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World music
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The new opus “Wonder Women” by L’Arpeggiata and Christina Pluhar is dedicated to women.
On the one hand, it is a homage to all the wonderful female composers of the 17th century, but also to all the talented female musicians of all times who too often had to hide their talent behind their husbands or give up their careers too early.
On the other hand, Christina Pluhar also draws her inspiration from the traditional music of South America and Italy and looked for songs that tell stories about extraordinary, strong, courageous but also sad women.
First and foremost is the wonderful Mexican song “La Bruja” (The Witch), which symbolizes the freedom of all women at all times and in all cultures.
Celebrate women in all their facets and with all their talents together with Christina Pluhar and L’Arpeggiata! With works by Barbara Strozzi, Francesca Caccini, Isabella Leonarda, Antonia Bembo, traditional from Mexico…
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PROGRAMME:
Barbara Strozzi
Che si puo fare
Vincenzo Capezzuto
Isabella Leonarda (Op. 7, Bologna 1677, extraits, arr. Christina Pluhar)
Nive puer
Benedetta Mazzucato
Traditional Mexico (arr. Christina Pluhar)
La Lloroncita
Luciana Mancini
Traditional
Pizzica di San Vito
Vincenzo Capezzuto
Andrea Falconiero
La Suave Melodia
Instrumental
Barbara Strozzi (Cantate, ariette e duetti, Op. 2, Venezia 1651)
L’amante consolato
Benedetta Mazzucato
Traditional Italy (arr. Christina Pluhar)
La Canzone di Cecilia
Vincenzo Capezzuto
Francesca Campana (Op.1, Roma 1629)
È già rotto lo strale
Luciana Mancini
Improvisation
Canario
Instrumental
Traditional (Naples, 18eme siècle)
Lo Guarracino
Vincenzo Capezzuto
Girolamo Kapsberger
Toccata L’Arpeggiata
Instrumental
Francesca Caccini (Il primo libro delle musiche a una e due voci, Firenze 1618)
Lasciatemi qui solo
Benedetta Mazzucato
Francesca Caccini
Così perfida Alcina
Luciana Mancini
Traditional
Pizzicarella Vincenzo Capezzuto
Nicola Matteis, arr. Christina Pluhar, improvisation
La Dia spagnola
Instrumental
Traditional
La Llorona
Vincenzo Capezzuto
Traditional Mexico (arr. C Pluhar)
La Bruja
Luciana Mancini
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Wonder Women
I wish … to also show the world (to the degree that it is granted to me in my profession as a musician)
the foolish error of men who so believe themselves to be the masters of high intellectual gifts
that it seems to them these cannot be equally common among women.
Maddalena Casulana, composer, lutenist and singer (c.1544– c.1590)
At the end of the Renaissance, the palazzi of Florence and Venice witnessed a flowering of female talent. But educating girls was still the exception and only possible in certain social circles. This makes the beauty and expressiveness of the surviving compositions from that period all the more astonishing. The life stories of these 17th-century female composers inspire, impress and move us deeply to this day through the indomitable courage with which they asserted themselves in contemporary society.
The life of an unmarried, single parent like Barbara Strozzi, who was able to feed her four illegitimate children thanks to the success of her compositions, or that of Antonia Bembo, who fled from Venice to Paris to escape the domestic violence of her marriage, was obliged to leave her three children behind in Italy, and found recognition and protection at the court of Louis XIV, should be seen as all the more daring and extraordinary because women had almost no rights at the time. In that period, a woman’s lot was determined either by marriage or by her entering a convent. She had virtually no right to make her own decisions and choices in life.
It was not until nearly the end of the 18th century that this slowly began to change. In theory, the French Revolution of 1789’s call for égalité applied to women. In the 19th century, the first women’s movements aspired to gain the right to an education, the right to work, and the right to vote. There had been universities in Europe since the 13th century, but it was not until 1864 that the first women were allowed to enrol. New Zealand was the first to introduce women’s suffrage, in 1893. In Switzerland women didn’t get the vote until 1971. In (what was then) West Germany women have only been able to work without their husband’s written consent since 1977. The Vienna Philharmonic only appointed its first woman to the orchestra in 1997.
True equality is still far from being achieved.
From a global perspective, forced marriage, bans on education and violence against women are sadly far from being a thing of the past. The battle for equality is still ongoing and hasn’t been won by a long chalk.
Our program Wonder Women is dedicated to women. On the one hand, it is a tribute to all those wonderful female composers of the 17th century. At the same time, however, it also celebrates all talented female musicians of all eras, who for centuries had to hide their talent behind their husband’s or abandon their careers prematurely.
On the other hand, we also found inspiration in traditional North American and Italian music and sing songs about extraordinary, strong, courageous women but also about sorrowful ones.
The sorry tale of young Cecilia, who fell for the deadly deception of a general who tricked her into believing that her fiancé would be released from prison and saved from death if she made herself sexually available to him, is widespread in many regions of Italy and also in North America.
The legend of La Llorona (The Weeping Woman) originated in Mexico around 1550. A young woman marries a brute and bears him three children. But he deceives her and beats her, abandons her and repudiates her, and threatens to take her children away. In despair she kills her children and plunges into the waves. Since then she has appeared by the river as a ghost, searching for her children.
The wonderful Mexican song La Bruja (The Sorceress) is also a son jarocho and is sung and danced in the Veracruz, Oaxaca and Tabasco regions on the eve of the día de muertos (Day of the Dead) and during fandangos and huapangos, with the women dancing skilfully balancing a lighted candle or a pumpkin on their heads.
Originally in Mexico, any woman who refused to obey the rules of society, didn’t behave in the way people expected her to and wanted to live life on her own terms, was called a bruja.
So for us, this song symbolises the freedom of all women in all cultures and historical periods.
Please join us in celebrating all aspects of womanhood, and women with all their talents!
Christina Pluhar, Paris 2024
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Photo (c) Michael Uneffer
