Britain's What's On Event Guide
Cloistered Composers
Orlando Chamber Choir
Lucy Goddard, director
Aleotti, Assandra, Cozzolani, Leonarda, Vizzana – few people will have heard their names before. These Renaissance composers chose convent life over secular society’s traditional tasks. In the safety of the cloisters’ shadows they could follow their faith, enjoy an excellent education and avoid an arranged marriage to a partner of their family’s political preference.
In return, they provided their abbeys with polyphony aplenty, gaining local notoriety as organists, singers, directors and composers. Aleotti’s un-convent-ionally flamboyant madrigals were highly regarded; Leonarda was nicknamed the “Muse of Novara”; and Cozzolani's choir of nuns, the “white and melodious swans”, were hailed as the best singers in Italy.
Patriarchal prejudice restricted these women’s reputations. Adverse Archbishops and contrary Cardinals found their music frivolous, unfit for religious rites or public performance. The complexity of Aleotti’s compositions was criticised for “making holiness give way to pleasure”…
Orlando Chamber Choir sings these talented women’s wonderful works out of history’s shadows into the concert light.
To add contrasting colours, the programme also includes majestic mass excerpts and motets by De Victoria – who, being a man, could enjoy the protection of the priory as a priest yet travel free into the limelight as he pleased.
Cozzolani – Deus in adjutorium
Cozzolani – Laetatus sum
De Victoria – Gaude Maria virgo
De Victoria – O lux et decus Hispaniae
De Victoria – from Missa Trahe me post te:
Kyrie, Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei
De Victoria – Versa est in luctum
Aleotti – Miserere mei, Deus
Aleotti – Audivi vocem
Vizzana – Protector noster magnus
Assandra – O dulcis amor Jesu
Leonarda – Littanie della beata vergine Maria a 4
Leonarda – Dixit Dominus
Aleotti – Hor che la vaga aurora
Aleotti – Baciai per haver vita
Aleotti – Io v'amo vita mia
Lucy Goddard, director
Aleotti, Assandra, Cozzolani, Leonarda, Vizzana – few people will have heard their names before. These Renaissance composers chose convent life over secular society’s traditional tasks. In the safety of the cloisters’ shadows they could follow their faith, enjoy an excellent education and avoid an arranged marriage to a partner of their family’s political preference.
In return, they provided their abbeys with polyphony aplenty, gaining local notoriety as organists, singers, directors and composers. Aleotti’s un-convent-ionally flamboyant madrigals were highly regarded; Leonarda was nicknamed the “Muse of Novara”; and Cozzolani's choir of nuns, the “white and melodious swans”, were hailed as the best singers in Italy.
Patriarchal prejudice restricted these women’s reputations. Adverse Archbishops and contrary Cardinals found their music frivolous, unfit for religious rites or public performance. The complexity of Aleotti’s compositions was criticised for “making holiness give way to pleasure”…
Orlando Chamber Choir sings these talented women’s wonderful works out of history’s shadows into the concert light.
To add contrasting colours, the programme also includes majestic mass excerpts and motets by De Victoria – who, being a man, could enjoy the protection of the priory as a priest yet travel free into the limelight as he pleased.
Cozzolani – Deus in adjutorium
Cozzolani – Laetatus sum
De Victoria – Gaude Maria virgo
De Victoria – O lux et decus Hispaniae
De Victoria – from Missa Trahe me post te:
Kyrie, Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei
De Victoria – Versa est in luctum
Aleotti – Miserere mei, Deus
Aleotti – Audivi vocem
Vizzana – Protector noster magnus
Assandra – O dulcis amor Jesu
Leonarda – Littanie della beata vergine Maria a 4
Leonarda – Dixit Dominus
Aleotti – Hor che la vaga aurora
Aleotti – Baciai per haver vita
Aleotti – Io v'amo vita mia
Thursday 9 Nov 2023
St Botolph without Bishopsgate, Bishopsgate, London EC2M 3TL
Tickets £16, reduced price £12The concert starts at 19:30 and finishes before 21:30
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