Nisi dominus claudio monteverdi biography

Private lessons with Mark Antonio Ingegneri provided careful training in counterpoint and text setting, and 2 books of five-voice madrigals established his reputation outside his provincial hometown. To complement his musical portfolio he became an accomplished singer and instrumentalist, and was eventually appointed to the court of Duke Gonzaga of Mantua.

Although employed in an entry-level position, a deliberate and selective publishing strategy significantly increased his reputation. His compositions were soon known in Venice, Florence, Nuremberg, Copenhagen and Ferrara, and elicited scathing criticism from the Bolognese conservative music theorist Giovanni Maria Artusi. This score of great dramatic power and lively orchestration was highly praised and published in Venice inwith performances recorded in Salzburg in and Yet, the death of his wife and internal squabbles at court—including competition from the young Florentine composer Marco da Gagliano—made life in Mantua increasingly uncomfortable.

Monteverdi embarked on a series of journeys, including a trip to Rome to present the publication of his Missa… ac vespere to its dedicatee, Pope Paul V. It took him almost a year to find a new job, but he was finally appointed maestro di cappella at St. Monteverdi celebrated his new position with his sixth book of madrigals, followed by a number of liturgical compositions for various Venetian churches.

A series of disturbing events troubled Monteverdi's world in the period around Mantua was invaded by Habsburg armies inwho besieged the plague-stricken townand after its fall in July looted its treasures, and dispersed the artistic community. The plague was carried to Mantua's ally Venice by an embassy led by Monteverdi's confidante Striggio, and over a period of 16 months led to over 45, deaths, leaving Venice's population in at just above , the lowest level for about years.

Among the plague victims was Monteverdi's assistant at San Marco, and a notable composer in his own right, Alessandro Grandi. The plague and the after-effects of war had an inevitable deleterious effect on the economy and artistic life of Venice. By this time Monteverdi was in his sixties, and his rate of composition seems to have slowed down.

He had written a setting of Strozzi's Proserpina rapita The Abduction of Proserpinanow lost except for one vocal trio, for a Mocenigo wedding inand produced a Mass for deliverance from the plague for San Marco which was performed in November His set of Scherzi musicali was published in Venice in Although these ceremonies took place in Venice, he was nominated as a member of Diocese of Cremona ; this may imply that he intended to retire there.

The opening of the opera house of San Cassiano inthe first public opera house in Europe, stimulated the city's musical life [ 49 ] and coincided with a new burst of the composer's activity. The year saw the publication of Monteverdi's eighth book of nisi dominus claudio monteverdi biographies and a revision of the Ballo delle ingrate. The eighth book contains a ballo"Volgendi il ciel", which may have been composed for the Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand IIIto whom the book is dedicated.

The years — saw the publication of the extensive collection of church music, Selva morale e spirituale. Among other commissions, Monteverdi wrote music in and for Strozzi's "Accademia degli Unisoni" in Venice, and in a ballet, La vittoria d'Amorefor the court of Piacenza. Monteverdi was still not entirely free from his responsibilities for the musicians at San Marco.

He wrote to complain about one of his singers to the Procurators, on 9 June "I, Claudio Monteverdi Monteverdi's contribution to opera at this period is notable. In his last surviving letter 20 AugustMonteverdi, already ill, was still hoping for the settlement of the long-disputed pension from Mantua, and asked the Doge of Venice to intervene on his behalf.

He was survived by his sons; Masimilliano died inFrancesco after There is a consensus among music historians that a period extending from the midth century to aroundcharacterised in Lewis Lockwood 's phrase by "substantial unity of outlook and language", should be identified as the period of " Renaissance music ". In the Renaissance era, music had developed as a formal discipline, a "pure science of relationships" in the words of Lockwood.

Percy Scholes in his Oxford Companion to Music describes the "new music" thus: "[Composers] discarded the choral polyphony of the madrigal style as barbaric, and set dialogue or soliloquy for single voices, imitating more or less the inflexions of speech and accompanying the voice by playing mere supporting chords. Short choruses were interspersed, but they too were homophonic rather than polyphonic.

Marc'Antonio IngegneriMonteverdi's first tutor, was a master of the musica reservata vocal style, which involved the use of chromatic progressions and word-painting ; [ 63 ] Monteverdi's early compositions were grounded in this style. Mark Ringer writes that "these teenaged efforts reveal palpable ambition matched with a convincing mastery of contemporary style", but at this stage they display their creator's competence rather than any striking originality.

