#ClassicsaDay #WomensHistoryMonth Week 1, 2022

The Classics a Day team chose Women's History Month as the theme for March. Actually, it's been the March theme for the past five years. And there are still many composers to explore.

As always, I try to shore works I haven't posted before. And as always for this month, I'm posting works by composers I've just discovered (both past and present). Here are my #ClassicsaDay posts for the first week of #WomensHistoryMonth.

03/01/22 Kassia (c.810-867) - O Phariseos

Who's the earliest known female composer? It's not Hildegard von Bingen. Kassia checks in two centuries before Hilde's birth. And her music is still performed in Eastern Orthodox churches to this day.

03/02/22 Anna Bon - Flute Sonata Op. 1, No. 1 in C major

Bon published her Opus 1 set of flute sonatas at age 18 in 1756. She would publish two other collections of music before disappearing from history in 1769.

03/03/22 Maria Rosa Coccia (1759-1833) - Hic vir despiciens mundum

Coccia was the only woman to enter the Accademia di Santa Cecelia (at last in the 18th C.). This work was her final exam (which she passed) at age 16.

03/04/22 Maria Teresa Agnesi - La Sofonsiba, overture

Agnesi enjoyed the patronage of Maria Theresa, the Holy Roman Empress. She was an accomplished keyboardist, and many of her surviving works are for the harpsichord. This overture is from one of her six known operas.