Claudio Monteverdi

Portrait of Claudio Monteverdi in Venice, 1640, by Bernardo Strozzi.

Claudio Monteverdi (May 15, 1567 (baptised) – November 29, 1643) was an Italian composer, violinist and singer. His work marks the transition from Renaissance to Baroque music. During his long life he produced work that can be classified in both categories, and he was one of the most significant revolutionaries that brought about the change in style. Monteverdi wrote the earliest dramatically viable opera, Orfeo, and was fortunate enough to enjoy fame during his lifetime.

Life and Works

Claudio Monteverdi (Monteverdi stands for "green mountain" in Italian) was born in Cremona in northern Italy, son of a chemist who secretly practiced medicine in an age when this was as an illegal activity. His mother Maddalena died when he was nine. The father married the second wife, who died when Monteverdi was 16. The following year the father married for the third time, and in the same year, the authorities finally endorsed his medical work. As a child he served as a chorister and studied music under Marc Antonio Ingegneri, who was maestro di cappella at the cathedral in Cremona. Since there is no record of him singing in the cathedral choir, the music lessons must have been private.

Monteverdi produced his first music for publication—some motets (a polyphonic composition usually in 3 parts, each sung at a different speed and using different words and sacred madrigals— the major genre of Italian secular music in the sixteenth century, around the age of 15, so he was a child prodigy. Around the age of twenty he produced his first book of secular madrigals, and shortly thereafter began to look for work outside of his native town.

A job offer came in 1590 from the court of Duke Vincenzo I of Gonzaga in Mantua, where Monteverdi began working at as a vocalist and viol player, and by 1602 he was promoted to conductor. The Gonzaga family was under the musical guidance of a Flemish composer, but Monteverdi soon became recognized to the point that he was made part of the Duke’s traveling court on his military expeditions in Europe, which brought Monteverdi to the regions of the Danube River and to Flanders.

He met his future wife, Claudia Cattaneo, at the court, where she was a singer, and married her in 1595. Claudia died young in 1607, leaving him with two infant sons.

Madrigals

Until his fortieth birthday he focused on madrigals, composing nine books of them. The Quinto Libro (Fifth Book), published in 1605, was at the heart of the controversy between Monteverdi and Giovanni Artusi, where the latter attacked the "crudities" and "license" of the modern style of composing, centering his attacks on madrigals (including Cruda Amarilli, see Media, below) from the fourth book. Monteverdi made his reply in the introduction to the fifth book, with a proposal of the division of musical practice into two streams: what he called prima pratica, and seconda pratica. Prima pratica stands for the previous polyphonic ideal of the sixteenth century, with flowing strict counterpoint, prepared dissonance, and equality of voices; seconda pratica is based on a much freer counterpoint with an increasing hierarchy of voices, emphasizing soprano and bass. This represents an unconscious move towards the new style of monody.

The introduction of a continuo instrumental part in many of the madrigals of the fifth book is a further self-consciously modern feature. In addition, this book showed the beginnings of conscious functional tonality.

The Ottavo Libro (Eighth Book???), published in 1638, includes Madrigali dei guerrieri ed amorosi which many consider to be the perfection of the madrigal form. As a whole, the first eight books of madrigals show the enormous development from the Renaissance polyphonic music to the monodic style, with its emphasis on clear melodic lines, intelligible text and placid accompanying music, which is typical of Baroque music.

The ninth book of madrigals, published posthumously in 1651, contains lighter pieces, such as canzonettas, probably composed throughout his lifetime and representing both styles.

Operas

Opera was a natural transition from monody, especially for a dramatically inclined composer who also loved grand effect. In 1607 he composed his first opera, Orfeo (or The Fable of Orpheus). It was common at that time for composers to create works on demand for special occasions, and this piece was meant to add some luster to the annual carnival of Mantua. Not only was it a great success, capturing eloquently the spirit of the times, but it coined a new style of music, the dramma per musica (musical drama). Monteverdi’s operas are usually labeled "pre-Baroque" or "early-Baroque".

Orfeo is marked by its dramatic power and lively orchestration, and is arguably the first example of a composer assigning specific instruments to parts. Orchestra numbered about forty instruments, never used all at one time. In many places he specified which instruments were to play. It is also one of the first large compositions in which the exact instrumentation of the premiere has come down to us. The score includes an introductory "toccata" (a short fanfare-like movement twice repeated).