The canzonetta form was much used by composers of the day as a technical exercise, and is a prominent element in Monteverdi's first book of madrigals published in In this book, the playful, pastoral settings again reflect the style of Marenzio, while Luzzaschi's influence is evident in Monteverdi's use of dissonance. Monteverdi set the latter to music in an archaic style reminiscent of the long-dead Cipriano de Rore.

Between them is "Ecco mormorar l'onde", strongly influenced by de Wert and hailed by Chew as the great masterpiece of the second book. A thread common throughout these early works is Monteverdi's use of the technique of imitatioa general practice among composers of the period whereby material from earlier or contemporary composers was used as models for their own work.

Monteverdi continued to use this procedure well beyond his apprentice years, a factor that in some critics' eyes has compromised his reputation for originality. Monteverdi's first fifteen years of service in Mantua are bracketed by his publications of the third book of madrigals in and the fourth and fifth books in and Between and he made minor contributions to other anthologies.

The third book shows strongly the increased influence of Wert, [ 72 ] by that time Monteverdi's direct superior as maestro de capella at Mantua. Two poets dominate the collection: Tasso, whose lyrical "nisi dominus claudio monteverdi biography" had figured prominently in the second book but is here represented through the more epic, heroic verses from Gerusalemme liberata[ 73 ] and Giovanni Battista Guariniwhose verses had appeared sporadically in Monteverdi's earlier publications, but form around half of the contents of the third book.

Wert's influence is reflected in Monteverdi's forthrightly modern approach, and his expressive and chromatic settings of Tasso's verses. Chew cites the setting of "Stracciami pur il core" as "a prime example of Monteverdi's irregular dissonance practice". As the s progressed, Monteverdi moved closer towards the form that he would identify in due course as the seconda pratica.

Claude V. Monteverdi's daring use of this device is, says Palisca, "like a forbidden pleasure". The fourth book includes madrigals to which Artusi objected on the grounds of their "modernism". However, Ossi describes it as "an anthology of disparate works firmly rooted in the 16th century", [ 76 ] closer in nature to the third book than to the fifth.

The fifth book looks more to the future; for example, Monteverdi employs the concertato style with basso continuo a device that was to become a typical feature in the emergent Baroque eraand includes a sinfonia instrumental interlude in the final piece. He presents his music through complex counterpoint and daring harmonies, although at times combining the expressive possibilities of the new music with traditional polyphony.

Aquilino Coppini drew much of the music for his sacred contrafacta of from Monteverdi's 3rd, 4th and 5th books of madrigals. In writing to a friend in Coppini commented that Monteverdi's pieces "require, during their performance, more flexible rests and bars that are not strictly regular, now pressing forward or abandoning themselves to slowing down [ In Monteverdi's final five years' service in Mantua he completed the operas L'Orfeo and L'Ariannaand wrote quantities of sacred music, including the Messa in illo tempore and also the collection known as Vespro della Beata Vergine which is often referred to as "Monteverdi's Vespers " He also published Scherzi musicale a tre vocisettings of verses composed since and dedicated to the Gonzaga heir, Francesco.

The vocal trio in the Scherzi comprises two sopranos and a bass, accompanied by simple instrumental ritornellos.

Nisi dominus claudio monteverdi biography: Known as one of the

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". The opera opens with a brief trumpet toccata. The prologue of La musica a figure representing music is introduced with a ritornello by the strings, repeated often to represent the "power of music" — one of the earliest examples of an operatic leitmotif.

The confusion and grief which follow the news of Euridice's death are musically reflected by harsh dissonances and the juxtaposition of keys. The music remains in this vein until the act ends with the consoling sounds of the ritornello. Act 3 is dominated by Orfeo's aria "Possente spirto e formidabil nume" by which he attempts to persuade Caronte to allow him to enter Hades.

Monteverdi's vocal embellishments and virtuoso accompaniment provide what Tim Carter has described as "one of the most compelling visual and aural representations" in early opera. Throughout the opera Monteverdi makes innovative use of polyphony, extending the rules beyond the conventions which composers normally observed in fidelity to Palestrina.

The music for this opera is lost except for the Lamento d'Ariannawhich was published in the sixth book in as a five-voice madrigal; a separate monodic version was published in Throughout, indignation and anger are punctuated by tenderness, until a descending line brings the piece to a quiet conclusion. The musicologist Suzanne Cusick writes that Monteverdi "creat[ed] the lament as a recognizable genre of vocal chamber music and as a standard scene in opera Rinuccini's full libretto, which has survived, was set in modern times by Alexander Goehr Arianna, including a version of Monteverdi's Lament.

