The majority of texts used in secular vocal music during the 17th century were written by men from the middle and upper social classes, a phenomenon easily explained through several key factors. Firstly, although many members of the working class could read, they were not always able to write, as these two skills were taught separately throughout the Renaissance period.1 Secondly, writing as a profession was an expensive endeavor, as the few means of copying and distributing a completed work were incredibly labour intensive. Thirdly, many of these writers gained important connections through social groups that required a certain amount of leisure time to attend—a luxury not afforded to the lower classes. Lastly, women belonging to those same upper and middle classes were often barred from certain opportunities due to the social constraints placed on their sex.
4.1 Librettists in the 17th century
In Italy, nearly all known librettists were aristocrats belonging to one of the many Academies2 established in the larger cities. These Academies held regular meetings for their members to discuss topics that mainly focused on literature and philosophy, but occasionally extended to musical issues.3 These Academies were an important point of contact between the librettists, and although the composers themselves may not have been members, the extended network of intellectuals and patrons likely led to the introduction and subsequent partnerships of writers and composers.
The librettist of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, Alessandro Striggio (c. 1573-1630), was a nobleman, court secretary, and councillor in Mantua, where Monteverdi was employed as a court musician.4 Another of Monteverdi’s collaborators was Ottavio Rinuccini (1562-1621), a Florentine nobleman and member of both the Accademia Fiorentina and Alterati Academy who wrote the texts of “Lamento della Ninfa” and L’Arianna. Rinuccini was also responsible for the librettos of Jacopo Peri’s Dafne and Euridice, the two earliest known operas (Euridice is the earliest surviving opera, as the score for Dafne is now lost).
In Venice, Aurelio Aureli (c. 1652-1708), who was a member of both the Accademia Delfica and the Accademia degli Imperfetti, wrote the libretto for Cavalli’s L’Erismena. Librettist Giovanni Filippo Apolloni (c. 1620-1688), court poet to the Archduke of Austria Ferdinand Charles, is thought to be the librettist behind the passionate “Ferma, lascia, ch’io parli”.5 Poet and lawyer Giovanni Busenello (1598-1659), who penned Gli amori di Apollo e Dafne, was another of Cavalli’s key collaborators. Busenello also belonged to several Academies including the famous Accademia degli Incogniti, of which Barbara Strozzi’s father Giulio Strozzi was also a member.6 The poet behind Barbara Strozzi’s “Lagrime mie”, Pietro Dolfino (1636-1709), was also a Venetian who was keenly interested in opera and the art of singing and came from an old and well-respected patrician family.7
In France, Joseph-François Duché de Vancy (1668-1704), who wrote the libretto used for Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre’s Cephale et Procris, was a nobleman and valet de chambre du roi8 living in the court of Louis XIV, where de la Guerre sang as a young girl. As such, their connection was likely established through court connections on behalf of Louis XIV. Her tragedie en musique was first performed at the newly established Académie Royale de Musique.
English writers were slightly more varied in terms of their social rank and the manner in which they became known to their collaborators. With its many theatres and cosmopolitan environment, London served as the hub to which actors, musicians, and writers flocked. Nahum Tate (1652-1715) moved to London after completing his education in Dublin, and produced his first play, Brutus of Alba, in 1678, which he later adapted into the libretto for Purcell’s first opera Dido and Aeneas. In the case of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, there are several theories as to who adapted Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream into the semi-masque’s libretto. The most widely accepted theory is that Thomas Betterton, who had been involved with all of the operas performed at Dorset Garden before The Fairy Queen, was the librettist, although others suggest John Dryden or Elkanah Settle as the anonymous author.9 There is also speculation that “The Plaint” was a later addition to The Fairy Queen due to its lack of context within the work as a whole and its omission from certain published versions that were overseen by Purcell himself.10
The texts used for Jepthe were adaptations of the Old Testament (likely taken from the Vulgate Bible, which was used in Italy at the time), and the writers responsible for the texts of “Lasciatemi qui solo” and “L’Eraclito amoroso” are currently unknown.
4.11 The woman librettist (or lack there-of)
Similar to their male counterparts, women writers were usually members of the elite who did not rely on their work to provide an income for their families.11 This negation of financial need was particularly important as the monetary arrangements made by patrons were not suitable for women, due to the level of public engagement required from the respective writer.12 While there were some financial gains to be made as a female writer, benefits more often came indirectly in the form of valuable gifts, invitations to social gatherings, and strategic networking opportunities.13 This truncated patronage system, combined with women’s prescribed roles as docile wives and mothers made it incredibly difficult for a woman writer to secure the connections necessary for musical collaborations.
