Editing Claudio Monteverdi (section)

====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''
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|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>