Claudio Monteverdi

This article discusses the concept of ‘Monteverdi’s Vespers’ as represented in contemporary record releases of the composer’s works. This concept refers both to Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine, published in 1610, and to various modern compilations of his works which musicians, musicologists and producers refer to as ‘Vespers’. The great wealth of Vespers-related pieces held in libraries and archives still considerably outweighs the number of performances and recordings of those works. Monteverdi’s Vespers, on the other hand, make up the majority of existing recordings of seventeenth-century polyphonic Vespers and thus constitute a key point of reference. I analyse around 500 albums (not only with Vespers music) released between 1952 and 2019, focussing on their iconographic and typographic content, as well as their graphic designs, in an attempt to show how the modern vision of this repertoire came to be formed and what persons and places are associated with this current in the history of early music recording.

How did Shakespeare’s verses sound, as he and other actors of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men recited them on the stage of the Globe Theatre? New research into the performance practice of seventeenth-century music suggests that this question can now be answered in considerable detail.

On November 13th 1664, Samuel Pepys spent the afternoon reciting ‘To be or not to be’, and in the 1680s, guitarist Cesare Morelli set the soliloquy to music for him, as an
Italian-style Recitative.

Now opera director Andrew Lawrence-King applies to Morelli’s setting new insights into the performance of 17th-century Italian Recitative, in order to reveal for modern actors, directors and scholars hidden secrets of period declamation in Shakespearian speech.

Musical notation may be the closest we can ever approach to a recording of Shakespeare himself speaking.

Despite recent scholarly interest in Monteverdi's Selva morale et spirituale (1641), many aspects of this large, complex print remain enigmatic, and the intended context for much of the music in the collection has long been a matter of pure conjecture. Yet two of the most anomalous features of the Selva morale, the solo motets Ab aeterno ordinata sum and Pianto della Madonna, can now be placed into the context of the Habsburg court in Vienna during the reign of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III (1637-57). Both of these works play directly into the most important aspects of Habsburg Marian devotion. Ab aeterno is a setting of Proverbs 8:23-31, a text that although very rare for seventeenth-century motets would nonetheless have been widely understood as a celebration of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin. The Pianto, a Latin contrafactum of Monteverdi's celebrated Lamento d'Arianna, would have been perfectly suited for the Habsburgs' Fifteen Mysteries Celebration, a Lenten devotion in praise of the Most Holy Rosary. Various types of evidence, including liturgical and other religious writings, Habsburg sermons, and additional musical works, support these interpretations of Monteverdi's motets and reveal their importance to the imperial court. That the composer did indeed include the motets in his print with the Habsburg court in mind is further indicated by similarities between the Selva morale and an earlier publication stemming directly from Ferdinand III's court: Giovanni Felice Sances's Motetti a voce sola of 1638.

Studio sulle modalità seguite dall'Accademico Gian Francesco Busenello (1598-1659) nel rappresentare la figura di Seneca nel libretto della Incoronazione di Poppea, musicato da Claudio Monteverdi, con particolare attenzione all'utilizzo fatto delle fonti antiche relative alla vicenda rappresentata.

For all the progress that has been made toward a more sympathetic understanding of Monteverdi’s Marinism, musicologists have yet to conquer their own bias against Marino as anti-Petrarchan poet. Such bias has prevented an understanding of the Marinist quality of the Seventh Book of Madrigals in the broader context of Monteverdi’s well-known experiments with the very concept of the book of madrigals as musical canzoniere. This essay proposes to rethink Monteverdi’s Seventh Book of Madrigals via the poetics that informs the poetry of Marino’s La lira; specifically, Marino’s idiosyncratic approach to the ideology of Petrarchism. From this new vantage point—which takes heed of more recent scholarship on Marino by literary historians—one may see the Seventh Book as an experimental work leading to a new musical canzoniere form that directly emanates from Marino’s re-use of Petrarchan form.

This article analyses the way of setting lament and the theme of madness to music in the first half of the seventeenth century, on the example of the works of Claudio Monteverdi.

At that time the way of expressing states on the verge of madness was the lament as a distinctive musical form in the course of the composition.

The discussion takes as its point of departure one of the most famous examples of lament from early seventeenth century, Claudio Monteverdi’s The Nymph’s Lament – an emotional outburst by the eponymous heroine, held within bounds by a chorus of male voices. The work is analysed in its musical aspect as well as in the context of the “video clip” advertising Anna Prohaska’s album Enchanted Forest. An example of a lament by Monteverdi using other musical techniques is the monologue from the opera Arianna by its heroine, which became the model for later laments. Symbolically it presents a woman’s unsuccessful struggle for her right to individuality and the cultural role of arranged marriage. Its shape is influenced by the commedia dell’arte tradition.