Instances during the 17th century in which texts written by women were used for musical compositions are seemingly limited to occasions in which a female composer had set her own words to music, although these texts are often uncredited and thus difficult to verify. The majority of employed female composers were utilizing texts written by men, particularly for use in larger works such as operas.14
4.2 Meet our modern librettists
In early 2022, I made an open call via social media for poets and librettists to write Lament texts that I could set to music. I also sent emails to different educational institutions and writing associations across the globe, asking them to distribute the call to anyone who might be interested. When sending out these messages, I was skeptical as to how many responses I would receive and was worried that I would not have enough to make this project possible. However, in the end I received more than 50 entries spanning several continents. Nearly all the submissions were from complete strangers, and the diversity of writing styles and subject matter was astonishing. I had left the submission guidelines loose, asking for an original Lament of any length and form in any language, with suggested topics that included (but were not limited to): climate change, gender equity, race relations, current events, personal experiences, and the like. Interested applicants were also asked to fill in an online form and to submit an artist statement alongside their Lament.
When assessing the submissions, my priority was finding stories that went beyond the usual stories of unrequited love and abandonment seen in the pre-existing literature. I was also looking for distinct poetic voices whose written work engaged the reader emotionally. Once I had removed as many identifiers of the authors as possible, I read through each work, making note of what sparked an emotional response and what I could begin conceptualizing as a musical composition. After making an initial round of cuts, I went back and matched up the Laments with their librettist, reading the artists statements and background information submitted alongside the texts.15 I then proceeded to draft some potential melodies and storyboards for the shortlisted works, testing different combinations of poems to see what would best suit a set of four songs before selecting my librettists. Regardless of the outcome of their submission, all applicants received a formal letter notifying them of the results, as well as individualised comments about their Lament. After notifying all applicants, I emailed my chosen librettists to set up an initial Zoom meeting and information session to discuss the setting of their work to music. These librettists were also asked to provide some additional biographical information to supplement that which was sent with their initial applications.
4.21 Anna Eastland (b. 1980)
The first of the four librettists, Anna Eastland (she/her/hers), is a writer and mother of nine from Vancouver, Canada. Her submitted poem, “You Carry Me” is in remembrance of her daughter Josephine, who was stillborn approximately eight years ago. In the artist statement submitted with her Lament, she wrote “‘You Carry Me’ was written in the shower, or rather it was sob-sung there six days after I lost my baby daughter Josephine in labour […] Its brevity and simplicity are expressive of the limited space in which a Mother has to grieve when caring for other children.”16
For Eastland, writing was a way to process the immense grief of losing a child, and she later published “You Carry Me” in her first book of poetry entitled unexpected blossoming: a journey of grief and hope; a collection of poems written reflecting “the intensity of maternal love, the depths of grief, and the heart’s amazing ability to heal.”17 An avid blogger, she shares stories from her family life alongside pieces of creative writing on her website, “Just East Of Crazy Land.”18
4.22 Tim Tim Cheng (b. 1993)
Originally from Hong Kong and now based out of Edinburgh, Scotland, poet and educator Tim Tim Cheng (she/her/hers) heard about the opportunity to write Lament text through an email distributed by the creative writing department at the University of Edinburgh. When asked why she chose to apply for this project, she stated: “I have always loved interdisciplinary collaborations. I love how music builds on the silence between each line, and each word of lyrics. As someone who is interested in where the arts and politics meet, I basically jumped at the opportunity.”19 Her submitted work, Ghosts, is born of images surrounding the 2019-2020 protests in Hong Kong (also known as the “Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement”), Cantonese idioms, and conversations she had had with her friends who had given birth to children or had miscarried during the last few years. Drawing inspiration from Warsan Shire’s poem Home, her Lament is a processing of the psychological and physical struggles experienced by potential child-bearers in the face of police brutality.
4.23 Tom Clark (born c. 1974)
Tom Clark (he/him/his) is a professor at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia. His poetic works draw from early English and Old Norse poetry, and his Lament “Autumn Oud” details the trials and travails of migration. Clark is also the President of the Australasian universities Language and Literature Association (AULLA) and the Secretary-General of the International Federation for Modern Language and Literature.20
4.24 Tanisha Nuttall (b. 1994)
While the three librettists listed above were made known to me through the open call, I chose to approach a specific individual to write the fourth and final poem. As a second-generation Canadian who grew up on the traditional and unceded territories of the Teechamista and Lekwungen-speaking people of the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations, I felt it was important to create space for an indigenous artist to take part in this project. I was very fortunate to have an old friend who completed a Bachelor of Arts in Indigenous Studies and History at the University of Victoria, and who has strong ties to the indigenous community as she herself is working on reclaiming her Métis heritage.21 This friend put me in contact with Tanisha Nuttall (she/her/hers), a young Cree Métis woman from the Elizabeth Métis Settlement located on Treaty 6 territory who also carries mixed European ancestry. Tanisha honours her blended heritage and looks to use each perspective in a meaningful way, and upon reading her work for the first time I was struck by her incredibly poignant poetic voice.
