? - fl 1597 - ?

Italian composer.
She was related by birth to the family of Cardinal Giovanni Ricci (1497–1574) and by marriage to the noble Tingoli family of Rimini.
Her only known publication, Il Primo libro de madrigali a cinque voci (Venice, 1597), contains 14 five-voice madrigals and an eight-voice dialogue by Ricci along with two madrigals by the otherwise unknown Alberto Ghirlinzoni.
Only two partbooks of this print survive, but a manuscript tablature includes complete versions of one of Ricci's and one of Ghirlinzoni’s madrigals. The print is dedicated to Cardinal Cinzio Aldobrandini.
All known authors of the texts set by Ricci (Antonio Ongaro, Tasso and Guarini) were associated with the academy Aldobrandini held at the Vatican.
The dedication text, which was signed from Monte Colombo, a village near Rimini, suggests that Ricci was also close to this circle.
Ricci's print contains short, homophonic pieces with repetitive villanella-structures as well as lengthy madrigals with passages in sophisticated imitative style.
Her pieces are similar in style to some collections of Ruggiero Giovannelli who might have been her teacher.

Bibliography:

E. Vogel: Bibliothek der gedruckten weltlichen Vocalmusik Italiens, aus den Jahren 1500 bis 1700 (Berlin, 1892/R)
J. Bowers: ‘The Emergence of Women Composers in Italy, 1566–1700’, Women Making Music: the Western Art Tradition, ed. J. Bowers and J. Tick (Urbana, 1986)
C. Fischer: ‘non suole Apollo sprezzar le muse’: Cesarina Ricci de Tingoli als Komponistin des ausgehenden Cinquecento (thesis, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, 1996)
B.G. Jackson: Say can You Deny Me (Fayetteville, KY, 1994)
Grove Music Online: www.oxfordmusiconline.com

Author:

Christine Fischer