MACHINATIONS

“Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow. Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead. Walk beside me, just be my friend” ― Albert Camus

The New What’s Going On blog has set this theme this week: “Let's challenge ourselves to write about "women" or "a woman" in a new way, a way we have not done before.”, which celebrates March as Women’s History Month. My poem is rather complex as it looks at stereotypes in relationships, a perspective that is still widespread, despite the feminist activism paradigms, the attempts at promoting equality of the sexes, and even legislation that attempts to correct inequalities and give the same rights and opportunities to both sexes.

Machinations

I try to find a way around your secret machinations
A road that will lead me to your hidden stations;
Disarm your ploys and ways you betray my trust,
Regain control and again master my fate — I must.

Your clever plans, your covert sly manipulations
Your false sweet words your fervent declarations;
I need to show up your lies, expose your treachery,
Reveal your useless pretence, and your lechery.

And yet I love you, mindlessly, with all my heart,
My reason lost and only pure emotion taking part;
I know you’re bad and want to leave you, go away,
But my heart dictates what I do, and so I stay…

How well you set your crafty traps and hunt me down,
I fall into your murky waters and each time I die, I drown;
I know that following you, I’ll cry and suffer pain
And yet I bind myself each time to your iron chain.

I try to open the door, walk out, and from you escape,
My strength I lose, when I see your image take shape;
I need to build defences, close my eyes, stop my ears,
But always your presence I abide, I smile through my tears.

I love you doggedly, with all the pieces of my broken heart,
Despite your cold indifference I cannot go, cannot depart.
I know you’re bad and want to leave you, go away,
But my heart dictates what I do and so I stay…

I stay and as my soul will one day wither and expire,
My love will turn to coldness and will burn you with a frigid fire.
I’ll leave you and will efface all bearing your semblance,
Forget you and destroy every trace of your remembrance.

The poem is set to music, and you can find all my music in my “Otidorchestre” Instagram channel or listen to it on YouTube, Spotify,  Amazon, Deezer, Flo, Pandora, and other music sharing sites.

Please note there is delay between uploading the song onto the digital music platforms, so persist in hunting it down if you wish to listen to it.

I AM STRONG!

“Revenge is surviving, getting out, and being a better person than you were, and breaking the cycle.” — Kristy Green

The prompt from “Poets and Storytellers United” this week is to write something inspired by the phrase “Survive Out of Spite”.  An internet friend made me aware of the MEND project, which supports abusive relationship victims and helps them survive and heal by leaving the abuser and beginning anew, healing themselves in the process. My poem is inspired by this.

I am Strong!

You used me, you hurt me,
You tried to subvert me.
You thought my meekness
Was my great weakness…

I loved you and you fooled me
Your promises, all false and hollow;
I was so tender and you ruled me
You ordered and I had to follow…

Enough, I say! Enough’s enough!
I don’t deserve to have it rough.
Your selfish ways are over,
I’m no longer a pushover…
I am strong! So strong!
You’re in the wrong,
Between us it’s all over.

You cheated, you deceived me,
You lied, and belittled me.
You laughed and crippled me,
If only you believed me…

I gave you all I had, and more,
You took it all and wasted it.
My sweetness was not tasted,
Your heartless ways no more…

Enough, I say! Enough’s enough!
I don’t deserve to have it rough.
Your selfish ways are over,
I’m no longer a pushover…
I am strong! So strong!
You’re in the wrong,
Between us it’s all over.

The poem is set to music again, and you can find all my music in my “Otidorchestre” channel or listen to it on YouTube,  Spotify,  Amazon, Deezer, Flo, Pandora, and other music sharing sites.

PS: Some of you have said that the song does not appear at the link sites. Type: "Otidorchestre" and do a search. Sometimes there is a slight delay from my posting it to its publication at the music sharing sites. Generally YouTube is the most efficient.

ART SUNDAY - FEDERICO ZANDOMENEGHI

“After women, flowers are the most lovely thing God has given the world.” - Christian Dior 

Federico Zandomeneghi (June 2, 1841 – December 31, 1917) was an Italian Impressionist painter. He was born in Venice and his father, Pietro, and grandfather, Luigi, were neoclassic sculptors. The latter completed the monument to Titian found in the Frari of Venice.

As a young man, Zandomeneghi preferred painting to sculpture, enrolling in 1856 first in the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice, and then in the Academy of Fine Arts of Milan. In 1860, he tried to join with the forces of Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882) in his Expedition of the Thousand. This made it uncomfortable for him to reside in Venice, and in 1862, he moved to Florence for 5 years where he frequented the Caffè Michelangiolo. There he met a number of the artists known as the Macchiaioli, including Telemaco Signorini, Giovanni Fattori and Giuseppe Abbati, and he joined them in painting landscapes outdoors.

