Maddalena Casulana’s newly discovered songs will feature on BBC Radio 3 to mark International Women’s Day
In what is seen as one of the most important musicological discoveries of recent years, Laurie Stras, professor of music at the universities of Southampton and Huddersfield, has tracked down the lost alto partbook of Casulana’s 1583 book of five-voice madrigals, with such evocative titles as Breeze that Murmurs in the Woods.
Stras said that Casulana’s madrigals could not have been performed without the missing parts: “It would be like performing a string quintet without the second violin. It wouldn’t have made sense. I’ve been able to complete it. The jigsaw puzzle has slotted into place.” Stras said: “The reason that these madrigals are really important is that Casulana was acknowledged by her male contemporaries as a wonderful composer. She would have had to have been. We talk about women today having to be twice as good as men. That’s exactly what it was like then. These five-voice madrigals show us why she was such an extraordinary composer and why her contemporaries thought so highly of her. She is on the cutting-edge of composition in the 16th century.
Casulana, who was also a lutenist and singer, was only too aware that, as a female composer, her music would be judged inferior to works created by her male counterparts.
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