Week 16-17: Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), composer in the transition from Renaissance to Baroque

Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)

A short account of his life and contributions

by Nils Bruijel

Introduction

Italian Baroque era composer Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) is considered to be the most innovative and imaginative composer of his day, and is the earliest composer to enjoy an international repertory status in our time. He may not have been the originator of opera as new music genre, but certainly was the first person to fully actualize its potential, with Schonberg (1998) referring to him as "Pioneer of Opera" (Burkholder et al., 2014, p: 315; Arnold, 1984, p: 1196; Schonberg, 1998).

In this short essay, I shall first give an account of Monteverdi's life and music and then discuss his contributions to the transition between the Renaissance and Baroque eras.

Early years at Cremona (1567 - 1591)

Monteverdi was born on May 15th, 1567 in Cremona, Northern Italy. The city, situated on the banks of the river Po, was a center for violin building. Antonio Stradivari (1644 - 1737), also known as "Stradivarius", is one of the better known luthiers, alongside fellow towns-men Nicola Amati and Andrea Guarneri who also created instruments of exceptional quality.
Monteverdi, an expert violinist, spent the first 24 years of his life until 1591 in this city with its apparently strong music tradition. His father was a barber-surgeon and supported the family of five children with Claudio as the oldest child. Monteverdi studied music at Cremona Cathedral under the tutelage of maestro di capella Marc Antonio Ingegneri. He also may have studied at the University of Cremona (Schonberg, 1998: p. 2).

He was apparently a precocious pupil, publishing several books of sacred and secular music when he was still in his teens: Sacrae cantiunculae (1582), Madrigali Spirituali (1583) and Canzonette a tre voci (1584) (Schonberg, 1998; Arnold, 1984). By age 20, Monteverdi was already a master musician and had published his first two books on madrigals (1587 and 1590) (Schonberg, 1998). Well trained in the Netherlands School polyphony, Monteverdi could write liturgical works such as Masses and Motets, as well as secular works. In particular, the madrigal - a secular, short poem for two or more voices, often with instrumental accompaniment - seemed to interest him the most. He was to compose madrigals all his life.

The years at the Conzaga Court, Mantua (c. 1591 - 1612)

After his apprenticeship with Ingegneri ended, Monteverdi was an expert string player, a composer with four published works to his name and a cosmopolitan, through his extensive travels. Around 1591 he found work as a singer and violinist at the Conzaga Court of Duke Vincenzo, in Mantua. There he was immediately thrown in contact with some of the finest European musicians of his time led by Gian Giacomo Gastoldi (maestro di capella) (Schonberg, 1994: 5). Arnold (1984, p. 1196) states that probably Flemish composer Giaches de Wert was a great influence on Monteverdi's work, "the crux of whose style was that music must exactly match the mood of the verse, and must also attempt to set the words with a sense of their natural declamation". Monteverdi published his third book of madrigals in 1592 that shows style elements of De Wert (Arnold, 1984: p. 1196). This work also reflects a noticeable change in direction: "(...) the melody angular, the harmony increasingly dissonant, the mood tense to the point of neurosis" (Arnold, 1984, p: 1196). The work pressure at the Conzaga Court certainly must have had a detrimental effect on Monteverdi's mood and productivity.

In 1595-1596 he accompanied Duke Vincenzo on the Turkish campaign, and four years later to Flanders. In 1599 he married Claudia de Cattaneis, a singer at the court. She bore him three children, one of whom died in infancy (Arnold, 1984: 1197). Monteverdi had been passed over when the post of maestro di cappella became vacant on the death of De Wert in 1596, and felt bitter about this (Arnold, 1984:1197). On November 20th, 1601, Monteverdi wrote a letter and demanded the position of maestro di capella from the Duke. His demand was met in 1602 and he was appointed to that position at the age of 35. But, the work was hard, demanding and the pay was low. Monteverdi was in fact plagued by financial difficulties and hardly had time to publish new work (Schonberg, 1998: 6). Although he went on composing, there is an eleven year gap between his 1592 and his next publication, the fourth book of madrigals in 1603 (Arnold, 1984, p: 1197).

In 1605 he managed to publish his fifth book of madrigals, which was Monteverdi's international breakthrough. It was published in Germany, Denmark, and Belgium. It sparked a controversy between avant gardist Monteverdi and conservative composer-theorist Giovanni Maria Artusi (c. 1540 - 1613). Artusi could not bear the dissonances in Monteverdi's madrigals and heavily criticized his work. But to the latter, these served a purpose as a deliberate clash for dramatic effect. The modern "seconda prattica" - the style of which Monteverdi regarded himself an exponent of - stood for chordal textures, monody, extensive word painting and dramatic effects. He was convinced that music should always be servant to the text, supporting and enhancing it. Therefore, one should have no qualms to bend or break the "old rules" of counterpoint ("prima prattica"), as established by predecessors of the Netherlands School, such as Palestrina, De Lasso and Victoria (Paxman, 2014: pp. 49 - 50). The modern style featured the basso continuo technique, distinctive of the Baroque. The earlier polyphonic style had emphasized a certain equality between the parts, the music featuring basso continuo was textually hierarchical: melody, followed by bassline, followed by inner harmonies (Paxman, 2014: pp. 49 - 50). 

