Description
Book SynopsisThis book presents the first study of music in convent life in a single Hispanic city, Barcelona, during the early modern era. Exploring how convents were involved in the musical networks operating in sixteenth-century Barcelona, it challenges the invisibility of women in music history and reveals the intrinsic role played by nuns and lay women in the city's urban musical culture.
Drawing on a wide range of archival sources, this innovative study offers a cross-disciplinary approach that not only reveals details of the rich musical life in Barcelona's nunneries, but shows how they took part in wider national and transnational networks of musical distribution, including religious, commercial, and social dimensions of music. The connections of Barcelona convents to networks for the dissemination of music in and outside the city provide a rich example of the close relationship between musical networks, urban society, and popular culture.
Addressing how music was understood
Table of Contents
1. Mapping convents’ sounds in the city 2. Music as a commodity: Music, convents, and the economy of the city 3. Music as a symbol of political power and social status 4. Music to reach heaven 5. Beyond the city: Religious orders as national and international music networks
