The following is a guest post from Senior Music Specialist Susan Clermont.
Acutely aware that the male-dominated Venetian musical culture in which she lived would produce overwhelming gender-based stereotypes and obstacles, Barbara Strozzi was nonetheless undeterred in the pursuit of her career as a composer. Without the conventional patronage of a noble house or the confines of a convent with the support of the Church, she persisted in her struggle to overcome financial and self-expressed gender insecurities; ultimately, she stood toe-to-toe with her contemporaries and out-published most male and female composers of her day, contributing eight single-composer collections of vocal chamber music and one sacred motet in a 1656 anthology – over 120 individual works – over a 20 year period.
I must reverently consecrate the first work, which, as a woman, I publish all too anxiously… so that under an oak of gold it may rest secure against the lightning bolts of slander prepared for it.” (Barbara Strozzi, 1644, Op. 1)
1656 anthology, Sacra Corona. [M1490.M185 S2 Case]
The lowly mine of a woman’s poor imagination cannot produce the metal to forge those richest golden crowns worthy of august rulers.” (Barbara Strozzi, 1651, Op. 2)

Besides ariettas and arias, many of Strozzi’s works are Italian secular cantatas for solo voice and continuo; in fact, scholars have credited her with the establishment of this genre, a flexible format (something between a madrigal and fully blown opera scene) that enabled her to epitomize the power of the solo voice by masterfully espousing musical and textual rhetoric. This dual emphasis can be partially credited to the literary influences of her father, famous poet and librettist Giulio Strozzi, who provided her with not only the finest training in music composition but also guaranteed that she was immersed in a milieu of the cultural literary elite of Venice as a child. Focusing primarily on the subject of love, be it consummated, unrequited, denied or destroyed, Strozzi’s works demonstrate an uncanny ability to insightfully paint human emotions, burning passions, and complex sentiments via her acute sensitivity to the text, her innovative use of form and style, added tempi and dynamic markings, and a colorful harmonic palette.

Many claim that Strozzi’s finest moments as a composer are revealed in her final imprints, opp. 7 and 8. By this time in her career, her self-confidence as well as her musical voice had evolved. No longer daunted by potential “lightning bolts of slander,” her preface to Diporti di Euterpe focuses attention exclusively on her dedicatee, Sir Nicolas Sagredo (1606-1676), identified as a patron, protector and guardian, the excellent “cavalier and procurator of Saint Mark and ambassador extraordinaire of Spain,” who later served as doge of Venice.


Diporti di Euterpe, the earliest published single-composer collection by a woman held in the Music Division, is now available in modern edition, was the subject of a 2004 dissertation (Susan Mardinly), and has been recorded by multiple performers. This rekindled interest is due, in part, to the outstanding Strozzi scholarship from the past 40 years, beginning with articles by Ellen Rosand, among others.4 Even more so, Barbara Strozzi’s legacy endures because the magnetism of her music still captivates listeners today, evinced in recent concert reviews: “This was an outstanding demonstration of the expressive union of words and music achieved by Strozzi… [sung] with a boldness that was surely the equal of Strozzi’s own…. At times, the disturbance created by sudden shifts in tempo and changes of meter gave way to the stillness of a monody which was rapturously communicative…. we certainly experienced the ‘language of the soul and instruments of the heart.’”5 How fortunate we are to include treasures from this inspiring artist’s legacy here at the Library of Congress.
Happy Birthday, della Virtuosissima!
- Translation of the prefatory dedication by Susan J Mardinly,“Barbara Strozzi and “The Pleasures of Euterpe” (2004). https://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations/AAI3166003
- Francesco Gaffurius, Practica musicae. Milan (Mediolani) : Guillermus Le Signerre for Johannes Petrus de Lomatio, 30 Sept. 1496. //hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/muspre1800.100162
- Margaret Mendenhall, “The Music of the Spheres:” Musical Theory and Alchemical Image.” Mythological Studies Journal, Vol. 4, 2013.
- Ellen Rosand, “The Voice of Barbara Strozzi,” in Women Making Music: The Western Art Tradition, Jane Bowers and Judith Tick, eds., Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 1986.
- Opera Today: http://www.operatoday.com/content/2019/07/proms_at_cadoga.php
Comments (2)
Virtuosissima, indeed! What an accomplished woman she was. Thanks for your post.
Thanks for this great and informative tribute. I have been listening to a lot of her work lately and am really impressed.