In 1607 he published Scherzi Musicali, for three voices. And then came Monteverdi's first opera: "L'Orfeo". This marks the first time in music history where there was a complete unity between drama and music. L'Orfeo demanded virtuoso singing and nothing like it had been composed up to its time. Arnold (1983) states: "Monteverdi may have attended some of the performances of the earliest operas, those composed by the Florentine composers Jacopo Peri and Giulio Caccini, and he certainly had written some stage music in previous years. In Orfeo he showed that he had a much broader conception of the new genre than did his predecessors. He combined the opulence of dramatic entertainments of the late Renaissance with the straightforwardness of a simple pastoral tale told in recitative, which was the ideal of the Florentines. His recitative is more flexible and expressive than theirs, based on the declamatory melody of his madrigals rather than on their theories about heightened speech. Above all, he had a greater gift for dramatic unity, shaping whole acts into musical units, rather than assembling them from small sections. He also showed a sense of matching the climaxes in the drama by musical climaxes, using dissonance, the singer’s virtuosity, or instrumental sonorities to create the sense of heightened emotion." (Arnold, 1983: p. 1197)

Monteverdi was peaking creatively, but also feeling deeply depressed. Some months after the production of L'Orfeo, his wife died at an early age, seemingly after a long illness (Arnold, 1984: p. 1197). Additionally, Monteverdi - by now an internationally recognized composer - felt underappreciated, overworked and underpaid at Mantua. Relations with the court had deteriorated to such an extent that Monteverdi retired to his father's home at Cremona with his children. However, Duke Vincenzo ordered his recalcitrant composer back, and ultimately Monteverdi did return, ultimately.


The following year, in 1608, he composes his second opera "Arianna" in honor of the wedding of Duke Vincenzo's son to Margarita di Savoia. The famous part "Lamento", was said to have reduced the audience to tears (Schonberg, 1998).

Monteverdi started to turn his attention more to composing religious works, such as his "Vespro della Beata Vergine", published in 1610. He also made a trip to Rome. Schonberg (1998) and Burkholder et al. (2014, p: 316) speculate that this may have been an attempt at finding a better postion.

Eventually, Duke Vincenzo died in 1612 and the new Duke dismissed him. Monteverdi - embittered - returned to Cremona, and then made a trip to Milan (Schonberg, 1998: pp. 10 - 11).

Three decades at St Marks's Cathedral, Venice (1613 - 1643)

In 1613, Monteverdi achieved an enviable position as maestro di cappella at St Mark's in Venice, with a handsome salary. Aside from improved financial position and status, he also had almost complete musical freedom. Venice was liberal and cosmopolitan, a crossroads of many musical influences. Many important musicians from Europe had made Venice their home. It sparks a new productive, creative and, undoubtedly, much happier period in Monteverdi's life.

Monteverdi practically gained musical leadership of the city and was required to compose, teach and be in complete charge of its music production. He set about to effectively reorganize and improve the quality of performance and published ecclastical music, resulting in "Selva morale e spirituale"  (1640) and "Messa a quatro e salmi" (1651). His church duties did not bar him from writing secular music: collections of madrigals were published in 1614, 1619 and 1638 (Schonberg, 1998: p. 13).

Opera continued to occupy much of his time.The music to many of his opera's has been lost, but we know about them through Monteverdi's correspondence with librettists. The first comic opera in the history of music "La finta pazza licori" was composed in 1627.

Monteverdi, in his old age, continues to write ever "fresher and deeper music" (Schonberg, 1998), resulting in publication of the 2nd book of "Scherzi Musicali" (1632) and "Madrigali guerrieri et amorosi" (1638). In 1640 he wrote "Selva morale e spirituale" and published his last two opera's: "Ilriturno a ' Ulisse in patria" (1641) and at 75 years of age "L' incoronazione di Poppea" (1642). In "Poppea" succeeded as never before in achieving a complete unity between music and drama, employing a varied mixture of styles to portray the characters and their emotions (Burkholder et al., 2014, page: 316).

Last year in Venice (1643)

In the last year of his life Monteverdi made a 6 month tour to his place of birth Cremona and Mantua, in a triumphal procession. Shortly after his return to Venice he died in his 77th year (Schonberg, 1998).

Monteverdi's legacy

Aside from his considerable and diverse body of music, which include 3 opera's, 9 books of madrigals, 3 other books of secular songs, Vespro della Beata Vergine, 3 masses and 4 collections of sacred music (Burkholder et al, 2014: 316), we must consider Monteverdi foremost as the first of the great composers. He contributed to a new direction (second practice) for Western music, essentially putting music in service of drama. A feature of the new style, that would become an important element in Baroque era music, was the employment by Monteverdi of the basso continuo technique. This heightened contrast between what was often a florid melody over a slower moving bass (Paxman, 2014: pp. 49-50).

Though we may attribute its invention to Florentine composers Jacopo Peri and Giulio Caccini, it was Monteverdi who realized the potential of opera as a new musical, theatrical form. His equally impressive achievements in the development of the madrigal form, which assimilated elements of other Italian song forms (vitanella, balletto, giustiniana), was a great influence on opera, a musical form we still enjoy in this age.

Sources

ARNOLD, D., 1983. The New Oxford Companion to Music: Volume 2: K-Z. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

BURKHOLDER, J, GROUT, D. and PALISCA, C.,2014. A History of Western Music. 9th ed. New York: W.W. Norton.

PAXMAN, J., 2014. Classical Music 1600 - 2000: A chronology. London: Omnibus Press.

SCHONBERG, H. C., 1998. The Lives of The Great Composers. 3rd ed. London: Abacus.