The Vespro della Beata VergineMonteverdi's first published sacred music since the Madrigali spirituali ofconsists of 14 components: an introductory versicle and response, five psalms interspersed with five "sacred concertos" Monteverdi's term[ 92 ] a hymn, and two Magnificat settings. Collectively these pieces fulfil the requirements for a Vespers service on any feast day of the Virgin.

Monteverdi employs many musical styles; the more traditional features, such as cantus firmusfalsobordone and Venetian canzoneare mixed with the latest madrigal style, including echo effects and chains of dissonances. Some of the musical features used are reminiscent of L'Orfeowritten slightly earlier for similar instrumental and vocal forces.

In this work the "sacred concertos" fulfil the role of the antiphons which divide the nisi dominus claudio monteverdi biographies in regular Vespers services. Their non-liturgical character has led writers to question whether they should be within the service, or indeed whether this was Monteverdi's intention. In some versions of Monteverdi's Vespers for example, those of Denis Stevens the concertos are replaced with antiphons associated with the Virgin, although John Whenham in his analysis of the work argues that the collection as a whole should be regarded as a single liturgical and artistic entity.

All the psalms, and the Magnificat, are based on melodically limited and repetitious Gregorian chant psalm tones, around which Monteverdi builds a range of innovative textures. This concertato style challenges the traditional cantus firmus, [ 93 ] and is most evident in the "Sonata sopra Sancta Maria", written for eight string and wind instruments plus basso continuo, and a single soprano voice.

Monteverdi uses modern rhythms, frequent metre changes and constantly varying textures; [ 93 ] yet, according to John Eliot Gardiner"for all the virtuosity of its instrumental writing and the evident care which has gone into the combinations of timbre", Monteverdi's chief concern was resolving the proper combination of words and music. The actual musical ingredients of the Vespers were not novel to Mantua — concertato had been used by Lodovico Grossi da Viadana[ 95 ] a former choirmaster at the cathedral of Mantua, [ 96 ] while the Sonata sopra had been anticipated by Archangelo Crotti in his Sancta Maria published in It is, writes Denis ArnoldMonteverdi's mixture of the various elements that makes the music unique.

Arnold adds that the Vespers achieved fame and popularity only after their 20th-century rediscovery; they were not particularly regarded in Monteverdi's time. During his years in Venice Monteverdi published his sixthseventh and eighth books of madrigals.

Nisi dominus claudio monteverdi biography: Monteverdi composed the music while musician

The sixth book consists of works written before the composer's departure from Mantua. While Monteverdi had looked backwards in the sixth book, he moved forward in the seventh book from the traditional concept of the madrigal, and from monody, in favour of chamber duets. There are exceptions, such the two solo lettere amorose love letters "Se i languidi miei sguardi" and "Se pur destina e vole", written to be performed genere rapresentativo — acted as well as sung.

The eighth book, subtitled Madrigali guerrieri, et amorosi Each half begins with a six-voice setting, followed by an equally large-scale Petrarch setting, then a series of duets mainly for tenor voices, and concludes with a theatrical number and a final ballet. It is difficult to gauge when many of the pieces were composed, although the ballet Mascherata dell' ingrate that ends the book dates back to and the celebration of the Gonzaga-Savoy marriage.

The critic Andrew Clements describes the eighth book as "a statement of artistic principles and compositional authority", in which Monteverdi "shaped and expanded the madrigal form to accommodate what he wanted to do During this period of his Venetian residency, Monteverdi composed quantities of sacred music. Numerous motets and other short works were included in anthologies by local publishers such as Giulio Cesare Bianchi a former student of Monteverdi and Lorenzo Calvi, and others were published elsewhere in Italy and Austria.

Monteverdi retained emotional and political attachments to the Mantuan court and wrote for it, or undertook to write, large amounts of stage music including at least four operas. The ballet Tirsi e Clori survives through its inclusion in the seventh book, but the rest of the Mantuan dramatic music is lost. Many of the missing manuscripts may have disappeared in the wars that overcame Mantua in Apart from the madrigal books, Monteverdi's only published collection during this period was the volume of Scherzi musicale in For unknown reasons, the composer's name does not appear on the inscription, the dedication being signed by the Venetian printer Bartolomeo Magni; Carter surmises that the recently ordained Monteverdi may have wished to keep his distance from this secular collection.

Chew selects the chaconne for two tenors, Zefiro torna e di soavi accentias the outstanding item in the collection: "[T]he greater part of this piece consists of repetitions of a bass pattern which ensures tonal unity of a simple kind, owing to its being framed as a simple cadence in a G major tonal type: over these repetitions, inventive variations unfold in virtuoso passage-work".

