Vittoria Raffaella Aleotti

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Vittoria Raffaella Aleotti (baptized as Vittoria Elisabetta on September 22, 1575 in the Parochial Church of Santa Maria in Vado / Ferrara , Italy; † uncertain, probably after 1646) was an Italian composer and organist .

Vittoria Aleotti was the second of five daughters of the architect Giovanni Battista Aleotti at the court of Duke Alfonso II d'Este in Ferrara. The first name Raffaella she took on entering the Augustinian nuns - monastery of San Vito in Ferrara in 1589; under the name Raffaella Aleotti she later became prioress of the monastery. In this way, musicology has long assumed that there were two female composers under the name Aleotti.

Vittoria Aleotti's secular madrigal collection Ghirlanda 1593

Live and act

To the name question

In the history of music it was not decided for a long time whether two different female composers should be understood by their two first names, since compositions were printed under both Vittoria Aleotti and Raffaella Aleotti .

After MGG 1 in 1974, two sisters Aleotti, Vittoria and Raffaella, entered the Augustinian convent of San Vito in Ferrara. On the other hand, according to MGG 2 (only) Vittoria, who changed her name to Raffaella when she entered the monastery at the age of fourteen .

According to a previously overlooked article by Johann Gottfried Walther , there were two sisters who received music lessons, the younger of whom was Vittoria. Gregor Scherf names all five daughters and, as the youngest child, the son GB Aleotti. After Scherf's research, both the eldest and the second daughter (Vittoria) went to the monastery of S. Vito. Vittoria took the name Suor Raffaella in the monastery . Walther states her madrigal collection , which her father published (subsequently) in Venice in 1593 : " Ghirlanda e Marigali á 4 voci, 21st pieces with Italian text, from 'Guarini's poetry' ". Changing your name as a nun corresponds to the rites of a monastery. Her Sacrae Cantiones à 5, 7, 8 & 10 v. [Oces] decantandae were also printed in Venice under the name “Raffaella Aleotti” in 1593 .

The name Vittoria has not appeared there since she was 14 years old and entered the monastery (1588/1589), which confirms her name change. However, the two publications were still under her (Vittorias) name outside the monastery (1591 and 1593), of which that of 1593, as I said, according to Johann Gottfried Walther, was initiated by the father.

Living conditions in Ferrara, lessons and first compositions

The father Giovanni Battista Aleotti was an artistically influential architect, engineer, stage designer and ballet director (?) For 22 years, until the death of Duke Alfonso II in 1597, committed to the Estensian court of Ferrara. He later built the Teatro Farnese in Parma .

Vittoria Aleotti grew up in an artistically significant environment and, together with her older sister Beatrice Lucrezia, received music lessons from musicians at the Ferrares court, as described by Johann Gottfried Walther. The teachers were the French composer Alessandro Milleville (* 1521 Paris, † 1589 Ferrara) and his pupil, the Ferrara-born organist Ercole Pasquini . At first, almost five-year-old Vittoria only listened to her older sister, after a year she received lessons from Pasquini. Apart from her name and the lessons Walther described, nothing was known about the oldest Aleotti daughter.

Music at the Estensian court has played a major role in Italy for centuries and has had a special reputation as the “Ferrarese madrigal school” since the time of Alfonso II, the time of Mannerism . Walther writes in his article (1732) in such detail about the talent of the child Vittoria, as if he had had a special informant for it.

“ Aleotti ( Vittoria ) the second daughter of Gio. Battista Aleotti of Argenta , when her older sister was initially informed by Alessandro Milleville , and then by Ercole Pasquini in Music, was always present in the fourth to fifth year of her age, and caught so much unnoticed that she began within a year , probably with astonishment of the parents, as the latter informatoris himself, on the Arpicordo [presumably. Virginal ] to play; was then Zwey year with unusually good success of this good old man [di Pasquini] informiret , even on its performance in the to Ferrara especially because of the famous Music Nuns Closter to S. Viti done to pass in those to be even better perfectionieren [ ...] "

- Johann Gottfried Walther : Musical Lexicon or Musical Library. Wolffgang Deer, Leipzig 1732, p. 25

After Walther, she then composed “various things”. Her earliest publication was the five-part madrigal Di pallide viole in the collection Il Giardino de 'Musici Ferraresi , printed in Venice. The father made sure that Vittoria received texts by the poet Giovanni Battista Guarini, employed as court secretary, for setting to music. Vittoria then composed her own collection of 21 (secular) madrigals, which her father published in Venice in 1593, the same year that she qualified as a sacred composer with the new first name Raffaella after printing her Sacrae cantiones .

