Anna Guarini - Influence

Influence

The addition of women's voices, and in particular the high soprano range, was one of the most significant events in the history of singing in the late 16th century. Prior to this time almost all music was written for male voices. Anna Guarini was one of the most influential of the virtuoso singers in the upper soprano range during this transitional period.

The four singers of the concerto di donne inspired numerous compositions by the leading composers of the court, including Luzzasco Luzzaschi, Lodovico Agostini, and others. In addition, their fame was so widespread that composers from elsewhere — such as the nobleman Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa (who also murdered his first wife) — came to Ferrara specifically to write music for them. Anna was famous for her vocal virtuosity and the beauty of her voice, and Agostini dedicated specific madrigals to her specifically in his third book of madrigals (1582). The vogue for music written for soprano voices was to prove durable; indeed it has never ended. Monteverdi's first book of madrigals (1587) features soprano voices as the main attraction; in most of the pieces the bass voice only enters after a rest of several bars, allowing the upper voices to begin.

The poet Torquato Tasso praised her in verse, in his Mentre in concento alterno, as did Agostini himself in the introduction to his 1582 madrigal collection.