Relics, Processions and the Sounding of Affections: Barbara Strozzi, the Archduchess of Innsbruck, and Saint Anthony of Padua

Authors

Sara M. Pecknold, The Catholic University of AmericaFollow

Abstract

In 1655, Barbara Strozzi issued her fifth and only sacred opus, the Sacri musicali affetti, a print comprising fourteen passionately religious motets for solo voice and continuo. This article demonstrates how Strozzi's final motet to Saint Anthony reflects a surge in trans-Alpine Antonine devotion--a devotional trend in which both Strozzi's dedicatee, Anna de' Medici, and possibly the composer herself, participated. This essay examines two particular events: a procession of Saint Anthony’s relics from Venice to Padua in 1652, and the founding of a Antonine confraternity at the court of Innsbruck in the same year. When these phenomena are examined alongside Strozzi’s composition, intriguing relationships come to light. The thread woven throughout these relationships is the notion of the affetti—affections or passions—an idea that pervades seventeenth-century religious art and music.

Author Biography

Sara Pecknold holds a Ph.D. in Historical Musicology from the Catholic University of America. She has received numerous rewards and honors, including the Irene Alm Memorial Prize from the Society for Seventeenth-Century Music, a Cosmos Club Research Grant, and the Jan LaRue Travel Fund Grant from the American Musicological Society. In March of 2016, she was featured on BBC Radio Three as part of a Composer of the Week series on Barbara Strozzi. She has taught courses in early music history, seventeenth-century sacred music, and musical paleography at George Washington University, the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, and the Catholic University of America. She is currently Clinical Assistant Professor of Musicology at Catholic University.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Pecknold, Sara M. (2016) "Relics, Processions and the Sounding of Affections: Barbara Strozzi, the Archduchess of Innsbruck, and Saint Anthony of Padua," Yale Journal of Music & Religion: Vol. 2: No. 2, Article 5.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17132/2377-231X.1061