Cappella Clausura to Perform at Library

As part of the library's Fall Concert Series, the Peabody Institute Library will host Cappella Clausura: Ghirlanda de Madrigali -- Four-Part Love Songs, Monday, Nov. 21, 7 p.m., at the Main Library, 82 Main St.

Clausura will perform 18 works by Vittoria Aleotti, an innovative early Italian Baroque composer and one of the least well-known.

Aleotti had a musical childhood, including two years of lessons at the Convent of San Vito, before she decided to take vows as a nun at that convent. Upon seeing the progress she made in music theory, her father obtained madrigal texts by the court poet Giovanni Battista Guarini for Vittoria to set to music. The resulting secular work is scored for a mixed chorus, and Clausura adds men for this occasion.

Clausura will bring to light works written by women from the 8th-century to the present day: 12 centuries of “new” music. While this ensemble of sopranos, altos, and period instruments performs music solely by women composers, and champions living composers, it concentrates on repertoire by women in the cloister Clausura during the Italian baroque period. During this time, women were allowed to express themselves spiritually and artistically, and to publish their own music. Clausura's intention is to dispel the notion that there are not now (nor have there ever been) gifted women composers. History has been blind and deaf to these works; Clausura brings vision and voice to them.

This program is generously funded by the McCarthy Family Foundation and the Peabody Institute Library Foundation.

Be advised that, due to HVAC construction, event times and venues are subject to change.

For information, call 978-531-0100, ext. 10, or
visit http://www.peabodylibrary.org.