Chiara Margarita Cozzolani

Chiara Margarita Cozzolani (* November 27, 1602 in Milan, † between May 4, 1676 and April 20, 1678 ibid ) was an Italian singer and composer.

Life and work

Cozzolani was born in 1602 as the youngest daughter of a wealthy merchant family in Milan. She entered the Benedictine monastery of Santa Radegonda where they 1620 their Order vows and " Chiara " accepted as a religious name. From 1658 to 1659 she was abbess, in the 1660s, prioress of the monastery. After 1650 Cozzolanis musical productivity seems to have subsided, which fell partly on their monastic duties, partly due to the negative attitude to the monastic music commissioned by Archbishop Alfonso Litta.

The traditional music includes Cozzolani out as one of the most important composers of Milan in the mid-17th century. Their duets and solos from the Concerti sacri include the New Grove, according to the most outstanding examples of the embossed by Gasparo Casati Lombard style. These motets are characterized by expressive, speedy transmitted texts, sequences, melismas at irregular intervals and parallel third-octave intervals. However, your three - and four-part pieces go back to older styles. In the Vespers of 1650 double choir antiphons and concert solos and duets alternate. Published in the same work Concerti have a more versatile style than those on 1642.

Works

• Primavera di fiori musicali. 1-4 voices and basso continuo ( Milan 1640 lost)
• Concerti sacri. 2-4 voices and basso continuo (Venice 1642); O dulcis Jesu ( 1649)
• Scherzi di melodia sacra. 1 vote, basso lost (Venice 1648)
• Salmi à otto ... Motetti et dialoghi. 2-8 voices and basso continuo (Venice 1650)
• No, no no che mare Aria ( lost)