Disembodied Voices: Music and Culture in an Early Modern Italian Convent [Hardcover]

Craig A. Monson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 19, 1995

Piecing together 200 years of convent history, this engaging narrative tells the story of the nuns of Santa Cristina della Fondazza--gifted singers, instrumentalists, and composers who used music to circumvent ecclesiastical authority and to forge links with the world beyond convent walls. Craig Monson reconstructs the daily lives of Italian nuns, often in their own words, and relates their musical life to the broad social context in which it unfolded. He introduces a virtually unknown nun composer, relating her family history and how the convent allowed her creativity to flower. The study is meticulously researched, marvelously detailed, and entertaining to read.
In sixteenth- and early-seventeenth-century Bologna, approximately one-seventh of the entire female population lived behind convent walls. Santa Cristina became home for a number of gifted women musicians, many from among the upper classes, who sought "respectable" musical careers. Monson documents the struggle of these women as they fought to maintain their musical and ritual traditions in the face of persistent opposition from church officials. Figuring prominently in the story of Santa Cristina is Lucrezia Vizzana (1590-1662), Bologna's only published nun composer, who entered the convent at the age of eight.
This study is as much about social and cultural history as it is about music. The discussion ranges widely beyond musicology to draw upon art, social and political history, labor history, theology, and gender studies.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

"The story of Vizzana and her convent is unusually vivid, startlingly well-documented, and concrete. And it is told with wit, passion, and directness."--Suzanne G. Cusick, author of Valerio Dorico

"This book undertakes, with great success, the task of presenting both Lucrezia Vizzana as a notable composer, and her convent as an important moment in the history of women, religion, and the arts in early modern Italy. It adds an important piece to the gradually developing picture of women's artistic lives in pre-modern Europe. Monson offers the best evidence to date that (contrary to common assumptions held even by scholars in the field of early modern studies) women were active in music making, and (contrary to the way early modern monastic life for women has been most often understood) life behind the convent wall was not devoid of aesthetic pleasures."--E. Ann Matter, author of The Voice of My Beloved

"[A story of] how, in concert and with guile, convent women learned to outmaneuver the authorities. Alongside his sympathetic portrayal of the 'disembodied voices' that emanated from behind the cloister screen and his careful analysis of the music composed by Vizzana, Monson revives the cacophony of strong-willed women fighting for power within the house and their noisy struggles with ecclesiastical authorities to regain lost privileges. The research is impressive; the account captivating."--Elissa B. Weaver, University of Chicago

From the Back Cover

"The story of Vizzana and her convent is unusually vivid, startlingly well-documented, and concrete. And it is told with wit, passion, and directness." (Suzanne G. Cusick, author of Valerio Dorico)

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 394 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press (September 19, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520088751
• ISBN-13: 978-0520088757
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,188,793 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5.0 out of 5 stars "Speaking to the World Beyond the Walls", January 8, 2012

By 

Peace - See all my reviews

This review is from: Disembodied Voices: Music and Culture in an Early Modern Italian Convent (Hardcover)

A very absorbing, enjoyable and well researched history as well as mystery of a 16th and early 17th century Italian convent: Santa Cristina della Fondazza (Bolonga, Italy) and Lucrezia Vizzana (1590-1662) Songs Of Ecstasy And Devotion From A 17th Century Italian Convent - Vizzana / King, Musica Secreta, known as "the convents only musically published nun composer". Before I read this book, while listening to music by other baroque composers, equally enclosed, I marveled at their music and wondered how it was possible that cloistered nuns such as Vizzana could produce such sophisticated music so informed by the culture of the 17th century while living within the confines of the convent seemingly cut off from the world. "Disembodied voices" refers to the voices of the nuns as heard by the public, the nuns being hidden from view behind a grill or screen.

Many questions were answered in my reading of this book: What was the purpose and function of music in the lives of these cloistered women who otherwise lived their lives in silence? What was the extent of musical training? What types of instruments were accessible in the convent? What contacts were available to these women musically outside the convent walls? How did they use their music to communicate and attempt to bring peace to themselves, their world and to the world outside the convent?

Unfortunately, what we learn from our reading is that the climate of jealously, pettiness, hysteria, false accusations and anger which developed in the convent among the nuns proved Vizzana's undoing, along with the mandates of the church which sought to restrict the nuns' musical creativity and performance. As a result, Vizzana never again ventured into print following the 1623 publication of her "Componimenti Musicali" and the convent itself eventually dissolved.

Most importantly to me in my reading of this book was that it communicated a sense of how profoundly important music was to these woman and to their sense of self-expression. It was, perhaps, that aspect of their daily lives that made them whole, something which they could not live without. Once realizing that, the music becomes most precious. I was left with the thought that I am very fortunate indeed to be able to listen to this music, to have it available to me all these centuries later and to understand what went into its creation through great research liked that contained in this book and through those who study and perform this music for my appreciation and edification.

See [..] for follow-up on the present use of the cloister, restoration work and rediscovered 16th century paintings and decoration.

Peace.

- Grace W. Hurd - January 2012