Agency through Plainchant: Nuns of Florence, 1550-1650
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Breckon, Lois. 2022. Agency through Plainchant: Nuns of Florence, 1550-1650. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London [Thesis]
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Text (Agency through Plainchant: Nuns of Florence in 1550- 1650)
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Abstract or Description
This thesis reassesses nuns’ music-making in early modern Florence. Why is this necessary? First, the contribution made by Florentine nuns, compared with women religious in other cities in Northern Italy, seems particularly meagre. The paucity seems illogical because it was a time when marriage dowries in Florence increased the numbers of well-educated nuns, and there was extensive patronage of music by two women rulers, factors which should have led to exceptional music-making. Second, in their search for evidence, musicologists have tended to focus on “exceptional music”, and to overlook plainchant. This thesis redresses the balance.
At the turn of the 16th century, there were more nuns in Florence than in any other North Italian city. Nuns’ individual stories re-frame earlier scholarship by clarifying in detail the daily hardships that they faced. The ruling Medici’s inclination to control convent activities, through regulation and patronage, perhaps suppressed nuns’ output to a greater extent than elsewhere. In addition, reference to modern social studies illuminates the negative impacts of the conditions nuns suffered, the ensuing psychological and physical trauma, and the subsequent deterrents to exceptional music practice.
Nonetheless, nuns from the city of Florence could, and did, produce real musical achievements in the face of this repression. In addition, there is evidence of a “middle ground” of musical accomplishment in convent theatre, where nuns’ performances are described in stage directions. But, in the music itself, the evidence is in plainchant more than any other form. In support of this proposition is a rare sample of an antiphoner-hymnal, dated 1582, from the Dominican convent of La Crocetta. It is testament to the nuns’ education, resilience, and to their individuation of liturgical practice.
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Item Type: |
Thesis (Doctoral) |
| Identification Number (DOI): |
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| Keywords: |
plainchant, Florence, nuns, seicento, convents, early modern |
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| Date: |
31 December 2022 |
| Item ID: |
33022 |
| Date Deposited: |
09 Jan 2023 13:53 |
| Last Modified: |
09 Jan 2023 18:00 |
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URI: |
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