Giacomo Ba
volume, perhaps (as the note to the reader, written by the acade
believe) because they failed to turn in their autobiographies on ti
wrote texts for Strozzi, although she never mentions his name. H
cited letter to Domenico Andreis, to whom he had recently se
above, n. 48). Since the letter is undated we cannot be sure how
Loredano's death, it was written. Could Loredano's madrigals p
anonymous texts of Strozzi's Opus 3 ? Such an attribution is c
special nature of the volume and its contents (see above, n. 3o,
89).
6 G. F. Loredano, Vita del Cavalier Marino (Venice: Sarzina, 1633). Following the
introductory essay on Marino, Loredano reveals (pp. 34 f.) that he relied for some of his
information upon reports by two Incogniti, "Signor Giulio Strozzi, gloria della Poesia," and
"Sig. D. Francesco Belli, ornamento delle belle lettere," who knew Marino in Rome and
Padua, respectively. The volume concludes (pp. 43 ff.) with an ode to Marino by yet another
Incognito, Pietro Michiele. Of all the Incogniti, however, the most vociferous Marinist was
probably Busenello (see Arthur Livingston, "G. F. Busenello e la polemica Stigliani-Marino,"
Ateneo veneto, XXIII (go10), pp. 123 if.).
complex texts indicate a specifically occasional origin. The lengthy opening

cantata of Opus 2, for example, "Donna di maestA," has a text written
expressly for the marriage of Ferdinand III of Austria and Eleanora II of
Mantua, which took place on 30 April I651, and which Strozzi's volume was
intended to commemorate. Somewhat surprisingly, the same volume also
contains a setting of a text, "Gite o giorni dolenti," celebrating Ferdinand's
previous marriage, to Maria Leopoldina of Austria. This brief union had
lasted only short time, from 1648 until the bride's premature death in August
1649. The presence of such a text in a volume honoring a subsequent
marriage might seem rather inappropriate, but the rubric following its title,
"per richiesta del Sig. D. Bartolomeo Franzoni," may indicate that it was
included for some special, perhaps sentimental reason."8
In addition to their occasional references, both of these pieces are distin-
guished from the rest of the volume by the specific dedication "Al Sig. Adamo
Franchi." Adamo Franchi was probably the Adam Franck listed by K6chel as
a soprano employed by the Austrian court from I July I657 to I October
1671 at the salary of iio florins, the maximum paid to any member of the
royal chapel at this time.85 According to her preface to the volume, Strozzi
intended its entire contents to be sung by "la divina voce del Sig. Adamo
Franchi," but she must have taken special pains to exhibit the full extent of his
abilities in the two occasional cantatas, for they are especially demanding,
considerably more elaborate, florid, and difficult vocally than the other music
in the volume. The second piece even ascends to a high C, the only such note
in all of the composer's works.
An occasional text of similar complexity opens another of Strozzi's vol-
umes, her Opus 8. The text, "Cieli, stelle, DeitA," by "Sig. Cavalier Artale,"
is an elaborate poem in praise of Sophia of Braunschweig, the dedicatee of the
volume.8" Strozzi's setting of this text, too, is somewhat more elaborate than
her normal style. Indeed, all three of these occasional cantatas are highly
84 It also offers the possibility that the whole volume might have been originally conceived as
an offering for the earlier occasion and adapted to the later one by the addition of a new opening
cantata. Indeed, the proximity of the date of dedication affixed to the volume, i June I651, to
the date of the later wedding would seem to suggest that the majority of the contents of the
volume had been prepared well in advance of the occasion.
Don Bartolomeo Franzoni was maestro di cappella-from at least I648-of the private
chapel of the first Eleanora Gonzaga, mother of Ferdinand III: see Herwig Knaus, "Beitraige
zur Geschichte der Hofmusikkapelle des Erzherzogs Leopold Wilhelm," Anzeiger derpbiloso-
pbiscbe-bistoriscbe Klasse der Oesterreicbhiscber Akademie der Wissenscbaften (Graz, I966),
pp. 148 and 152. For a general idea of the various musical establishments in Vienna during this
period, see Hadamowsky, "Die Barocktheater," passim.
5 Kichel, Die kaiserlicbe Hof-Musikkapelle, p. 63, no. 573.
6 "Sig. Cavalier Artale" was the Neapolitan poet Giuseppe Artale (1628-79) who, for a
time, served as Captain of the Guard to Ernest of Braunschweig and Ltineburg, Sophia's
husband: cf. Franco Croce, "Giuseppe Artale," Dizionario biografico degli italiani, IV (Rome,
1962), PP. 345 if.
BARBARA STROZZI 265
embellished bravura pieces. Extended roulades and re
a brilliant display appropriate to the celebratory fun
Strozzi may have conceived the two earlier works
abilities of the castrato Adamo Franchi, but no poten
work is specified. Perhaps the unusual brilliance of
read as embodying Barbara's own musical dedicatio
More significant and impressive among Strozzi's oc
unique in her oeuvre-is the cantata entitled "II Lam
Opus 2, and, again, three years later, in Opus 3.
account of an actual, recent historical event: the exec
of the courtier Henri de Cinq-Mars, condemne
participation in a plot against Richelieu.87 It is proba
special political significance in mid-seventeenth-cent
Venetian relations at that time were marked by consid
Strozzi's cantata, which emphasizes the injustice done
and implicitly condemns Richelieu, would appear t
perhaps more accurately, anti-absolutist sentiment o
mous author. Although I have been unable to ident
and content of the text suggest that he may well have
in addition to suffering the evils of absolute powe
academy, the hero of the text was of even more speci
Cinq-Mars was, in fact, a celebrated libertine, a mem
of Jacques Vallee des Barreaux; thus, his execution m
a martyrdom, a cause cilibre for the Incogniti.89 We
as possible confirmation of this hypothesis, the repub
in her Opus 3, that volume presumably dedicated to
By virtue of its subject matter and dramatic int
among Strozzi's cantatas, but it nevertheless fall
"7 Cinq-Mars' execution and the events leading up to it are