Painting outside of the studio, ‘en plein air’, was at that time an innovative approach, allowing for a new vividness and spontaneity in the rendering of light. In 1871 Pompeo Molmenti wrote glowing assessments of three young Venetian painters: Guglielmo Ciardi, Alessandro Zezzos, and Zandomeneghi. In 1874, he went to Paris, where he was to spend the rest of his life. He quickly made the acquaintance of the Impressionists, who had just had their first group exhibition. Zandomeneghi, whose style of painting was similar to theirs, would participate in four of their later exhibitions, in 1879, 1880, 1881, and 1886.

Like his close friend Edgar Degas, Zandomeneghi was primarily a figure painter, although Zandomeneghi’s work was more sentimental in character than Degas’. He also admired the work of Mary Cassatt and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and his many paintings of women in their domestic routines follow their example. To supplement the meager returns from the sale of his paintings, Zandomeneghi found work drawing illustrations for fashion magazines.

He took up working in pastels in the early 1890s, and became especially adept in this medium. At about this same time his reputation and his fortunes were enhanced when the art dealer Durand-Ruel showed Zandomeneghi’s work in the United States. From then on he enjoyed continuing modest success until his death in Paris in 1917.

The pastel drawing above from 1893 is his “Taking Tea”. The composition is marvelous and the personalities of the young women who are drinking tea and partaking of a little “social criticism” at the same time is rendered delicately, although a little tongue-in-cheek. The texture of the surface and the rough flakes of pigment in parts recalls a little the pointillists, but the image is definitely clearly identifiable as belonging to the circle of the French Impressionists.

POETS UNITED - DARK MOON, NEW MOON

“We are all like the bright moon, but we still have our dark side.” ― Kahlil Gibran 

In the Poets United site this week the Midweek Motif theme is Dark Moon, New Moon. My contribution is below:
  
Mistress Moon

Dark Mistress Moon,
You hide your face tonight,
(In shame?)
For mischief’s afoot
And all sorts of foul deeds need to be done… 

O, Moon, my Moon,
You of the radiant countenance
(So pure!)
You’re kind and gentle
When you shine and leaves with silver shower. 

Harsh, Moon, when you veil
Your beauty in dark crêpe,
(In mourning?)
You hide your sadness
And you let your anger, cruelty and vileness beget. 

O, Moon, my Moon,
Your gibbous fecund glow,
(In pregnancy…)
Generates blessings
When you touch with light caress all womankind. 

Dark Mistress Moon,
With sharpened sickle,
(So deadly!)
Tonight you’ll cut

The thread of life of those who dared offend you. 

O, Moon, my Moon,
Tomorrow night reborn,
(In innocence…)
You’ll smile and heal,
And give back hope and dignity to those wronged.

ART SUNDAY - MARIANNE VON WEREFKIN

“Women’s liberation is the liberation of the feminine in the man and the masculine in the woman.” – Corita Kent

Marianne von Werefkin (Russian: Мариа́нна Влади́мировна Верёвкина; 10 September [O.S. 29 August] 1860, Tula, Russia – 6 February 1938, Ascona, Switzerland), born Marianna Wladimirowna Werewkina (transliteration Marianna Vladimirovna Verëvkina), was a Russian-German-Swiss Expressionist painter.

Marianne von Werefkin was born in the Russian town of Tula as the daughter of the commander of the Ekaterinaburg Regiment. She had her first private academic drawing lessons at the age of fourteen. In 1880, she became a student of Ilya Repin, the most important painter of Russian Realism. Her progress was dealt a setback by a hunting accident in 1888 in which she accidentally shot her right hand, which remained crippled after a lengthy period of recovery.

By practicing persistently she finally managed to use drawing and painting instruments with her right hand again. In 1892 she met Alexej von Jawlensky, who desired to be her protégé, and in 1896 she, Jawlensky, and their servant moved to Munich. For the sake of Jawlensky’s painting, Werefkin interrupted her painting for almost ten years. She initiated a Salon in Munich which soon became a centre of lively artistic exchange. She also founded the “Lukasbruderschaft” of which also Kandinsky was a member.

She began painting again in 1906. In 1907 she created her first expressionist works; in these she followed Paul Gauguin’s and Louis Anquetin’s style of “surface painting”, while also showing the influence of Edvard Munch. She and Jawlensky spent in 1908 several periods working with Kandinsky and Münter after their discovery of the picturesque rural town of Murnau near Munich, where Gabriele Münter owned a house. The four artists frequently painted together in open air in and around Murnau.

