Claudio monteverdi+biography

Monteverdi's opera L'Orfeo told the mythical tale of Orpheus - a musician who, when his wife Euridice died, went down to Hades, the land of the dead, to try to get her back. It was a tale to which composers would return time and time again. Discover Music. See more More composers. Claudio Monteverdi — Biography. 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'Arianna , which 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 Vergine , Monteverdi's first published sacred music since the Madrigali spirituali of , consists 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 firmus , falsobordone and Venetian canzone , are mixed with the latest madrigal style, including echo effects and chains of dissonances. Some of the musical features used are reminiscent of L'Orfeo , written slightly earlier for similar instrumental and vocal forces.

In this work the "sacred concertos" fulfil the role of the antiphons which divide the psalms 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 Arnold , Monteverdi'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 sixth , seventh and eighth books of madrigals. 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 accenti , as 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 ritorno , says Carter, is clearly influenced by Monteverdi's earlier works. Penelope's lament in Act I is close in character to the lament from L'Arianna , while the martial episodes recall Il combattimento.

Stile concitato is prominent in the fight scenes and in the slaying of Penelope's suitors. In L'incoronazione , Monteverdi 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 of , and the posthumous Messa et salmi published in which was edited by Cavalli , are 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 in , a 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 Bonini , writing in , every musical household in Italy possessed a copy of the Lamento d'Arianna.

Es steh Gott auf , from his Symphoniae sacrae II , published in Dresden in , contains specific quotations from Monteverdi. After the s, Monteverdi's name quickly disappears from contemporary accounts, his music generally forgotten except for the Lamento , the 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. 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-Verzeichnis , revised 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.

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Claudio monteverdi+biography

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 ]. Artusi controversy and seconda pratica [ edit ]. Opera, conflict and departure [ edit ]. Venice: — [ edit ]. Maturity: — [ edit ]. Pause and priesthood: — [ edit ].

Late flowering: — [ edit ]. Music [ edit ]. Further information: List of compositions by Claudio Monteverdi. Background: Renaissance to Baroque [ edit ]. Novice years: Madrigal books 1 and 2 [ edit ]. Madrigals — books 3, 4, 5 [ edit ]. Madrigal: "Non si levav'ancor" from second book, pub. Madrigal: "Cor mio mentre vi miro" from fourth book, pub.

Problems playing these files? See media help. Opera and sacred music: — [ edit ]. L'Orfeo [ edit ]. Main article: L'Orfeo. L'Arianna [ edit ]. Main article: L'Arianna. Vespers [ edit ]. Main article: Vespro della Beata Vergine. From Vespro della Beata Vergine. In Monteverdi was appointed master of music to the Duke of Mantua. By then his name was known across Europe thanks to his ongoing series of Books of Madrigals.

He now turned to stage music. As in his madrigals, Monteverdi uses surprising dissonances in the opera to underline important words. His scene-setting is particularly effective, making evocative use of a range of instrumental colours. The world of nymphs and shepherds in which the opera begins is represented by recorders, strings and plucked instruments.

When the action moves to the Underworld, sackbutts early trombones and regal organ take over. There are also significant instrumental solos for violin and harp. Werke [ Bearbeiten Quelltext bearbeiten ]. Geistliche Werke [ Bearbeiten Quelltext bearbeiten ]. Weltliche Vokalwerke [ Bearbeiten Quelltext bearbeiten ]. Literatur [ Bearbeiten Quelltext bearbeiten ].

Weblinks [ Bearbeiten Quelltext bearbeiten ]. Einzelnachweise [ Bearbeiten Quelltext bearbeiten ].