The Style, Analysis, and Performance Practices of Selected Choral Works by Isabella Leonarda and Maria Xaveria Peruchona

Abstract

This document explores and analyzes sacred music composed by two Ursuline composers of the seventeenth century: Isabella Leonarda and Maria Xaveria Peruchona. It also studies the socio-historical background with particular attention to femininity, the lives of Italian nun musicians, and the history of the Collegio di Sant’Orsola. The updated biographical summaries of Leonarda and Peruchona in this document provide a fuller understanding of their life and music at the Collegio. Although several scholars have explored the conundrum in tenor and bass parts in these nuns’ music, my research provides a different point of view in the academic debate and suggests the conductor should proceed with caution on transposing parts. Through music analysis of selected works by Leonarda and Peruchona, their musical intelligence and aesthetics are rediscovered and better understood. It would be delightful to see today’s conductors consider standardizing the music of both Ursuline composers and starting to extend the repertory canon.