Gender Conceptions

Question 1

Birth of the soprano and their names?

Answer 1

Ladies of Ferrara under Duke Alfonso d’Este - Laura Peverara, Anna Guarini, Livia d’Arco, Tarquina Molza

Question 2

Why were the sopranos so popular?

Answer 2

Showcased through very virtuosic music. Each given individual chances to shine in compositions

Question 3

Composition where Ladies are able to shine through one by one? What kind of piece is it?

Answer 3

Madrigal ‘Non sa che dia dolore’ by Luzzascho Luzzaschi

Question 4

How did the music differ from traditional vocal performances with men?

Answer 4

Written for the display of the women rather than for the musicians themselves. Soprano becomes objectified as a thing to be watched and

Question 5

What was the impact of the commodification of the Soprano voice?

Answer 5

Increase in music for high instruments with low instrument accompaniment e.g. the violin - sonata con tre violini Gabrieli

Question 6

Negative connotations of Women’s voices?

Answer 6

associations with sirens, seductive, sexualised, deceptive

Question 7

Musical manifestation of the sexual hysteria conception of women?

Answer 7

Tetrachord ostinati e.g Giove-in-Diana in la calisto by Cavalli, conveying trance like state of erotic or religious ecstasy

Question 8

Why else was the high voice desirable?

Answer 8

Angelic, closer to god

Question 9

Why was the femme fatale more popular in French Opera?

Answer 9

Themes of french opera were about chastity, resisting temptation, moderation (conservative values). Italian more liberal showing excessive emotion, desire a central theme

Question 10

What was the ‘fatal’ part of Femme Fatale characters

Answer 10

They gave in to their sexual desires, surrendering to their feminine side (as opposed to 19th century when they will be punished for being masculine, warriors. Rage expressed frequently too.

Question 11

Which academic for one-sex model?

Answer 11

Thomas Lacquer 1990

Question 12

Examples of Femme fatales and how the music made them fatal

Answer 12

Armide and Medée, they don’t musically resolve i.e they don’t learn their lesson, they were only domesticated by the curtain. Passacaille of act 5 of Armide has repeating harmonic progression that keeps being interrupted

Question 13

Difference between French and Italian Opera pacing?

Answer 13

Italian often builds intensity through recits, through regular rhythmic patterns that drive home a rhetorical bottom line. Lully more irregular in his metrical phrasing, no bottom-line in sight - twists and turns.

Question 14

Who asserts that high voice did not equate to femininity in Early Modern?

Answer 14

Isabelle Mondroit