Women of the Renaissance
Claudia Sessa
Claudia Sessa spent her life as a nun in the Santa Maria Annunciata convent in Milan, Italy, but little else is known about her life.
Despite restrictions imposed by the Council of Trent barring certain types of music making in convents, Sessa modestly and continuously sang and composed in Santa Maria Annunciata to a full audience. She accompanied others on various instruments with wondrous harmonies. She was “...spirited in her voice, alert and quick in her trills, full of affects."
A skilled musician and actress who was quite adept at performing compositions written by others, Sessa remained modest about her talents. She could not even be swayed by an invitation from Queen Margaret to perform at the Spanish court because she preferred the monastery as her only performance venue. Sessa is best known for her two sacred songs, written in the monodic style.
(A Modern Reveal)
Monody
Recitative
Monody, style of accompanied solo song consisting of a vocal line, which is frequently embellished, and simple, often expressive, harmonies.
It arose about 1600, particularly in Italy, as a response to the contrapuntal style (based on the combination of simultaneous melodic lines) of 16th-century vocal genres such as the madrigal and motet. Ostensibly in an attempt to emulate ancient Greek music, composers placed renewed emphasis on proper articulation as well as expressive interpretation of often highly emotional texts. These effects could be achieved only by abandoning counterpoint and replacing it by simply accompanied recitative.
Recitative, style of monody that emphasizes and indeed imitates the rhythms and accents of spoken language, rather than melody or musical motives. Modeled on oratory, recitative developed in the late 1500s in opposition to the polyphonic, or many-voiced, style of 16th-century choral music. Recitative would become an essential building block of the Baroque Oratorio Style