Keyboard instruments in Ferrara

The playing of keyboard instruments was already in high bloom in Ferrara during the Renaissance and led to the art of organ by Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583–1643). There were valuable organs in the town, and the court also owned the famous “ Clavicembalo grande, con tutti e tre generi Armonici ”, which had been invented by Don Nicola Vicentino (1511–1572). This subdivided the octaves into 31 different tones and keys and had a correspondingly more complicated key construction than for normally 12 semitones, distributed over two manuals. In Ferrara it could apparently only be played by the court and cathedral organist and director of the courtly instrumental music Luzzasco Luzzaschi (1545–1607), whom Walther describes as the “best organist”, “as Italy has ever had”. The piano talented Vittoria may have benefited from this construction, which was supposed to revive the ancient Greek tone system, for her composing.

Music in the monastery of San Vito

The fact that Raffaella's organ skills were praised in the monastery of San Vito speaks once more for her identity with Vittoria. She became the prioress of this monastery. Raffaela published her sacred motets herself in 1593 for ensembles with up to ten voices: Sacrae Cantiones à 5, 7, 8 u. 10 v. [Oces] .

It is not known whether the famous monastery music of San Vito had anything in common with the equally famous Concerto delle Donne of the court of Ferrara. But there were certainly points of contact with the court and mutual visits to the concerts. A concert report about a performance by the nuns at the ducal court has not yet been fully verified. The maestra del concerto described here, conducting with a long, polished baton (without naming her name) would have to have been Raffaella Aleotti.

A description by Giovanni Artusi states that the nuns not only appeared as singers, but also played a variety of instruments: horn, trombone, violin, viola bastarda, double harp, lute, bagpipe, flute and harpsichord. The Bolognese patrician and music scholar Ercole Bottrigari names the nun Raffaella as the head of twenty-three music-making nuns.

Works

Published under the name Vittoria Aleotti :

  • Di pallide viole , 5-part madrigal, contained in the collection Il Giardino de 'Musici Ferraresi . Vincenti, Venice 1591 (wrongly named under "Vittorio" [Aleotti] instead of "Vittoria" [Aleotti] according to MGG 1).
  • Ghirlanda de Madrigali a 4v. [Oces]. 21 madrigals after texts by B. Guarini. Vincenti, Venice 1593 ( digitized version of the Duchess Anna Amalia Library. After Walther 1732 the printing was arranged by the father).

Published under the name Raffaella Aleotti :

  • Sacrae Cantiones à 5, 7, 8 u. 10 v. [Oces] decantandae. 18 sacred motets, including two by your teacher Ercole Pasquini. Amadino Vincenti, Venice 1593.

literature

  • Johann Gottfried Walther : Musical Lexicon or Musical Library. Wolffgang Deer, Leipzig 1732, p. 25 ( online at Wikimedia Commons , PDF, 45 MB). New sentence edited by Friederike Ramm. Bärenreiter, Kassel 2001, ISBN 3-7618-1509-3 . Article Aleotti, Vittoria .
  • Adriano Cavicchi:  Aleotti (family). In: Friedrich Blume (Hrsg.): The music in past and present (MGG). First edition, Volume 15 (Supplement 1: Aachen - Dyson). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 1973, DNB 550439609 , Sp. 130–131 (= Digital Library Volume 60, pp. 1828–1831)
  • Karola Weil:  Aleotti, Raffaella (Vittoria). In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 1 (Aagard - Baez). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 1999, ISBN 3-7618-1111-X  ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
  • Gunther Morche:  Luzzaschi, Luzzasco. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 11 (Lesage - Menuhin). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2004, ISBN 3-7618-1121-7  ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
  • Andrea della Corte:  Ferrara. In: Friedrich Blume (Hrsg.): The music in past and present (MGG). First edition, Volume 4 (Fede - Singing Pedagogy). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 1955, DNB 550439609 , Sp. 55–71 (= Digital Library Volume 60, pp. 22024–22055)
  • Alessandro Roccatagliati:  Ferrara. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, factual part, volume 3 (Engelberg - Hamburg). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 1995, ISBN 3-7618-1104-7  ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
  • Anthony Milner: Late Renaissance. In: Alec Robertson and Denis Stevens (eds.): History of Music. Volume 2. Prestel, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-88199-711-3 , p. 152.
  • Anthony Newcomb: The Madrigal at Ferrara 1579–1597 . Vol. I: Text, Vol. II: Notes. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1980, ISBN 0-691-09125-0 .
  • Karin Pendle: The Nuns of San Vito. and Vittoria / Raffaella Aleotti. In: Women & Music, a History. Indiana University Press, Bloomington / Indianapolis 1991, ISBN 0-253-34321-6 , pp. 44-45 and pp. 49-51.
  • Karin Pendle: Women & Music, a History, second edition. Indiana University press, Bloomington & Indianapolis, 2001, ISBN 0-253-21422-X .
  • Gustave Reese: Music in the Renaissance. Dent 1959, p. 546 (quoted in Milner).
  • Gustave Reese: Music in the Renaissance. Revised edition, JM Dent & Sons, London 1978.
  • Ercole Bottrigari: Il Desiderio, or, Concerning the Playing Together of Various Musical Instruments. (Into English) Translated by Carol MacClintock, Rome, American Institute of Musicology, 1962, pp. 57-59.
  • C. Ann Carruthers-Clement: The Madrigals and Motets of Vittoria / Raphaela Aleotti. Ph. D. diss., Kent State University, 1982.
  • Gregor Scherf: Giovanni Battista Aleotti. (1546-1636). “Architetto mathematico” of the Estonians and the Popes in Ferrara. Tectum Verlag, Marburg 1997, ISBN 3-8288-9011-3 (also: Saarbrücken, Univ., Diss., 1996).
  • Lana R. Walter: Ghirlanda de Madrigali a quattro voci . Transcription and commentary. Univ. of Oregon 1984.

