Vincent Chang

Dr. Eagen-Jones
MUS414
12 March 2021
Annotated Bibliography

NEW XYZ: Ospedali in the Baroque period were rising organizations that took in orphaned
children, primarily young girls. Women were given high musical education at the
ospedale, among other fields, allowing them to rise to the male figures during this time.
This proves significant in that women were limited not by their lack of talent or
inferiority to men, but by the lack of high-quality resources due to sexism.

Citation style: MLA

Oxford Music Entry:

Talbot, Michael. "Anna Maria." Grove Music Online. 2001. Oxford University Press. Date of
access 12 Mar. 2021, <https://www-oxfordmusiconline-
com.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001
/omo-9781561592630-e-0000052217>

(This is not my main focus of my paper! I searched up Ospedale and Ospedale della
Pieta, but I was able to find the individuals who resided or taught at the ospedali, so I
have a small annotation below about one of the more famous individuals)

One of the most famous members of the Ospedale della Pieta, Anna Maria studied under
Vivaldi and became a coveted violinist, and later on teacher. This short article generalizes
Anna Maria’s life and her evolution from a performer to a teacher. It also mentions
Vivaldi’s dedicated pieces to Anna Maria.

This article will serve in my paper as a sort of introductory example for the musical
prowess of women within the ospedale.

Search terms: Ospedale, Ospedale della Pieta, (Ospedale della Pieta) AND (women)
Ospedale della Pieta gave the best results however quite a few of these were in a
foreign language as Ospedale della Pieta is Italian. Ospedale gave me Italian medical
articles about HIV and vaccinations, while (Ospedale della Pieta) AND (women)
provided me with only sources about women and the occasional women in the
renaissance.

Arnold, Denis. “Music at the 'Ospedali'.” Journal of the Royal Musical Association, vol. 113, no.
2, 1988, pp. 156–167. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/766356. Accessed 12 Mar. 2021.

This article details the state of music making in the Ospedali, specifically two
ospedali, the Ospedaletto and the Ospedale della Pieta. Within the Ospedali were
oprhaned or “donated” children who were raised inside the system. Naturally, the
 Ospedali became a sort of orphanage school and teaching was emphasized. In the realm
of music, there were teachers who were given the title maestri, who were typically
composers as well. Gasparini and Vivaldi were two notable composers who changed the
make-up of the Ospedale. Gasparini wrote mainly for the Ospedali choruses/orchestras,
as what the article stated as a “composer-in-ordinary) and arranged for more composers
to come in and teach star pupils. Vivaldi took over after Gasparini’s retirement but
refused to be officially associated as a maestri or composer-in-ordinary, as it would limit
his opportunity. He reared many female pupils to become professional level musicians, as
commented in their performance of Juditha triumphans.

I hope to use this article to assist in underlining the structure of music making
within ospedali. Arnold does a great job detailing examples of different roles in music
education in the ospedale, however I struggled to receive a clear definition of terms such
as maestro di capella or maestro di musica, so I will have to find other sources that
explain this more in detail. I plan on utilizing page 5 in particular to highlight the students
and composers’ relationship in music education.

“Women And Song In Eighteenth-Century Venice: CHORAL MUSIC AT THE FOUR

CONSERVATORIES FOR GIRLS.” The Choral Journal, vol. 18, no. 2, 1977, pp. 15–
24. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23544930. Accessed 13 Mar. 2021.

Detailing the other three ospedali as well, this journal article highlights the female
centric nature of the ospedali and its origins as such. Specifically the Ospedale della Pieta
started out as a foundling hospital and is now a maternity hospital, showing its roots in
helping unfortunate children. The other three are the L’Ospedaletto, Ospedale degli
Incurabili, and L’Ospedale dei Mendicanti, which all arose from certain needs for
support, be it from an unknown disease or incurable illness. This article focuses its latter
half on the Ospedale della Pieta due to the nature of the hospital. As young girls with no
serious health conditions resided here, education became integral to the program and
talent flourished there. Oratories were written for women and tenors and basses were
rarely included (although Vivaldi did peculiarly write quite a few for the Ospedale della
Pieta), of which many remain today.