Vaissi"re, La Conjuration de Cinq-Mars (Paris, I928). Perhaps
this theme, which evidently appealed strongly to the Romantic
Mars by Alfred de Vigny (Paris, I826). This in turn provided
Gounod's opera of I 877 on the same subject (see Alfred Lowenb
(Geneva, 1953), I, col. 1063).
"" See above, n. 82. The effects of the French issue on the inte
Venice are discussed by Zanette, Arcbangela Tarabotti, pp. 3 12
several Incogniti in French affairs is illustrated by a publication
XIV: Venetia festiva per gli pomposi spettacoli fatti rappresenta
Sig. d'Hussk, Ambasciatore di S. M. Cbristianissima, per la nas
(Venice: Baba, 1638), which concludes with sonnets by th
Francesco Belli, and [Paolo] Speranza.
89 A full treatment of French libertinism is found in the series
Lachevre, Le libertinage au XVIIe sicle (Paris, 1909-28). For L
suggestively parallel to this one, another political lament, see n
90 See above, n. 30.
category as a number of works by her contemporaries: the political lament.

Indeed, toward the middle of the century political events assumed a new
importance as subjects for laments, adding a high-baroque dimension of
actuality to the repertoire of traditional themes of pathos derived from the
pastoral and from Ariostesque romance. Both Carissimi and Rossi made
impressive contributions to this genre, and several other anonymous historical
laments are of comparative quality. The immediate relevance and inherent
drama of the issues evidently evoked particularly affective responses from
musicians as well as poets.91
Excepting, then, her few patently occasional pieces-only four cantatas-
Strozzi's texts are virtually all love poems in a Marinist vein. Yet, despite the
limitatioh of her work in both genre and affect, she emerges as a composer of
considerable skill and highly individual eloquence. The terms aria and cantata
are inadequate to describe the formal variety of her works. Indeed, from the
outset of her career she displays a strong interest in formal exploration.
Utilizing a number of different formal patterns for arias, she creates an
unusually wide variety of designs. These include simple, strophic arias, stro-
phic variations, full and partial da-capos, and various refrain and rondo forms,
as well as continuous, cumulative, or through-composed structures.
Predictably, the simplest strophicism is especially characteristic of her
91 Although not intended as a complete list, the following examples are offered to provide
some context for viewing Strozzi's "Cinq-Mars" lament. One of the earliest political laments is
Luigi Rossi's "Lamento della Regina di Svetia, Un ferito cavalier di polve, di sudor," which
dates from some time between 1632, when the King of Sweden was killed, and i641, when
Ottaviano Castelli sent a copy of the cantata from Rome to Mazarin in Paris (see Alberto
Ghislanzoni, Luigi Rossi (Milan, 1954), no. 258, and Caluori, ed., "Luigi Rossi," no. 196, who
proposes a date of I639 and suggests as possible author of the text Fabio della Corgna). The
same event inspired poetic laments from a number of writers, including Loredano) see his
Lettera di ragguaglio alla battaglia seguita tra'l Rd di Svetia e'l General Volestain, con la morte
del medesimo Rd (Venice: Sarzina, I63 3), which concludes with two sonnets of lament). Other
political laments include Loreto Vittori's setting, published in I649 (Arie a voce sola, Venice:
Vincenti), of a lament of the King of Tunisia for the conversion of his son to Catholicism, and an
anonymous setting (found in I Bc, MS Q 47, c. 8 7' f.) of a text by Francesco Melosio (Poesie e
prose, 9th impression (Venice: Prodocimo, 1678), parte seconda, pp. 408 ff.): Marinetta's
lament on the death, in I647, of her husband Masaniello, leader of the Neapolitan revolution
against Spain (see Bianconi and Walker, "Della 'Finta pazza'," p. 394, and n. 70). A lament
on the death of Charles I (d. 1649) appears in a setting by Carlo Cossoni (Cantate a una, due, e
tre voci, Op. 13). (The only known copy of the print, I Bc, lacks a title page, which would
provide place and date of publication. Since the volume is listed as Cossoni's Op. 13, however,
one can assume that it dates between Opp. 12 and 14, or between 1675 and 1679. The text
appears, anonymously, in Cristoforo Ivanovich, Minerva al tavolino... (Venice: Pezzana,
I681), pp. 337 ff.) Although the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (d. I y87) was no longer a
current event, it had important political resonance during the I7th century, when Mary was
celebrated as a martyr to the Catholic cause. Carissimi's eloquent cantata on the subject, "A
morire," surely figures as one of the most impressive laments of the period. (The music is
preserved in, among other places, GB Lbm, Harley 1265; see Claude Palisca, Baroque Music
(Englewood Cliffs, I968), pp. o09 f.)
BARBARA STROZZI 267
early style. Most of the poems in Opus 2 are strophic,

