Music and Ritual in a C16th Florentine Convent with Laurie Stras on Saturday 11th May 2024

This workshop is for upper voices, all viols, lower pitch recorders and dulcians. We would also welcome one or two continuo keyboard players (there will be one instrument provided). Instrumentalists may expect to be asked to sing or listen at times.

Instrumentalists please bring a labelled music stand.

The Music

The Biffoli-Sostegni manuscript, MS 27766 in the library of the Brussels Conservatoire, is the only surviving manuscript of polyphonic repertoire from a sixteenth-century convent.  The two nuns named on its binding, Clemenzia Sostegni and Agnoleta Biffoli, lived at the convent of San Matteo in Arcetri, which later became home to Suor Maria Celeste Galilei, ‘Galileo’s Daughter’.

The manuscript contains 78 works for equal voices that would have adorned the convent’s worship at its most solemn feasts and for its daily devotions. This full day workshop will introduce you to this fascinating record of the musical lives of Florentine nuns at the end of the Renaissance, exploring its song, psalmody, motets, and imitation masses.

Music will be provided on the day, or can be sent in advance as PDFs to download and print, or read from a device. (If you want advance copies please let the organiser know as soon as you have booked.)

Laurie Stras is Professor Emerita of Music at the University of Southampton and director of the ensemble Musica Secreta, with whom she has made six critically acclaimed recordings of polyphony from the 15th to the 17th centuries. Her research focus over many years has been the music and musical activities of women in Renaissance Ferrara and Florence: she is currently preparing a Cambridge Element on the Biffoli-Sostegni manuscript, and Musica Secreta have recently recorded this repertoire for a forthcoming album https://musicasecreta.org/

Laurie is an expert in the convent music of C16 Italy and has undertaken extensive research into the original sources, music often written by women for women.

The Venue – The Angel Centre is located in central Worcester, on the corner of The Butts and Angel Place. The entrance is at the side, in Angel Place, directly opposite the excellent Francini’s café (recommended for lunch.) Look out for the WEM banner by the door. There is no parking immediately outside, but the Cattle Market car park (off the Butts) is a five-minute walk away, up the hill, and costs £6 per 24 hrs, or Croft Road is slightly further (by the Racecourse) and slightly cheaper at £4. (Both carparks are Pay and display or Ringo, post-coded WR1 3NZ and are accessed from Croft Road).

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Worcester Foregate Street station is very close by in the Main (Foregate) Street.

Neither MEMF nor the venue can accept any responsibility for property lost or damaged.

Timetable for the day

10.00            Registration and drinks

10.30            Morning session (with a short break)

1.15              Lunch break – bring your own or use local shops and cafes

2.00              Afternoon session with tea break

5.00              Finish

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