CLAUDIO MONTREVERDI

Nationality
Claudio Monteverdi, (baptized May 15, 1567, Cremona, Duchy of Milan
[Italy]—died November 29, 1643, Venice), Italian composer in the late
Renaissance, the most important developer of the then new genre, the
opera. He also did much to bring a “modern” secular spirit into church
music.
His Musical period
Monteverdi’s work, often regarded as revolutionary, marked the
change from the Renaissance style of music to that of the Baroque
period. He developed two styles of composition—the heritage of
Renaissance polyphony and the new basso continuo technique of the
Baroque. Monteverdi wrote one of the earliest operas, L’Orfeo, a novel
work that is the earliest surviving opera still regularly performed. He is
widely recognized as an inventive composer who enjoyed considerable
fame in his life-time.
Characteristics of renaissance period
 Music based on modes
 Richer texture in four or more parts
 Blending rather than contrasting strands in the musical texture
 Harmony with a greater concern with the flow and progression of
chords.
Works that made Monteverdi famous
In Monteverdi's final five years' service in Mantua he completed the
operas L'Orfeo (1607) and L'Arianna (1608), and wrote quantities of
sacred music, including the Messa in illo tempore (1610) and also the
collection known as Vespro della Beata Vergine which is often referred
to as "Monteverdi's Vespers" (1610). He also published Scherzi
musicale a tre voci (1607), settings of verses composed since 1599 and
dedicated to the Gonzaga heir, Francesco. The vocal trio in the Scherzi
comprises two sopranos and a bass, accompanied by simple
instrumental ritornellos. According to Bowers the music "reflected the
modesty of the prince's resources; it was, nevertheless, the earliest
publication to associate voices and instruments in this particular way".
[82]
His appointments
Monteverdi, the son of a barber-surgeon and chemist, studied with the
director of music at Cremona cathedral, Marcantonio Ingegneri, a well-
known musician who wrote church music and madrigals of some
distinction in an up-to-date though not revolutionary style of the 1570s.
Monteverdi was obviously a precocious pupil, since he published
several books of religious and secular music in his teens, all of them
containing competent pieces in a manner not far from that of his
master. The culmination of this early period occurred in two madrigal
books published by one of the most famous of Venetian printers in
1587 and 1590. They are full of excellent, attractive works, somewhat
more modern in approach than Ingegneri’s, perhaps the result of
studying the madrigals of Luca Marenzio, the greatest Italian
madrigalist of the time, and others. As yet, however, Monteverdi’s aim
appeared to be to charm rather than to express passion; it is
exemplified at its best in such a madrigal as the well-known setting of
the poem “Behold the Murmuring Sea” by Torquato Tasso.
When the maestro di cappella—that is, the director of music—of St.
Mark’s in Venice died, Monteverdi was invited to take his place, after
an audition of some of his music in the basilica. He finally took up his
appointment in the autumn of 1613. It is not known exactly when
Monteverdi left his hometown, but he entered the employ of the duke
of Mantua about 1590 as a string player. He immediately came into
contact with some of the finest musicians, both performers and
composers, of the time. The composer who influenced him the most
seems to have been the Flemish composer Giaches de Wert, a
modernist who, although no longer a young man, was still in the middle
of an avant-garde movement in the 1590s.
Teacher of Monteverdi
During his childhood, he was taught by Marc’Antonio Ingegneri, the
maestro di cappella at the Cathedral of Cremona. The Maestro’s job
was to conduct important worship services in accordance with the
liturgy of the Catholic Church. Monteverdi learned about music as a
member of the cathedral choir. He also studied at the University of
Cremona. His first music was written for publication, including some
motets and sacred madrigals, in 1582 and 1583. His first five
publications were: Sacrae cantiunculae, 1582 (a collection of miniature
motets); Madrigali Spirituali, 1583 (a volume of which only the bass
partbook is extant);Canzonette a tre voci, 1584 (a collection of three-
voice canzonettes); and the five-part madrigals Book I, 1587, and Book
II, 1590. Monteverdi worked for the court of Mantua first as a singer
and violist, then as music director . He worked at the court of Vincenzo
I of Gonzaga in Mantua as a vocalist and viol player. In 1602, he was
working as the court conductor.
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