Main articles : Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria ; L'incoronazione di Poppea ; Selva morale e spirituale. The last years of Monteverdi's life were much occupied with opera for the Venetian stage. Il ritornosays Carter, is clearly influenced by Monteverdi's earlier works.

Nisi dominus claudio monteverdi biography: Monteverdi's father was an

Penelope's lament in Act I is close in character to the lament from L'Ariannawhile the martial episodes recall Il combattimento. Stile concitato is prominent in the fight scenes and in the slaying of Penelope's suitors. In L'incoronazioneMonteverdi represents moods and situations by specific musical devices: triple metre stands for the language of love; arpeggios demonstrate conflict; stile concitato represents rage.

The Selva morale e spirituale ofand the posthumous Messa et salmi published in which was edited by Cavalliare selections of the sacred music that Monteverdi wrote for San Marco during his year tenure — much else was likely written but not published. Scholars believe that this might have been written to celebrate the end of the plague. The rest of the volume is made up of numerous psalm settings, two Magnificats and three Salve Reginas.

The posthumous ninth book of madrigals was published ina miscellany dating back to the early s, some items being repeats of previously published pieces, such as the popular duet O sia tranquillo il mare from In his lifetime Monteverdi enjoyed considerable status among musicians and the public. This is evidenced by the scale of his funeral rites: "[W]ith truly royal pomp a catafalque was erected in the Chiesa de Padrini Minori de Frari, decorated all in mourning, but surrounded with so many candles that the church resembled a night sky luminous with stars".

His operatic works were revived in several cities in the decade following his death; [ ] according to Severo Boniniwriting inevery musical household in Italy possessed a copy of the Lamento d'Arianna. Es steh Gott auffrom his Symphoniae sacrae IIpublished in Dresden incontains specific quotations from Monteverdi. After the s, Monteverdi's name quickly disappears from contemporary accounts, his music generally forgotten except for the Lamentothe prototype of a genre that would endure well into the 18th century.

Interest in Monteverdi revived in the late 18th and early 19th centuries among music scholars in Germany and Italy, although he was still regarded as essentially a historical curiosity. In the years after the Second World War the operas began to be performed in the major opera houses, and eventually were established in the general repertory.

Nisi dominus claudio monteverdi biography: PROGRAM NOTES. Born in

Modern editions of the Selva morale and Missa e Salmi volumes were published respectively in and The revival of public interest in Monteverdi's music gathered pace in the second half of the 20th century, reaching full spate in the general early-music revival of the s, during which time the emphasis turned increasingly towards "authentic" performance using historical instruments.

Stattkus published an index to Monteverdi's works, the Stattkus-Verzeichnisrevised in giving each composition an "SV" number, to be used for cataloguing and references. Monteverdi is lauded by modern critics as "the most significant composer in late Renaissance and early Baroque Italy"; [ ] "one of the principal composers in the history of Western music"; [ ] and, routinely, as the first great opera composer.

It is, as Redlich and others have pointed out, the composers of the 20th and 21st century who have rediscovered Monteverdi and sought to make his music a basis for their own. Thus, says Chew, "his achievement was both retrospective and progressive". Monteverdi represents the late Renaissance era while simultaneously summing up much of the early Baroque.

Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikisource Wikidata item. Italian composer — For other uses, see Monteverdi disambiguation. Life [ edit ]. Cremona: — [ edit ]. Mantua: — [ edit ]. Court musician [ edit ]. InMonteverdi in fact won the post of maestro di cappella at San Marco in Venice, and we can be reasonably certain that this remarkable sacred work played a role in his engagement.

As is common today, these concert performances of the Vespers omit the antiphons altogether. Monteverdi composed his Vespers to fit all of the major feasts associated with the Virgin Mary. Many decisions are left to those who perform the Vespers. Instruments are only specified in certain movements, leaving the conductor or editor to determine the composition of the orchestral accompaniment throughout most of the work.

Some movements can be sung by the chorus or played by solo instruments. There are four versions of the concluding Magnificat—one for six voices, one for seven, and then each version transposed down a fourth. Modern performances and recordings of the Vespers therefore vary, sometimes quite significantly. The Vespers can be divided into two main types of music.

Monteverdi uses the chorus for all texts that are strictly liturgical, setting them using the appropriate chant as a cantus firmus, or structural foundation. In so doing, he both displays his prowess with traditional sacred compositional techniques and shows how they can be merged with modern expressive sensibilities.