Bergamo, 1660 - Milan, c 1710

Italian composer.

A Benedictine nun, she took her vows at the musical convent of S Radegonda in Milan about 1678.
Her only printed collection, Motetti a voce sola (1684), is notable among contemporary Milanese solo motets for its vocal virtuosity, motivic originality and formal experimentation, with frequent use of ostinato figures and some surprising modulations.
Of her two surviving secular cantatas (a testimony to the practice of secular music inside S Radegonda’s walls), Vuò cercando is a succession of short da capo arias interspersed with recitative, while O fronde care (for which she also wrote the text) is a more extended piece with short melismas, repetitive bass patterns and instrumental sinfonie, probably dating from about 1700.

Bibliography:

Grove Music Online: www.oxfordmusiconline.com
Julie Anne Sadie e Rhian Samuel Norton / Grove Dictionary of Women Composers.

Author:

Robert L. KendrickRobert L. Kendrick. "Rosa Giacinta Badalla”

Works:

Motetti a voce sola, (Venice, 1684): 1 ed. in R.L. Kendrick: Celestial Sirens: Nuns and their Music in Early Modern Milan (Oxford, 1996); 1 ed. in S. Glickman and M.F. Schleifer: Women Composers: Music through the Ages (New York, 1997)
Vuò cercando, ed. in R.L. Kendrick: ‘Le sirene celesti’: Generations, Gender and Genres in Seicento Milanese Nuns’ Music (New York U., 1993)
O fronde care, A