The first opera directly concerned with the theme of madness is Monteverdi’s La finta pazza Licori. Also in this case inspiration came from commedia dell’arte. Even though this work was not completed, the available versions allow us to reconstruct the composer’s intentions and to show how the theme of madness came to make its appearance on operatic stages.

Using historical, analytic, and documentary methodologies this article establishes dates in 1607 for the composition of two madrigals by Monteverdi - “Ohime el bel viso”, and “Zefiro torna e’l bel tempo rimena”, both eventually published in 1614. It also demonstrates the exact process by which “Zefiro torna’” clearly began as a homage to a setting of the same text by Marenzio (including quotations from Marenzio’s music), but became creatively sidetracked into a reminiscence of the central moment in Monteverdi’s opera L’Orfeo. Thus ,even in the absence of compositional sketches, it has proved possible to uncover the “compositional archaeology” of these two works and the creative processes that led to their final form. It also establishes a methodology for distinguishing accidental similarity from deliberate allusion in compositional connections during the late Renaissance.

Claudio Monteverdi constantly paired his musical praxis with a reflection on Arte musica, and in particular on the connection between music and text – although was never able to formalize his theories. This study, which relies heavily on the semiotics of narration, focuses on the literary dimension of his output.
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) est une figure centrale de l’époque de transition entre la Renaissance et l'âge baroque. Sa pratique musicale se mêle à un souci constant de penser l’Arte musica et de justifier sa démarche de compositeur, à la manière du Tasse en littérature. Un des éléments majeurs de cette pensée réside dans le rapport de la musique au texte : l’armonia (la musique) se détourne de sa propre perfection, pour se soumettre à l’oratione, entendue comme poésie ou comme affect. Monteverdi a cherché à formaliser cette pensée sous une forme théorique, mais sans jamais y parvenir, comme l’atteste l’annonce réitérée de ce traité, jamais écrit, sur la nouvelle pratique musicale qu’il entend promouvoir. On envisage ici la réalité littéraire de cette production sous l’angle littéraire, en faisant largement appel à la sémiotique de la narration.
On trouvera en annexe, l’ensemble des textes mis en musique, accompagnés de leur traduction française ainsi que d’un important appareil de notes destiné à mettre en évidence le travail littéraire du musicien.

The lecture is intended primarily to provide a systematic analysis of the genesis of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, and then, to consider the ways the text was copied and published. The author demonstrates the methodological uncertainties of L’Orfeo’s modern editions, the existence of loss sources and the links between the existing ones, as well as the inconsistency of many musicological myths related to score. He especially seeks to demonstrate the unsustainability of the hypothesis concerning the presence of music by Monteverdi for the last scene instead of the existing in the Amadino printed scores.
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Lo studio si propone anzitutto di fornire una analisi sistematica della genesi de L’Orfeo di Claudio Monteverdi, della storia del suo testo e delle modalità di trasmissione dello stesso, ricostruendo non solo le vicende di testimoni perduti e i legami tra quelli esistenti, ma anche dimostrando le aporie metodologiche presenti nelle moderne edizioni dell’opera, oltre che l’infondatezza di molti miti musicologici legati alla partitura. In particolare si cerca di dimostrare l’insostenibilità dell’ipotesi della presenza di un finale “bacchico” come originariamente musicato da Monteverdi in loco di quello presente nelle stampe Amadino.

Claudio Monteverdi's works and certainly his operas originated within the realm of pioneering practitioners. For this reason his music is depending to a great extent of the embodiment of performing conventions. This article discusses the chain of projected ideals on his music since the beginning of its revival.

The 1623 publication of Procopius’ Secret History shocked the scholarly world. The ancient historian’s rejection of his official account of the reign of Justinian I forced humanists to reflect on the general reliability of historical sources. The article suggests that Giovan Francesco Busenello’s libretto L’incoronazione di Poppea (1643) reflects the challenge posed by Procopius’ book. Though its portrayal of historical figures adheres to Tacitus’ Annals, it plays with the possibility that even Tacitus himself was deceived by Machiavellian rulers. Did he, for example, condemn Nero and Poppaea while praising Octavia because this was the truth, or because Octavia was, in fact, a superior politician who had managed to craft a favourable epitaph for herself?

The article reads Sigmund Freud and Claudio Monteverdi’s understanding of musicality, its affinity with rhetoric, and the way this relation informs their individual oeuvres. Both Monteverdi and Freud, each in his own way, were condemned to live with an aversion to musicality that strengthened their hermeneutics of psychic and discursive disturbance. Through the specific rhetorical figure of the musical lament found in psychoanalytical discourse, the article demonstrates the way dissonances implicate opera, the madrigal, and the talking-cure, making aporetic claims, especially in the face of Freud’s self-attestation—his resolute conviction that he was “ganz unmusikalisch”—which astonishingly matches Monteverdi’s own resistance to music.

