Barbara Strozzi - Female composer and alleged courtesan
Barbara Strozzi - Female composer and alleged courtesan
I first heard Barbara Strozzi’s music on Youtube while researching several female composers for my debut album, Voices of Women: From Unknown to Renowned. I was, and still am, simply captivated by her music’s qualities of expressiveness and emotion.
“Che si puo fare?” comes from one of Barbara Strozzi’s many collections of songs, most of which are composed for lyric soprano voice, which was her voice type. As a soprano myself, in learning this work I sensed that Barbara Strozzi herself sang this music and composed it to showcase the most beautiful parts of the soprano instrument. Barbara Strozzi utilizes the range of the voice so effectively, and as a soprano, I have found her music to feel so natural and easy to sing due to its text setting and instinctive phrasing. That’s not to say that different artists can’t make different choices when singing Barbara Strozzi’s music, but so much of the work is done for the singer by the compositional style. It may sound odd, but in the classical vocal music repertoire, it is a rare gift to find music written by a woman soprano. Some composers may have been boy sopranos in their youth, but not many have been adult sopranos.
Who was Barbara Strozzi?
Barbara Strozzi was the daughter of a poet in Venice who set up an academy for “like-minded individuals” that gave mostly private poetry and musical performances. It is possible that he founded this society partially to give his daughter a place to display her vocal talents.
Q&A: Get to know Barbara Strozzi
Q: What vocal compositions has Barbara Strozzi composed?
A: Barbara Strozzi has several collections, most of which touch on the themes of romantic love. This could be due to the fact that the members of the society (her audience) were all men, and the salon type of concerts offered by the society could also have also been used for less than pure entertainments of those men.
Q: Who were Barbara Strozzi’s contemporaries?
A: Barbara Strozzi is a Baroque composer, around the same time as Bach, Monteverdi, and Charpentier. Barbara Strozzi and her father both studied with Cavalli.
Q: Is there a connection between Barbara Strozzi and politics?
A: Barbara Strozzi may have been the only female in the room when the society her father founded met to discuss their ideals as artists. Barbara Strozzi did not perform in the opera or theater (although her vocal talent could have taken her there), perhaps due to the shady reputations of those types of singers.
Q: How does Barbara Strozzi relate to women’s equality?
A: Barbara Strozzi's gifts were patronized by her father in a mostly positive way in that he gave Barbara outlets for performance. However, some of the patrons of his society may have had more intimate relationships with Strozzi, due to his libertine political leanings.
Q: How does Barbara Strozzi relate to other women’s issues?
A: Barbara Strozzi is a great example of an artist who composed music for herself to perform. Barbara Strozzi's music was a great service to herself, and to future generations of sopranos. I wish I had discovered it much sooner, but I’m happy that Barbara Strozzi's music is having a revival in classical music circles today.
Q: Is there a link between Barbara Strozzi and women’s entrepreneurship?
A: Barbara Strozzi published her music at a time that it was considered highly un-orthodox for women to have ownership or put their name to anything at all. Barbara Strozzi was highly criticized by her male peers who often labeled her a “courtesan.” Women who even dabbled in musical performance and the theatrical arts at the time were often considered “loose.” I marvel at Barbara Strozzi's forward-thinking accomplishments.
Barbara Strozzi resources & recommended recordings
Learn more about this fascinating female composer at BarbaraStrozzi.com, BBC Music’s site on Barbara Strozzi