TODAY’S PROGRAM

Chamber, Court & Convent:
Songs & Sonatas by 17th-Century Women Composers
March 20, 2026
Kemper Art Museum

Featuring:
Arianna Aerie & Samantha Arten, sopranos
Celina Boldrey, Baroque violin
Stephanie Hunt, viola da gamba
Jeffrey Noonan, theorbo & Baroque guitar

About Today’s Program:

Early Music Missouri brings a Women's History Month recital to the Kemper featuring songs and sonatas by women composer/performers from 17th-century Italy. The program includes secular music composed for a private academy in Venice and the Medici court in Florence as well devotional works for convents in Milan and Novara.

 Here is today’s playlist, including English translations of Italian and Latin lyrics:

Rendi alle mie speranze (Il primo libro delle musiche, 1618), Francesca Caccini (1587 – 1640)
Restore to my hopes the greenery, and the flowers
that disdain harshly and severely took away,
and now clear away the tears, and the sorrows,
and the anguish from my sad thoughts.
You who shatter hard hearts in breasts,
stir my lady's proud heart.
Love, who conquers all and can do anything,
let me see mercy in her eyes.

L’Eraclito amoroso (“Heraclitus in love”) (Cantate, ariette e duetti, Op. 2, 1651), Barbara Strozzi (1619 – 1677)
Listen you lovers, to the cause, oh God,
of my weeping:
in my handsome and adored idol,
whom I believed to be faithful, faith is dead.

I have pleasure only in weeping,
I nourish myself only with tears.
Grief is my delight and moans are my joys.
Every anguish gives me pleasure, every pain delights me,
sobs heal me, sighs console me.

But if that inconstant traitor denies me constancy,
at least let my devotion serve me until death, o tears.
Every sadness soothes me,
every sorrow sustains itself,
every ill afflicts me so much
that it slays and buries me.

La riamata da chi amava (“The former lover’s revival of love”), Barbara Strozzi
Slumber, oh my sorrow,
go to sleep, oh my suffering,
restrain your sighs and tears,
come to rest in a serene heart.

Be at peace, hopes,
quiet yourselves, desires,
distance yourselves, torments,
into infinite remoteness.

Blind suffering, you afflict me wrongly,
since Love wished to delight me
and restore to me my beautiful sun,
my life, my comfort.

My soul, return to enjoy
the one you desire with such passion,
run, my heart, to the beloved heart;
return to contentment, return to delight,
my soul, return to joy.

Te lucis ante terminum, Francesca Caccini
Before day’s end,
O creator of all things,
We call upon you
That with your accustomed mercy
You guide and guard us.

May dreams recede far away,
And phantoms of the night.
And overcome our enemy
Lest our bodies be polluted.

Be present, O Father all-powerful,
Through Lord Jesus Christ
Who with you into eternity
Rules with the Holy Spirit.

Sonata duodeciam a violino solo (Sonatae á 1, 2, 3, e 4 instromenti, Op. 16, 1693), Isabella Leonarda (1620 – 1704)
Adagio
Allegro e presto
Vivace e largo
Spiritoso
Aria, allegro
Veloce

O dulcis Jesu (Concerti sacri, 1642), Chiara Margarita Cozzolani (1602 – c.1676-78)
O sweet Jesus, you are the source of devotion,
you are the source of goodness, and the source of love,
and in you is the source of life, O sweet Jesus.

So let my soul drink only from you,
let it seek refuge only in you,
let it cry to you day and night;
for in you alone is true rest, true sweetness,
and true peace and life.

Most beloved Jesus,
grant me your sweetest light;
lovingly infuse, most pleasant Lord,
infuse the ray of your light into my soul,
so that, thus illuminated and radiant,
it may be worthy to see you,
to love you, to enjoy you in love,
to possess you in enjoyment with your saints forever.
O sweet Jesus.

Godere e tacere (“Delight and be silent”) (Il primo libro de madrigali, Op .1, 1644), Barbara Strozzi
The breeze and streams rejoice in our joy,
the wanton Cupids
play among the grasses and flowers,
and echo responds to our sweet songs.
On this joyful and auspicious day
the graces fly around us,
our hearts come to our lips,
and our souls unite to the sound of kisses.
Ah, say nothing more, be silent, my voice, be silent.

Chi desia di saper (Il primo libro delle musiche, 1618), Francesca Caccini
To whoever wants to know what love is,
I'll say it's nothing if not fever,
nothing if not suffering,
nothing if not dread,
nothing if not fury;
I'll say it's nothing if not passion
to whoever wants to know what love is.

To whoever asks if I'm in love,
I'll say that my fire is all burned out,
that I'm no longer tormented,
that I don't tremble, I'm not fearful,
and thus I live in contentment all the time;
I'll say that my fire is all burned out
to whoever asks if I'm in love.

About Early Music Missouri:

Early Music Missouri, the region’s foremost promoter and presenter of Early Music concerts, offers regular concerts of Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque repertoire performed on period instruments by specialist performers from the region and across the country. We also promote Early Music through education and research as well as performance. Begun as informal concerts in 2018, Early Music Missouri offers concerts, workshops, master classes and presentations focused on Early Music across the region. Informed by historical documents and original musical scores and guided by modern research, Early Music Missouri offers performances that reflect an Historically Informed Approach to technique, interpretation and performance. To meet this end, Early Music Missouri presents expert performers and performer/scholars who are some of the finest musicians of our region as well as out-of-town guest artists.

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