The Early Compositional Style of Madalena Casulana: A Reassessment of the Current Known Sources of Casulana’s Life and an Analysis of her Four Madrigals in Il Desiderio, 1566

Abstract

This study reassesses the primary sources which trace the life of Madalena Casulana (c. 1540 – c. 1590), including in-depth analyses of her first four madrigals which were published in the anthology Il Desiderio in 1566. As the first European woman to have published collections of music in her own name, her early works are seminal in the history of music, and yet widely unknown by the public and largely neglected even by music historians and early music specialists. Through examining her context and life in addition to the historical composition techniques used in these four works, this study aims to better understand Casulana’s early compositional style.