They founded a new artist-group in 1909, the Neue Künstlervereinigung München (New Association of Artists in Munich, NKVM). It became a forum of exhibitions and programming. After a few years Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc distanced themselves from this group and formed the Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider). The group was founded by a number of Russian emigrants, including Wassily Kandinsky, Alexej von Jawlensky and a number of native German artists, such as Franz Marc, August Macke and Gabriele Münter. Werefkin began exhibiting together with this group in 1913.

At the outbreak of the First World War, Werefkin and Jawlensky immigrated to Switzerland, near Geneva. They later moved to Zurich. By 1918, they had separated, and Werefkin moved alone to Ascona, on Lago Maggiore where she painted many colourful, landscapes in an expressionist style. In 1924 she founded the artist group “Großer Bär” (i.e., Big Bear, Ursa Major). In her later years, she painted posters. Her friends “Carmen” and “Diego Hagmann” protected her from poverty. Marianne von Werefkin died in Ascona on 6 February 1938. She was buried in the Russian graveyard in Ascona.

The painting above is her “Skaters” of 1911. She painted an almost identical tableau in the same year, but that one is more cluttered and busy, so I prefer the simpler one above. The dark figures of the skaters under moonlight resemble an unearthly dance of spirits away from the comfort and security of the brightly lit abode of humans in the background, right.

POET'S UNITED - WOMEN'S DAY

“No struggle can ever succeed without women participating side by side with men.” - Muhammad Ali Jinnah 

Today is International Women’s Day and Poets United has as its Midweek Motif “A Woman’s Day: Be Bold For Change”. Here is my poem: 

I Don’t Want a Women’s Day 

I don’t want a token Women’s Day,
I want a world where humanity reigns supreme.
Sex and gender are immaterial
In this struggle for survival,
Where so much can be achieved
When brother and sister work together
Side by side as equals.

I don’t want a single, yearly Women’s Day,
I want a whole year, every year, where humanity reigns supreme.
XX or XY hardly matters
When the right life-or-death decision is made;
Where one depends on the other,
When husband and wife work together
Side by side as equals.

I don’t want a ceremonial Women’s Day,
I want an everyday reality, where humanity reigns supreme.
Trousers or dresses are irrelevant
In building a society where justice and good prevail;
Where we build rather than destroy,
When father and mother work together
Side by side as equals.

I don’t want a conceded Women’s Day,
I want a future starting yesterday, where humanity reigns supreme.
Mars and Venus are passé,
In this brave new world;
If humanity is to survive,
Let us instead be Jovial, and as fellow humans work,
Side by side as equals.

POETS UNITED - AVIATION

“I have often said that the lure of flying is the lure of beauty.” Amelia Earhart 

The Midweek Motif for Poets United this week is “Aviation”. The word aviation was coined by French writer and former naval officer Gabriel La Landelle in 1863, from the verb avier (synonymous with flying), itself derived from the Latin word avis (“bird”) and the suffix -ation. The word, easily transferred without modification in its written form to English, is used to describe “the flying or operating of aircraft”. December 7 is International Civil Aviation Day.  Here is my poem:

Need to Fly

The wild flapping of feathered wings,
Caged and desperate to escape;
Cries in the night, powerless
To make the moon approach closer;
No amount of war paint can make you
Fearsome enough to overcome your foe.

Memories of a distant flight,
Some place in the past;
The freedom of air rushing by you,
Caressing your every fibre;
No amount of struggle can make you
Break your chains and escape.

The faint glimmer of sunlight
And visions of broken chips of blue sky;
Remembrances of green meadows,
Flowers: Do they still exist?
No amount of wishing can make you
Fly, liberated, untethered, free.

A gilded cage is still a cage, Amelia;
Your every need taken care of
Is no guarantee of happiness;
A captive soul imprisons heart and flesh, too.
No amount of solid earth can make you
Forget the lightness of air…

MOVIE MONDAY - PHRYNE FISHER

“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.” ― Voltaire

We’ve just finished watching the 2012-2015 three-season Australian TV series “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries” starring Essie Davis, Nathan Page, Hugo Johnstone-Burt and Ashleigh Cummings. This series is based on the novels of Kerry Isabelle Greenwood (born 17 June 1954 in Footscray, Victoria), who is an Australian author and lawyer. She has written many plays and books, most notably the string of historical detective novels centred on the character of Phryne Fisher. She writes mysteries, science-fiction, historical fiction, and children’s stories, as well as plays. She is unmarried but lives with a “registered wizard”.

