1567–1643 · Baroque
Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) was an Italian composer, one of the key figures in the shift from the late Renaissance to the early Baroque. He worked in the genres of madrigal, opera and sacred music, combining older polyphony with the new homophony. The site's collection includes his sacred works, a madrigal and an excerpt from the opera L'Orfeo — a good place to start getting to know his music.
Claudio Monteverdi came into the world in 1567 in the north Italian city of Cremona. His father, Baldassare Monteverdi, worked as a doctor, apothecary and surgeon; the future composer was baptised on 15 May that same year. He grew up as the eldest child in the family and from an early age studied music under Marc'Antonio Ingegneri, maestro di cappella at Cremona's cathedral.
The young composer's first collection — the motets of Sacrae cantiunculae — was published in Venice in 1582, when Monteverdi was fifteen; it was followed by the collection of Italian spiritual madrigals Madrigali Spirituali (1583). Next came a collection of three-voice canzonettas (1584), and after that two books of five-voice madrigals, published in 1587 and 1590.
From 1590 or 1591 Monteverdi served at the Mantuan court of Duke Vincenzo I Gonzaga, remaining there until 1612. He began as a singer and viol player, and later became maestro di cappella, running the court's entire musical life.
Monteverdi's innovative techniques drew sharp criticism from the music theorist Giovanni Artusi. In response, together with his brother Giulio Cesare, the composer declared his allegiance to what became known as the seconda pratica: in this manner of writing, the poetic text takes precedence over the other elements of musical speech — melody, harmony and rhythm — and it alone justifies departures from the rules.
When Monteverdi arrived in Mantua, the court's maestro di cappella was the Flemish musician Giaches de Wert. After his death in 1596 the post went to Benedetto Pallavicino, and later Monteverdi himself, by then held in high regard by the Duke, became maestro. He accompanied Vincenzo on a military campaign to Hungary in 1595 and on a trip to Flanders in 1599.
Claudia Cattaneo, a singer at the Mantuan court, became Monteverdi's wife in 1599. In 1606 Monteverdi received a commission from Francesco, heir to Duke Vincenzo, to compose the opera L'Orfeo on a libretto by Alessandro Striggio; two performances followed, in February and March 1607.
In September 1607 Monteverdi's wife Claudia died. In 1608 he wrote the opera L'Arianna, to a libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini, for the wedding of Francesco and Margherita of Savoy; all its music except the Lament of Ariadne has been lost, and the lament itself became widely known. The singer originally meant to create the role of Arianna, Caterina Martinelli, fell ill with smallpox and died in March 1608; Monteverdi then went to Cremona to recover his health.
In 1610 Monteverdi published a collection of sacred music — the Vespers (of the Blessed Virgin), dedicated to Pope Paul V — and travelled to Rome. In 1612 Duke Vincenzo died; Francesco, who inherited the throne, began cutting the court's costs, and Monteverdi, together with his brother Giulio Cesare, lost his position and returned to Cremona almost without means.
Until he was about forty, the madrigal remained Monteverdi's main occupation: eight books came out during his lifetime, and a ninth, which he himself did not compile, was published after the composer's death. The first book — twenty-one five-voice madrigals — took roughly four years of work. The first eight books trace a path from Renaissance polyphony to Baroque homophony; of the later books, written in the seconda pratica manner, the piece most often performed is the chaconne "Lamento della ninfa" (SV 163) from the eighth book.
Among Monteverdi's best-known works is the Lament of Ariadne (Lamento d'Arianna), from the opera L'Arianna: the opera's own music is lost, but its libretto survives complete. During his lifetime the composer published three versions of the lament — a five-voice madrigal in the sixth book (1614), a solo aria with basso continuo (1623), and a Latin version, the Lament of the Madonna (Pianto della Madonna), in the sacred collection Selva morale (1641). Another popular piece is the chaconne "Zefiro torna" (SV 251), for two tenors and basso continuo, set to a text by Ottavio Rinuccini.
In 1613 Monteverdi moved to Venice to take up the post of maestro di cappella at the basilica of San Marco. At the time the chapel was in decline: his predecessor, Giulio Cesare Martinengo, had managed its funds poorly, and the standard of music at services had been falling since 1609, when Giovanni Croce, who had worked there, died. The new maestro quickly raised the professional standard of the choir and instrumentalists, and the basilica's administrators were glad to have secured such a musician.
Monteverdi's main duty was to recruit, train and discipline the chapel's musicians — about thirty singers and six instrumentalists, with numbers increased for major feasts. In 1616 fourteen-year-old Francesco Cavalli joined the choir and remained connected to the basilica for the rest of his life. Monteverdi expanded the chapel's repertory: alongside the traditional a cappella choral music, it came to include the modern style using continuo and other instruments. In that same year, 1616, the Procurators of San Marco, satisfied with his work, raised his annual salary from 300 to 400 ducats.
Monteverdi took holy orders in 1631–1632, receiving the tonsure and becoming a deacon in 1631, then a priest in 1632. In his final years he wrote two more works for the stage — the operas Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria and L'incoronazione di Poppea, based on events from the life of the Roman emperor Nero.
L'incoronazione di Poppea is regarded as the culmination of Monteverdi's output: the opera combines tragic, romantic and comic scenes — a new device for the opera genre — the characters became more realistic, and the melodies took on a warm, sensuous quality. Staging it required only a small orchestra, and the chorus was given a small role. Monteverdi's operas were barely staged in theatres afterwards; that changed only in the 1960s, when L'incoronazione di Poppea returned to the repertoire.
In his last surviving letter, dated 20 August 1643, Monteverdi, already ill, asked the Doge of Venice to help him obtain the pension long owed to him from Mantua. Monteverdi died on 29 November 1643 in Venice and is buried in the basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice.
Monteverdi's output falls into three groups — madrigals, operas and sacred music. A distinctive feature of his compositional technique is the combination, often within a single piece, of imitative polyphony typical of the late Renaissance with homophony, a device of the new Baroque era.
The site has ten of Monteverdi's works. Six of them are settings of Latin texts: "Beatus vir" (SV 268), "Duo Seraphim", "Laudate Dominum", "Salve Regina" (SV 327), "Et resurrexit" (SV 260) and "Ecce sacrum paratum convivium" (SV 299). Two more are madrigals in Italian, "O come sei gentile" and "T'amo mia vita" (SV 105). Rounding out the selection are "Musiche per la Maddalena" and an arrangement for voice and piano of "O tu ch'innanzi morte", an excerpt from the opera L'Orfeo. By scoring, four pieces are for choir, another four are for a different ensemble, one is for SATB choir, and one is for voice with piano.
The pieces range from elementary+ to upper intermediate level. The most accessible are "Musiche per la Maddalena", "Salve Regina" and the "O tu ch'innanzi morte" arrangement from L'Orfeo, all at elementary+ level. From there one can move on to the intermediate-level madrigal "O come sei gentile", and then to "Et resurrexit" at upper intermediate level. Most of the pieces are written for choir or for voice with an instrument rather than for solo piano, which makes them a good fit for ensemble work as well.