Maddalena Casulana
(ca. 1540-ca. 1590)

BEATRICE PESCERELLI

Maddalena, called Casulana probably because she was born at Casola d’Elsa (Casula) near Siena, received her earliest musical education and experiences in Florence. She began her career as a composer in 1566, when she published four madrigals in four voices in the first book of the anthology Il Desiderio and a fifth madrigal in four voices in the third book of Il Desiderio. In Florence Maddalena Casulana had connections with Isabella de’ Medici, daughter of the Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo I. She dedicated her first book of madrigals a 4 to Isabella in 1568, a publication that appears to be the first printed work by a woman in the history of European music. In the same year the renowned composer Orlando di Lasso conducted her five-voice composition Nil mage iucundum during the festivities in Monaco surrounding the marriage of Wilhelm IV of Bavaria to Renée of Lorraine. Casulana’s music for this work has not survived, but the text, by Nicholas Stopius, is extant.

In 1570 Casulana published a second book of madrigals a 4, dedicating it to Antonio Londonio, a magistrate of the city-state of Milan. Of all her known madrigals, this set alone survives intact.. In the following years Maddalena lived in northern Italy, where she seems to have married one Mezari: in the publication of her first book of madrigals a 5, which appeared in 1583, the composer’s name is shown as Maddalena Mezari “detta Casulana.”

The last of Casulana’s known works is a madrigal in three voices, which appeared in the 1586 anthology Il Gaudio. However, the catalogue of the Venetian editor Gia- como Vincenti, in a publication of 1591, mentions another collection presently unknown: a first and second book of madrigali spirituali (sacred, devotional madrigals) in four voices.

Maddalena Casulana was fully aware of her exceptional position as a woman composer in the sixteenth century. In the dedication of her first book of madrigals to another woman, Isabella de’ Medici, she declared proudly the desire “also to show to the world (as much as is possible in the profession of music) the vain error of men that they alone possess intellectual gifts, and who appear to believe that the same gifts are not possible for women.” According to various witnesses Maddalena was a talented singer and an able lutenist. Her talents as a composer and performer were appreciated by such contemporary poets and musicians as Antonio Molino, Giam-battista Maganza, Orlando di Lasso, and Filippo di Monte. It was di Monte to whom she dedicated her 1586 madrigal in three voices.

The madrigal presented here, “Morte—Che vôi?” is the sixth work in the second book of madrigals a 4, published in Venice by Gerolamo Scotto in 1570. The words are by Serafino Aquilano, whose texts had been set to music beginning earlier in the century. Casulana’s choice of Aquilano (an esteemed friend of Josquin Desprez) as a poet testifies to her uncommon literary interests.

The composer seems to have been attracted to the dramatic form of the dialogue, which she exploits ably in the musical structure by distributing the questions and answers throughout the several voices. She alternates the voices polyphonically in the first section, bringing them together only in the final verse. The exclamations “Si fa!” and “Non fa!” inspired a musical interpretation using the corresponding notes B (si) and F (fa).

Further Reading

Bridges, Thomas W. “Casulana, Maddalena.” The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians IV: 1-2.

Pescerelli, Beatrice, ed. Preface to I madrigali di Maddalena Casulana. Florence: Olschki, 1979.

Madrigal VI.
Morte—Che vôi?— Te chiamo

Text by Serafino Aquilano

Maddalena Casulana

Reproduced from I madrigali di Maddalena Casulana by permission of the publisher, Leo S. Olschki.