four stanzas of text, which occasionally share a comm
Her settings, are, for the most part, straightforw
stanza, set to the same music, is usually divided i
sections. More than half of the twenty-six pieces
bipartite (AB) strophic arias.92 Yet, despite her prepon
poems in this volume, Strozzi occasionally varies her t
strophicism is obscured. One piece, for example, "L
four strophes of text, but Strozzi employs two differen
i and 2, another for strophes 3 and 4, creating a m
breathed aria than the text would seem to suggest. In
amanti la cagione," Strozzi treats an essentially stroph
through-composed aria, musically respecting the refr
structure.
Strophic variation, too, is a mode of text setting favored by Strozzi

early volumes. But here again, formal exploration often distinguis
approach. While in most of her variations the strophes differ only
from one another, in details of melodic motion or small-dimension rhy
patterning, others display so many major differences among the strop
they resemble through-composed arias. In the opening piece of Opu
example, Strozzi varies her setting of the three strophes so completely,
each stanza so individually and appropriately, that the aria create
impression of being tripartite rather than strophic, its three sections lin
one another merely by similar sequences of tonal areas, and overall
shape."9
Although Strozzi continues to make use of strophic texts in her later
volumes, especially in Opus 6, they are usually longer and more complicated
than those of Opus 2; many of them contain one or more lengthy refrains.
The compower's treatment of these more complex texts is correspondingly
"9 Rose, "Carissimi," p. 20o8, calls this the aria-cantata form.

98 A number of Strozzi's later arias as well illustrate her undermining of strophicism. See,
for example, in Op. 7, the aria "Dio di delo," from the cantata "Appena il sol," and from Op.
8, the "Serenata." Because so few of Strozzi's works are available in modern edition, references
such as these are of little use to most readers. This situation will be remedied, in part, by my
forthcoming edition of Strozzi's music. Among her few works that have appeared in modern
edition, the most accessible are the following: "Chiamata a nuovi amori" (Op. 2), in Vittorio
Ricci, ed., Antiche gemme italiane (Milan, n.d.); "Non c'e pill fede" (Op. 2), in Francesco
Vatielli, ed., Antiche cantate d'amore (Bologna, n.d.); "Soccorrete, luci avare," and "Spesso
per entro al petto," (Op. 2), in Knud Jeppeson, ed., La Flora (Copenhagen, I949), II;
"Lagrime mie," (Op. 7), in Carol MacClintock, ed., The Solo Song (New York, 1973); "Con
le belle non ci vuol fretta," and "Consiglio arporoso," (Op. I), in Carolyn Raney, ed., Nine
Centuries of Music by Women (New York, 1977). A facsimile of Op. 8 was published by the
Antiquae Musicae Italicae in the series Monumenta veneta (Bologna, 1970), but is not readily
available.
freer and more varied. The aria "Filli mia" of Opus 6, for instance, contains
two essentially bipartite strophes, but each of the two parts is considerably
extended through text repetition and subdivided into several sections of con-
trasting meter, tempo, and tonality. Another aria in the same collection, "Non
pavento io di te," contains two eleven-line strophes of text linked by a four-line
refrain. Here, through modulation and numerous contrasts of meter and
tempo Strozzi elaborates a highly complex form of nine sections: ABCD
ABCDA', which, although strophic, creates the impression of a full-fledged
rondo owing to the length of the refrain.94
These pieces, as well as most of the arias in her last two volumes, Opuses 7
and 8, might best be termed strophic rondos or strophic refrain arias. Yet a
number of them ("Luci belle" from Opus 8, for example) contain so many
long sections of such extreme contrast that they approach-and even sur-
pass-some "cantatas" in both length and musical variety. Indeed, the only
real clue to their identity as arias lies in the strophic structure of their texts.
Formally, then, although strophic texts predominate among the arias,
Strozzi's treatment of them is anything but standard. She does, however, show
a decided perference for the rondo idea in its various ramifications, both as a
means of expanding the dimensions of short, sectional arias and of creating
coherence, in larger works, of a rather loose, flexible kind.
Among Strozzi's larger, more ambitious works, including those actually
labelled "cantata" or "lamento," her formal solutions are naturally even more
varied than in the arias. In part because of their texts, few of these works
display the regular alternation between declamatory recitative and lyrical aria
soon to become standard procedure in the Italian cantata. Dramatic texts with
story lines, which would most naturally call for clear-cut narrative and lyrical
portions, are indeed unusual in Strozzi's oeuvre: only three of her published
cantatas fall into this category.95 These cantatas, however, surely rank among
her most inspired compositions. They create miniature dramas in which the
progress of a protagonist-partially described by a narrator-toward a reso-
lution of his predicament unfolds in a carefully calculated series of musico-
dramatic events: recitative, arioso, half-aria, aria. In the two most memorable
instances the drama ends abruptly with a real coup de thbdtre: the bereaved
lover of "Appena il sol" (Opus 7) slips on the muddy river bank and drowns,
while the heroic victim Cinq-Mars of Opuses 2 and 3 is decapitated and the
Seine reverberates in sympathetic shock (Examples I and 2).
"Another highly complex strophic aria in Op. 6 is "Dessistete," the fourth piece in the
volume.
" These are the "Cinq-Mars" lament of Opp. 2 and 3, and two works from Op. 7:
"Appresso A i molli argenti" and "Appena il sol." In addition, the manuscript cantata "Presso
un ruscello algente" is of the narrative dramatic type as are two of the Sacni musicali affetti of
Op. 5, both of which are drawn from episodes in the life of Saint Peter (pp. 19 f., 99 f.).
BARBARA STROZZI 269
Example i
Barbara Strozzi, "Appena il sol", Op. 7, p. I52ff
In que-sta gui-sa ap-pun -to, sO la ri-va del flu-me pas-seg-gian - -
I-I r Ii I w 1
do, gri-d
quando per so - ver - chio do -1o - re ha-vend' il pie - de al
pa - ri del pen-sie - ro vac - cil - lan - - - - te,
e non es-sen - do as -ciu - to dal -la rug-gia dan-or l'hu-mi-do suo - lo
64! S . . . .
sdru-cio -lan - - - - do nell' ac - que s'af - fo -
i LI I 7''I'R. IIj 1
IF
I.r ,
mo-re le fiam-me, le fiam
mo-re le fiam - me, le am - - - -
BARBARA STROZZI 271
Example 2
II Lamento, Op. 3, P. 22
Men-trejl Re col suo pian - to del - le sue fret - te il
k 1 k k k I15,1 1IIL1 3 N
pen-ti-men-to ac-cen-na, tre-mb Pa-ri - gi, tre-m6 Pa-
I!- , ! , - ' , ?- .. . I . . - - - . . .
ri - gi, e tor-bi -dos -si, tor-bi-dos-si sen- na.
In addition to these few dramatic cantatas, several others exploit the

