'On Lightest Leaves Do I Fly': Redemption and the Renewal of Identity in Barbara Strozzi's 'Sacri musicali affetti' (1655)

In 1655, Venetian courtesan-composer Barbara Strozzi issued her only sacred opus, the Sacri musicali affetti, a volume of fourteen stunningly virtuosic solo motets. Scholars have puzzled over her motivation to do so. My dissertation argues that Strozzi published the Sacri musicali affetti the year before her illegitimate daughters entered the convent of San Sepolcro in order to refashion her identity from the immoral muse of her father's Accademia degli Unisoni to a devout mother of consecrated, virginal daughters. To this end, Strozzi dedicated the print to Anna de' Medici, Archduchess of Innsbruck, and chose as the first motet a paean to Saint Anne, whose pious but non-virginal motherhood of Mary serves as a lens through which Strozzi herself (and her dedicatee) may be perceived.;My research method is to examine the motets according to theological-thematic type: motets about the birth of Mary, motets to Saint Peter, other Marian motets, motets to the Blessed Sacrament and to the Most Holy Name of God, and motets to Saints Jerome, Benedict, and Anthony. I investigate the socio-historical circumstances surrounding each motet category, bringing to light several previously unknown associations between the Sacri musicali affetti and various phenomena in Strozzi's seventeenth-century world. For example, the Eucharistic motets and Oleum effusum to the Most Holy Name of God evoke previously overlooked remarks in the final will of Barbara Strozzi's father, Giulio. In light of the impassioned prayer that concludes this will, I offer an alternative interpretation of the Sacri musicali affetti as a votive offering for Giulio's soul.;The chapters conclude with textual-musical analyses, which examine Strozzi's nuanced treatment of the motets' profound liturgical intertextuality. In the conclusion, I consider the significance of the final motet to Saint Anthony of Padua in light of Strozzi's reception of the Sacrament of Penance just before her death in Padua in 1677. I suggest that Barbara Strozzi traveled to Padua in order to celebrate the Feast of Saint Anthony in June of that year, and to receive the indulgence offered to pilgrims who visited Anthony's tomb on his feast day.