The Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale in Bologna is like mecca for scholars of 17th century music. It houses the collection of the renowned 18th century composer, teacher and scholar Giovanni Battista Martini, known as ‘Padre Martini’. Most of his massive collection of music prints (estimated by Dr. Burney at over 17,000 volumes) was donated to the Civico Museo on his death.

Of special interest to me was of course the original partbooks of Cozzolani’s 1650 collection Salmi a Otto Voci Concertati, a complete recording of which Magnificat recently released. While I have become intimately familiar with facsimiles of these partbooks, I have never had the opportunity to actually handle them, but thanks to the kind assistance of librarian Alfredo Vitolo, I was able to do so.

I was struck anew by the small format of 17th century prints – paper was expensive! As the photo shows the stack of nine partbooks was very compact indeed. The photo of the title page of the Canto Primo partbook shows the red lettering lost in scans and microfilms.

While at the Civico Meseo I also had the opportunity to examine first prints of publications by Isabella Leonarda and Barbara Strozzi as well as Orazio Vecchi’s L’Amfiparnaso – all music that Magnificat will perform in the coming season.

I also viewed the sole surviving partbook from Cozzolani’s collection of solo motets Scherzi di sacra melodia (1648). Over the past decade, Magnificat has supplied basso continuo parts for five of these motets for performance.

More photos of the partbaook for both the 1648 and 1650 collection can be viewed in the photo gallery.

[View with PicLens]

If the first psalm, Dixit Dominus, with its unusual refrain, constantly varying textures and martial affect represents one side of Cozzolani’s 1650 collection, Confitebor tibi displays another. The concertato duet and trio writing found in the first psalm are present here as well as are the tutti declamatory, martial and antiphonal sections. Read More

The book contains six settings of psalms for eight voices (Dixit, Confitebor, Beatus vir, Laudate pueri, Nisi Dominus, Laetatus sum) along with two settings of the Magnificat (Mary’s canticle); this must represent some of the pieces sung by the house’s two choirs at the afternoon service of Vespers, on both the day before (“First Vespers”) and the day of (“Second Vespers”) major feasts of the church year. There are also two other psalms with violins (Laudate Dominum is a short psalm often used to replace another text at the end of the psalmodic part of Vespers).  The rest of Cozzolani’s large edition consists of eight motets for various liturgical occasions for two to five voices without instruments, which could have been sung at Vespers, at Mass, or informally.

Cozzolani’s publication is one of only ten volumes published in Italy between 1630 and 1656 to include eight-voice Vespers.  We know that its publisher Alessandro Vincenti, the better of the two music printers in Venice, priced it at 14 lire, a fairly expensive edition due to the amount of paper used in its nine part-books, although not out of line compared to other editions of its size.  By way of comparison, the entire annual salary offered to Claudio Monteverdi’s successor as chapelmaster at St. Mark’s in 1643 was 1,920 lire.

Cozzolani’s selection of which psalms to set, and her combining the liturgical Vespers items with motets, are somewhat unusual.  Normally, such editions were put out by male church musicians who—whether seeking a job or thanking a patron—sought both to provide a usable commodity and to prove their ability to deal with a wide variety of psalmic texts.  In many churches, Vespers for major feasts over the course of a whole liturgical year would have involved the singing of twelve to fifteen different psalms, and thus many musical editions include something like this number (Monteverdi’s edition of 1610 is an exception, as it is targeted only to Marian feasts).  Cozzolani’s Benedictine order sang only four, not five psalms, at its Vespers, and the total number of such texts for Benedictine Vespers over the church year was quite limited: essentially the six texts which she set.  Thus—although it was a commodity meant to be sold for a wider market than just that of monastic houses—her edition represents her house’s liturgy and musical practice directly, and the fact that she would have had no possibility to take a “job” outside her cloistered house meant that she needed to show her compositional virtuosity through the texts that her order used, not other psalms sung in cathedrals or other churches.

