Biography

Barbara Strozzi was an Italian composer and performer of the early Baroque era. She was the most prolific composer of secular music from her generation. Strozzi was born in 1619 in Venice, the daughter of Isabella Garzoni, a servant to the poet Giulio Strozzi, who was Barbara's adoptive, and possibly biological father. By the age of 12, her musical talents were becoming evident, and her father arranged for her to have music lessons with Francesco Cavalli, who was one of the top composers in Venice. Under Cavalli's instruction, she achieved rapid progress and became an excellent soprano vocalist. Composer Nicolò Fontei was impressed by her virtuosic abilities and dedicated the first volume of his Bizzarrie Poetiche to her. Around 1637, Strozzi's father established the Accademia degli Unisoni, and he started to promote and publicize her talents as a singer and composer. Through the performance opportunities made available to her through the Accademia, she became a seasoned performer and a well-known personality. In the early 1640s, she began an undefined relationship with the nobleman Giovanni Paolo Vidman. They were never married, but she did give birth to four of his children. Historians have speculated that she was coerced into the relationship, and other possible scenarios, but the truth ultimately remains unknown. Strozzi first became known as a composer in 1644 after she published her Il primo libro di madrigali, Op. 1, which was a collection of madrigals on texts by her father. She composed one volume of sacred works, but the other seven publications all contain secular music. Some of her music was social commentary, drawing attention to issues of gender inequality. Women composers from this era were commonly ignored and not taken seriously by society, and this certainly affected Strozzi. In addition to her published works, an even larger number of unpublished works exist in manuscript form in private collections. She composed until at least 1665, and she passed away in 1677, but the details regarding her final years are lost. ~ RJ Lambert, Rovi