Barbara Strozzi (jan 1, 1619 – jan 1, 1677)

Description:

Venetian singer and composer, daughter of Giulio Strozzi, a famous poet-librettist whose words were set by almost every Venetiain composer from MOnteverdi down. That Barbara Strozzi published eight books of madrigals, cantatas, and arias at a time when prejudice against the creative abilities of wmen ran high bears witness to her excellence as a compsoer in the eyes of her contemporaries.

It was access to power that allowed women to create music, have it performed, and find the means for it to be preserved through notation.

While convents still offered chances for some composers, such as Isabella Leonarda, more careers opened up to women as performers with the advent of professionalized court singing.

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