Maddalena Casulana was the first woman to publish her own collections of madrigals. She was admired by her contemporaries and had personal contact with composers such as Nicola Vicentino (probably her teacher) and Orlandus Lassus. In the foreword to her madrigal collection from 1568, she writes boldly that she wants to disprove the claim that women cannot compose like men. Liane Sadler and Elias Conrad have adapted madrigals by Casulana and her contemporaries for the Renaissance traverso and lute. These polyphonic pieces are often constructed as a dialogue between two characters, or as a narrator puzzling over their own thoughts in an internal conversation. In Liane Sadler and Elias Conrad’s version, this becomes an expressive dialogue between the traverso and lute.
Program
Music by M. Casulana, C. de Rore, O. Lassus & N. Vicentino
Performers
Liane Sadler, Renaissance traversos | Elias Conrad, lute
