For centuries, Venice was widely known for its vast system of homes (ospedali) for the indigent or otherwise dependent: beggars went to the Hospital of S. Lazzaro e Medicanti, the sick to the Incurabili, and orphans (mostly female) to the Pietà. At first, the orphanages served merely as convents where abandoned children would receive Christian charity and a thorough education, which was a priority in Venetian society. However, when private and state funding for the Pietà began to dry up in the early 17th century, its directors turned to music as a source of revenue with the potential to save the institution.
To begin, the directors hired expert music teachers, including singers and instrumentalists from St. Mark's Basilica, to supplement the convent's already-prominent choral program. With its renowned faculty and increasingly selective music department, the school quickly gained a reputation as a world-class conservatory; it began to take on the daughters of wealthy families as boarders to fill empty spaces, placing them under the tutelage of advanced student musicians. Pietà girls were in high demand, performing for the public and in private concerts for nobility, and many were "loaned out" by the convent as sought-after music teachers and opera singers.
Over time, as it developed into a center for education, performance, and composition, the Pietà became a mainstay of the baroque musical world. One of its most notable instructors, Antonio Vivaldi, composed many of his concertos, choral and orchestral pieces for the convent's musicians—in fact, so many influential Baroque composers wrote for the Pietà orchestra that theirs became the standard setup and instrumentation during the Baroque period and beyond.
However, as Denis Arnold writes in Orphans and Ladies: The Venetian Conservatoires (1680-1790), the ladies of the Pietà—like so many other female musicians through the ages—were dependent on the goodwill of their patrons, and are seldom remembered or appreciated for their individual achievements:
“The terms on which they accept their education, are, to remain in the convent until their talents induce some one to marry them. This happens very rarely, so that they generally sing on until their voices are lost, and their names are forgotten.” (p42)
Any well-educated lady in the 17th or 18th century would receive extensive tutelage in everything from theology to history to medicine to music; as a result, musical accomplishments were often considered merely a pleasant enhancement of a daughter's eligibility for marriage, or (for Pietà students) a standard part of convent life, rather than a professional skill worth of development. Some women, like Barbara Strozzi or Elisabeth-Claude Jaquet de la Guerre (whom I shall discuss at greater length in my next post), managed to make a name for themselves as true artists, equal to their male contemporaries--but most could not escape the anonymity that befell even the gifted performers at the Pietà.
Arnold, D. (1963). Orphans and Ladies: The Venetian Conservatoires (1680–1790). Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, 31-47. Retrieved October 21, 2015, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/765995
To begin, the directors hired expert music teachers, including singers and instrumentalists from St. Mark's Basilica, to supplement the convent's already-prominent choral program. With its renowned faculty and increasingly selective music department, the school quickly gained a reputation as a world-class conservatory; it began to take on the daughters of wealthy families as boarders to fill empty spaces, placing them under the tutelage of advanced student musicians. Pietà girls were in high demand, performing for the public and in private concerts for nobility, and many were "loaned out" by the convent as sought-after music teachers and opera singers.
Over time, as it developed into a center for education, performance, and composition, the Pietà became a mainstay of the baroque musical world. One of its most notable instructors, Antonio Vivaldi, composed many of his concertos, choral and orchestral pieces for the convent's musicians—in fact, so many influential Baroque composers wrote for the Pietà orchestra that theirs became the standard setup and instrumentation during the Baroque period and beyond.
However, as Denis Arnold writes in Orphans and Ladies: The Venetian Conservatoires (1680-1790), the ladies of the Pietà—like so many other female musicians through the ages—were dependent on the goodwill of their patrons, and are seldom remembered or appreciated for their individual achievements:
“The terms on which they accept their education, are, to remain in the convent until their talents induce some one to marry them. This happens very rarely, so that they generally sing on until their voices are lost, and their names are forgotten.” (p42)
Any well-educated lady in the 17th or 18th century would receive extensive tutelage in everything from theology to history to medicine to music; as a result, musical accomplishments were often considered merely a pleasant enhancement of a daughter's eligibility for marriage, or (for Pietà students) a standard part of convent life, rather than a professional skill worth of development. Some women, like Barbara Strozzi or Elisabeth-Claude Jaquet de la Guerre (whom I shall discuss at greater length in my next post), managed to make a name for themselves as true artists, equal to their male contemporaries--but most could not escape the anonymity that befell even the gifted performers at the Pietà.
Arnold, D. (1963). Orphans and Ladies: The Venetian Conservatoires (1680–1790). Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, 31-47. Retrieved October 21, 2015, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/765995