Kassia of Constantinople

Yet it was her prettiness that caught the eye of the Emperor in the year 830 (Kassia was 25). In this year, according to a number of Byzantine chroniclers, Kassia appeared in a ‘Bride Show’. These were events in which people were sent throughout the empire to find a wife for the Emperor and would bring them back to Constantinople, the capital city. According to the chroniclers, at one such show, the Emperor saw Kassia and was struck by her beauty.

Kassia of Constantinople

The history of music is filled with the lives of many men, but tragically, the story of the vast contributions women made to the growth of music has been left out. Women were singers and musicians, composers and inventors and without the talented and committed work of countless women, our musical heritage would be slim and uninventive.

Many contribute hundreds of pages of Bach’s most famous works to his wife, Anna Magdalena.

Mozart’s sister, Nannerl, was considered a more talented and hard-working musician.

The most talented pianist to come out of Europe in the 1800s was Clara Schumann who was consistently sought after to premiere new piano works. Luckily today the contributions of all people to music is more accurately recorded and celebrated.

The story of the first female composer (although there were thousands before her) begins in the Medieval Ages with Kassia of Constantinople.

Correctly or not, Kassia - born around 805 - is often called "the first female composer of the Occident" (the Western world) and her place in folklore was sealed even before we knew of her music. Kassia was courageous, highly educated and beautiful. She was so beautiful, in fact, that the Emperor of Constantinople - Emperor Theophilus - wanted her as his wife. Not taken with the idea of becoming Empress, Kassia rejected his advances (more on this in a minute) and chose instead to become an abbess and poet.

Kassia came from a noble family and was well-educated. In a letter to her, Theodore the Studite - one of the most important thinkers of the 9th century - wrote that he was ‘astonished’ by her intelligence and knowledge, especially in one so young. He went on, ‘the fair form of your discourse has far more beauty than a mere prettiness’.

Kassia was having none of his advances. The Emperor remarked upon meeting her that women were responsible for much of the evil in the world. Quick-witted, Kassia replied, “And through women, the better things.” She then turned to a friend saying ‘There is absolutely no cure for stupidity.’ She went on, ‘knowledge in a stupid person is a bell on a pig’s snout’.

About 50 of her magical hymns survive, perhaps the most famous being one subtitled “I hate the rich man moaning as if he were poor.” Kassia set her life to helping those in need and was harshest towards those who used their power and wealth only for themselves. She famously said “I hate silence when it is time to speak.”

Kassia was also a fighter for the voice of women, often telling the stories of unnamed women from the bible in her music.

Kassia was one of the first composers to use the simple one line (monophonic) Gregorian chant with the more complicated polyphonic structure.

After rejecting the hand of the Emperor, Kassia became a nun at a convent in Xerolophos, outside the capital of Constantinople. There she became a prolific poet and composer. Of the hundreds of hymn composers from the Eastern Church, only four women can be positively identified and only one of these – Kassia -- had her works incorporated into official service books for use in church worship. She also wrote secular works.

Early work of Kassia

Later work of Kassia