Miss Phryne Fisher is a wealthy aristocrat and private detective who lives in St Kilda, Melbourne, Australia, in the late 1920s. With the assistance of her maid Dot, and Bert and Cec (who are wharfies, taxi drivers and red raggers), she solves all manner of crimes in swinging Melbourne of the inter-war years. Phryne is no ordinary aristocrat, as she can fly a plane, drives her own car (a Hispano-Suiza) and sometimes wears trousers. However, while displaying bohemian panache, she manages also to maintain style and class. Phryne was accidentally named after a famous Greek courtesan who lived in the 4th century BC. At her christening, her father forgot the classical name, Psyche, that her mother had intended for her.

First, let me confess I have read a few of the Phryne Fisher novels by Ms Greenwood and enjoyed them quite a lot. When I heard that this series was made based on them I was a little skeptical as to how well the 1920s era would be captured on film (video, memory chip what have you!). But we toned down our expectations and watched the first few episodes. We were pleasantly surprised! The sets, costumes, props, authentic Melbourne locations, music, cars and homes were absolutely spot on. We watched and enjoyed every episode of the first series and went on to watch all three.

Essie Davis does an amazing job of recreating Miss Fisher’s character to a tee, although admittedly she is older than the 27 years of the novels’ heroine. This is not jarring at all and Ms Davis has enough panache, aplomb and just the right tongue-in-cheek good humour to carry off the series to perfection. She is ably supported by Nathan Page, the police Inspector with whom she collaborates in order to solve the mysteries. Her “lady’s companion” Dot, played by Ashleigh Cummings is great as the progressively progressive young, good, Catholic woman whom Miss Fisher educates in the ways of the world. Hugo Johnstone-Burt plays the long suffering and young innocent constable, the inspector’s sidekick who falls for Dot and helps in his sometimes bumbling way to catch the crooks.

The remainder of the regular actors and episode guests all do a sterling job and contribute wonderfully to the mystery covered by each episode. All manner of stories and themes are covered, reminding us that people are the same and driven by the same passions, motives and emotions whatever the place and time in history. Drugs, human trafficking, greed, jealousy, love, ambition, social inequality, are all considered and Miss Fisher as pioneer feminist does a great deal to not only solve the mysteries but advance the rights of women and help the disenfranchised and browbeaten claim their place in the sun. There are also interesting references to World War I and the Anzacs (Cec and Bert being diggers themselves).

We recommend this excellent series to people who not only love whodunnits, but also aficionados of period drama, humorous series and of course good Australian productions.

POETS UNITED - SOCIAL STIGMA

“Tolerance, compromise, understanding, acceptance, patience - I want those all to be very sharp tools in my shed.” - CeeLo Green 

The mid-week motif for Poets United this week is “Social Stigma”. In western societies around the world we take pride in touting our tolerance and acceptance of diversity, we quote our laws that protect minorities, and are ready to lecture anyone who dares question our broad-mindedness and understanding of all of those who don’t conform to society’s “norms”.

Yet it is in enlightened countries such as these that we see racial discrimination still raging; we still see ethnic minorities failing to advance socially and professionally because of prejudice against them; we still see inequalities based on gender and patriarchal role models; we still see people victimised, bashed or killed because of their sexuality; we still see people ostracised because of their age; we still see stigmatisation of teenage mothers; we still see demonisation of the unemployed and the homeless; we still see the isolation and marginalisation of the mentally ill…

My poem is based on a true story that affected a family acquaintance. The young woman central to that story made what I believe to have been the right decision. However, it is not explicitly stated in my poem. There are so many young women who find themselves in a miserable quandary and the decisions that they make (or that they have made for them), in so many cases are dictated by the threat of social stigma… Yes, even nowadays in enlightened societies like ours!

The Quandary

She cried her eyes out when he left
She knew she’d never see him again;
And now alone, with all her dreams
Turned into nightmares.

She had believed him and she had loved,
She gave him all and he took even more.
And now alone, whom could she turn to,
But her family?

She had confessed all and she had trusted them;
She hoped that they would give their love, support…
And all she heard were screams and shouts,
Cries, threats and accusations.

She put her hands on her belly and she felt –
She tried to feel what she knew was growing there.
And she sensed that the new life that stirred within
Would bring her turmoil.

She heard her father shout: “Have an abortion!”
She heard her mother cry: “Have it and give it for adoption!”
Within her belly “it” stirred and said:
“Keep me, love me, raise me…”

Small town morality would stigmatise
The tell-tale swelling in her belly;
Her child, if born, would have its own battles to fight,
Wars to lose, perhaps…

She knew what shame, disgrace and isolation
She would have face if she allowed nature take its course;
And then how could she live,
With that blemish of: “Single, underage mother”?

