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GODDESS
Festival Concert 1
August 8, 2023
Tuesday
7:30 pm – Festival Concert
6:30 pm – Pre-Concert Lecture
Lincoln Theater
Tickets available in advance or at the door.
PROGRAM
Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre Sonata No. 1 in D minor for Violin and Continuo
Riccardo Minasi, violin; Arnie Tanimoto, viola da gamba; Paolo Bordignon, harpsichord
Julie Pinel Rossignols vous chantez
Nicholas Phan, tenor; Riccardo Minasi, violin; Arnie Tanimoto, viola da gamba; Paolo Bordignon, harpsichord
Antonia Bembo Passan veloci l’hore
Nicholas Phan, tenor; Arnie Tanimoto, viola da gamba; Paolo Bordignon, harpsichord
Barbara Strozzi Che si può fare, Op. 8, No. 6
Nicholas Phan, tenor; Riccardo Minasi, violin; Arnie Tanimoto, viola da gamba; Paolo Bordignon, harpsichord
Tonia Ko Still Life Crumbles
Mark Steinberg, violin; Paolo Bordignon, harpsichord
Barbara Strozzi Hor che Apollo, Op. 8, No. 3
Nicholas Phan, tenor; Riccardo Minasi, violin; Mark Steinberg, violin; Arnie Tanimoto, viola da gamba; Paolo Bordignon, harpsichord
Artists
Nicholas Phan, tenor
Riccardo Minasi, violin
Mark Steinberg, violin
Arnie Tanimoto, viola da gamba
Paolo Bordignon, harpsichord
Program Notes:
When they appear in music history textbooks at all, women contemporaries of the “great men” composers of Western Classical music are often remembered as spouses, performers, patronesses, or teachers, as prominent positions in the professional musical world remained blocked by sexist social norms. Though Clara Schumann was a virtuosic pianist and composer, she is most often recalled as Robert’s wife and as an inspiration for many male composers. Alma Mahler is relegated to being remembered as the wife of Gustav, her promising compositional talent stifled by her husband’s insistence that she conform to gender norms and cease writing music. Pauline Viardot is remembered as the great prima donna who took the stages of Europe’s opera houses by storm, but her compositions are forgotten. Nadia Boulanger is lauded for her great influence as a teacher of her many white male students who came to make up the classical music canon of the 20th century, but her own music, and that of her sister Lili, are sidelined.
Despite this false narrative, women have been composing music for centuries, relentlessly pushing against the oppressiveness of the musical patriarchy. While it was wonderful to see the many calls in the musical press for increased representation of women on classical music programs back in 2018, which was the centenary year of Lili Boulanger’s death, it was dismaying to see that the only composers anyone was advocating for were living composers, as if no women had ever composed music of worth at any other point in music history. On the contrary, beautiful music has been composed by women through the centuries.
Barbara Strozzi was born the illegitimate daughter of the esteemed poet and librettist, Giulio Strozzi, an influential member of the intellectual circles of Venice, and her father worked to promote his “adopted” daughter’s musical career. After displaying virtuosic vocal and musical ability from an early age, Giulio arranged for Barbara to study composition with Francesco Cavalli—one of the founders of the genre of opera. After many years of performing for the intellectual accademie in Venice, an unusual feat for a woman, Strozzi published her first book of musical compositions, a book of madrigals—a daring move for a woman of questionable social status with no patronage who challenged the widely-held misogynistic belief that women should not publicly display their intellect at the time. Strozzi was keenly aware of the risks of publishing. In the dedication to her first book of madrigals, to the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, she wrote,
“As a woman, I am all too bold in publishing this work. I reverently consecrate it to your Most August Highness’ name, so that it may lie protected under a golden oak tree, and not be harmed by the swords of slander that are already drawn to fight against it.”
Strozzi would go on to become the most published composer during her lifetime, publishing eight volumes of her music—an astonishing achievement for a single mother of four, who never had noble patronage nor support from the church. A highly experimental composer with both form and modality, she pushed the emotional and expressive boundaries of the cantata form. Aside from her compositional ingenuity and mastery, her prolific output is much of the reason she is so well-represented on this program.
Another Venetian singer who studied composition with Cavalli was Antonia Bembo. Bembo has an extraordinary biography that illustrates many of the challenges women composers faced during the Baroque period. Abandoned by her husband for five years while he went on a military tour, she was left with no means to provide for her family. She eventually filed for divorce, accusing her husband of spousal abuse, infidelity, theft, and more. She lost her case and was forced to flee from Venice to Paris with one of her daughters, Diana. She was aided in her escape by the famous lutenist, Francesco Corbetta, who was a high-ranking musician at King Louis XIV’s court. Through Corbetta, Bembo was introduced to the Sun King, who admired her singing and composition so much that he granted her both a place to live and a pension.
Bembo dedicated most of her compositions to Louis XIV in gratitude for his aid, which allowed her to devote her time to composition, including the writing of an opera L’Ercole amante. The song “Passan veloci l’hore” is taken from her collection of 41 vocal works, Produzione armoniche, which demonstrates her facility with both French and Italian Baroque styles and languages. Perhaps the first truly international woman composer, she was able to go back and forth between styles with ease, blending them at times to create a sound that was distinctly her own.
Another composer who enjoyed the patronage of the Sun King was Antonia Bembo’s contemporary Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre. The daughter of a harpsichord-maker and organist, Élisabeth Jacquet was trained by her father in music and displayed exceptional talent at the harpsichord from a young age. She was taken into the French court under the auspices of the King’s mistress, the Marquise de Montespan, who oversaw much of her music education. Around the age of 20, she married the organist Martin de la Guerre, and took on his surname as a secondary surname—a bold proclamation of her intention to continue her professional musical life after marriage. A few years later she would publish the first volume of her music, Les pieces de clavecin: Livre I, which was dedicated to the King. Well-known as a composer during her time, Jacquet de la Guerre was the first woman to have an opera produced in the history of France, Céphale et Procris. While she would later return to vocal music, publishing three books of cantatas, she next turned to composing instrumental sonatas that would revolutionize the form, one of which is performed on this program.
Little is known of Julie Pinel. What is known is that, like Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, she also was a respected harpsichordist and similarly came from a family of musicians that had many connections to the French court, one of whom, Germain, was the Sun King’s childhood lute instructor. While biographical details about her are scarce, her collection of 31 songs, Nouveau recueil d’airs sérieux et à boire, published in 1737, survives. “Rossignols vous chantez” is the opening song from this sole volume of her work.
Women in the early Baroque and late Renaissance periods realized new opportunities as the noble classes became fascinated with their singing voices. Born into families (often musical dynasties) that radically valued their education, and mostly supported by wealthy noble patrons, these women carved out wildly successful lives in music through their compositions, as well as their performing careers. As recorded history exalts in the creations of their male peers, our experience of the music of this period is lesser for our oversight of these visionary women.
By Nicholas Phan
The closing lines of Amy Lowell’s 1915 poem “Aliens” present a whimsical, yet bittersweet moment: “And while I laugh/ My spirit crumbles at their teasing touch.” The imagery of these lines seemed to be the ideal sonic inspiration for a violin-harpsichord duo. I was particularly interested in integrating the instruments timbrally, rather showing off their obvious contrasts. The musical gestures of the pieces continually crumble and splinter in various ways, ultimately resembling the unpredictable rustling of autumn leaves in the wind.
By Tonia Ko