A comienzos del s. XVII, el creciente interés por comunicar emociones a través de la música contribuyó al abandono de la polifonía y al surgimiento de la monodía acompañada. En las obras vocales, este nuevo estilo de composición fortaleció la relación entre música y texto, volviéndolos sumamente interdependientes. A menudo, esta relación es tan estrecha que su estudio contribuye a una mejor comprensión de la intencionalidad expresiva y a la elaboración de una iterpretación declamatoria (especialmente, de las primeras monodías). Sin embargo, la aplicación de estos conocimientos al estudio de la música vocal suele circunscribirse a contextos reducidos de enseñanza y práctica musicales (clases, ensayos, talleres, etc.), lo que dificulta su divulgación. Con el objeto de contribuir al estudio de la música antigua, presentamos un estudio de la relación entre música y texto en la obra Quel sguardo sdegnosetto de Claudio Monteverdi y su síntesis para una propuesta de interpretación declamatoria. Además, brindamos materiales que ‒esperamos‒ puedan asistir en el proceso de aprendizaje: análisis poético del texto, traducción al español, transcripción fonémica, requisitos para su correcta dicción y edición crítica.

In the year 1649, Marco Scacchi (1600-1662), Giovanni Francesco Anerio's
disciple, publishes a theoretical work called “Breve Discorso Sopra la Musica Moderna” in
which he builds important arguments for the defense of his own music practice placed in the
context of the Seconda Pratica. After a period of controversies between him and the
composers Paul Siefert and Romano Micheli, Scacchi inveighs against the Prima Pratica
composers and, in turns, he praises the compositional industry of his time. The present article
intends to put in evidence the tradition of the Platonic arguments used by Scacchi in his
narrative, reclaiming early discourses which were buildt over Platonic topics, shared during
the 17th century controversies between "ancients" and "moderns"

This article examines the temporal structure of L’Orfeo’s prologue. An analysis of the distribution of semibreves per line of text reveals a palindrome, which reinforces long-held perceptions of symmetry in the opera. Adopting the form of strophic variations, Monteverdi carefully shapes musical time for expressive and structural purposes. He is thus able both to enact and to check music’s affective power within the context of seconda prattica. More than a conventional prologue, La Musica’s exordium stands as an emblem of both L’Orfeo and the anxiety surrounding the nascent dramma per musica.

O presente artigo trata de questões referentes à linguagem harmônica da obra de Claudio Monteverdi, seus
procedimentos harmônicos e decorrentes movimentações melódicas, sua utilização como recurso dramatúrgico e
suas possíveis significações alegóricas, tomando por base diversas teorias de modos nos séculos XVI e XVII. Num
primeiro momento, aborda a questão das diversas nomenclaturas e significados dos modos e suas possíveis referências alegóricas de acordo com autores diversos. Num segundo momento, apresenta a análise de dois trechos de suas
óperas, que tratam da representação da morte de Eurídice e Clorinda (Orfeo & Il combattimento de Tancredi e Clorinda,respectivamente), relacionando os procedimentos harmônicos às duas situações dramatúrgicas.

Abstract: The Representation of Feminine Death in L’Orfeo and Il Combattimento di Tancredi et Clorinda by Claudio Monteverdi
Abstract: This paper refers to issues related to the harmonic language of Claudio Monteverdi, its harmonic procedures and resulting melodic movements, its use as a dramaturgical resource and its potential allegorical meanings,
based on theories and classifications of modes of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. At first, it approaches the
matter of the multiple names and meanings of the modes and their potential allegorical references according to different authors. Secondly, it presents the analysis of two examples from his operas that deal with the representation of
the death of Euridice and Clorinda (Orfeo & Il combattimento de Tancredi e Clorinda, respectively), correlating their
harmonic procedures to the corresponding dramaturgical situations.

Este trabalho propõe um estudo comparativo entre dois estilos musicais separados pelo tempo e pelo espaço: a Seconda Pratica, estilo musical italiano do início do período barroco em música, mais especificamente do início do século XVII; e a Bossa Nova, estilo musical brasileiro nascido no final da década de 1950. Ao confrontarmos características estéticas e os contextos culturais envolvidos no surgimento de cada um dos estilos musicais em questão, verificamos a presença de diversas semelhanças, sobretudo na maneira como cada estilo propôs a utilização da voz no cantar, na instrumentação adotada, na concepção estética associada à ideia de economia e síntese e na relação entre música e texto. Ao abordarmos essas correntes artísticas e seus usos característicos da voz, fizemos uso de partituras, fonogramas, tratados históricos, entrevistas, textos de pesquisadores da área (livros, artigos, teses, dissertações e páginas da internet) e obras literárias como fontes de investigação. Orientação da Profa. Dra. Regina Machado.