Web links

Notes / individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Karola Weil:  Aleotti, Raffaella (Vittoria). In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 1 (Aagard - Baez). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 1999, ISBN 3-7618-1111-X  ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
  2. ↑ In MGG 1, Supplement Volume 15, 1974 Raffaella and Vittoria Aleotti have different articles. In Pendle 2001 the question has not yet been completely resolved, see the chapter Musical Women in Early Modern Europe , in particular pp. 87–96.
  3. ^ A b Adriano Cavicchi:  Aleotti (family). In: Friedrich Blume (Hrsg.): The music in past and present (MGG). First edition, Volume 15 (Supplement 1: Aachen - Dyson). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 1973, DNB 550439609 , Sp. 130–131 (= Digital Library Volume 60, pp. 1828–1831)
  4. ↑ Pendle 2, p. 70 cites Ercole Bottrigari, who expressly mentions Raffaella by this name in the monastery.
  5. ^ A b c Johann Gottfried Walther : Musical Lexicon or Musical Library. Wolffgang Deer, Leipzig 1732, p. 25 ( online at Wikimedia Commons , PDF, 45 MB).
  6. ^ Gregor Scherf: Giovanni Battista Aleotti. (1546-1636). “Architetto mathematico” of the Estonians and the Popes in Ferrara. Marburg 1997, pp. 49/50.
  7. ^ Newcomb I (Text), p. 43.
  8. ↑ initially a singer, recorded in the Estensische Hofakten as an instrumentalist from May 1560 to the beginning of 1589. See Newcomb I, pp. 176-177 and MGG 1, Article Milleville .
  9. ↑ Pasquini (Ercole) . In: Johann Gottfried Walther : Musicalisches Lexicon or Musikalische Bibliothec. Wolffgang Deer, Leipzig 1732, p. 464.
  10. ↑ See Newcomb I and II
  11. ↑ In contrast to most of his articles, Walther does not give a source here.
  12. ↑ illustrated in MGG 1, article Aleotti
  13. ↑ Walther (1732) p. 375 f .; MGG 1 vol. 4, article Ferrara , column 64.
  14. ↑ See Bottrigari and Artusi (cited in Pendle 2001, p. 70).
  15. ^ Gustave Reese: Music in the Renaissance. Dent 1959, p. 546 (cited by Milner); only the second edition 1978 of Reese's work is available; see also Pendle 2001, p. 70 and Ercole Bottrigari: Il Desiderio. 1962, pp. 57-59.
  16. ↑ Milner's specified page number Reeses probably refers to his book Music in the Renaissance , first published in England in 1959.
  17. ^ C. Ann Carruthers-Clement: The Marigals and Motets of Vittoria / Raphaela Aleotti. P. 10, cited in Pendle 2001, p. 70.
  18. ↑ Botrigari (Ercole) . In: Johann Gottfried Walther : Musicalisches Lexicon or Musikalische Bibliothec. Wolffgang Deer, Leipzig 1732, p. 108 f.
  19. ↑ Pendle 2001, p. 70.
personal data
SURNAME Aleotti, Vittoria Raffaella
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Aleotti, Raffaela Vittoria; Aleotti, Raffaela; Aleotti, Vittoria; Sister Raffaella; Aleotti, Raphaela; Aleotti, Raffaella; Aleotti, Vittoria Elisabetta (Christian name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian composer, nun, prioress, organist and conductor
DATE OF BIRTH baptized September 22, 1575
PLACE OF BIRTH Ferrara , Italy
DATE OF DEATH after 1646