conventions of contrast between narrative and expressive styles, distinguishing
musically between portions of text that are explicitly, even self-consciously,
either reflective or outer-directed. "L'Astratto," from Opus 8, is a cantata on
the subject of singing and the power of song to dispel the pain of unrequited
love. It is a tour deforce for the singer-lover, who opens the work by declaring
in recitative to the audience his intention to find a mode, a song to suit his
mood.96 Several arias, each in a different style, are then tried, initiated but
soon interrupted, as the emotional impulse, the need for unself-conscious
expression of feeling, overcomes the lover. Only toward the end does he
summon up the requisite control to sing a whole formal aria, objectifying his
own situation enough to generalize aphoristically about love.97
"On the use of the term "modo" or "manner" as a synonym for "aria" during the
Renaissance see Andrea della Corte and G. M. Gatti, eds., Dizionatio di musica, rev. ed.
(Torino, '959), "aria," pp. 20 f., and Gaetano Cesari, "aria," Enciclopedia italiana, I (Rome,
1929), p. 291.
" Self-conscious statements such as this, concerning the nature and function of music,
although rare, are not unknown among seicento cantatas. For a discussion of a similar cantata
But Strozzi's preferred mode of expression, indicated--although it is

perhaps also dictated-by her choice of texts, appears more lyrical than
dramatic; she seems especially concerned with direct communication to an
audience without the aesthetic distance imposed by a narrator.98 Accordingly,
secco recitative is virtually absent from most of her cantatas. They consist
rather of alternation between free, affective lyrical passages (i.e., arioso), and
more highly structured, usually less affective, formal arias. Some cantatas even
lack formal arias altogether, containing instead a series of open-ended arioso
passages, usually held together by a refrain.
The use of sectional contrast observed in Strozzi's setting of the shorter
aria texts is compounded and expanded in the longer cantatas. Both of the
occasional cantatas of Opus 2 provide striking, and different, evidence of this
procedure: "Gite o giorni dolenti" (Maria Leopoldina) contains twelve con-
trasting sections including two arioso refrains but no formal arias, while
"Donna di maesta" (Eleanora) contains eight, four of them full arias (two
strictly strophic, one a strophic variation, and one through-composed), which
are linked by an elaborate arioso refrain.
Strozzi's most complex cantata, the "serenata" of Opus 8, is one of her
few compositions to utilize strings-two violins-and she exploits their pres-
ence to develop a highly varied and contrasting, yet particularly satisfying
large-scale composition. An opening sinfonia announces the thematic material
of the first aria, and several different ritornellos within the work introduce or
echo vocal sections, often functioning as strophic variations of arias. Instru-
mental and vocal sections alternate until the final climactic aria, a lament
based on the descending tetrachord ostinato, which is accompanied by
strings.99
In cantatas as well as arias, then, Strozzi's primary formal procedure is
contrast, usually combined with some kind of refrain idea. It is always some
change in the text that provokes a change in the musical style. In the arias a
particular word might suggest special treatment, initiating a new section, or
else a rhymed couplet or refrain line might imply musical separation from the
set by Cesti, see David Burrows, "Antonio Cesti on Music," The Musical Quarterly, LI
(1965), pp. 5 18 ff. Lorenzo Bianconi informs me, however, that the author of the text of Cesti's
cantata is Sebastiano Baldini rather than the composer himself.
98 Her choice of texts, of course, may reflect practical considerations as much as, or even
more than, aesthetic ones; see below, p. 278, for a discussion of the possible function of her
music.
" Strozzi wrote several laments based on the descending tetrachord ostinato, a favorite aria
type of her teacher, Cavalli. Her use of string accompaniment here as well as in a similar
ostinato lament in the "Cinq-Mars" cantata reflects the practice, firmly established in Cavalli's
operas, of heightening the effect of laments with enriched accompaniment. Parts for strings are
exceptional in Strozzi's works. In fact, only two other compositions, those setting texts from the
operas Finta pazza and Romolo e Remo, in Op. 2, utilized strings.
BARBARA STROZZI 273
rest of the text. In the cantatas, more emp