Palavras-chave: Seconda pratica, Bossa Nova, Canto-falado, Recitativo, Canção.


Abstract:
This work aims at a comparative study between two musical styles far apart in time and space: the early baroque Italian style of Seconda Pratica and the Brazilian Bossa Nova which emerged in the late fifties of the twentieth century. In comparing aesthetic traits and the cultural environments of each of these musical styles we find a series of similarities, chiefly concerning the means by which each of them established a proper practice of singing, the instrumentation displayed and the aesthetic conception associated with the notions of economy and synthesis, and the relationship between music and text. In order to approach these artistic currents which had their innovative proposals unfolded in their use of voice, we'll resort to musical scores, audio recordings, historical treatises, interviews, reports of research in the field (books, papers, doctoral theses and dissertations, webpages) and literature as sources for our investigation.
Keywords: Seconda pratica, Bossa Nova, Spoken singing, Recitative, Tune.

No todos los amantes suplican piedad a sus amados a fin de evitar la muerte que los amenaza si no ven correspondido su amor. Algunos vislumbran una muerte dichosa si se produce una piedad póstuma. Estas páginas intentan explorar distintas manifestaciones del motivo de la muerte dichosa del amante que espera ganar post mortem la piedad del ser amado, a fin de evaluar las posibilidades interpretativas de un poema de Bartolomeo Gottifredi, compendio de los distintos valores de este motivo afortunado.

In Europe, between the years 1575 to 1625, a fundamental change appeared in the approach or underlying assumptions of the strategy to thought regarding the principles, composition, and musical performance. This paradigm shift was a combination of the inevitable evolution of the new Baroque style, the foundations of which can be traced way back into the Renaissance, with transformations purely built on forms and practices of the time; and secondly, a revolution brought about by the intellectual Camerata group of Count Giovanni de' Bardi of Florence spreading through the cultural centers of northern Italy including Rome, and France, Germany, Spain, and England. Concerning instrumental music, four distinct area shifts are seen: idiomatic writing, texture, instrument use, and orchestration. Although polyphonic voice parts were still prominent, it is this feature more than any other, that separates Renaissance music from Baroque.

While Monteverdi didn’t create the operatic form (that credit belonging to Peri and Caccini) , he was the first widely renowned composer for the form, and pioneered many of the forms traits we recognise today. Between 1607 and 1643, he composed 10 operas, of which only 3 have survived; Orfeo, Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria and L’incoronazione di Poppea. In this essay, I look at these surviving Venetian operas, analysing them in terms of their thematic entanglement with the compositional style of each opera, preceded by a brief context to the time they were written.

When compared with the chaconne of Monteverdi's Zefiro torna, e di soavi accenti, Frescobaldi's Cento partite sopra passacagli reveals a completely different notion of the genre. Like Frescobaldi's other chaconnes and passacaglias, this work does not have a fixed ostinato bass, a trait that has generally been assumed as defining for the genre but not present in most early chaconnes. By contrast, Monteverdi's "Zefiro torna, e di soave accenti," one of the most widely imitated early vocal chaconnes, prominently features a fixed ostinato bass. Frescobaldi's works are examined within the context of Monteverdi's work and other early chaconnes and passacaglias.

¿Quién no conoce la romántica y dramática historia del enamorado Orfeo que perdió a su esposa Eurídice el día de su enlace? Desolado, el que fuera considerado como el señor de la música, hasta inventor de la lira, sedujo con su canto a los señores del inframundo, Plutón y Proserpina, y bajó al Hades para rescatar a su amada.
Precisamente, este episodio es el que representa Rubens en este espectacular lienzo para la Torre de la Parada. El mismo episodio que puso en música Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), en 1607, en la que será considerada una de las primeras óperas modernas: L’Orfeo, Favola in musica.  Orfeo, que también inspiró a poetas simbolistas, como Rainer María Rilke (1875-1926) o a cineastas, como Jean Cocteau (1889-1963), que le dedicó una trilogía órfica.
Un personaje que, lejos de ser divino, rozó los límites de lo que era permitido a los humanos, gracias a su poder sobre la música y la poesía. Con el dominio de estas artes supo encantar a la naturaleza, amansar a las fieras y bajar al Más Allá.

Il presente lavoro è estratto dello studio per il progetto di audience development “FOTOGRAMMI MONTEVERDIANI”, commissionato dalla Fondazione Paolo Grassi e dalla 43˚ Festival della Valle d’Itria, per il ciclo d'incontri "Mettiamoci all'Opera", per la formazione del pubblico alla cultura musicale.