Whom would she listen to?
Who gave the wisest counsel?
Who spoke from the heart?
Whom could she in her green years put her trust in?

ART SUNDAY - GASTON BUSSIÈRE

“The more people explore the world, the more they realise in every country there’s a different aesthetic. Beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.” - Helena Christensen

Gaston Bussière (April 24, 1862, Cuisery – October 29, 1928 or 1929, Saulieu) was a French Symbolist painter and illustrator. Bussière studied at L’Académie des Beaux-Arts in Lyon before entering the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris where he studied under Alexandre Cabanel and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes. In 1884, he won the Marie Bashkirtseff prize. He was close to Gustave Moreau. He found inspiration in the theatre works of Berlioz (La Damnation de Faust) as well as William Shakespeare and Wagner.

He came in demand as an illustrator, creating works for major authors. He illustrated Honoré de Balzac's “Splendeurs et Misères des Courtisanes” published in 1897, “Émaux et Camées”, by Théophile Gautier, as well as Oscar Wilde’s “Salomé”. He also illustrated several works by Flaubert. An associate of Joséphin Péladan, the founder of the Rose-Croix esthétique, Bussière exhibited his works at Salon de la Rose-Croix over two years. Many of his works are on exhibit at the Musée des Ursulines in Mâcon.

Bussière revelled in the female form, many of his canvases depicting legendary women such as Salammbo, Isolde, Brünhilde, Helen of Troy, Salome and Juliet. He also painted many depictions of nymphs, nereids and fairies, scantily dressed and showing a typical Art Nouveau ideal of beauty and embellishment. His colours are glowing and vivid, but his aesthetic often teeters towards the kitsch side of good taste.

Above is one his paintings of an illustrative nature depicting a scene from Wagner’s “Ring”, more specifically Act II of “The Valkyrie”. It is called “The Revelation” and shows Brünnhilde discovering Sieglinde et Siegmund in the forest. Bussière was passionate about the great epics and the opera, especially Wagner and Berlioz. He painted poetic works of symbolist inspiration, evoking the heroes and heroines of the epic, mythology, history and legend.

“The Valkyrie” of Richard Wagner, was performed for the first time in Munich in 1870 and presented to the Parisian public on 12 May 1893. Bussière certainly attended the performance and was inspired to paint this scene. Brünnhilde was sent by her father Wotan, the chief of the gods punish Siegmund and Sieglinde, Brünnhilde is touched by the passionate love they show each other and decides to help them, thus disobeying Wotan. In the background one may see the other Valkyries riding their steeds.

ART SUNDAY - EVA GONZALÈS

“Women hold up half the sky.” - Mao Zedong

Eva Gonzalès (April 19, 1849 – May 6, 1883) was a French Impressionist painter born in Paris into the family of the writer Emmanuel Gonzalès. In 1865, she began her professional training and took lessons in drawing from the society portraitist Charles Chaplin. Gonzalès became a pupil of the artist Édouard Manet in February 1869. Manet is said to have begun a portrait of her at once which was completed on 12 March 1870 and exhibited at Salon in that year.

Like her teacher, Édouard Manet, Gonzalès never exhibited with the Impressionist painters in their controversial exhibitions in Paris, but she is considered part of the group because of her painting style. She was Manet’s only formal student and modelled frequently for several members of the Impressionist school. Gonzalès posed for Manet in 1869 for the painting “Portrait of Mlle Gonzalès”, a work which has previously been discussed more than Gonzalès' oeuvre at her own 1885 retrospective and at Galerie Daber’s exhibition for her work in 1950.

While studying under Manet, Gonzalès self-portraits suggest she was exploring her individuality and identity as an artist by presenting subtle correctives to Manet’s version of her. Until 1872, she was strongly influenced by Manet but later developed her own, more personal style. During the Franco-Prussian War she sought refuge in Dieppe. She married the graphic artist Henri Guérard in 1879, and used him and her sister Jeanne Gonzalès as the subjects for many of her paintings.

Her work was exhibited at the offices of the art review L'Art in 1882 and at the Galerie Georges Petit in 1883. Her career was cut short when she died in childbirth at the age of thirty-four, exactly six days after the death of her teacher, Manet. In 1885, after her death a retrospective of 88 works was held at the Salons de La Vie Moderne.