scheme, or else, of course, meaning, betw
changes in musical style.
In general Strozzi's music reflects the
seconda prattica tradition. The style of he
in her easy shifts between unmeasured
duple and triple meter, and in her occa
Example 2)-all in response to her faithful
musical language is especially fluent an
passages where she can follow the text flo
The arias, on the other hand, less nat
leave the impression of having been mo
They seem to record a conscious attemp
uation available within the vocabulary o
the text does not easily suggest a successio
almost exclusively on the idea of repetitio
melodic-rhythmic patterns repeated seq
yond the limits of interest-and reiteration
degrees: the opening phrases of some
extended, in motto style, and, almost wit
as well as arioso passages, are repetitions o
end on the tonic.
Strozzi's music evokes the spirit of Cava

than his, more dependent on sheer vo
distinction reflects fundamental differenc
ter and pupil worked. The uninterrupte
crucial to Cavalli's dramatic realism has on
of chamber music. Strozzi's expressive goa
Cavalli's.
If, like him, she displays special sensitiv

indeed, indulging wherever possible in
more freely, repeating and extending i
more frequently and to greater lengths th
narrative style allowed. Where Cavalli, t
teverdi, reserved text repetition purely fo
rounding out or closing a recitative pass
miniaturist, frequently repeats neutral w
creating a lengthy and complex, even bipa
short lines of text.100
The disproportion resulting from the co
100 For example, Op. 6, "Rissolvetevi pensieri,
lengthy musical setting presages later operatic developments, although on an

infinitely smaller scale. But frequent, even routine repetition of neutral words
and phrases is not the only suggestion of incipient musical domination of text
in Strozzi's works. More significant is the dissociation of word and music that
permits her to accompany repeated lines of text with entirely new music or,
vice versa, to repeat a musical section to a new text.
The most striking evidence of this dissociation, and most indicative as far
as Strozzi's personal language is concerned, is offered by her melismati
passages, which, although generally set into motion by the meaning of a
specific word, are so frequent and lengthy that an unusually large proportion
of her music remains virtually without any text at all. These passages in
particular epitomize the languid, almost self-indulgent lyricism of her style, of
which the impression is created in part by the smooth coordination of
rhythmic ebb and flow with carefully balanced melodic motion in phrase
often unpredictably extended to draw upon extreme resources of the singer's
breath. The frequently lengthy melismas are an especially important in-
gredient of Strozzi's affective style precisely because they are textless. Freed
from the intermediary of words, yet text inspired and often filled with the
standard techniques associated with affective text interpretation-pungen
chromaticism, awkwardly large leaps, persistent syncopation, sudden inter
ruptions-these passages allow the voice to speak for itself; Strozzi exploits the
superior eloquence of the naked human instrument (Example 3).
On a more specific level, Strozzi's concern for the nuances of expression
manifests itself in the numerous performance indications distributed through-
out her scores-particularly the last four opuses-almost all of them closel
Example 3
"Appena il sol", Op. 7, p. 158.
Chev'h6 fat-too lu -ci di - te, di - te, 6
rI~ I I
lu - - ci di - - - te, che v'ho fat - to 6
BARBARA STROZZI 275
lu - ci, di - te, di - te, 6
SI II
lu - ci di - te, di - te,
di- - te. Ch'ad' og - nor mi tor - men - ta -
S m t.
- - - te, mi
tor men ta te.
linked to text interpretation. Tempo markings are especially frequent, both at

the opening of a piece and within it, where they often confirm some structural
articulation such as a metric change or refrain recurrence.t0' On some
occasions, however, her tempo markings have no structural function, but are
purely expressive. Appearing within continuous passages, sometimes several
in a single phrase, they represent the composer's insistence on freedom of
movement, even within measured music, her attempt to guarantee nota-
tionally the flexibility that should occur instinctively in performance.'02
Dynamic indications, exclusively forte or piano, are less frequent and are
essentially reserved for small-dimension repetitions, to create echo effects.'a
Few as they are, however, these indications suggest that other exact repetitions
of similarly short patterns or phrases, though unmarked, might be performed
in the same way. As far as ornaments are concerned, the arias and cantatas are
exceedingly rich, at least in trilli and tremoli or groppi, which Strozzi most
frequently abbreviates as t., but also occasionally writes out. She evidently
considers these ornaments as expressive devices, for she regularly calls for
them-often several in succession-within affective passages. The subtlety and
care with which she provides performance indications (despite some occasional
ambiguities), and their-close connection with specific aspects of text inter-
pretation suggest that for Strozzi the mode of performance was intimately
inked with the meaning of each piece.
Like the monodies published by so many singer-composers earlier in the
century, as well as most mid-century cantatas, Strozzi's music is emphatically
singer's music conceived for the voice of the composer. Strozzi's own voice, to
judge from those works explicitly written for her by Nicol6 Fontei, must have
been a soprano with a preferred tessitura of f' to f", possessed of sufficient
flexibility for rapid passage work yet possibly more comfortable in sustaining
long legato lines.'t' And her own compositions call for similar vocal qualities.
Nearly three-quarters of her printed works are scored for solo soprano and
continuo, and, indeed, she published only four solo works for voices other than
soprano.'O" Her remaining compositions are ensembles: nineteen duets, eight
10o Strozzi prefers the indications adagio and presto, although she occasionally makes use of
grave and allegro as well. In several instances in Op. 8, she even uses double adagio and double
presto markings, presumably for even greater extremes of tempo than those indicated by the
single terms; for examples, see pp. 20, 8 , 93.
102 Although contrasts of tempo are generously indicated in a number of Strozzi's works,
their interpretation occasionally can be ambiguous. It is sometimes difficult to know how long to
maintain a given tempo, especially if the same tempo indication appears twice in succession, or
if a new, contrasting section of music occurs without a new tempo marking.
10s For examples, see Op. 7, pp. 20 and 60.
104 For the bibliographical details concerning the Fontei publications, see above, notes 7 and
X3.
'08 Op. 2 contains one aria for bass, an appropriate scoring for its text, "Da gl'abissi del mio
core," and another for alto, "Dimmi, ah dove sei," and Op. 5 contains two alto pieces: "In
BARBARA STROZZI 277
trios, five quintets, and four quartets,

