Beyond the Cloister

Donald Macleod examines how Leonarda’s music gained a wider audience beyond the walls of her convent.

As Christians around the world prepare for Easter, Donald Macleod explores the life and music of two nuns who were also composers. Though Hildegard of Bingen and Isabella Leonarda lived five centuries apart, their stories and music are connected by their shared faith and their shared vocations. Both lived cloistered lives, shut away in convents and cut off from the everyday concerns of the societies in which they lived. Yet they also enjoyed a profoundly rich and human connection with the world and with their God, revealed in the music and poetry they created and sent into the world.

Today, Donald Macleod is joined by early music expert Candace Smith. They investigate how Leonarda’s music reached beyond the walls of her convent, where she remained ‘enclosed’ for the whole of her life, to play a significant role in the cultural life of her home city, Novara.

Hildegard: O pastor animarum
Elizabeth Glen, soprano

Leonarda: Ave Regina Coelorum, Op 10
Cappella Artemisia, directed by Candace Smith

Leonarda: Purpurei Flores, Op 20
Leonarda: Sonata, Op 16 No 1
Myriam Leblanc, soprano
Ensemble La Cigale, directed by Madeleine Owen

Leonarda: Magnificat Op 19
Gruppo vocale musica Laudantes
Cappella Strumentale del Duomo di Novara, directed by Paolo Monticelli

Hildegard: O speculum columbe
Lydia Brotherton, soprano
Norbert Rodenkirchen, flute

Leonarda: Sonata Op 16, No 12
Rachel Podger, violin
Marcin Świątkiewicz, organ