Gran miracol d' amore (Maddalena Casulana, ed. Michael Winter)

In Gran miracol d’amore, Maddalena Casulana turns to a more introspective and philosophical tone, reflecting on the paradox of love that both gives life and takes it away. The madrigal explores the fragile boundary between joy and suffering, as the soul, overwhelmed by love, finds itself both revived and undone. Casulana approaches this text with lyrical restraint and emotional nuance. Her setting gently unfolds the madrigal’s central contradiction: life sustained by the very force that makes it unbearable. Delicate harmonic colorations and subtle shifts in texture give voice to the tension between longing and surrender, love and death.

Catalogue number: CE2502

ISMN: 979-0-708266-31-0

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Maddalena Casulana (c. 1544 – c. 1590) was an Italian composer, singer, and lutenist, and the first woman known to have published music. She was likely born near Siena, and benefited from the patronage of Isabella de' Medici

Her Primo libro de’ madrigali (1568) was a landmark publication, not just musically, but socially. In its dedication, Casulana challenged the belief that intellectual and artistic talent belonged only to men. She wrote of the desire ‘to show to the world… the foolish error of men who so greatly believe themselves to be the masters of high intellectual gifts that [these gifts] cannot… be equally common among women.’

Casulana was well respected in her time, traveling to Munich to compose for a royal wedding, performing in elite academies, and inspiring dedications from poets and musicians alike. Though her output was small, her impact was historic as a pioneer for women in music publishing and composition.