Thus her edition is a kind of monument to music at S. Radegonda.  Some evidence suggests at least one occasion on which some of the psalms, and some of the motets, could have been heard.  The major cultural event of mid-century Milan was the two-month visit in summer 1649 of its new queen, Maria Anna of Austria (1634-1696), who was enroute from her Viennese birthplace at the Austrian Habsburg court on her journey to Spain in order to marry her Spanish Habsburg uncle, Philip IV.  Her entry into the city marked the first time that she set foot in her new realm, as Spain had ruled Milan since 1535.  Her stay in the city was marked by opera and theater performances in her honor, ceremonial homages by local nobility and representatives of neighboring duchies, and not least the young princess’s own visits to the many female monasteries of Milan.

On 25 or 26 June (the chronicles differ), she visited S. Radegonda, “from afternoon into the night” according to one Spanish chronicler, and thus perhaps for eight hours.  That afternoon, the nuns would have been celebrating Vespers for the feast of a saint of their order, the 12th-century monk St. William of Vercelli.  Thus they could have performed up to four of Cozzolani’s psalm settings for the queen.  In addition, one of the motets in the 1650 collection, Venite sodales, prominently quotes a phrase used in the liturgy on that feast: “Quis est iste? et laudabimus eum”, the first solo moment in the piece.  Furthermore, the unusual text of a duet, Venimus in altitudinem maris, invokes Mary’s protection of seafarers, reworking the miracle of Christ calming the storm on the Sea of Galilee.  This would have been appropriate for the young Maria Anna, who still faced the long and perilous sea voyage from Genoa to Barcelona as the final stage of her trip from Austria to Spain.  Some of the publication’s contents thus seem to have a link to the future queen’s visit to the monastery, and might well have been heard in June 1649.

Cozzolani’s dedication to Badoer also notes that the prelate had often praised her “rough songs” and—since bishops are considered shepherds—she added that, appropriately, “the music, as my creation, has not a little of the rustic and the woody, and thus in that respect [is] pastoral”.  The frequent use of the dialogue, the pastoral genre par excellence, in the music bears this out.  There are three named dialogues in the book (Gloria in altissimis, Maria Magdalene, and O caeli cives), for Christmas, Easter, and St. Catherine (of Alexandria), respectively.  That the painting over the main altar in the public (external) church of S. Radegonda was Simone Peterzano’s depiction of the Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine with Sts. Radegond and Justina (the last-named was the patroness of Cozzolani’s Cassinese Congregation of Benedictines) shows the importance of Catherine in the public face of the house.  It is also possible that for some performances, “Radegunda” might have been substituted for “Catharina” in this very generic sanctoral text.

Dialogic procedures are also quite present in the psalm settings, notably by the use of “troped” refrains inside the declamation of the texts.  The doxology (“Gloria Patri”) is used this way in Dixit Dominus, and a double refrain (“Beatus vir”/ “Jocundus homo”) structures Beatus vir.  Most striking in the psalm settings is the kaleidoscopic use of different voice groupings, from solos to tuttis, for different verses, and the variety of the voice combinations beyond simple two-choir antiphony.

The motets seem to be a clear selection of pieces for the house, as most standard texts (e.g. Marian antiphons) are not found.  The two pieces on the so-called “Double Intercession” (salvation from Christ’s blood and from Mary’s milk which nourished the Savior), O quam bonus es and Tu dulcis, o bone Jesu, are among the most unusual pieces in the Milanese repertory at mid-century, notably the refrains (“Quo me vertam nescio”, a quote from St. Augustine) and ecstatic melismas of the former.  There is even a sense of theatricality in the performance indications for the end of the Christmas dialogue, “Each part should soften its voice, as if it were going away”, as the shepherds prepare to go to Bethlehem.  Similarly, the Easter dialogue is essentially a frame for a long and passionate lament by Mary Magdalene, a favorite model for both nuns and for sinners in general.

