Eleonora d'Este (1515–1575)
Eleonora d'Este (4 July 1515 – 1575) was a Ferrarese noblewoman. She was the first daughter of Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara and his second wife Lucrezia Borgia – as his first daughter, Alfonso named her after his mother Eleanor of Naples.
Life
[edit]She was brought up in Ferrara and her mother died when she was four – her father had two more children with Laura Dianti. Eleonora was the only one of Alfonso and Lucrezia's daughters to survive both their parents. She became a nun at the Corpus Domini Monastery and was buried there alongside her mother and other members of her family.
Musica quinque vocum motetta materna lingua vocata
[edit]In 1543, Girolamo Scotto of Venice published a collection of 43 religious motets under the title Musica quinque vocum motetta materna lingua vocata. There is no indication in that publication as to who the composer might have been.[1]
Laurie Stras, professor of music at Southampton University, has argued that Leonora may have been the composer.[2] Leonora was triply disqualified from being named in those days: being a woman, and a princess, and a nun.
References
[edit]- ^ [Musica quinque vocum: motteta materna lingua vocata] : [ab optimis & variis authoribus elaborata : paribus vocibus decantanda : nunquam antea excussa : nunc vero sub hoc signo anchorae in lucem prodit. maximo labore & diligentia emendata, ut patebit experientibus]. OCLC 497473896. Retrieved 11 March 2017 – via worldcat.org. worldcat.org lists these pieces as being for "cantus, altus, tenor, bassus, quintus"; but the 1543 publication says they are for paribus vocibus decantanda, to be sung by equal voices.
- ^ Stras, Laurie (10 March 2017). "Sisters doing it for themselves: radical motets from a 16th-century nunnery". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 March 2017.
Sources
[edit]- http://viaf.org/viaf/95313383
- Sarah Bradford: Lucrezia Borgia. Mondadori Editore, Milan (2005), (ISBN 88-04-55627-7)
External links
[edit]- Free scores by Eleonora d'Este (1515–1575) at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP) – which wrongly assigns the vocal parts as "cantus, altus, tenor, bassus" only, even though it correctly says that the motets are for five unaccompanied voices; "quinque" in the title is unambiguous
- Musica Secreta: Lucrezia Borgia's Daughter on YouTube
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