After several emails and video calls to discuss the project, we worked together to pick a poem that would not only work well in a Lament setting but would also tell a personal story that Tanisha felt would be relatable to many. When asked about the methods behind her work, Tanisha stated: "I can pull inspiration from anywhere, the land, a look, a moment. My particular blessing (and curse) is to feel deeply, I tend to move through life with a tender heart and draw from this well in my writing. An ongoing theme of mine has always been finding the balance between light and dark, to go deep but remembering to come up for air which is reflected in the poem chosen for this project.”22 “something pulls me up” deals with themes of mental health and depression, and Tanisha decided that she wanted to include a traditional hand drum in the final recording to honour her Métis heritage. Tanisha holds a degree in Indigenous Studies from the University of Victoria and is currently working with the province of British Columbia to support reconciliation with indigenous peoples.
4.3 A new composer-librettist relationship
It appears that the librettists of the 17th century were not involved with the composition after their textual obligations had been fulfilled. Even though some librettists may have been trained musicians themselves, they were not known to have had an active role in the compositional process. There were, however, instances where the libretto would be written concurrently with its musical setting, and the composer would have to wait to complete their work until they received the next portion of text. In a letter written to Striggio, Monteverdi explained that he had been unable to complete his commissioned opera Andromeda due its incomplete libretto.23 It is important to note that the author of the text for Andromeda was Ercole Marigliani, and Striggio’s correspondence with Monteverdi was in his administrative role as secretary to Monteverdi’s patron, the Duke of Mantua. In his letter, Monteverdi wrote: “[…] Now consider, Your Lordship: what do you think can be done when more than four hundred lines, which have to be set to music, are still lacking? [...]”24
While I was able to select completed texts for this project and did not have to wait for their completion, I do draw some similarities between myself and Monteverdi in terms of how we evaluated the suitability of a submitted text. In an earlier letter between Monteverdi and Striggio concerning the potential setting of a fable by Scipione Agnelli entitled Le Nozze di Tetide, Monteverdi elaborates on how he approaches the selection of text:
[…] And as to the story as a whole – as far as my no little ignorance is concerned – I do not feel that it moves me at all (moreover I find it hard to understand), nor do I feel that it carries me in a natural manner to an end that moves me. Arianna let me to a just lament, and Orfeo to a righteous prayer but this fable leads me I don’t know to what end. So what does Your Lordship want the music to be able to do? Nevertheless I shall always accept everything with due reverence and honour if by chance His Highness should so command and desire it, since he is my master without question […]
- Claudio Monteverdi to Alessandro Striggio, December 9, 161625
While Monteverdi’s primary objective is to serve the wishes of the Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga of Mantua, he demonstrates his preference for texts that move him emotionally upon reading.
Whereas the librettists of the 17th century generally ended their contribution with the submission of their texts, all four librettists for Laments for a Modern World were directly involved in the compositional process. Before our first video call, the librettists were asked to listen to a Spotify playlist that included most of the Laments listed in Chapter 1.5126 in order to give them a point of reference for the conceptualization of their piece. Each of the four librettists were asked to identify what elements of the historic laments they enjoyed, as well as to express their general thoughts on what type and style of voices and instrumentation they may want to hear in their respective compositions. Cheng, who is a self-taught bassist, preferred works that featured a strong bass and requested that this be a key part of her composition, while Eastland asked if I would sing her Lament for its inaugural recording as she enjoyed the timbre of a high soprano. Clark’s Lament was first drafted to a transcription of a melody that he himself sang for me at our first online meeting. Nuttall wished to have a more modern, folksy quality to her lament, and I was able to connect her with “Actual Human People”, an indie folk duo based out of Victoria BC. Nuttall was also able to collaborate directly with them to produce the song and her voice and drumming is included on the recording.
1. Jane Donawerth, “Women’s Reading Practices in Seventeenth-Century England: Margaret Fell’s ‘Women’s Speaking Justified,’” The Sixteenth Century Journal 37, no. 4 (2006): 987, accessed August 1, 2022, https://doi.org/10.2307/20478125.