The painting above is here “Awakening Girl” exhibited in the Kunsthalle Bremen, Germany. It is 81.5 cm by 100 cm, oil on canvas. This is a deceptively simple work with most of the canvas covered by the whiteness of the bed linens. The reclining figure along a diagonal from left to right divides the canvas and the eye is drawn to the beautiful face of the young woman, which is framed, in stark contrast, by her dark locks. The brown-beige background is balanced by the bed-side table on which the blue flowers seemingly provide the only other tone of colour in the painting until one notices the cool blue-gray shadows on the linen. The expression on the face of the woman is one of mild amusement, perhaps at the sight of her partner dressing…

MUSIC SATURDAY - CHIARA MARGARITA COZZOLANI

“I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit.” - Khalil Gibran

Chiara Margarita Cozzolani (27 November 1602 – ca. 1676-1678), was a Baroque music composer, singer and Benedictine nun. She spent her adult life cloistered in the convent of Santa Radegonda, Milan, where she became abbess and stopped composing. She was one of more than a dozen cloistered women who published sacred music in seventeenth-century Italy.

Born into a wealthy family in Milan, Italy, Margarita Cozzolani entered the convent and took her vows in 1620. She added “Chiara” as her religious name. Her writings are very prolific, with some stylistic characteristics being the usage of sequences and switching modes. Her “Concerti Sacri” had followed suit in the Lombard style. Her four musical opere were published between 1640 and 1650, which is the date of her “Vespers”, perhaps her best-known single work. There is also a “Paschal Mass”. Her first publication, “Primavera di Fiori Musicali”, is lost.

In the convent of Santa Radegonda, the nuns sang during major religious feast days. This drew a great deal of attention from the outside world. As abbess of Santa Radegonda, Cozzolani defended the nuns’ music, which came under attack from Archbishop Alfonso Litta, who wanted to reform the convent by limiting the nuns’ practice of music and other contact with the outside world. The archbishop’s qualms could not have been reassured by the ecstatic report of Filippo Picinelli, in “Ateneo dei Letterati Milanesi” (Milan, 1670) who found that:

“The nuns of Santa Radegonda of Milan are gifted with such rare and exquisite talents in music that they are acknowledged to be the best singers of Italy. They wear the Cassinese habits of St. Benedict, but they seem to any listener to be white and melodious swans, who fill hearts with wonder, and spirit away tongues in their praise. Among these sisters, Donna Chiara Margarita Cozzolani merits the highest praise, Chiara in name but even more so in merit, and Margarita for her unusual and excellent nobility of invention...”.

Donna Chiara Margarita Cozzolani disappears from the convent’s records after 1676. The first modern edition of her complete motets, for one to five voices and continuo, appeared in 1998.

Here is Cozzolani’s “Paschal Mass”:

[1] Kyrie eleison: Messa a 4 - 0:00

[2] Gloria in excelsis Deo: Messa a 4 - 2:24

[3] in loco Graduale & Alleruia: Ave mater dilectissima - 7:02

[4] Credo: Messa a 4 - 13:31

[5] in loco Offertorium: Bone Iesu, fons amoris - 21:00

[6] Sanctus: Messa a 4 - 25:19

[7] ad Elevationem: O quam bonum, O quam iocundum - 26:41

[8] Agnus Dei: Messa a 4 - 34:56

[9] in loco Communio: O dulcis Iesu - 37:12

[10] in loco Deo gratias: Maria Magdalene stabat - 42:54

MUSIC SATURDAY - ISABELLA LEONARDA

“Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition.” - Timothy Leary

Isabella Leonarda (6 September 1620 – 25 February 1704) was an Italian composer from Novara. At the age of 16, she entered the Collegio di Sant’Orsola, an Ursuline convent, where she stayed for the remainder of her life. Leonarda is most renowned for the numerous compositions that she created during her time at the convent, making her one of the most productive woman composers of her time.

Anna Isabella Leonarda was born on September 6, 1620, the daughter of Giannantonio Leonardi and his wife, Apollonia. The Leonardi were an old and prominent Novarese family whose members included important church and civic officials and knights palatine. Isabella’s father, who held the title of count, was a doctor of laws. In 1636, Leonarda entered the Collegio di Sant’Orsola, an Ursuline convent in Novara. Her family maintained close ties with Sant’Orsola as benefactors, which some speculate may have contributed to Leonarda’s influence within the convent. She held various positions of authority throughout her time at Sant’Orsola - as madre (1676), superiora (1686), madre vicaria (1693), and consigliera (1700). The precise significance of these titles is unclear, but superiora was probably the highest office in the convent.

