Research Paper: Female Composer before 1750

Morgan G. Cravens

History of Music MUSIC 321 01

November 8, 2020
1

Barbara Strozzi was one of the most significant female composers of the 17th century and

had a major impact on music today, primarily because of her influence on the cantata genre. She

was a notable composer and virtuosic singer, and she was one of the few female composers to

publish her own music without the help of the Church. Her father’s influence on her career was

significant, and Strozzi had access to resources that many female composers never had at the

time. Strozzi’s L’amante segreto demonstrates her prowess as a musician and her unique

contribution as a female composer through the way she utilizes techniques such as: long

melismas, virtuosic ornamentation, and depth of emotion through text painting.

L’amante segreto is a creatively written masterpiece that likely appealed to the Venetian

public due to its conventionality. This piece was one of Strozzi’s least experimental, as it did not

feature nearly as much dissonance or chromaticism compared to her other pieces. It is more

reminiscent of the prima prattica than the seconda prattica because of how traditional it is.

L’amante segreto is a cantata that utilizes text painting and subtle expression to provide

emotional depth. The sweet tone, however, does not precisely match the emotion in the text,

unlike many of her other arias and cantatas. This piece also leaves plenty of room for virtuosic

ornamentation which was a key part of Strozzi’s compositions. She knew that she was a truly

skilled soprano and that she was capable of ornamentation that would improve the piece

altogether. The emotional expressivity in L’amante segreto is subtle, and this likely furthered

Strozzi’s career because it appealed to a broader audience. L’amante segreto includes popular

musical elements from the Baroque period such as lengthy, virtuosic melismas and a heavy

influence of emotion that appealed to the general public and impressed musical professionals

alike.
2

The genre of the cantata was primarily developed through composers like Strozzi who

utilized operatic techniques in a chamber setting. The cantata L’amante segreto is historically

significant because it contributed to the genre as a whole. It likely had a major impact on

audiences because of the poetic text and the heavy emotion it portrays. The sweetness of the

chords and lack of dissonance alongside darker themes of love and loss makes this piece stand

out amongst other compositions of the time. The most interesting thing about this piece is

actually its lack of dissonance and chromaticism. Strozzi’s music that includes themes of love

and loss is often laden with these techniques, but in this particular piece she did quite the

opposite. The emotional suffering is not evident in the melodies themselves, but rather in the

longing of the text. Many composers before Strozzi focused primarily on contrapuntal techniques

rather than textual sensitivity; however, Strozzi and her contemporaries composing in the cantata

genre utilized poetic texts to convey deep human emotions that appealed to audiences. This

particular piece is very similar to what other composers were doing at the time but still had a

major impact on the cantata genre.

L’amante segreto was a very traditional piece in the cantata genre, but Barbara Strozzi

was a prolific composer who experimented with many different musical techniques in her

compositions. She created a feeling of unpredictability in many of her works by shifting between

arias, ariosos, and recitatives that did not necessarily match with the text, but portrayed the

instability of human emotion. Her experimentation with new ways of expressing intense

emotions also contributed greatly to the genre of the cantata. One example of experimental

emotional writing occurs in the beginning of Strozzi’s cantata Lagrime mie in which

chromaticism is used to depict wailing in agony. Her unique connection with emotions was
3

something that male composers at the time were not able to harness, and it is evident in L’amante

segreto that Strozzi had a deep understanding of human emotion and was able to express that.

She was uniquely expressive in her writing because of this and utilized great dynamic contrast to

portray complex emotions. Strozzi’s ability to depict emotions in her compositions made her one

of the most accomplished composers of her time.

Barbara Strozzi was a very privileged female composer because of her father’s

contribution to her career. Giulio Strozzi was a very progressive purveyor of the arts and used his

connections in the intellectual world to further his daughter’s career as a composer. One of his

most exemplary contributions to her career was his supply of texts for Barbara’s first publication

of madrigals.1 He was a member of the Accademia degli Incogniti, a Venetian circle of

intellectuals, and formed the musical subset of the Icogniti, the Accademia degli Unisoni. 2

Barbara Strozzi presided over this group of intellectuals as a performer and composer. She often

performed in salons for highly-ranked individuals and became a well-known singer and

composer of madrigals and cantatas. This was an extremely rare opportunity for a woman during

the Baroque period, but her father was very forward-thinking and wanted to further his

daughter’s career despite the sexism surrounding many of the Venetian intellectual societies.

Barbara was taught composition and vocal techniques from Monteverdi’s protege, Francesco

Cavalli and she also had contact with many prominent male composers of the time. Because of

her connection to Monteverdi, she was taught in the progressive manner of the seconda prattica

1
James R. Briscoe and Ellen Rosand, “Barbara Strozzi,” in New Historical Anthology of Music
by Women, vol. 1 (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2004), pp. 60-62.
2
Ellen Rosand, “Barbara Strozzi, Virtuosissima Cantatrice: The Composer's Voice,” Journal of
the American Musicological Society 31, no. 2 (1978): pp. 241-281, https://doi.org/10.2307/830997.
4

and held many ideologies that “encouraged intellectual and artistic equality in a socio religious

context.”3 The progressivity of her father and the Unisoni helped Strozzi to premier L’amante

segreto. The Accademia degli Unisoni ensured that Strozzi’s career took off and she received

much more recognition than most composers during their lifetimes do.

Female composers before the 18th century typically had a difficult time getting their

careers off the ground, but thanks to her father and the Accademia degli Unisoni, Barbara Strozzi

had the resources to become one of the most prolific composers of the Baroque era. It is

important to study female composers because of their unique contribution to the history of music

and because they played a major part in how women are treated in the musical world today.

Overall, Barbara Strozzi was one of the most significant contributors that helped develop the

genre of the cantata. Because of her contribution in the musical world, female composers were

able to move up in society and are well-respected today. Strozzi’s virtuosity as a singer and a

composer are obvious, but studying how her skills developed music can create a broader

historical context for 21st century musicians and historians. Research is still being conducted

about Barbara Strozzi to discover more about her personal life and how that affected her ability

to compose music. It seems like she had a difficult upbringing, but the support of her father and

the community surrounding her made it possible for her to become a successful musician and

composer that is studied to this day. With modern recreations of her scores, virtuosic recordings

of her cantatas and madrigals, and more research on Baroque performances, Barbara Strozzi’s

accomplishments and skill can be fully understood.

3
Susan J. Mardinly, “Barbara Strozzi: From Madrigal to Cantata,” Journal of Singing - The
Official Journal of the National Association of Teachers of Singing 58, no. 5 (May 2002): pp. 375-391.
5

References

Briscoe, James R., and Ellen Rosand. “Barbara Strozzi.” Essay. In New Historical Anthology of
Music by Women1, 1:60–62. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2004.

Mardinly, Susan J. “Barbara Strozzi: From Madrigal to Cantata.” Journal of Singing - The
Official Journal of the National Association of Teachers of Singing 58, no. 5 (May 2002):
375–91.

Rosand, Ellen. “Barbara Strozzi, Virtuosissima Cantatrice: The Composer's Voice.” Journal of
the American Musicological Society 31, no. 2 (1978): 241–81.
https://doi.org/10.2307/830997.