The plot is described in vivid musical pictures, and the melodies are linear and clear. The title did not include the name of Eurydice, something that most composers that came after him did in keeping with the Orpheus legend. Eurydice in Monteverdi’s rendition is merely a secondary character.

Next opera, Arianna, followed in 1608 but only a few fragments and one number, the Lament, have been preserved. The Lament was admired in the seventeenth century as a superb example of expressive monody, one that when sung well never failed to move the audience to tears. Monteverdi later arranged it as a five-part madrigal and afterwards reworked the original version into a sacred text.

Vespro della Beata Vergine 1610 (Monteverdi)|Vespro della Beata Vergine 1610 (The Vespers of the Blessed Virgin 1610) is lauded as Monteverdi's greatest piece. This is one of his few sacred works of any scale, but it remains to this day one of the greatest examples of devotional music, matched only by works such as Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli, Handel's Messiah, and J. S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion. The scope of the work as a whole is breathtaking—each of the 25 parts is fully developed in both a musical and dramatic sense, using instrumental textures to an express dramatic and emotional effect in an unprecedented manner.

The Vespers are also one of the best examples of early repetition and contrast, with many of the parts having a clear ritornello. This was something entirely new to the public of the time, and was an immediate hit.

In 1613 Monteverdi was appointed as conductor at San Marco in Venice, where he soon restored the musical standards of both the choir and instrumentalists, which had withered under the financial mismanagement of his predecessor, Giulio Cesare Martinengo. The managers of the basilica were relieved to have such a distinguished musician to take the post, where music had been in decline since the death of Giovanni Croce in 1609.

While in Venice, Monteverdi also finished his sixth, seventh and eighth books of madrigals. The eighth is the largest, containing works written over a thirty-year period, including the dramatic scene Tancredi e Clorinda (1624), in which the orchestra and voices form two separate entities; they act as counterparts. Most likely Monteverdi was inspired to try this arrangement because of the two opposite balconies in San Marco, which had inspired much similar music from composers there, such as Gabrieli. What made this composition also stand out is the first-time use of string tremolo (fast repetition of the same tone) and pizzicato (plucking strings with fingers) for special effect in dramatic scenes.

When his wife died, this was compounded by poverty, overwork and illness outbreak of plague in 1631 probably impelled him to take holy orders in 1632 Monteverdi was ordained a Catholic priest in 1632.

After taking holy orders, he would have probably drifted from public attention had it not been for the opening in Venice of the first public opera house in 1637, which renewed his interest in opera, and toward the end of his life in 1639, he composed first opera in almost a decade, Adone, and last opera, a masterwork L’Incorconazrzione di Poppea, in 1642, which further developed the techniques used in favola, and featured characters recognizably human, rather than symbolic his two last masterpieces, both operas: Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria (The Return of Ulysses), and the historic opera L'incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea), based on the life of the Roman emperor Nero. L'incoronazione especially is considered a culminating point of Monteverdi's work. It contains tragic, romantic, as well as comic scenes (a new development in opera), more realistic portrayal of the characters, and warmer melody than had previously been heard. It requires a smaller orchestra, and has a less prominent role for the choir.

He died in Venice and was buried in a vast Gothic basilica, the Frari, in a tomb at the center of the church near the Venetian artist Titian.

Opera before Monteverdi

The various styles of monody (in recitative, aria, and madrigal) made their way into all kinds of music, both secular and sacred, in the early seventeenth century. MOnody made musicla theater possible, becaues it was a medium by which both dialogue and exposition could be conveyed in music, giving the necessary freedom and flexibility for truly dramatic expression.

Greek tragedy served as a model for the kind of dramatic music literary men of the Renasissance thought would be appropriate to the hteater.

