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the sexual imagery and innuendo that was common in madrigal literature. In fact, her choice of
texts reveals that she was well-versed in the philosophical debates of the time regarding
sexuality. Nonetheless, the way that she set these texts to music distinguishes her as she
reinforces her self-proclaimed desire to reveal the “conceited error of men.” This thesis explores
the ways in which Casulana created her own space within the male-dominated society of
sixteenth-century Italy and how, through her mastery of signs and symbols of the madrigal, she
sought to alter the poetic representation of women within the madrigal texts. Through such
indicators, she metaphorically liberated women from their role as the hunted, conquered, and the
sexually inviting objects of male fantasy and set herself apart as a skilled and creative composer.
1.1 FEMINIST INQUIRY
As history has taught us, the understanding of music as a pure art form, ethereal and
otherworldly, outside of the cultural influences that gave rise to it, impedes deep understanding
of it as a product of human creativity and invention. Feminist musicologists, especially, have
championed this approach, extending the cultural factors to include the different cultural norms
for men and women as contributing influences to the aesthetic and stylistic choices of male
versus female composers. Sally MacArthur discusses the stumbling blocks that hinder feminist
inquiry in music. She writes:
Music has been slowest to take up the idea that women’s music
adopts aesthetic strategies different from those in men’s music… it
is thought that meanings that reside in music itself can never be
decoded in terms of the social and political contexts in which it
was produced… The idea that meanings are embedded in music
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