soprano. 106
These ensemble works are concentrated in her first three volumes, particu-
larly in Opus I, which contains no solo compositions at all. For this, her first
publication, variety of scoring may have been intentional as a demonstration
of her compositional versatility: Giulio Strozzi's texts even seem specifically
designed to suggest varied vocal combinations, for several of Barbara Strozzi's
scorings respond directly to the dramatis personae of individual poems. The
madrigal of the Three Graces, for example, "Bella madre d'Amore," is sung
by three sopranos, while the "Contrasto de' cinque sensi," which begins "Chi
di noi vaglia pit'," is sung by five voices: two sopranos, alto, tenor, and bass.
Barbara could have performed almost any of these pieces in the company of
other singers, on occasions such as those described in the Veglie de' Signori
Unisoni, which, as already noted, mention ensemble performances as well as
solo songs by Barbara.'07
In contrast to her first publications, Strozzi's last three volumes contain
only one piece out of forty-five that she could not have sung alone. Indeed, her
close personal identification with their performance must in part have inspired
the sharply increased number of performance indications noted in those same
publications. Like most singers of the time she undoubtedly accompanied
herself, perhaps on a lute or theorbo rather than a keyboard instrument, since
the bass parts of her works display many awkward leaps and register changes,
which are better suited to a plucked instrument than to the keyboard.'08
medio maris (Per S. Pietro)" and "E rumpebat undique (A. S. Benedeto)." Although it is true
that most I 7th-century cantatas were scored for soprano and continuo, the proportion of non-
soprano cantatas in Strozzi's oeuvre is unusually small. For an amusing contemporary ex-
planation of the predominance of soprano cantatas during the mid-i 7th century, cf. the text of
Cesti's "Aspettate," discussed in Burrows, "Cesti on Music," p. 527.
1"o The ensembles are distributed as follows: Duets: Op. I, o10; Op. 2, 5; Op. 3, 3; Op. 6, i.
Trios: Op. I, 6; Op. 3, 2. All of the quartets and quintets are found in Op. i.
'07 See above, n. 16. Fontei's two volumes written for Strozzi also include several en-
sembles; see the tables of contents provided in Emil Vogel, Bibliothek dergedruckten weltlichen
Vokalmusik italiens aus den Jahren 50oo- 1700 (Berlin, 1892), I, pp. 244 f.
1o0 The advantages of the theorbo as an accompanying instrument for cantatas were
recognized by various I7th-century theorists: see Burrows, "Cesti on Music," p. 520. It may
have been quite normal for skilled singers to be able to accompany themselves on a number of
instruments, but Monteverdi was certainly impressed by the variety of Francesca Caccini's
abilities when he remarked, in a letter of I6 Io, that he had heard her "molto ben cantare et
sonare di leutto chitaronato et clavicen bano" (de'Paoli, ed., Lettere, p. 52). Adriana Basile, too,
accompanied herself on a variety of instruments, as a description of one of her performances in
Milan indicates: "Cant6 primieramente sonando un Arpa.... Lasci6 finalmente l'Arpa... e
come bella cosi pietosa del morir nostro preso un'instromento men grave, una ghitarra
spagnuola, pass6 A gli scherzi..." (Milan, August, 16ii; quoted in Ademollo, Adriana, pp.
175 f.). Her daughter Leonora accompanied herself both on the theorbo and viol, according to
Maugars (Response, quoted in Ademollo, Primi fasti, pp. 8 f.).
Many of the texts of her works-particularly in these last three volumes-

