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 Disembodied
Voices : Music and Culture in an Early Modern Italian Convent
by Craig A. Monson
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...
(Amazon.com)
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