Leonarda was a highly regarded composer in her home city, but her music was apparently little known in other parts of Italy. Her published compositions span a period of 60 years, beginning with the dialogues of 1640 and concluding with the Motetti a voce sola of 1700. Leonarda is credited with producing nearly two hundred compositions during that period, though her only works appearing before 1670 were the dialogues printed by Gasparo Casati. It appears that she was over the age of 50 before she started composing regularly, and it was at that time that she began publishing the works that we know her for today.

Leonarda’s works include examples of nearly every sacred genre: Motets and sacred concertos for one to four voices, sacred Latin dialogues, psalm settings, responsories, Magnificats, litanies, masses, and sonate da chiesa. She also wrote a few sacred solo songs with vernacular texts. Sonate da chiesa refers to her Opus 16, which was historic in that it was an instrumental composition rather than vocal. Only two Italian women are known to have made contributions to instrumental music, each of them publishing only one collection in this field. Leonarda’s Opus 16 is one of these two collections, the other being a composition by Marieta Morosina Priuli.

Though Leonarda’s predominant genre was the solo motet, most of her notable historical achievements came from her sonatas. She was the first woman to publish sonatas, composing many throughout her lifetime. For example, Sonatas 1 through 11 are for two violins, violone, and organ. Sonatas 1, 3, 4, 7, and 8 are “concerted sonatas”: Each of the three instruments has at least one solo passage. Sonata 12 is Leonarda’s only solo sonata and one of her most renowned compositions. It is divided into seven sections with two slow movements which are recitative-like, inviting improvised embellishments.

Leonarda’s intricate use of harmonies is one example of her influence in the cultivation of polyphonic music at Sant’Orsola, as many other Italian nun composers were doing at their own convents during the same period. This style created an atmosphere conducive to the creativity of the musician, allowing for slight improvisation or musical ornamentation. Leonarda’s sonatas, however, are unusual in their formal structure. It is generally held that Arcangelo Corelli established the “standard” four-movement, slow-fast-slow-fast form of the sonata da chiesa. Leonarda’s sonatas, however, vary from as few as four (Sonatas 6 and 9) to as many as thirteen (Sonata 4), and her sonatas in four sections do not follow the slow-fast-slow-fast model.

Additionally, Leonarda uses refrains in a rather unusual way. Sonata 5 is the most regular; Sonata 10 has two refrains, in the pattern ABCDEBDFBG. Sonata 4 has the quite unusual plan of ABCDEFGHIJI'J'I'/'. Sections are essentially of three types: (1) fast sections in duple meter, often with some imitation, derived from the canzona tradition; (2) slow, expressive, homophonic sections in duple meter, related perhaps to the toccata and recitative; and (3) homophonic sections (occasionally with brief passages in imitation) in triple time, apparently related to the dance.

Here are Leonarda’s “Sonate a più Strumenti”, which are a wonderful introduction to the amazing music of this baroque woman composer.

ART SUNDAY - FRIDA KAHLO

“I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality” – Frida Kahlo

Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderon, as her name appears on her birth certificate was born on July 6, 1907 in the house of her parents, known as La Casa Azul (The Blue House), in Coyoacan. At the time, this was a small town on the outskirts of Mexico City. Her father, Guillermo Kahlo (1872-1941), was born Carl Wilhelm Kahlo in Pforzheim, Germany. He was the son of the painter and goldsmith Jakob Heinrich Kahlo and Henriett E. Kaufmann. Kahlo claimed her father was of Jewish and Hungarian ancestry, but a 2005 book on Guillermo Kahlo, ‘Fridas Vater’ (Schirmer/Mosel, 2005), states that he was descended from a long line of German Lutherans.

Wilhelm Kahlo sailed to Mexico in 1891 at the age of nineteen and, upon his arrival, changed his German forename, Wilhelm, to its Spanish equivalent, Guillermo. During the late 1930s, in the face of rising Nazism in Germany, Frida acknowledged and asserted her German heritage by spelling her name, Frieda (an allusion to ‘Frieden’, which means ‘peace’ in German). Frida’s mother, Matilde Calderon y Gonzalez, was a devout Catholic of primarily indigenous, as well as Spanish descent.

Frida’s parents were married shortly after the death of Guillermo’s first wife during the birth of her second child. Although their marriage was quite unhappy, Guillermo and Matilde had four daughters, with Frida being the third. She had two older half sisters. Frida once remarked that she grew up in a world surrounded by females. Throughout most of her life, however, Frida remained close to her father. The Mexican Revolution began in 1910 when Kahlo was three years old. Later, however, Kahlo claimed that she was born in 1910 so people would directly associate her with the revolution.