The 1650 print was issued with normal voice-ranges: soprano, alto, tenor, and bass, clearly because it was meant to be sold on the open market for institutions using such choirs.  In terms of performance, S. Radegonda seems to have had singers who could perform tenor parts, at least, at something like written pitch, while the vocal bass parts were probably transposed upwards and sung by nuns (there is no evidence for male participation in any of the house’s ensembles).  This recording with women singers uses a variety of solutions to the problem: octave transposition of tenor and bass lines; some high tenor lines sung largely at written pitch; and occasional upward transposition of entire pieces.

Sadly, Cozzolani seems not to have any more music after this 1650 publication. She must have taken on important responsibilities in the house’s attempts to defend itself against Archbishop Litta, and thus had less time for music, as a new generation of the house’s singers came to the fore. Her name quietly disappears from the house’s lists between 1676 and 1678.  But her achievement in producing such variegated and often striking music remains, even if more than three centuries were necessary for its rediscovery.

A feast day celebration in the Piazza del Duomo in Milan, 1630

Over the last twenty years, performances and scholarship have given us some idea of the remarkable musical world of cloistered nuns in early modern Italy.  The Cozzolani Project’s recordings of the complete works of Chiara Margarita Cozzolani (1602-c.1677), testify to both her own musical creativity and to the high skills of the musicians in her Benedictine house of Santa Radegonda in Milan, across the street from the city’s cathedral (the monastery was razed by the early nineteenth century).

There is evidence for excellent music-making at S. Radegonda as early as the late sixteenth century.  Writing in 1674 (while Cozzolani was still alive), the Milanese poet and occasional librettist Carlo Torre praised its singers thusly:

“It can be said that in our own times, Mount Helicon has been transported to this monastery, due to the excellence of its veiled singers, or that spirits from on high fly in this church, since rapturous melodies are heard … So that you readers do not think I am speaking in hyperbole, I will wait for you there on the next feast-day, and you will take away true proof of what I have said”.

A few years earlier, the urban panegyricist Filippo Picinelli named her specfically in his praise of the house’s music: “Among these sisters, Donna Chiara Margarita Cozzolani merits the highest praise , Chiara (“clear”) in name but even more so in merit, and Margarita (“a pearl”) for her unusual and excellent nobility of [musical] invention”.
The public fame of S. Radegonda’s singers would also lead to severe problems for the house in the 1660s and 1670s, when the strict archbishop Alfonso Litta attempted to crack down on disciplinary “irregularities”, including music.  The archival documents of this battle between the nuns and the hierarchy include both a letter from Cozzolani herself, who was by then the abbess of the house, as well as a description of the two choirs of singers and the instrumentalists of S. Radegonda—this latter in defiance of the many prohibitions on nuns’ playing of melody instruments.

Despite the fame, only some aspects of  Cozzolani’s life are evident, even after years of research.  Her family were probably well-off merchants who lived in the city center, and—like her aunt before and her sister around the same time—she professed her final vows at the house in 1620.  She must have been an active musician, probably a singer, possibly also an organist, from that time into the 1650s, although there are no specific tributes to her own skills until Picinelli’s.

Download Magnificat’s recording of Laudate Dominum

Magnificat is pleased to release our recording of Chiara Margarita Cozzolani’s setting of the psalm Laudate Dominum, one of only two works by the composer involving obbligato instruments and her only psalm setting for solo voice. As with her second setting of Laudate pueri, Cozzolani adds two violins to the texture and, as in that psalm, the violins are used here both to punctuate the text with ritornelli and in interactive dialogue with the voice.

Magnificat’s recording features soprano Jennifer Ellis Kampani, who will be singing in their upcoming performances of Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers on the weekend of April 23-25 and will perform a solo recital as part of Magnificat’s 2010-2011 season. The recording also features violinists Rob Diggins and Jolianne von Einem and the continuo team of David Tayler, theorbo, and Hanneke van Proosdij, organ. Laudate Dominum omnes gentes will be included in Volume 1 of the complete works of Cozzolani, which will be released by Musica Omnia at the Berkeley Early Music Festival this June.

