Celestial Sirens: Nuns and Their Music in Early Modern Milan (Oxford Monographs on Music)

The most famous musicians of early modern Milan were its cloistered nuns, despite the efforts of church officials to limit their musical lives. This book details the cultural context, religious traditions, musical styles, and personal meaning of the music written by and for them from the late sixteenth to the early eighteenth century, and outlines the ways in which their status as female virgins was--and was not--central to the musical expression of their piety.