Musica Divina: the musician nuns of the Convent of Santa Clara in Oporto (1760-1830)

The importance of music in European female convents is well known, and the convents of Portugal are no exception. The music performed in the Portuguese convents was renowned among travelers who visited the kingdom. Its high quality can be verified through the vast quantities of preserved music scores, many of which were written by some of the finest composers in Portugal. The scores, which belonged to female convents in the city of Oporto, primarily date from the 1760s to the 1830s and are preserved in the National Library of Portugal. They reveal the outstanding vocal abilities of some of the nuns, who were also major patrons of the arts. They commissioned scores to be performed on specific occasions by particular vocal and instrumental ensembles, and composers had to consider the individual vocal abilities of each of the performers. In this paper, we propose a study of the music performed in the Convent of Santa Clara in Oporto, one of the most important female religious institutions in the city, where physical and human resources allowed for the production of a unique repertoire with particular, idiomatic characteristics.