BIOGRAPHY   MUSIC   RECORDINGS  SOURCES

Rosa Giacinta Badalla hailed from the Milan area, likely Bergamo, and became a Benedictine nun at Santa Radegonda. The convent, in a diocese overseen by Archbishop Borromeo, was well known and flourished musically, partly due to the Archbishop’s belief that “singing sacred and wholly spiritual things…is divine praise.” Badalla wrote one collection of Motetti a voce sola in 1684 as well as two surviving secular cantatas, all published while in her twenties at the convent. Her compositional technique was unique for her time and her style has been noted as, “remarkable...for its patent vocal virtuosity, motivic originality, and self-assured compositional technique" (Kendrick). 

Music

The following selections are recommended for vocal study and programming on recitals and concerts. Please note that this list may not constitute the entirety of the composer's output. 

Recordings

Sources

Garvey Jackson, Barbara. "Rosa Giacinta Badalla." From Convent to Concert Hall. Sylvia Glickman and Martha Furman Schleifer, Editors. Greenwood Press, 2003. Pages 67-68.

Glickman, Sylvia. and Martha Furman Schleifer. Women Composers: Music through the ages, vol. 2. G.K. Hall, 1996.

Kendrick, Robert L. “Rosa Giacinta Badalla” Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press, 2001. https://doi-org.libproxy.temple.edu/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.01734

Kendrick, Robert L. “Rosa Giacinta Badalla.” The Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers, edited by Julie Anne Sadie and Rhian Samuel. Norton and Company, 1995.