Women-composers of the 17 century

This article describes women's composer creativity in European musical culture of the 17 century. Unknown foreign women composers, authors of chamber and symphonic music are in the focus of attention in this article. The first attempt is made to embrace women's creativity of that period to make up for the deficiency in literature written in Russian. At the same time historical and social aspects of this problem are important for the author. The goal of the author is to observe some names of unknown women composers of the 17 century and their biographical details, to reconstruct the picture of social status of women-authors and to describe some types of their creative activity. It is clear from the text of this article that authors of that historical period belonged to the type of composers which is called an enlighten amateur and had different social statuses (from ladies of royalty to less noble representatives of bourgeoisie). On the example of biography of Barbara Strozzi the most widely spread type of music activity of women composers in the 17 century (composer-performer) is shown in this article. Besides, the personality of the musician Francesca Caccini is also considered in this article, because her name is connected with the appearance of a new image of a woman-composer - the role of a court composer. In this article it is also pointed out that women authors of the 17 century manifested themselves in various musical genres. They composed arias, cantatas, instrumental sonnets, masses, motets, spiritual concerts, operas, ballets, musical dramas, madrigals, 237choruses, serious and drinking songs. Women composers of that period were skillful in different musical genres and it proves the growth of composers' mastery, the professionalism of women authors, the assimilation of various spheres of musical art and their more confident way to the profession of a composer. According to the extant documents and historical evidences the author points out that female music took an important place both in secular and church art of the 17 century, which is connected with changes in the attitude of the society towards women-creators and with acceptance of possibility of musical realization for women of different social strata. In the conclusion the author makes an accent on the fact that women composers took an active part in cultural European life of the 17 century, and their role in the development of music art was rather essential. Besides their activity as composers favoured the development of female music in the European cultural tradition and the appearance of new names of women composers in the following centuries

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