Claudia Francesca Rusca
Born: 1593, Milan, Italy
Died: 6 October 1676, Milan, Italy
BIOGRAPHY MUSIC RECORDINGS SOURCES
Claudia Francesca Rusca was a soprano, composer, organist and music teacher. She began her musical education at home before taking vows at the Umiliate monastery of S. Caterina a Brera in Milan. Similar to Chiara Cozzolani’s family, in which several members entered the same convent together, it is believed that Rusca’s aunts, cousins and sisters also took vows at S. Caterina with her. Rusca composed sacred concertos, Vespers, and motets, and her two canzoni francesi are the first known preserved instrumental works by a woman.
During the 17th century, music performance and composition in convents in Milan was heavily moderated by Archbishop Federico Borromeo to ensure that all music performed there emphasized penitence and humility. He wanted to shape convent music while also ensuring that the nuns’ music education helped them achieve musical competence. Suor Angela Confaloniera, a nun with spiritual gifts who became one of Rusca’s music pupils at S. Caterina, wrote letters regularly to Archbishop Borromeo. In a letter intended to ask permission for Rusca to dedicate one of her works to him, Confaloniera wrote, “The nun [Rusca] knows how to compose, and she has composed a number of motets, and her brothers are having them printed, and they want to dedicate them to Your Most Illustrious Lordship as a sign of gratitude owed to you for the benevolence you show our monastery. These pieces have been much praised…..This woman is very spiritual and I think they have been composed with much devotion. ” It is likely that Confaloniera wrote to the Archbishop in Rusca’s place because she was better acquainted with him.
The collection dedicated to Borromeo, titled Sacri concerti a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, e 8 voci e Canzoni francesi a 4 was published in Milan by music printer Giorgio Rolla in 1630 before a plague hit the city. This music has survived hundreds of years and several tragedies and is still available today.