Sulpitia Cesis (1577–c. 1619)
Composer
Works published by MoV
Stabat Mater (SATB)
Stabat Mater (SATB)
Composed in an earlier style and without basso continuo, Cesis’ motets have more in common with the late sixteenth-century polychoral compositions of Andrea Gabrieli than they do with the concertato style of her contemporaries. Some of her motets, including the Stabat Mater, were printed in high clefs (so-called chiavette), a choice suitable to an ensemble of cloistered nuns. But a performance outside the convents, or with instruments, was also foreseen, as is indicated by a rubric in the bass line: ‘alla quarta bassa’ (down a fourth). In this edition, we have struck a compromise and transposed the motet down a tone, allowing for a comfortable range for mixed voices. Though such a transposition might be considered unusual, it is interesting to note that two important treatises which provide instructions on how to transpose up or down by less common intervals (Cima’s Partito de’ Ricercari of 1606 and Lorenzo Penna’s Primi albori musicali of 1672) were both dedicated to nuns. (Candace Smith)
Stabat Mater (SATB)
This work is published in our anthology Volume 1 and as a licenced digital pdf
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Sulpitia Cesis (1577–c.1619)
Sulpitia Lodovica Cesis was an Italian composer born in Modena, Italy. The daughter of Count Annibale Cesis, she chose to enter the Augustinian convent of San Geminiano, renowned for its music, in Modena in 1593. Her only known work is the collection of 23 motets for two to twelve voices, Motetti Spirituali, which was published in 1619. The work is important both for the generally high quality of the works it contains and for the information it provides regarding performance practice in Italian convents in the early seventeenth century. Cesis dedicated the collection to a nun of the same name, Reverend Mother Anna Maria Cesis of the Convent of Santa Lucia in Rome, another priory that was also well known for its music. The motets are believed to have been performed at the doors of San Geminiano in 1596.
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