Robert Kendrick provides a succinct analysis of the structure of Laudate Dominum in his seminal work on the music of nuns in 17th century Milan, Celestial Sirens:

“Given the liberties of both the psalm settings and the mottetto con strumenti, it is surprising that Cozzolani’s solo Laudate Dominum with two violins is nor even freer than its simple structure would indicate: an opening section ‘Laudate…omnes populi’ for solo voice, long instrumental ritornello, and tutti (with recalls of the opening at the end); the remaining psalm text, which moves from B minor to D minor; the return of the opening vocal idea and the ritornello, and then another troped doxology. This begins with new material but then interlaces the setting of ‘laudate’ in the middle of ‘et nunc et semper’, then surprisingly sets the last verbal phrase to the music of ‘omnes populi laudate’ from the very first tutti. As elsewhere in Cozzolani’s music, the surprise is not the use of the refrain but the way in which the first section is split and recalled unexpectedly–a final reflection, again, of the salmo bizzaro.”

To download a lossless file of Cozzolani’s Laudate Dominum in a variety of formats, hear other music by Cozzolani, or to pre-order Magnificat’s double-CD set of Cozzolani’s complete works, please visit the Cozzolani Project music page.

First page of the Cantus Primo partbook for Beatus Vir

Magnificat and Musica Omnia are pleased to announce our latest release – Cozzolani’s extraordinary setting of the psalm Beatus vir. Taking the characteristics of the “salmi bizarri” to an extreme, here Cozzolani manipulates the psalm text into a dialogue and collects ritornelli as she makes her way through the text. The recording features sopranos Catherine Webster, Jennifer Ellis Kampani, Ruth Escher and Andrea Fullington; altos Meg Bragle, Karen Clark, Suzanne Jubenville and Elizabeth Anker; and a continuo team of John Dornenburg, violone, David Tayler, theorbo and Hanneke van Proosdij, organ, with Warren Stewart conducting.

Magnificat first performed this compositional tour de force on the San Francisco Early Music Society series in 1999, with later performances at the 2002 Berkeley Early Music Festival, on the Music Before 1800 series in New York in 2003, and in 2007 for the Society for Seventeenth Century Music at Notre Dame University.

Cozzolani subtitles her setting of the psalm Beatus vir “In Forma di Dialogo, signaling a very free recasting of the psalm text into a series of questions and answers between interlocutors. While the entire psalm text is traversed in its proper sequence (with the omission of occasional words), the text also serves as a matrix from which various phrases can be extracted and inserted repeatedly in the midst of other verses. Only a schematic of the text and its reworking can give an adequate idea of how freely and dramatically Cozzolani treats it. In the following outline of the psalm and its literal English translation, bold type indicates refrains and texts repeated out of order as found in the original psalm text. Italics constitute the dialogue, with questions and their answers, the answers derived from the psalm itself. The verses are numbered as in the Liber Usualis.

