CLAUDIO MONTEVERDIStacy Capers

CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI

•May 15, 1567 – Nov 29, 1643 (died age 76)

•Baroque Italian composer

•Bridge between old and new musical practice

•Pioneer of opera

EARLY LIFEBorn in Cremona, Italy

Child prodigy Served as chorister under Marc Antonio Ingegneri at Cathedral in

Cremona

Produced first music for publication by age 15

Took position as court musician in Mantua in 1590 for Gonzaga family Began work as viola player and vocalist, promoted to conductor in

1602

Married court singer, Claudia de Cattaneis, in 1599

Two sons, Francesco and Massimiliano, and a daughter, Leonora (died in infancy)

MUSICAL WORKS

Madrigals

Operas

Some sacred music

Motets

Masses

Vespers

MONTEVERDI AND THE MADRIGAL Madrigal: secular vocal work, 2-8 voices, a cappella,

word-painting

9 books

Cultivated a new, innovative Baroque style

Irregular dissonances, bold sonorities, beginnings of functional tonality

Quinto Libro (5th book) became center of famous Monteverdi/Artusi Controversy

“Cruda Amarilli”

Music theorist, Giovanni Artusi attacks Monteverdi’s unusual practices

Monteverdi’s response: division of musical practice—Prima pratica vs. Seconda pratica

MONTEVERDI AND OPERA Created first great masterpieces in this genre

Most operas not completed or lost

3 surviving operas:

L’Orfeo

Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria

L’incoronazione di Poppea

“Pur ti Miro” (Duet aria; Act III, scene 7)

L’ORFEO•AKA La favola d'Orfeo

•Librettist: Alessandro Striggio

•Prologue and 5 Acts

•First “great” modern opera, *but not first opera

•Based on Greek legend of Orpheus’s descent to the underworld

•Written for court performance during Carnival

L’ORFEO (CONT.)

•Monteverdi’s innovations: •Madrigal influences

• Use of monody

• Precedence of text over music

• Dynamics

•Quick tempo and harmonic changes

• Shocking dissonances

•“Tu se’ morta”, Recitative from Act II •Orfeo learns of his bride, Euridice’s death

• Dissonance represents mourning

Sung by baritone, Florian Just

LATER YEARS

•Duke Vincenzo died 1612, Monteverdi dismissed from court by Francesco, his successor

•Appointed as maestro of basilica di

San Marco in Venice • Trained court musicians, expanded repertoire

•Age 65, entered priesthood

•Died in Venice in 1643

ITALIAN TERMS•Basso continuo: (baroque music) “continued bass”; includes a bassline and harmonies played by a keyboard instrument

•Libretto: “booklet”; the text of an opera or other long vocal work

•Aria: “air”; a long, accompanied song for solo voice

•Recitativo: “recitative”; narrative/dialogue parts of an opera sung to rhythm of ordinary speech

•Maestro di capella: Master of choir/orchestra

WORKS CITEDhttp://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.libproxy.furman.edu/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000044352?rskey=qzP1BY&result=1

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Claudio_Monteverdi

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/musicapp_historical/chapter/claudio-monteverdi/

https://youtu.be/kEgLr-YVRvs

https://youtu.be/Q_o1xDJyiOU

https://youtu.be/6eA7aDYflc4