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MIDDLE AGES/RENAISSANCE:
Hildegard Von Bingen was born in Anglo Saxon Europe (pre 1066) when a Women was
judged for the most part on her class(as we saw in the documentary). Wealthy women enjoyed
a small amount of respect while women of a lower stature were often cast away and placed in
convents. The constraints of the convent kept women musicians ostracized from society and left
only to perform and compose for each other. In fact it was not until 1916 that women were
allowed to perform in public mass. After the dark ages of feudal europe a major turning point
was the Protestant Reformation that being in 1517. For the first time women’s sacred music
moved outside the walls of the convent. The new religious changes that were taking place
called for Puritan and Huguenot women to practice new musical devotions within the home. At
this point women are still largely confined within the domestic sphere especially artistically. In
the late 1500s women were able to come to the Northern Italian Courts to join acclaimed female
vocal ensembles that could be heard outside of the home. And in the mid 1600s the growth of
female boarding schools aided greatly in women's knowledge of music and composition as well
as traditional core subjects. The exact dates for the middle ages and renaissance periods are
not as evident as they are in other eras. Instead we must understand that the movement away
from the convent and eventually away from the home in addition to the introduction of
widespread education proved to be instrumental to the burgeoning European women rights
movement and the ever changing role of the women musician.
