ABSTRACT
Madalena Casulana claimed emphatically in the dedication to her Primo Libro de madrigali a quattro voci, published by Girolamo Scotto in 1568, that she expected to show the world the conceited error of men. Feminist writers throughout the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have underscored the phallic fantasies of power inherent in seizing the pen. Maganza's poem to Madalena is but another exchange between throat and phallus which coerces his pen to compose, to bring forth seed even as his own throat becomes temporarily barren to her vocal power. One of the most noticeable differences between Casulana's music and that of her peers is the fast paced rhythmic propulsion of the text. Eighth notes and offbeat accents abound, making the slower moving undulations of the throat even more noticeable. The reminder of the piece is a truly beautiful, mournful lament in canto part, remaining within a very limited number of pitches so as to avoid any thoughts of rhetorical outspokenness.