In her writings, she recalled that her mother would usher her and her sisters inside the house as gunfire echoed in the streets of her hometown, which was extremely poor at the time. Occasionally, men would leap over the walls into their backyard and sometimes her mother would prepare a meal for the hungry revolutionaries. Kahlo contracted polio at age six, which left her right leg thinner than the left, which Kahlo disguised by wearing long skirts. It has been conjectured that she also suffered from spina bifida, a congenital disease that could have affected both spinal and leg development. As a girl, she participated in boxing and other sports. 

In 1922, Kahlo was enrolled in the Preparatoria, one of Mexico’s premier schools, where she was one of only thirty-five girls. Kahlo joined a gang at the school and fell in love with the leader, Alejandro Gomez Arias. During this period, Kahlo also witnessed violent armed struggles in the streets of Mexico City as the Mexican Revolution continued.

After the accident, Frida Kahlo turned her attention away from the study of medicine to begin a full-time painting career. The accident left her in a great deal of pain while she recovered in a full body cast; she painted to occupy her time during her temporary state of immobilisation. Her self-portraits became a dominant part of her life when she was immobile for three months after her accident. Frida Kahlo once said, “I paint myself because I am often alone and I am the subject I know best”. Her mother had a special easel made for her so she could paint in bed, and her father lent her his box of oil paints and some brushes.

Drawing on personal experiences, including her marriage, her miscarriages, and her numerous operations, Kahlo’s works often are characterised by their stark portrayals of pain. Of her 143 paintings, 55 are self-portraits, which often incorporate symbolic portrayals of physical and psychological wounds. Kahlo was deeply influenced by indigenous Mexican culture, which is apparent in her use of bright colors and dramatic symbolism. She frequently included the symbolic monkey. In Mexican mythology, monkeys are symbols of lust, yet Kahlo portrayed them as tender and protective symbols.

Christian and Jewish themes are often depicted in her work. She combined elements of the classic religious Mexican tradition with surrealist renderings. At the invitation of Andre Breton, she went to France in 1939 and was featured at an exhibition of her paintings in Paris. The Louvre bought one of her paintings, ‘The Frame’, which was displayed at the exhibit. This was the first work by a 20th century Mexican artist ever purchased by the internationally renowned museum.

As a young artist, Kahlo approached the famous Mexican painter, Diego Rivera, whose work she admired, asking him for advice about pursuing art as a career. He immediately recognised her talent and her unique expression as truly special and uniquely Mexican. He encouraged her development as an artist and soon began an intimate relationship with Frida. They were married in 1929, despite the disapproval of Frida’s mother. They often were referred to as The Elephant and the Dove, a nickname that originated when Kahlo’s father used it to express their extreme difference in size.

Their marriage often was tumultuous. Notoriously, both Kahlo and Rivera had fiery temperaments and both had numerous extramarital affairs. The openly bisexual Kahlo had affairs with both men (including Leon Trotsky) and women; Rivera knew of and tolerated her relationships with women, but her relationships with men made him jealous. For her part, Kahlo became outraged when she learned that Rivera had an affair with her younger sister, Cristina. The couple eventually divorced, but remarried in 1940. Their second marriage was as turbulent as the first. Their living quarters often were separate, although sometimes adjacent.

Active communist sympathisers, Kahlo and Rivera befriended Leon Trotsky as he sought political sanctuary from Joseph Stalin’s regime in the Soviet Union. Initially, Trotsky lived with Rivera and then at Kahlo’s home, where they reportedly had an affair. Trotsky and his wife then moved to another house in Coyoacan where, later, he was assassinated.

A few days before Frida Kahlo died on July 13, 1954, she wrote in her diary: “I hope the exit is joyful - and I hope never to return – Frida”. The official cause of death was given as pulmonary embolism, although some suspected that she died from overdose that may or may not have been accidental. An autopsy was never performed. She had been very ill throughout the previous year and her right leg had been amputated at the knee, owing to gangrene. She also had a bout of bronchopneumonia near that time, which had left her quite frail.

Later, in his autobiography, Diego Rivera wrote that the day Kahlo died was the most tragic day of his life, adding that, too late, he had realised that the most wonderful part of his life had been his love for her. A pre-Columbian urn holding her ashes is on display in her former home, La Casa Azul, in Coyoacan. Today it is a museum housing a number of her works of art and numerous relics from her personal life.

The painting above is the “Self-Portrait on the Borderline between Mexico and the United States”, painted in 1932. Kahlo depicts her place as Mexican cultural renaissance overlapped with the promotion of regionalism in the United States. Her powerful and stoic portrayal of her own pain and the redemptive power of the feminine offered a peculiarly surrealist modernism to North America. Kahlo stands on the border of Mexico and the United States and pitched pre-Columbian society against Fordist industrial advance.