2. Smaller, private circles of intellectuals were also common, such as the forementioned Camerata de’Bardi.
3. Jeffrey Dean, "academy," in The Oxford Companion to Music (Oxford: Oxford University Press), accessed August 1, 2022, https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199579037.001.0001/acref-9780199579037-e-33.
4. Claudio Monteverdi, as cited in Denis Stevens, The Letters of Claudio Monteverdi (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), 50.
5. Stefano Villani, “From Mary Queen of Scots to the Scottish Capuchins: Scotland as a symbol of Protestant persecution in seventeenth-century Italian literature,” The Innes Review 64, no.2 (2013):105, accessed November 8, 2022, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270030494_From_Mary_Queen_of_Scots_to_the_Scottish_Capuchins_Scotland_as_a_symbol_of_Protestant_persecution_in_seventeenth-century_Italian_literature.
6. John Whenham, “Strozzi, Giulio,” Grove Music Online, 2001, accessed August 8, 2022, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000026988.
7. Vassilis Vavoulis, “A Venetian World in Letters: The Massi Correspondence at the Hauptstaatsarchiv in Hannover,” Notes 59, no. 3 (2003): 560, accessed July 7, 2022, http://www.jstor.org/stable/901042.
8. Valet of the King’s chambers; a high-ranking court appointment akin to a personal secretary.
9. Katie Norman, “Purcell's The Fairy Queen: adaptation as response to critical anxiety,” (2006): 8-9, accessed April
7, 2022, https://getd.libs.uga.edu/pdfs/norman_katie_l_200805_ma.pdf.
10. Curtis Price, “Fairy-Queen, The,” Grove Music Online, 2002; accessed July 9, 2022, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-5000009948?rskey=p6lllR&result=2.
11. There are, however, instances in which women had to turn to their writing out of economic necessity. Several such examples elaborating on the reasoning behind the change in financial fortune are available in:
Nina Geerdink and Carme Font Pas, eds., Economic Imperatives for Women’s Writing in Early Modern Europe, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctv2gjwmq2.
12. Nina Geerdink, “Possibilities of Patronage: The Dutch Poet Elisabeth Hoofman and Her German Patrons,” in Economic Imperatives for Women’s Writing in Early Modern Europe, eds. Nina Geerdink and Carme Font Paz (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 124–127, accessed July 16, 2022, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctv2gjwmq2.10.
13. Ibid.
14. That is not to say that female writers never wrote texts meant for large-scale musical compositions; poet Antoinette du Ligier de la Garde Deshoulières wrote an opera libretto entitled Zoroastre in 1680, but it was never set to music.
John J. Conley, “Deshouliéres, Antoinette du Ligier de la Garde,” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, accessed July 19, 2022, https://iep.utm.edu/deshouliereas-antoinette-du-ligier-de-la-garde/.
15. Although this call was distributed internationally, the posts made on social media advertising the project were limited by organizations within my own frame of knowledge, resulting in a large proportion of submissions coming from Canadian residents. While I had hoped to have an even international representation, I was limited by the fact that I could only include four Laments, and that one of the four librettists was sourced from outside of the open call (see 4.24 Tanisha Nuttall). In the end, I chose to prioritize the global impact of the Lament texts themselves over the geographic dispersal of their authors.
16. Anna Eastland, artist statement submitted to author, March 7, 2022.
17. Anna Eastland, “Unexpected Blossoming,” blurb, accessed July 9, 2022, https://www.blurb.ca/b/8204084-unexpected-blossoming.
18. The blog is available on https://eastofcrazyland.com/.
19. Tim Tim Cheng, email message to author, June 26, 2022.
20. “Professor Tom Clark,” Victoria University, accessed February 1, 2023, https://www.vu.edu.au/research/tom-clark.
21. A group of Indigenous peoples in Canada who have a mixed Indigenous and European (primarily French) ancestry that was born out of the fur trade in the 18th century.
22. Tanisha Nuttall, email message to author, July 13, 2022.
23. Claudio Monteverdi, as cited in Denis Stevens, The Letters of Claudio Monteverdi (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), 160.
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid, 110.
26. The playlist did not include “Ferma, lascia, ch’io parli” as it was a later addition to the list. The playlist also excluded the excerpt from E.J. de la Guerre’s Cephale et Procris, as a suitable recording was not available. The playlist is available here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5iFqq1jARNDGOfoHkiZFu6?si=c6e9f8f5775a4798.
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