Maria Rosa Cocciaaus classic

Maria Rosa Coccia (* June 4, 1759 in Rome, Italy; † before November 21, 1833) was an Italian composer.

Life

Maria Rosa Coccia grew up in Rome as the eldest of the three daughters of Maria Angela Luzi and Antonio Coccia, a pharmacist. As a child, she showed her musicality in singing, playing the harpsichord, “ex tempore solfeggieren” (vocal improvisation) and in her ability to read music “in all keys”. After taking lessons from a saggia donna, a “wise woman”, presumably a nun, she was given lessons in singing and harpsichord by a celebre maestro, both names are not given. She then received several years of lessons in “all kinds of counterpoint” and fugue composition, the “stile antico” (church style) particularly cultivated in Rome, from Sante Pesci (Giuseppe Pesci), the chapel master of the Basilica Liberiana.

The diary lists three major musico-dramatic works by Coccia within a short space of time:

• The sacred oratorio Daniello nel Lago dei Leoni (Daniel in the Lion’s Den), performed on December 20, 1772 within the traditional Advent concerts of the Oratorio of St. Philip Neri in the church of Santa Maria in Vallicella (“Chiesa nuova” for short).
• The opera L’isola disabitata based on a text by Pietro Metastasio (1773/74?).
• Intermedio, performed at the Teatro Capranica.

In 1774, at his own request, Coccia passed a rigorous examination in seclusion before the Roman Congregazione di Santa Cecilia (Academy of Music), thereby acquiring the title of Maestra compositora and Maestra di Capella romana at the age of 15. This would have been associated with membership of the leading Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna. Mozart received this following his stay in Rome at the age of 14. But for Coccia, years of humiliating back and forth began.

The centuries-old ban on women making music in the church was lifted by Pope Clement XIV during his five-year term of office from 1769 to 1774, so that Maria Rosa Coccia’s musicality was gratefully noted by her father “as I have no sons”. He provided a very good musical education for his daughter, who was successful in ecclesiastical circles and in society as a child prodigy. The description of her abilities is similar to that of the young Mozart. The list of her musical works as a child is extensive, but unfortunately the oratorio Daniello, the opera L’isola disabitata (text: Pietro Metastasio) and the Intermedio (“per teatro Capranica”), which was only mentioned by her father in a letter, have been lost. It is assumed that both music-theatrical works were performed in the Teatro Capranica, as the dedicatee of the preceding oratorio, Signora Duchessa D. Marianna Gaetani Sforza Cesarini, was one of the patrons of this theater.

Maria Rosa Coccia herself gained access to the professional musical life of Rome by undergoing the aforementioned examination, which she successfully passed with the signature of the “Signori musici”, the bandmasters of Rome. These bandmasters of the four great basilicas were the leading figures in all musical matters and united to form the Congregatione di Santa Cecilia (now the Academy of Music). Without their permission, no musician was allowed to perform in public in Rome and no composer was allowed to publish music.

But soon after this examination, a music theory feud was started over Coccia’s head about the “stile antico”, the strictly guarded church style in Rome. Her examination had only been “judged positively in consideration of her gender”. In the background was the concern that Roman church musicians would lose power. The feud in speech and rebuttal dragged on for years and put a strain on Coccia’s youth. In particular, it was about whether Coccia could be accepted into the Accademia filarmonica di Bologna. It was only in 1779, after five years of crossfire since her examination in 1774, that she was confirmed in Bologna and the composer was recognized as a member of the academy. Together with Marianna von Martines, she was thus one of the only women in this male society. The assessment by the Bolognese Academy reads:

“(the board) immediately showed your excellent compositions to the other members, who examined them and praised them highly. It is instructed (…) to inform you that (…) these are quite sufficient to distinguish you from the general public as a profound, knowledgeable and well-founded professor of this science.”

Coccia’s compositions were performed in many churches, but she never had the opportunity to run her own chapel in Rome. The scoring of her works reveals that Coccia could hardly have reckoned with an instrumental ensemble such as belonged to a church position: most of them were conceived for voice with organ accompaniment; those with orchestral instruments were commissioned works. The cantata “Il Trionfo d’Enea”, written for vocal ensemble and orchestra, was composed after her admission to the Academy of Bologna and is dedicated to the royal couple of Naples and Sicily.

According to her letter of request for a pension in her later years, she was unable to put anything aside for her old age as she had to support her parents and younger sisters; she spent her life “teaching and composing”. As she lived to the age of seventy-four, she must have produced a body of work that far exceeds the number of works found to date, assuming only one work per year.

Source Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Rosa_Coccia