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Jamila and the others…
Women making Music in the Mediterranean from the Sumerian Civilization until the Middle
Ages (Editore Colombo, Roma, 2007)
“Donne in Musica” has been working, since 1978, to empower women teaching composition
and encourage performances of their works. However, this greater participation in musical life
(leading to an almost total feminisation of the teaching profession in some countries) has not
changed school music curricula: women as creators of music are still absent. Italy has one of
the largest immigrant populations in Europe representing 250 ethnic groups. Ideally,
immigrant children should learn about their own music as well as the European music
traditionally taught. To ensure that this happens we have written a book for junior school
children (aged ten to thirteen) about our common musical heritage, highlighting the presence
of women musicians and creators of music. We invited researchers, throughout the
Mediterranean, to prepare scholarly texts (for separate publication later this year) and from
these and our own archives, the book was prepared in: Italian – used daily; English –
European “lingua franca” and Arabic – which many speak at home. This “pilot project” is
sustained by our Regional Department for Public Education and University Studies and a first
nine thousand copies of “Jamila” are being distributed to state schools throughout Lazio.
Format
“Jamila and the others…” is divided into chapters describing the history and musical traditions
of geographical areas or historical periods, with individual presentations for nearly fifty
women musicians, all beautifully illustrated with original paintings.
Mesopotamia, the Sumerians, the Egyptians and the Hebrews
The Birth of Western Culture: Ancient Greece
Rome: Empire and civilisation
Christianity: the music of the early Church
Byzantium
The Arab civilisation and the first women musicians
Al-Andalus or Andalusia
Troubadours and “Trobairitz”
“Dolce stil novo” and ’”ars nova”.
Extracts
“The first professional musicians in the Mediterranean were women who worked as
priestesses in the City of Ur, directors of music ensembles in Asia Minor and sacred
songstresses in Egypt. They sang and danced to celebrate life and intoned dirges to express
sorrow. The sound of their voices accompanied the sowing and harvesting of grain, the
arrival of the New Moon and welcomed home the men back from hunting. Women have left
prayers inscribed in cuneiform characters on stone tablets and on papyrus rolls, and all of this
over three thousand years ago…”
Enheduanna, 2285 approx to 2250 B.C., is the first woman composer and poetess in
history. Enheduanna means High Priestess of the Goddess Inanna. Her official home was the
giparu, a series of buildings in the centre of the city of Ur, where there was a large temple
dedicated to Inanna. Enheduanna spent her time praying and singing to protect the life of her
father, King Sargon, in the hope that the Gods would look favourably on the nation. The
hymns Enheduanna dedicated to Inanna represent the first human description of a Deity
described as the “most powerful amongst the Gods because She renders their decisions
active.” Enheduanna left three very long poetic hymns in honour of Inanna and forty-two
sacred hymns for use in temple liturgies.
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Polygnota was the daughter of Socrates, a Theban harpist, who, in 186 B.C., travelled to
Delphi to participate in the opening ceremony of the Pythian Games. The opening was
delayed and a competition for the best musician took its place. Polygnota won first prize and
played the chelys for a payment of 500 drachmas. She and her descendents were granted
Delphic citizenship, the right to consult the famous Oracle, and the privilege of speaking first
in a law suit. She was exempted from paying taxes, could own a house and have a seat in
the front row for the games. This is the first time in Greek history that a professional woman
musician is mentioned by name.
Badhl was a slave born in 820 A.D., in Medina and educated in Basra. She studied with
Ibrahim al-Mosuli, the most eminent musician of that time and was owned first by Ja’far Ibn
al-Hadi and then by Mohammed al-Amin. She had a personal repertoire of over 30,000 songs
and compiled a collection of 12,000 pieces of music for Ali, the Sheik of Hishām, for which he
paid 10,000 silver coins. Badhl accompanied her singing with the l’oud, and in a competition
with Prince Ibrahīm ibn al-Mahdī, sang 100 original songs. She was killed during a concert
when one of the barbaric guests, from the Tabanistan region, hit her on the head with his
oud.
Antonia Pulci (c.1452-1501) was the daughter of a Florentine banker and married Bernardo
Pulci, a well known poet. She wrote “sacred dramas or miracle plays” and “Lauds” produced
by Religious Confraternities and Convents. Of the three remaining “sacred representations”
for which Antonia wrote both the text and the music, we only have a date for Santa Domitilla,
1483. She also wrote San Francesco, Santa Guglielma and probably also the
Rappresentazione del figliuol prodigo, Sant' Antonio Abate, Festa di Rosanna, and Santa
Teodora. When her husband died Antonia retired to the convent she had built, and lived
there, until her death, with a group of Augustinian laywomen.
Fondazione Adkins Chiti: Donne in Musica
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