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Cecilia's Circle brings to life women's music of Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque

By Amy Gage
February 22, 2002

When Cecilia's Circle takes the stage March 4 and 7 at St. Olaf College, listeners will hear centuries-old compositions rarely performed in modern times, and they will see instruments such as the viola da gamba that they likely never knew existed.

Such is the mission of this four-woman ensemble, which resurrects the energy, creativity and sheer bravado of female composers from the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque. The group aims to educate audiences as well as entertain, giving background on the time and place in which women were writing what is now called "early music."

"We want to open people's minds to this history of women composing," says Vivian Montgomery, who plays harpsichord in Cecilia's Circle, which she co-founded a decade ago. "Because of the context in which women composed - the convent and the salon, as opposed to the court and the church - their work was less likely to be broadly published and distributed."

During its five-day residency at St. Olaf, March 4 to 8, Cecilia's Circle will rehearse with the college's Early Music Singers, conduct workshops and master classes in Baroque music and dance, and perform several public events, including a chapel service on the music and poetry of Hildegard of Bingen at 10:10 a.m. Friday, March 8.

The main concert on Thursday, March 7, at 8:15 p.m. in Urness Recital Hall will focus on the work of two 17th-century women who courted social disapproval by writing and performing music. "It was implied that Barbara Strozzi, an Italian, was a prostitute because she was making a living at this," says Julie Elhard, who plays viola da gamba and is the only Twin Citian in Cecilia's Circle.

"Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre was fairly successful in France, but men didn't take her work as seriously as women did." Strozzi flourished during the early 17th century in Venice, where she became well known as a singer and accompanied herself on the lute. Her stepfather - a composer, writer and poet - encouraged her artistry among his circle of artists and intellectuals. "She was the most highly published composer during her lifetime in Venice," Montgomery says, "and she was also known for being able to spar with the best of them in arguments."

De la Guerre likewise blossomed under the warmth of male approval. Brought before the court of Louis XIV at age 11, young Elisabeth was trained among the king's illegitimate children. "He had a cultured mistress who was responsible for overseeing the artistic education of all these various offspring," Montgomery explains. Once de la Guerre left the court to become a wife - the expected role for women at the time - her career might have withered. Instead, she seized the opportunity to establish a salon in Paris, which became a social and artistic venue for musicians throughout Europe.

Cecilia's Circle - which also includes soprano Janet Youngdahl and Baroque violinist and historical dancer Julie Andrijeski - has performed at numerous colleges and universities and with early music groups in St. Paul, San Francisco, Madison, Wis., and Boulder, Colo. The group's presentations include "Music of 11th and 12th Century Nuns" and "Portraits of Women in English and American Poetry and Song, 1650 to 1850."

The group's residency at St. Olaf is timed to coincide with Women's History Month in March. "Contributions of women artists, writers and musicians traditionally were ignored because they were not considered part of the canon - the tradition of great works central to the discipline - or they were not even known," says Professor of Music History Gerald Hoekstra. "This new scholarship exploring the role of women in history and the arts has caused to reassess our views of the past."

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.