Female Catholic Composers

Religious History and Compositions

Chiara Margarita Cozzolani was from a highly religious family, with several of her sisters and aunts residing at the same convent as her. From her music as well, it is evident that she was first and foremost a nun and only a composer secondarily. When she was given greater duties at the convent, she stopped composing altogether to complete them. Nearly all of her compositions were sacred in nature, with the exception of one sacred aria that has been lost to time. 

Despite her isolated life in the convent, she was not so isolated as one would have originally thought; the style in her Concerti sacri reflects the new, innovative musical influences of the seventeenth century. In particular, this piece was "characterized by highly affective texts, extended musical length by means of sequence, rapid declamation and irregularly spaced melismas, and by parallel 3rds." She both wrote old-fashioned psalm settings and modern vocal concerti. Most often her compositions were solely for voice, occasionally with continuo or violin accompaniment. 

Perhaps Chiara's greatest composition, however was her volume of Vespers, an example of which can be found on the following page. It "mixes two-choir antiphony (in the tuttis and frequent refrains) with concertato solo and duet writing for the verses [with] liberal use of repetition and sequence." This piece took text from the Song of Songs, and it's melodic form is a perfect example of her ability to tell stories with music.¹ ³​

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