Isabella Leonarda (1620-1704) was an Italian composer who lived and worked in the Ursuline convent Collegio di S Orsola from 1636 until her death. She served in various capacities, including music instructor, mother and clerk, mother superior, madre vicaria, and a counsellor.
Leonarda wrote approximately 200 works in nearly every sacred genre of her time ranging from small instrumental sonatas to large concerted masses and psalm settings. Her 1693 Op. 16 collection of instrumental works is the earliest known published book of sonatas by a woman in Western Europe. It is uncertain who she studied with, but she may have had lessons with Gasparo Casati, the maestro di cappella of Novara Cathedral. As a composer Leonarda was regarded as “la Musa novarese” and a sonnet by A. Saminiati Lucchese compared her musical abilitiies to the military prowess of Emperor Leopold I. Her music demonstrates trends of both conservative imitative polyphony as well as more modern chamber cantatas alternating recitatives and arias with instrumental ritornelli. Her harmonic language is often quite colorful, employing Neapolitan and Augmented Sixth chords to create highly-emotive text painting.
Source
Carter, Stewart A. “Isabella Leonarda.” Grove Music Online. 2001
Works Featured on Expanding the Music Theory Canon
O sylvæ, ò montes, ò garruli fontes
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Pages: Hemiola, Sequences
Adagio-Presto from Sonata Terza, Op. 16
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Page: Suspensions
Prestissimo from Sonata Quarta, Op. 16
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Pages: I, I6, V, V6, Simple Meters
Adagio from Sonata Quinta, Op. 16
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Pages: I, I6, V, V6, Suspensions
Adagio from Sonata Decima, Op. 16
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Page: viio6, viio7+inversions
Presto from Sonata No. 9, Op. 16
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Page: Sequences