I really enjoyed how they pushed the effect of Ospedale on women in the center
few pages, and it also elucidated the general structure of ospedale and their adaptive
functions. In my paper I hope to use this article to reference female centric music and fill
holes that were presented in the “Music at the ‘Ospedali” article.

Selfridge-Field, Eleanor. “Music at the Pietà before Vivaldi.” Early Music, vol. 14, no. 3, 1986, pp.
373–386. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3127110. Accessed 13 Mar. 2021.

This article details specifics about the Ospedale della Pieta before Vivaldi became
involved with the organization. It goes over more musical aspects of the compositions
unique to ospedali, and subsequently highlights the extensive use of female singers and
 musicians. Selfridge-Field delves into the growing popularity of these organizations.
Since they were not bound by the church, they were the main source of entertainment
during lent, and many well-known composers came here during lent to continue music
making.
Selfridge-Field brings up observations which back up my argument that women
with more abundant resources can reach the same level of artistry as men. For instance,
the abundance of writing for female voice ranges allowed women to develop their range
and become more virtuosic singers.

Kintzel, Robert and Charles E. Muntz. "Vivaldi, Gasparini, Mary Magdalene, and the Women of
the Pietà." Women and Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture, vol. 20, 2016, p. 27-56.
Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/wam.2016.0002. Accessed 18 Mar. 2021

Robert Kintzel and Charles E. Muntz writes a yearly journal. In this section of the
20th volume, they focus on two major composers’ effect on one of the Ospedali Grandi,
the Ospedale della Pieta. The article highlights Gasparini’s oratorios, establishing the
virtuosic nature of the female orchestra through the quotes of Francesco Coli, an editor
and critic enamored with the figlie del coro (or female musicians). It also touches on
Vivaldi’s assistance in educating women. However, instead of focusing on the effect
Vivaldi had on these female orphans/musicians, they focus on his subject for his
oratorios, Mary Magdalene, which is described in the second half. This article is useful to
my research in that it provides primary opinions on the Ospedale’s female musicians
from Francesco Coli, as well as exemplify the exceptionality of the Ospedale della Pieta
over the other Ospedali Grandi in terms of artistic education/performances.

Talbot, Michael. “Tenors and Basses at the Venetian ‘Ospedali.’” Acta Musicologica, vol. 66,
no. 2, 1994, pp. 123–138. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/932767. Accessed 19 Mar. 2021.

Michael Talbot writes a journal article about the presence of tenor and bass voices
in compositions created within the Ospedali. His primary focus is of the three different
perspectives on the existence of these male-dominated ranges in predominantly female
organizations.
The three perspectives:
1. Men were brought in to sing the tenor and bass voices
2. Females took the tenor and bass voices, only transposing if absolutely necessary
3. Females would take the tenor and bass voices and transpose them, rather as an
exception, more as a rule
4. The bass voice written was never expected to be performed, as it was typically
doubled in the orchestra.
This article helps in understanding the presence of, or lack thereof, of men within the
Ospedali. It also details the differences between different Ospedali in terms of the
population makeup (ie: how many women were there, the talent population, size).
Jackson, Barbara Garvey. “Musical Women of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.”
Women and Music: A History, edited by KARIN PENDLE, 2nd ed., Indiana University
Press, 2001, pp. 97–144. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt16gz6w7.9. Accessed 19 Mar.
2021.

Barbara Garvey Jackson, in her book “Women and Music: A History,” details
“Musical Women of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries,” as shown in her title of
the fifth chapter. She focuses on a variety of musical women, like the Caccini family,
Barbara Strozzi, Antonia Bembo, etc., as well as dedicating a section to Venetian
conservatories (which she reveals to be the Ospedali). In her section speaking of the
Ospedali, Jackson focuses on the paths laid for women due to their education in music at
the Ospedali, such as becoming maestri or musicians within the orphanages, or enrolling
in music academies with their strong educational background. I hope that this chapter will
provide some evidence to the success of women in situations where they are given similar
resources as men.