1. Beatus vir . . .
Qui beatus vir?
qui timet Dominum:
Qui timet Dominum, beatus vir?
Beatus vir qui timet Dominum:
in mandatis eius volet . . .
Volet, in mandatis eius?
Volet, volet nimis.
Beatus, beatus, beatus vir.
2. Potens in terra erit semen eius:
Potens in terra? Erit semen eius? Semen eius in terra, potens erit:
generatio rectorum benedicetur.
Benedicetur? In terra semen eius benedicetur.
Beatus, beatus, beatus vir.
3. Gloria et divitiae in domo eius:
Gloria in domo eius? Gloria. Divitiae in domo eius? Divitiae.
Gloria et divitiae in domo eius:
Et iustitia eius manet . . .
Manet iustitia eius?
Manet in saeculum saeculi.
In saeculum saeculi? In saeculum saeculi manet.
Beatus, beatus, beatus vir.
4. Exortum est in tenebris lumen rectis:
Lumen rectis? Exortum est. In tenebris lumen? Exortum est
misericors, et miserator, et iustus.
5. Iocundus homo . . .
Beatus, beatus, beatus vir.
Qui miseratur?
Iocundus homo
Et commodat?
Iocundus homo
disponet sermones suos in iudicio,
Iocundus homo
quia in aeternum non commovebitur.
Non commovebitur? In aeternum. Non commovebitur? In aeternum non commovebitur.
Iocundus homo.
6. In memoria aeterna erit iustus:
Iustus erit in memoria? Erit in memoria aeterna,
Iocundus homo,
ab auditione mala non timebit.
Non timebit? Non. Ab auditione mala? Non. Non timebit? Non, non timebit,
Iocundus homo.
7. Paratum cor eius sperare in Domino,
Paratum cor eius? Paratum. Paratum sperare? Sperare in Domino.
confirmatum est cor eius . . .["non commovebitur" omitted]
Donec? Donec dispiat inimicos suos,
Iocundus homo.
8. Dispersit
Dedit pauperibus? Dedit pauperibus
divitiae in domo eius.
iustitia eius manet in saeculum saeculi:
In memoria aeterna erit iustus,
cornu eius exaltabitur in gloria.
Gloria in domo eius,
Iocundus homo.
Beatus, beatus, beatus vir.
9. Peccator videbit et irascetur,
Beatus vir qui timet Dominum
dentibus suis fremet et tabescet.
Iocundus homo qui miseratur,
desiderium peccatorum peribit.
Peribit? Peribit,
in memoria aeterna erit iustus,
in aeterna non commovebitur,
desiderium peccatorum peribit.
10. Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto.
11. Sicut erat in principio,
Gloria Patri
et nunc et semper
Gloria Filio,
et in saecula saeculorum,
Gloria Spiritui Sancto.
Amen.

The text repetitions show Beatus vir used repeatedly as a refrain, particularly in the first several verses of the psalm. From the middle verses onward, Iocundus homo serves as the refrain, though Beatus vir returns in the eighth and ninth verses. In memoria aeterna erit iustus from the sixth verse also recurs in the middle of the eighth and ninth verses. Cozzolani generates one or more questions out of the declarative statements of every verse up to the Gloria Patri. In the Doxology, she mixes the Gloria with the Sicut erat, reinforcing the eternity of the glorification of each member of the Trinity.

Cozzolani’s free manipulation of the text bears witness to her conception of the psalm as a lesson in action and faith rather than merely a succession of verses to be recited in fulfillment of the liturgical requirement of the Office. This dramatic conception of the text finds its echo in the musical setting as well. The principal tonality is A. The two choirs are of equal significance, and while one choir may momentarily be set off against the other, equivalent voices from the two choirs more often pair with one another in imitation or in parallel thirds.

Cozzolani’s basic means of handling the dialogue format is to assign the questions to a solo voice or a pair of voices in the same register in imitation or parallel thirds, and to provide the answers with anywhere from a solo voice to the full choirs. In the first verse, the questions are posed by two tenors (sopranos on Magnificat’s recording) in imitation and in parallel thirds, while the response is given to a trio of two sopranos in parallel thirds supported by an alto. In the second verse, Potens in terra, the questions are asked by a solo bass and the two altos answer in parallel thirds and in imitation. This pairing of tenors and sopranos in the first verse and bass (alto on the recording) and altos in the second is indicative of Cozzolani’s tendency toward systematic organization, especially in voicing, throughout the psalm. In the third verse, Gloria et divitiae, questions in a solo tenor alternate with answers by a solo soprano, and in the fourth verse, Exortum est in tenebris, the pairing is once again a solo bass and two altos, though this time it is the altos that ask the questions and the bass that replies. The fourth verse begins with the solo bass, just as the third verse had begun with a solo soprano.