indicate that they were written specifically for her: the Barbara-barbaro
conceit occurs prominently in five different pieces, one or the other of the terms
receiving special emphasis through repetition.'09 In even more of her works
the chief subject is singing and the protagonist is specifically a singer."'
Although a woman is clearly the speaker in only a few of her works, in several
other cases the gender is not explicit, encouraging us to believe that the voice is
feminine. One cantata in particular, which bears an unusually specific dedica-
tion to one Giovanni Antonio Forni, is so clearly a direct address-the text
begins with the refrain "I am not afraid of you" ("Non pavento io di te")-
that it is difficult not to hear the voice of Barbara Strozzi herself, the woman,
the persona of the composer merging with that of the singer.111
To whom, indeed, did Barbara Strozzi sing her songs? What function did
they serve? One assumes that, like the cantatas of her contemporaries, hers
were performed in intimate surroundings, in drawing rooms, as entertainment
in academies. Unfortunately we have no specific record of Strozzi's own
performances after those that took place at Unisoni meetings shortly before
1640. It is probable, however, that she continued to perform in similar
circumstances.
In the unlikely event that her singing career began to wane with her
increasing activity as a composer, her identity as a performer remains never-
theless central to her works. Indeed, I would like to suggest the possibility-
even the necessity-of viewing Strozzi's compositions within a very specific
personal context, as the efforts of a singer to reconcile those two terms that had
provided the Accademia degli Unisoni with such an appropriate subject for
debate in 1638: the paragone of tears and song.112 In that controversy-of
which, we must remember, Barbara was the mouthpiece-a relationship
between the two means of amorous persuasion was articulated, a relationship
that ultimately lies at the heart of her own compositions.
The debate opened with a defense of tears, which were praised for being
'09 The Barbara-barbaro conceit occurs in two pieces in Op. 6, three in Op. 7, and one in
Op. 8. In one instance Barbara is capitalized even though it is used as an adjective.
10 In addition to the cantata "L'Astratto," mentioned above, her oeuvre includes at least
ten works about singing (Op. 2, nos. 24, 25, 26; Op. 3, no. 5; Op. 6, Nos. 9, 10, 12, i6; Op. 8,
nos. i and 5). In addition, several of the Affetti sacri of Op. y exploit musical imagery. See
especially the concluding piece of the volume, "Jubilemus, exultemus" (in praise of Sant'
Antonio).
"' See Op. 6, pp. i i ff This is the only piece by Strozzi that bears a specific address, aside
from those of Op. 2 addressed to the singer Adamo Franchi. It is conceivable, then, that Forni,
too, may have been merely a singer who had performed the aria in question, perhaps in the
presence of the dedicatee of the volume, Francesco Carafa. For an illuminating discussion of
possible ways of viewing the relationship between a composer and his composition, see Edward
Cone, The Composer's Voice (Berkeley, I974), especially chaps. i and 2.
"2See above, p. 245 and n. 17.
BARBARA STROZZI 279
natural, whereas song is artificial. In co

"you will find no tremolo that is not art
fiction. Song expresses the affections fal
the passions, feigns suffering.""8 More
songs must borrow the attributes of tear
in order to give power to their songs
languidness. These qualities are none other
stolen by them perhaps because they find
a real sighing affection.""'114
The response to this argument declar
and, citing sources from Plato to Ficino
music. "Art, building upon nature's lesson
that there is no power than it cannot harn
Who can doubt the power of music, in w
nature both have combined all their st
from saddened eyes without order, and
with studied harmony, learned observatio
regulated by the divinity of the soul...
pauses, of sighs, of languor, and of those
to love.""5
The discourse concludes with "la Signora Barbara" speaking for herself:
"I do not question your decision, gentlemen, in favor of song; for well I know
that I would not have received the honor of your presence at our last session
had I invited you to see me cry and not to hear me sing.""1
And yet, despite her final, tactful judgment in this debate, the superior
affective force of music-and especially her own music-does depend after all,
at least in part, upon its ability to imitate or to borrow the power of tears.
Strozzi's exploration of the affect of suffering, the concentration of so much of
113 ,. ..Se fissarete gl'occhi nel canto, non ritroverete trillo, che non sia un'artificio: non
ritroverete languidezza, che non sia una fintione. Esprime falsamente hor tristi, hor lieti gli
affetti: Simula le passioni: Finge i dolori" (La contesa delpianto e delle lagrime, p. io).
114 "Confessano I Musici stessi, che per dar vigore al loro canto, sono necessitati a valersi de i
sospiri, delle sincope, e delle languidezze: queste, che altro sono propriamente, se non parti del
dolore, e del pianto? rubbate forse da loro, perche vedono esanime quella Musica, in cui
mancano le robustezze d'un sospirante affetto" (p. io).
115 "L'arte poi fabricando sopra gl'insegnamenti della Natura, hA ridotta la Musica ad un
perfettione, che non v'e potere, che non soggioghi, ne impossibilitA, che non superi. E chi vorrA
circonscrivere quel valore, dove quasi a gara la Natura, e l'arte hanno impiegato ogni forza?"
(p. 17). "Le lagrime scorrono da gl'occhi offesi, 6 addolorati senza regola, e senza pregio alcuno.
Ma il canto con studiosa harmonia, con dotte osservationi, ? con maestra voce, mosso, e regolato
dalla divinitA dell'anima.... Et il vero maestro delle fughe, delle pause, de i sospiri, de i
languori, e di quei musici intrecciamenti.. .che partoriscano Amore" (p. 20).
116 "lo non posso dubitare della vostra sentenza, Signori Academici, mentre havete decisa la
questione a favore del Canto. S6 ben'io, che non haverei ricevuto l'honore delle vostre presenze,
s'io la sessione passata le havessi invitate a vedermi piangere, non ad udirmi cantare" (p. 24).
her art on the expressive, the plaintive, the tearful, on the lamenting singer-
lover, seems to offer a deliberate demonstration of those opposed yet related
powers. If her music can be seen in some sense as a reconciliation, a fusion of
the power of tears and song, surely as the end product of such a synthesis it
would be superior in power to either of its constituents, more powerful, that is,
to incite love. When she sang her songs at academic meetings, at least at the
Unisoni, for the pleasure of the gentlemen present, she may indeed have
intended them to inspire love-in the venerable tradition of the Venetian
courtesan.117
Whatever her own intentions may have been, her music certainl
fully the aesthetic aims of that of her contemporaries, and of the b
general: to move the passions. But Strozzi's life and works disti
from these contemporaries. Whereas other composers sought (an
public forum for their affective expression-in theater or in c
world remained rather more private. Although she demonstrated he
tial abilities as a dramatic composer-particularly in her single
cantata-the narrative mode, with its distancing of pathos, was evide
the one she preferred. Her voice remains smaller, addressing itself
intimate audience, expressing less the feelings of fictive characters
own; "these harmonic notes," she herself confesses, "are the languag
soul, and instruments of the heart."118
Such an interpretation is encouraged, if not actually documented
apparent paradoxes of her life. She was a singer in Venice, surr
librettists and impresarios at a time when opera was the main cultu
of a large segment of Venetian society, yet she apparently never sang
She was a gifted composer who studied with the foremost opera com
the day, yet she never wrote an opera. Despite the fact that those a
were deeply involved in public activity, her sphere seems strangely
insular, and self-contained. Her academic performances and eigh
volumes are essentially all we know of her career.
The date of her death is unknown. Barbara Strozzi disappea
history with the last of her publications in 1664; she leaves no other
or monument but that impressive body of works. As an inscription
117 It would be misleading to create the impression that all of Strozzi's music is
oeuvre contains a large number of equally successful and appropriate settings
humorous texts. She reveals the same sensitivity in these pieces as she does in her
settings: an acute appreciation of mood and expressive potential. In fact, the coqu
seductive quality of many of her works may further clarify the intentions of her
.. "...Queste harmoniche note... son lingue dell'Anima, ed istromenti del Co
dedication). The dedication of Op. 7 along with its table of contents are given com
Fenlon, "A Supplement to Emil Vogel's 'Bibliothek der gedruckten weltlichen
italiens aus den Jahren I500-I700,' II," Analecta musicologica, XI, 17 (1976)
BARBARA STROZZI 281
unknown tomb we might borrow the epitaph wri

