History’s First Self-Published Female Composer Will Have Her Tunes Heard Again

Following the rediscovery of missing parts of original music, madrigals by 16th-century female composer Maddalena Casulana will finally be performed for the first time in 400 years. 

According to The Guardian, the Italian Renaissance figure had been the first female composer to publish her own music, releasing three books of madrigals between 1568 and 1583. 

With only one collection surviving till the present day, 17 newly-uncovered madrigals have been added to the 12 already attributed to Casulana.

They will premiere on March 8 as part of BBC Radio 3’s special performance for International Women’s Day.

Laurie Stras, Professor of Music at the University of Southampton and Huddersfield, was the one who successfully unearthed the lost alto partaken of the 1583 collection of five-voice madrigals, which include tunes such as Breeze that Murmurs in the Woods.

Without their missing parts, the songs “would be like performing a string quintet without the second violin,” said Stras. 

“It wouldn’t have made sense. I’ve been able to complete it. The jigsaw piece has slotted into place,” she added. 

Stras had to track down the parts from the Russian State Library to the Gdansk Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences, piecing together the missing sections that may have been looted during World War II.

“What we will get from hearing these madrigals is a sense of what’s considered really top-quality composition in her lifetime. She’s as good as any of the masters of her day,” explained Stras. 

Interestingly, even during the time, Casulana’s male counterparts recognized her incredible talent, with one even calling her the “muse and siren of our age.” 

To snag tickets for the special performance, head here.

[via The Guardian, cover image via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)]