Gammond History of opera: during 2nd half of 16th c. many musicians and poets met in houses of 2 Florentine nobles: Giovanni de Bardi and Jacopo Corsi and were nicknamed the ‘camerata’ because of the room in which they met – interested in reviving the old Greek tragedies and performing them as nearly as possible to the original style They knew that choruses had been sung but not what type of music the Greeks had employed They were assisted by e.g. Jacopo Peri who wrote the music for Dafne in 1597, generally acknowledge as the first opera although it didn’t survived

No opera houses, performed in the homes of the nobility Fortunately Monteverdi appeared The very first operas – much recitative, and the airs were simple but gradually series of elaborate display pieces for the greatest singers of the day Basso continuo - the composer wrote out the melody and the bass. THe bass was played on one or more instruments and above the bass notes the keyobard or lute player filled in the required chords, which were not otherwise written out.

Shakespeare of Music

First composer to write operas with a full awareness of the artistic potential of this musico-dramatic genre – first musical dramatist Created the first operas that a present-day audience can listen to with appreciation searched for a new solution that answered to the needs of the stage, looking for a speech-song that was intermediate between the continuous change of pitch in speech and the diastematic or intervallic motion in song. Took primitive means devised by the Camerata and Jacopo Peri and used them with imagination , dramatic force and creative richnessOpera - a drama combining soliloquy, dialogue, secenery,a ction and continuous music. Transformed stile rappresentative, or recitative, into rich, fluid, and varied melody

In opera he became a prophet and seer Compared to the archaic vocabulary and methods of a Peri, his operas represent a new art- not a revolution but invention, innovator of a new concept of dramatic music, with new methods, techniques, style and idioms Used rhythm, discords, instrumental colors, key changes, to project dramatic action or interpret characters or project moods and emotions in a way unknown before or during his time Devised instrumental techniques to create the kind of agitation or passion or emotional intensity (stile concitato) his dramas needed: pizzicato and tremolo, e.g.

First one to appreciate the role of the orchestra in an opera, first to realize that wind instruments and percussion were good for projecting military moods; flutes for pastoral scenes, violas and lutes for sentimental episodes – this use of instruments for mood painting and characterization was without precedent

Grout Sacred music was affected almost as strongly as secular music by innovations of late 16th and early 17th centuries: monody, basso continuo, concertato medium were all applied to sacred texts

Before mid-seventeenth c., Palestrina become supreme model for church style and all composers were trained to write counterpoint based on his practice = stile antico

Throughout 17th c., 2 distinct approaches (stile antico) and stile moderno were opposed Monteverdi wrote in both with equal mastery In the course of time the old style was modernized: basso continuo often added, rhythms more regular, older modes gave way to major-minor system

Claudio’s musical development was also influenced by operas of the Camerata in Florence Favola is of utmost significance in the history of opera His richness and variety of melody and harmonic invention ahs a special appeal to the modern listener. As Michael Kennedy pointed out, Monteverdi’s place in the history of Renaissance music can be justly compared with that of Shakespeare’s in the history of literature. Gammond 81

Craze for opera spread to other western European countries Stanley

Claudio was the first to use an array of instruments and employ music as an integral feature of the work, rather than mere decoration His favola retained the original tragic ending, unlike previous settings of the legend Also novel was his use of stringed instruments to represent Orpheus, who is traditionally associated with the lyre

Lived and worked in a period of change, as the late renaissance was giving way to the baroque Although he eschewed revolutionary means, he encouraged this transition and used his genius to develop and transform every aspect of music he came into contact with

In madrigals he introduced instrumental accompaniments and exploited to the full the dramatic possibilities of the medium

Compositions

Monteverdi composed at least 18 operas, of which only L'Orfeo, L'incoronazione di Poppea, Il ritorno, and the famous aria "Lamento" from his second opera L'Arianna have survived:

L'Arianna (Lamento d'Arianna)
L'Orfeo
Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria, 1641
L'incoronazione di Poppea, 1642

Other works include secular and sacred compositions:

Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda
Vespro della Beata Vergine (1610)
Selva Morale e Spirituale (1640)
Scherzi Musicali
Madrigali Guirreri et Amorosi
Eight books of madrigals

See also:

Category:Compositions by Claudio Monteverdi
Category:Operas by Claudio Monteverdi

Media

Cor Mio Mentre Vi Miro (file info)

Cruda Amarilli (file info)

Non Si Levav'ancor (file info)

Problems listening to the files? See media help.

External links

Template:ChoralWiki
Free scores by Claudio Monteverdi in the Werner Icking Music Archive
Website devoted to Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610

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