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"On Lightest Leaves Do I Fly": Redemption and the Renewal of Identity in Barbara Strozzi's Sacri musicali affetti (1655)
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Degree awarded: Ph.D. Musicology. The Catholic University of America
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CU Dissertations
Dissertations from the School of Music, Drama, and Art
Details
Title
"On Lightest Leaves Do I Fly": Redemption and the Renewal of Identity in Barbara Strozzi's Sacri musicali affetti (1655)
Type
Text Dissertation
Advisor
Weaver, Andrew H.
Other
Wagstaff, Grayson Rosand, Ellen Johnson, Glen Kopár, Lilla
Created
2015-01-01T00:00:00Z
Abstract
In 1655, Venetian composer Barbara Strozzi issued her only sacred opus, the Sacri musicali affetti, a volume of fourteen stunningly virtuosic solo motets. Scholars have puzzled over her motivation to do so. My dissertation argues that Strozzi published the Sacri musicali affetti the year before her illegitimate daughters entered the convent of San Sepolcro in order to refashion her identity from the immoral muse of her father's Accademia degli Unisoni to a devout mother of consecrated, virginal daughters. Strozzi dedicated the print to Anna de' Medici, Archduchess of Innsbruck, and chose as the first motet a paean to Saint Anne, whose pious but non-virginal motherhood of Mary serves as an exemplar for Strozzi's supplication for transformation. Each chapter examines the motets according to theological-thematic type: Marian motets, motets to Saint Peter, motets to the Blessed Sacrament and to the Most Holy Name of God, and motets to Saints Jerome, Benedict, and Anthony. Within each category, the dissertation brings to light several previously unknown associations between the Sacri musicali affetti and various contextual phenomena. The chapters conclude with textual-musical analyses, which examine Strozzi's nuanced treatment of the motets' profound liturgical intertextuality. In the conclusion, I consider the significance of the final motet to Saint Anthony of Padua in light of Strozzi's reception of the Sacrament of Penance just before her death in Padua in 1677. I suggest that Strozzi traveled to Padua in order to celebrate the Feast of Saint Anthony in June of that year, and to receive the indulgence offered to pilgrims who visited Anthony's tomb on his feast day.
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/1961/cuislandora:28293
Local
Pecknold_cua_0043A_10593
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