The Roman Maria Rosa Coccia (1759–1833) was a musical phenomenon of almost Mozartian precocity, becoming the first female composer to be awarded the professional distinction of maestra di cappella – at the age of fifteen. But the church could not contemplate the idea of a woman in charge of the music-making in a religious establishment, and so she hit a stained-glass ceiling; she seems to have given up composition in the mid-1780s, not yet 30. The freshness and buoyancy of her writing up to that point give an indication of what might have been.
Works:
•Maria Rosa Coccia: Magnificat a4 concertato
•Sante Pesci: Ave Maria a4
•Maria Rosa Coccia: Hic vir despiciens mundum
•Casali: Ad te levavi
•Maria Rosa Coccia: Sonate per Cembalo, Op. 1 No. 1
•Bolis: Assoluzzione Quarta
•Maria Rosa Coccia: Veni sponsa Christi
•Casali: Ave Maria a4
•Maria Rosa Coccia: Sonate per Cembalo, Op. 1 No. 2
•Maria Rosa Coccia: Veni creator spiritus a4 concertato
•Maria Rosa Coccia: Dixit Dominus a8 pieno