Women and Music in Sixteenth-Century Ferrara

The musica secreta or concerto delle dame of Duke Alfonso II d''Este an ensemble of virtuoso female musicians that performed behind closed doors at the castello in Ferrara is well-known to music history. Their story is often told by focussing on the Duke''s obsessive patronage and the exclusivity of their music. This book examines the music-making of four generations of princesses noblewomen and nuns in Ferrara as performers creators and patrons from a new perspective. It rethinks the relationships between polyphony and song sacred and secular performer and composer patron and musician court and convent. With new archival evidence and analysis of music people and events over the course of the century from the role of the princess nun musician Leonora d''Este to the fate of the musica secreta''s jealously guarded repertoire this radical approach will appeal to musicians and scholars alike.