In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, hundreds of Venetian women began musical training in childhood to become professional musicians, known as figlie di coro (daughters of the choir), in the four charitable Ospedali Maggiori. These women overcame childhood poverty and abandonment to awe prestigious guests with their skills and even become sought-after music teachers for daughters of noble families. Through the study of institutional records regarding the care of the wards, little-studied personal requests the female musicians wrote, and musical manuscripts containing both pedagogical materials and publicly performed works, this dissertation recounts the educations and careers of specific figlie di coro and responds to two main lines of inquiry: first, how Venice’s institutional and gendered structures shaped the musical education and careers of women, and second, how the work of professionally trained female musicians contributed to and fit in the society around them. Ultimately, this in-depth study of archival documents about the figlie di coro challenges the centrality of male composers and their works in Venetian music history and reinforces the significance and contributions of female performers and educators.

Creator

• Tonelli, Vanessa

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-jteg-n736

Subject

• Women's studies
• Gender studies
• Music history

Language

• en

Alternate Identifier

• http://dissertations.umi.com/northwestern:16064
• etdadmin_upload_902167

Keyword

• Conservatories
• Women Musicians
• Charitable Instituions
• Sacred Music
• Venice Italy
• Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

Date created

• 2022-01-01

Resource type

• Dissertation

Rights statement

• In Copyright