Matters become more varied in the fifth verse, Iocundus homo, where the solo sopranos alternately intone the questions, while the answer, iocundus homo, constitutes a four-voice refrain utilizing only the three lower registers. In the sixth verse, In memoria aeterna, the questions are voiced by the two lower voices of the first choir, while the responses are sung by the three lower voices of the second choir. The seventh verse, continuing the systematic alternation of voices and choirs, sets the questions in a solo tenor of the second choir and the responses in the full first choir. In the eighth verse, an alto duet asks the questions, answered by sopranos in parallel thirds supported by a tenor and then by a pair of tenors. Finally, in the ninth verse, the question in a solo tenor is answered by both choirs in homophony.

These questions and their replies comprise only part of the musical progress of the psalm, since many passages are simply declarative statements set for anywhere from a solo voice to the entire ensemble. And the structure is complicated by the refrains, which are generally for both choirs. Even these refrains are symptomatic of Cozzolani’s tendency toward systematic organization. The Beatus vir refrain at the end of the second verse repeats the music of the refrain at the end of the first verse, but interchanges the upper three voices with slight modifications. The refrain at the end of the third verse largely repeats the voicing of the version from the first verse, while the refrain for the fourth verse is close to that of the second. The Iocundus homo refrain, on the other hand, is the same each time it returns.

Cozzolani is quite sensitive to the semantics of the text throughout the psalm, and frequently treats it in the manner of a madrigalist. The questions are often couched rhetorically with a rise in pitch at the end. A word such as potens is presented in a rhythmically strong triadic outline (bar26), while cornu exaltabitur (“horn” as a metaphor for strength) imitates the rising fifth of a horn, first in diatonic ascent, and then in triadic outline (bars 251-54). Similarly, Gloria in the phrase Gloria in domo eius, inserted from verse 3 into verse 8, is given numerous rapid reiterations in sequences of rising fourths in imitation of a trumpet call. The words manet in saeculum saeculi in the third verse are presented repeatedly in various two-part imitations, one voice obviously leading the other. Particularly striking is the chromatic descent in the solo bass in the fourth verse at the words misericors & miserator (bars 115-18).

Cozzolani pays particular attention to interpretation of the text in the ninth verse, where the opening words, Peccator videbit, are set homophonically, and uniquely, on F# minor and B minor triads (bars 267-70). The subsequent phrase et irascetur is also set chordally, but in very rhythmically agitated declamation outlining a G major triad (bars 271-72). The word fremet prompts a unique treatment in C major where the basso continuo repeats the root of the chord in static fashion, while the two bass voices leap about the root and fifth, and pairs of other voices move rapidly back and fourth in parallel sixths (bars 282-83). This is as clever a metaphor for the visual image as anything found in Marenzio´s madrigals. As an insert into the ninth verse, Cozzolani combines the words in memoria aeterna erit iustus from the sixth verse with the phrase in aeternum non commovebitur from the end of the fifth verse. While the motive for in memoria aeterna is the same as in verse 6 and its reiteration at bars 248-50, the motive for in aeternum non commovebitur consists of an unchanging reiteration of a single pitch (until the fall of a third on the last two syllables). Thus the musical image of immovability is placed in counterpoint to the eternal memory of the just man (bars 297-303). These and other musical metaphors for words, phrases and concepts in the text are capped off by the Beatus vir and Iocundus homo refrains, both festive in character in their eight-voice homophony. The Beatus vir refrain, the use of triple meter for Iocundus homo, and the parallel treatments of specific words between Cozzolani’s setting and the Beatus vir Primo a 6 from Monteverdi’s Selva morale et spirituali of 1641 suggest that Cozzolani modeled several aspects of her version on the earlier one by the maestro of St. Mark’s.

Cozzolani’s harmonic palette does not extend widely beyond the principal tonality of A, though there are numerous instances of abrupt harmonic shifts involving chromatic changes, such as from A major to C major. Clear harmonic direction and cadences are often expressed through harmonic and melodic sequences, which constitute a primary structural element in the setting. Of particular interest are the frequent biting dissonances, including successive cadential seconds, the final one comprising a minor second. Even the final cadence involves a striking juxtaposition of c#” against d and d’. There are numerous interruptions of the prevailing duple time by sections in triple meter, sometimes in connection with the celebratory presentation of phrases such as Gloria et divitiae or Iocundus homo (though the refrain on the latter words is in duple meter), and on other occasions simply as another mode of contrast within the overall structural organization.

