{"id":104,"date":"2015-05-27T20:04:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-27T20:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.candelalearning.com\/musicx15xmaster\/?post_type=chapter&p=104"},"modified":"2015-06-16T19:31:17","modified_gmt":"2015-06-16T19:31:17","slug":"claudio-monteverdi-e","status":"web-only","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/odessa-musicapp-medievaltomodern\/chapter\/claudio-monteverdi-e\/","title":{"raw":"Claudio Monteverdi","rendered":"Claudio Monteverdi"},"content":{"raw":"We will study Claudio Monteverdi in both the Renaissance and Baroque periods. His music, especially his madrigals, demonstrates the transition from late Renaissance to early Baroque style. \u00a0His first four books of madrigals feature the late Renaissance style that you hear in \"Ecco mormorar l'onde.\" Starting with the fifth book of madrigals, he adopts the new practices that we'll come to know as early Baroque style.\r\n

Introduction<\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_203\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"250\"]\"Figure<\/a> Figure 1. Monteverdi by Bernardo Strozzi, c.\u20091630[\/caption]\r\n\r\nClaudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi<\/b> (15 May 1567 (baptized)\u201329 November 1643) was an Italian composer, gambist, singer and Roman Catholic priest.\r\n\r\nMonteverdi's work, often regarded as revolutionary, marked the change from the Renaissance style of music to that of the Baroque period.\u00a0He developed two styles of composition\u2014the heritage of Renaissance polyphony and the new basso continuo technique of the Baroque.\u00a0Monteverdi wrote one of the earliest operas, L'Orfeo<\/i>, 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.\r\n

Life<\/span><\/h2>\r\nClaudio Monteverdi was born in 1567 in Cremona, Lombardy. His father was Baldassare Monteverdi, a doctor, apothecary and amateur surgeon.\u00a0He was the oldest of five children.\u00a0During his childhood, he was taught by\u00a0Marc'Antonio Ingegneri,\u00a0the maestro di cappella<\/i> at the Cathedral of Cremona.\u00a0The Maestro\u2019s job was to conduct important worship services in accordance with the liturgy of the Catholic Church.\u00a0Monteverdi learned about music as a member of the cathedral choir.\u00a0He also studied at the University of Cremona.\u00a0His first music was written for publication, including some motets and sacred madrigals, in 1582 and 1583.\u00a0His first five publications were: Sacrae cantiunculae<\/i>, 1582 (a collection of miniature motets); Madrigali Spirituali<\/i>, 1583 (a volume of which only the bass partbook is extant); Canzonette a tre voci<\/i>, 1584 (a collection of three-voice canzonettes); and the five-part madrigals Book I, 1587, and Book II, 1590.\u00a0He worked at the court of Vincenzo I of Gonzaga in Mantua as a vocalist and viol player, then as music director.\u00a0In 1602, he was working as the court conductor\u00a0and Vincenzo appointed him master of music<\/i> on the death of Benedetto Pallavicino.\r\n\r\nIn 1599 Monteverdi married the court singer Claudia Cattaneo,\u00a0<\/span>who died in September 1607.\u00a0<\/span>They had two sons (Francesco and Massimilino) and a daughter (Leonora). Another daughter died shortly after birth.\u00a0In 1610 he moved to Rome, arriving in secret, hoping to present his music to Pope Paul V. His Vespers were printed the same year, but his planned meeting with the Pope never took place.\r\n\r\nIn 1612 Vincenzo died and was succeeded by his eldest son Francesco. Heavily in debt, due to the profligacy of his father, Francesco sacked Monteverdi and he spent a year in Mantua without any paid employment. His 1607 opera L'Orfeo was dedicated to Francesco. The title page of the opera bears the dedication \"Al serenissimo signor D. Francesco Gonzaga, Prencipe di Mantoua, & di Monferato, &c.\"\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_204\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"250\"]\"Figure<\/a> Figure 2. The only certain portrait of Claudio Monteverdi, from the title page of Fiori poetici, a 1644 book of commemorative poems for his funeral[\/caption]\r\n\r\nBy 1613, he had moved to San Marco in Venice where, as conductor,\u00a0he quickly restored the musical standard of both the choir and the instrumentalists. The musical standard had declined due to the financial mismanagement of his predecessor, Giulio Cesare Martinengo.\u00a0The managers of the basilica were relieved to have such a distinguished musician in charge, as the music had been declining since the death of Giovanni Croce in 1609.\r\n\r\nIn 1632, he became a priest.\u00a0During the last years of his life, when he was often ill, he composed his two last masterpieces: Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria<\/i> (The Return of Ulysses<\/i>, 1641), and the historic opera L'incoronazione di Poppea<\/i> (The Coronation of Poppea<\/i>, 1642), based on the life of the Roman emperor Nero. L'incoronazione<\/i> especially is considered a culminating point of Monteverdi's work. It contains tragic, romantic, and comic scenes (a new development in opera), a more realistic portrayal of the characters, and warmer melodies than previously heard.\u00a0It requires a smaller orchestra, and has a less prominent role for the choir. For a long period of time, Monteverdi's operas were merely regarded as a historical or musical interest. Since the 1960s, The Coronation of Poppea<\/i> has re-entered the repertoire of major opera companies worldwide.\r\n\r\nMonteverdi died, aged 76, in Venice on 29 November 1643\u00a0and was buried at the church of the Frari.\r\n

Madrigals<\/h2>\r\nUntil the age of forty, Monteverdi worked primarily on madrigals, composing a total of nine books. It took Monteverdi about four years to finish his first book of twenty-one madrigals for five voices.\u00a0As a whole, the first eight books of madrigals show the enormous development from Renaissance polyphonic music to the monodic style typical of Baroque music.\r\n
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Listen<\/h2>\r\nCor mio mentre vi miro\r\n\r\n[audio ogg=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images-archive-read-only\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/592\/2016\/02\/21173956\/Monteverdi-cor_mio_mentre_vi_miro.ogg\"][\/audio]\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\nThe titles of his Madrigal books are:\r\n