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Artemisia Editions » Catalogue » Convents » Reina: Two motets à 3 (MR-02)

Sisto Reina was born in Saronno near Milan and died, perhaps in Modena, sometime after 1664. A minorite monk, he was an organist as well as a composer, and served as organist and/or mæstro di cappella in Saronno, Milan, Piacenza and Modena.

Among the many collections which Reina dedicated to nuns is the Fiorita corona di melodia celeste dedicated to the nuns of San Giovanni Battista in Bologna. Addressed to the organist Suor Erminia Catterina Manzoli, this collection flies in the face of instrumental restrictions, for it contains, aside from the motet Dormis anima presented in this edition, a canzonetta spirituale for three voices and two violins, as well as a motet for bass solo and two cornetti (See MR 01.)

In the fancifully entitled collection Marsyae, et Apollini de musices principatu, op. 4, from 1653, the motet Surge filia Sion is dedicated to the organist and singer Donna Candida Maria Campi, and another to Donna Candida Aurelia Archinta, both nuns at the convent of S. Ambrosio in Cantù.

Both Surge filia Sion and Dormis anima were originally scored for two sopranos and bass, a popular ensemble in the seventeenth century, even in collections of music intended to be sung in the convents. Reina evidently knew that the nuns would not have been daunted by the problem of singing bass parts, presumably transposing them into their ranges as we have done here in the case of our edition for female voices. (In the rare cases where the bass parts go exceptionally low, we have provided ossia notes at the upper octave.)

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