Caravaggio's St. Catherine

The Cozzolani Project’s latest release is the five-voice dialogue for St Catherine of Alexandria, O cæli cives (1650). As in a few other pieces, the ’singing angels’ to whom musical nuns were often compared, form one side of this dialogue, while two voices represent the faithful on earth.

In his seminal work on the music of Milan’s convents, Celestial Sirens, Robert Kendrick suggests that O cæli cives may have been originally composed in 1649 for the feast day of her convent’s patron saint, Radegund, whose name scans in Latin like Catherine’s.  Kendrick notes “the poetic conceit of the dialogue, which features humans (soprano and mezzo-soprano on Magnificat’s recording) asking angels (three sopranos – two sopranos and mezzo-soprano on the recording) for the saint’s resting-place immediately after her death, was described in Agostino Lampugnani’s Della vita di S. Radegonda (Milan, 1649).”

Peterzano's painting in S. Maria della Passione in Milan

The imagery in the text is similar to that in Simone Peterzano’s painting The Mystic Marriage of Alexandria with Sts. Radegund and Justina of Padua [ca. 1585], formerly the high alterpiece in the chiesa esteriore of the convent of S. Radegonda, now preserved in S. Maria della Passione in Milan.Kendrick notes the parallels between the commissioning of such paintings and the dedications in motet compositions by nuns:

“The emphasis on the patron(ess) saint or Marian iconography found in such paintings would echo the themes of the early motet dedications to nuns; ultimately it reflected the devotional life of patrician families. Sanctoral cults mirrored and provided a public focus for the civic religion of aristocratic clans in early modern Italy.”

Magnificat’s recording features sopranos Catherine Webster, Andrea Fullington, and mezzo-soprano Deborah Rentz-Moore as the ‘Angels’ and soprano Jennifer Ellis-Kampani and mezzo-soprano Meg Bragle as ‘The Faithful’. The singers are as always by David Tayler, theorbo and Hanneke van Proosdij, organ.

The two volume complete works of Cozzolani can be pre-ordered at cozzolani.com/subscribe . All those pre-ordering receive free digital downloads of all tracks – those currently available and new tracks as they become available. Please visit cozzolani.com for more information about Cozzolani and these recordings.

First Page of Laudate pueri à 6 in the Tenor Primo part book

Magnificat and Musica Omnia are pleased to announce the release of Cozzolani’s second setting of the psalm Laudate pueri (à 6), one of only two of her works that call for obbligato instruments in addition to voices and basso continuo. Like her setting of Laudate Dominum for solo soprano, the Laudate pueri à 6 includes parts for two violins.

Despite various Episcopal efforts to ban non-keyboard instruments from convents in 17th-Century Milan, there is considerable evidence for nuns’ ability to play obbligato instrumental parts that occasionally appear in publications of convent music. While there are no records of non-keyboard instrumentalists at Cozzolani’s convent, S. Radegonda, in the 1660s there are accounts of “cantatrice, e sonatrici” (i.e. singers and instrumentalists) at the convent and two or three violinists were associated with each of the convent’s choirs in the 1670s.

The violins offer Cozzolani another element in the psalm’s expansive compositional architecture. Without an opening sinfonia, the psalm establishes a two-period refrain in the opening verse that returns in alternation with an instrumental sinfonia between the verses. Robert Kendrick has noted that in its insistent return to the G final for each verse and the use of similar melodic figuration gives this setting the sound of a strophic variation.

Laudate Pueri à 6 was published for two sopranos, two tenors, and two violins, Magnificat has recorded the work with four sopranos – Catherine Webster, Ruth Escher, Jennifer Ellis Kampani, and Andrea Fullington. The sopranos are joined by Rob Diggins and Jolianne von Einem, violin, John Dornenburg violone, David Tayler, theorbo and Hanneke van Proosdij, organ.

