Anonymous was a woman.
March 11, 2017 2:52 PM   Subscribe

Sisters doing it for themselves: radical motets from a 16th-century nunnery. Laurie Stras hypothesizes that a 1543 book of 23 anonymous motets (which she describes as "dense, intense and sometimes startlingly dissonant") may have been written by Lucrezia Borgia's youngest daughter, a 16th century abbess and musician.

My first question was, What's a motet? Answer: Unaccompanied, polyphonic choral music.

Stras and Deborah Roberts co-direct professional and amateur choral ensembles, Musica Secreta and Celestial Sirens (respectively) which explore music "for and by early modern women." The two groups have collaborated to release a CD of the motets, and three tracks are available for listening on SoundCloud. They are well worth a listen even if Renaissance convent chorale isn't your usual jam.
posted by snorkmaiden (10 comments total) 62 users marked this as a favorite
 
We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. You can find us at the nunnery, where we compose motets.
posted by cichlid ceilidh at 3:17 PM on March 11, 2017 [10 favorites]


This is so great
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:04 PM on March 11, 2017


These are really stunning, I think the article is right about their fluidity and force being uncharacteristic for the time. More and more it seems to me like the motet was the go-to form for pioneering sounds and expressions in pre-Baroque music: I'm reminded of Salamone Rossi, a Jewish composer from Mantua who created probably the first-ever motet setting of synagogal texts. There must be so many other gems like these in the history of the motet, and surely the madrigal too, though I wonder if sacred music actually offered more opportunity for pushing boundaries by having a built-in appeal to the divine.
posted by invitapriore at 4:27 PM on March 11, 2017 [5 favorites]


These motets are beautiful.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 4:27 PM on March 11, 2017


Last week’s Composer of the Week on Radio 3 was about the "The Women of Renaissance Ferrara”; Donald Macleod and Laurie Stras cover not only Leonora, but several other women composers of renaissance Ferrara so you get a good idea of her context. All five hour long programmes are worth listening to, with plenty of music throughout, but Wednesday’s episode covers Leonora specifically.

(This being the iPlayer you have 30 days from the date of broadcast to listen to the full episodes, so about another three weeks from now.)
posted by Quinbus Flestrin at 9:27 PM on March 11, 2017 [1 favorite]


Great post, thanks—I'm listening now and greatly enjoying it.
posted by languagehat at 7:40 AM on March 12, 2017


Here's the newly published recording on Amazon.
posted by Nelson at 9:58 AM on March 12, 2017


I originally opened the SoundCloud link in a new tab and began playing the first song while I read the article. Song 1 finished and I then pressed play on "Haec dies" within the article, not realizing that the SoundCloud tab had moved onto the second song! It took an awfully long time to realize I was listening to two songs at once. It sounded like I had entered a portal to a polyphonic Xanadu. It was kind of cool! But probably best to listen to them one at a time...
posted by Mrs. Rattery at 6:18 PM on March 12, 2017 [1 favorite]


Astonishing and beautiful and it's making me cry and all the hairs on my neck are standing up. I can't wait to get the album. Thank you for the post.
posted by rtha at 8:01 AM on March 13, 2017


This is really beautiful. I think I'm gonna use this in our D&D game next week!
posted by yueliang at 11:08 AM on March 13, 2017


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