Loredano and Pietro Michiele, Incogniti, for an
Although I always bore bitter misfortune

And was unhappy until death,
In this one thing was fate kind to me:
Others cry of their sufferings,
I sang of mine."9
Rutgers University
Research for this project was carried out in Venice w

National Endowment for the Humanities, the Americ
and the American Philosophical Society. I would like
Giovanni Morelli for their constant stream of encourag
this study.
"g Se ben sostenni amari guai,

Et infelice io fui fino alla morte:
In questo pure amica hebbi la sorte,
Gli altri piangon gl'affanni, io gli cantai.
Loredano and Michiele, II Cimiterio, epitafi giocosi (Venice: Guerigli, I654), centuria seconda,
epitaph 34.

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Barbara Strozzi, "virtuosissima cantatrice": The Composer's Voice

Author(s): Ellen Rosand

BARBARA STROZZI was a singer and the author of eight volume

Barbara Strozzi was born in 1619 in Venice;s she lived, appare

I A list of Strozzi's works will be found below, in tootnote 73.

Whatever their actual relationship may h

Roberto Strozzi died in Venice. He may have been b

ing the subjects on which the members were t

The academy comprised poets, philosophers, historians, and clerics-all of

20 A number of the Incogniti publications are briefly described in Cicogna, Saggio di

other hand, often enjoyed full academic st

25 Cf. Spini, Ricerca dei libertini, pp. 203 If

The rhetorical stance assumed by the

29 See Loredano, Lettere ... parte prima ... dec

one of them ("L'Incognito") and their pervas

in the Veglie although the first Veglia contains sever

It seems possible that Busenello was responsible f

According to the Satire, the Unisoni seems to have

nell'essercito delle lettere

admiration. The dedication of the volum

Seventeenth-century references to com

"diversi eccellentissimi autori moderni" who

61 Full bibliographical information on these two v

The source of Barbara's financial suppor

Her publication of several more volum

Pace, was slightly less modest: "Haec lulius Stroz

favoriti e protetti con profuse gratie dall' E. V ... .").

With the exception of one volume of sacred songs, Barbara Strozzi's

While the composer's distinction between "aria" an

Strozzi stands out in a more.fundamental way, however. For most mid-

of those from Opus 7.79 Among the sixteen poets she

7 Although no specific works in Op. 6 bear poets' names, B

complex texts indicate a specifically occasional origin. The lengthy opening

"7 Cinq-Mars' execution and the events leading up to it are

category as a number of works by her contemporaries: the political lament.

early style. Most of the poems in Opus 2 are strophic,

Strophic variation, too, is a mode of text setting favored by Strozzi

"9 Rose, "Carissimi," p. 20o8, calls this the aria-cantata form.

Barbara Strozzi, "Appena il sol", Op. 7, p. I52ff

In que-sta gui-sa ap-pun -to, sO la ri-va del flu-me pas-seg-gian - -

quan- do per so - ver - chio do -1o - re ha-vend' il pie - de al

pa - ri del pen-sie - ro vac - cil - lan - - - - te,

e non es-sen - do as -ciu - to dal -la rug-gia dan-or l'hu-mi-do suo - lo

sdru-cio -lan - - - - do nell' ac - que s'af - fo -

mo-re le fiam - me, le am - - - -

Men-trejl Re col suo pian - to del - le sue fret - te il

pen-ti-men-to ac-cen-na, tre-mb Pa-ri - gi, tre-m6 Pa-

ri - gi, e tor-bi -dos -si, tor-bi-dos-si sen- na.

In addition to these few dramatic cantatas, several others exploit the

But Strozzi's preferred mode of expression, indicated--although it is

rest of the text. In the cantatas, more emp

Strozzi's music evokes the spirit of Cava

If, like him, she displays special sensitiv

The disproportion resulting from the co

100 For example, Op. 6, "Rissolvetevi pensieri,

lengthy musical setting presages later operatic developments, although on an

"Appena il sol", Op. 7, p. 158.

Chev'h6 fat-too lu -ci di - te, di - te, 6

lu - - ci di - - - te, che v'ho fat - to 6