Renaissance and early Baroque German music culture appears
at first glance to have been exclusively in the hands of men—whether in
professional circles, court orchestras, churches, or musicians’ guilds,
women were as such non-existent. Upon closer examination, however, one finds
numerous occasions in which women had the opportunity to make music and exert a
certain influence on musical life. This covert culture of female musicianship,
spanning the fifteenth to the early eighteenth century, existed within numerous
segments of the nobility and common citizenry, as well as in convents. The
extent of women’s activities as patron and muse, as intermediary,
collector, singer and instrumentalist (both professional and private), and, on
the rare occasion as composer, are delineated in this article by way of general
description and short case studies.