Editing Claudio Monteverdi (section)

===Opera and sacred music: 1607–1612===

In Monteverdi's final five years' service in Mantua he completed the operas ''L'Orfeo'' (1607) and ''L'Arianna'' (1608), and wrote quantities of sacred music, including the ''Messa in illo tempore'' (1610) and also the collection known as ''Vespro della Beata Vergine'' which is often referred to as "Monteverdi's ''Vespers''" (1610). He also published ''Scherzi musicale a tre voci'' (1607), settings of verses composed since 1599 and dedicated to the Gonzaga heir, Francesco. The vocal trio in the ''Scherzi'' comprises two sopranos and a bass, accompanied by simple instrumental [[ritornello]]s. 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".<ref>Bowers (2007), p. 65</ref>

====''L'Orfeo''====
{{Main|L'Orfeo}}
[[File:Frontispiece of L'Orfeo.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|Frontispiece of Monteverdi's opera ''L'Orfeo'', Venice edition, 1609.]]

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]].<ref>Grout (1971), p. 56</ref> Act 1 presents a pastoral idyll, the buoyant mood of which continues into Act 2. 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.<ref>Ringer (2006), pp. 63–64</ref>

Act 3 is dominated by Orfeo's aria "Possente spirto e formidabil nume" by which he attempts to persuade [[Charon|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.<ref>Carter (1993)</ref> In Act 4 the warmth of Proserpina's singing on behalf of Orfeo is retained until Orfeo fatally "looks back".<ref name= H24>Harnoncourt (1969), pp. 24–25</ref> The brief final act, which sees Orfeo's rescue and metamorphosis, is framed by the final appearance of the ritornello and by a lively [[moresca]] that brings the audience back to their everyday world.<ref>Ringer (2006), p. 89</ref>

Throughout the opera Monteverdi makes innovative use of polyphony, extending the rules beyond the conventions which composers normally observed in fidelity to [[Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina|Palestrina]].<ref>{{cite journal|last= Hull|first= Robert H.|title= The Development of Harmony|journal= The School Music Review|date= 15 September 1929|page=111}}</ref> He combines elements of the traditional 16th-century madrigal with the new monodic style where the text dominates the music and sinfonias and instrumental ritornellos illustrate the action.<ref>Ringer (2006), pp. 27–28</ref>

====''L'Arianna''====
{{Main|L'Arianna}}
The music for this opera is lost except for the ''Lamento d'Arianna'', which was published in the sixth book in 1614 as a five-voice madrigal; a separate monodic version was published in 1623.<ref>Whenham (2007) "Catalogue and Index", p. 322</ref> In its operatic context the lament depicts Arianna's various emotional reactions to her abandonment: sorrow, anger, fear, self-pity, desolation and a sense of futility. Throughout, indignation and anger are punctuated by tenderness, until a descending line brings the piece to a quiet conclusion.<ref name= R96/>

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&nbsp;... that would become crucial, almost genre-defining, to the full-scale public operas of 17th-century Venice".<ref name=Cusick>{{harvp|Cusick|1994}}</ref> Cusick observes how Monteverdi is able to match in music the "rhetorical and syntactical gestures" in the text of Ottavio Rinuccini.<ref name= Cusick/> The opening repeated words "Lasciatemi morire" (Let me die) are accompanied by a [[dominant seventh chord]] which Ringer describes as "an unforgettable chromatic stab of pain".<ref name=R96 /> Ringer suggests that the lament defines Monteverdi's innovative creativity in a manner similar to that in which the Prelude and the [[Liebestod]] in ''[[Tristan und Isolde]]'' announced [[Richard Wagner|Wagner's]] discovery of new expressive frontiers.<ref name=R96>Ringer (2006), pp. 96–98</ref>

Rinuccini's full libretto, which has survived, was set in modern times by [[Alexander Goehr]] (''[[Arianna (Goehr)|Arianna]]'', 1995), including a version of Monteverdi's ''Lament''.<ref>Sutcliffe (1995), pp. 610–611</ref>

====Vespers====
{{Main|Vespro della Beata Vergine}}
[[File:Monteverdi Marienvesper Altus.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|alt= Two pages of printed music, an alto part left, the corresponding basso continuo right, with names of other instruments right|Pages from the printed [[Magnificat]] of the ''Vespers'', a page from the [[alto]] partbook (left), and the corresponding page from the [[basso continuo|continuo]] partbook (right)]]
{{listen|type=music|header=From ''Vespro della Beata Vergine''
|filename=Deus in adiutorium.ogg|title="Deus in adiutorium"|length=hide|description=
|filename2=Laudate pueri.ogg |title2="Laudate pueri"|length2=hide|description2= }}
The ''Vespro della Beata Vergine'', Monteverdi's first published sacred music since the ''Madrigali spirituali'' of 1583, consists of 14 components: an introductory versicle and response, five psalms interspersed with five "sacred concertos" (Monteverdi's term),<ref name= W17>Whenham (1997), pp. 16–17</ref> a hymn, and two Magnificat settings. Collectively these pieces fulfil the requirements for a  Vespers  service on any [[Marian feast days|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.<ref name= ChewMantua/>

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.<ref name= W17/>

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,<ref name= K2007>Kurtzman 2007, pp. 147–153</ref> 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;<ref name= K2007/> 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.<ref>{{Cite AV media notes
| title       = Claudio Monteverdi: Vespro della beata vergine
| year        = 1990
| last        = Gardiner
| first       = John Eliot
| author-link = John Eliot Gardiner
| pages       = 17–22
| publisher   = Deutsche Grammophon
| id          = Digital stereo 429 565–2
| location    = Hamburg
}}</ref>

The actual musical ingredients of the Vespers were not novel to Mantua – concertato had been used by [[Lodovico Grossi da Viadana]],<ref name= AF123/> a former choirmaster at the cathedral of Mantua,<ref>Mompellio (n.d.)</ref> while the ''Sonata sopra'' had been anticipated by [[Archangelo Crotti]] in his ''Sancta Maria'' published in 1608. 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.<ref name= AF123>Arnold and Fortune (1968), pp. 123–124</ref>