We are pleased that they included Magnificat’s recording of Cozzolani’s setting of the psalm Dixit Dominus on the program.

Have a listen!

The Men in the Booth: Peter Watchorn and Joel Gordon (photo by David Tayler)

Over recent weeks I have been re-discovering the amazing music of Donna Chiara Margarita Cozzolani and the extraordinary talents of the ladies (and a few gentlemen) of Magnificat who brought it all to life. It seems hardly possible that the first of these recordings took place a decade ago, beginning in August 2000, marking one of Musica Omnia’s very first projects (We began recording Jaap Schroeder and Penelope Crawford’s Atlantis Ensemble the same year.)

Having released two “liturgical” versions of a fairly hefty sampling of Cozzolani’s music from both 1642 and the grander collection of 1650, we are now finally mining the remaining wealth of material that we captured and preserved all those years ago in order to realize our original goal of presenting all the surviving music by this wonderful and unique composer, who for me exemplifies the second generation of composers of the Italian Baroque.

I can recall the atmosphere of friendly camaraderie between all the performers and their good-natured acceptance of myself as newly appointed (and relatively inexperienced) producer, fortunate to be working with the highly experienced (and fantastic) engineer/co-producer Joel Gordon, who created the “sound” for Musica Omnia and has continued to develop it right up to most recent release – our 30th. And working with Magnificat and Warren Stewart was a great joy – and an education. And, how great it was to simply spend time in the beautiful Bay Area.

I remember being amazed at the virtuosity of the singers, the imagination of the continuo team and the visionary direction of Warren Stewart, who radiated scholarship, practical knowledge and committed enthusiasm for this music with every gesture. It’s also great to recall the special sound created by having SATB music sung entirely by women, recreating the sounds that must have enlivened Chiara Margarita’s convent in Milan, spreading its fame far and wide. And what a cast: Catherine Webster, Meg Bragle, Jennifer Ellis Kampani, Karen Clark, Jennifer Lane, Deborah Rentz-Moore, Ruth Escher, Suzanne Jubenville, Andrea Fullington, Elizabeth Anker and Linda Liebschutz. Not to mention the exemplary continuo support of Hanneke van Proosdij, David Tayler and John Dornenburg.

A page from the recording session logs from August 2001. (click to enlarge)

Going over the session logs and recorded material has been fascinating – and illuminating – after this long passage of time. As producer I’ve (thankfully) become a lot more economical and efficient in the decade since we began this venture. It’s almost embarrassing to see (or hear) how much material I made the singers record, just to be sure we had it all in the can before departing! Still, better too much than too little, I guess.

And what music: the Dixit Dominus, Gloria in altissimis, Surgamus omnes, the Magnificats, the two settings of Laudate pueri, Laetatus sum, Nisi Dominus… Not to mention the exquisite Messa a 4 of 1642, particularly the Agnus Dei – so simple yet so enchanting. All masterpieces. It will be interesting to hear them presented as part of their respective collections (Concerti sacri from 1642 and Salmi a Otto Voci from 1650) rather than in the context of a liturgy. And it’s a great tribute to how much the group had already accomplished that these early recordings still maintain the group’s present-day high standards (and our own), while retaining the freshness and wonder of new and recent discovery. It was a special time.

I recall that on one of the “rest” days, I dragged co-founder and guiding light of this project and the Musica Omnia label David Fox’s beautiful Ruckers copy harpsichord by Walter Burr into St. Stephen’s church in Belvedere and recorded (in about 6 hours) a CD of Tudor & Jacobean music. It was amazing to revert (as performer) to the restraint of the late Renaissance after inhabiting (as producer) the world of Cozzolani, whose music takes the Baroque ideal of idiosyncratic word-painting to its outer limit. The resulting CD set became another of our earliest releases and, like the Cozzolani Vespers, one of our most successful.

It’s nice to think that we’re finally completing this important pioneering project and that we will have a tenth anniversary reunion back at the original scene of the crime this June.

There’s (much) more to come, so stay tuned!