Description
This book explores the role of women musicians in Venice from 1525-1855, specifically focusing on their involvement in the four major eleemosynary foundations, or ospedali grandi. It discusses the institutional, social, religious, and civic dimensions of these foundations and their musical subsidiaries, known as cori. The cori involved over 300 external professional male composers and music teachers and over 800 internal professional women musicians, and their repertoire of over 4,000 original works is recognized as key elements in the historical evolution of musical genres. The book also examines the relationship between the cori and the ospedali, as well as their involvement in concert series and music salons. It highlights the significance of the cori in various fields of scholarship and provides a wealth of information from primary sources for further research. Overall, the book aims to rediscover, perform, and analyze the repertoire commissioned for and performed by the women musicians of the cori, which reflects a lost Venetian civilization.
This book opens a door long closed on an important era in the history of Venice. It presents, for the first time, an introductory, contextual study of three centuries of musical activity at the four major eleemosynary foundations of the former Republic of Venice: the ospedali grandi. It provides a comprehensive account of the institutional, social, religious, and civic dimensions of these welfare complexes, with particular reference to their musical subsidiaries, or cori. Involving over 300 external professional male composers and music teachers and over 800 internal professional women musicians, the history of the cori also incorporates a vast repertory of over 4,000 original works - sacred and secular, vocal and instrumental, solo and choral - little know today but recognized as key elements in the historical evolution of musical genres. Responsible for this phenomenon through their association with the ospedali and the figlie del coro were such figures as Lotti, Legrenzi, Vivaldi, Hasse, Galuppi, and Cimarosa, to name but six. It is their relationship to the ospedali and the concert series in the churches and music salons annexed to them that Dr Berdes explores. In the process she proves the significance of the cori as reflectors of a range of cross-disciplinary scholarship from the history of art and architecture to the history of culture and social policy, as well as medical care and aspects of women's, children's, and Venetian studies. Amassing a wealth of information from primary sources, this book constitutes a repository of information and references for a multitude of new investigations. Above all, it will facilitate rediscovery, performance, and analysis of the repertoire commissioned for, and first performed by, the women musicians of the cori, a repertoire of unique richness which may be seen as the mirror of a lost Venetian civilization.
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