$10,00

MONTEVERDI
Creator of Modern Music
REISSUED

By LEO SCHRADE
Leo Schrade's
classic

study interprets the

music of Monteverdi "as an integral unity in which the life of of genius, the problem art, and the phenomenon of culture flow together to produce one of the most felici
tous

accomplishments in the history of

music," Analyzing Monteverdi's work as the foundation of seventeenth-century

music, Dr, Schrade shows how Monte verdi developed a style of musical com
position that not only completely revolu tionized the art of music in his time, but

became the guiding

sequent musical
tieth

styles

principle of all sub down to the twen

century.
for the
first

With Monteverdi,
delibly

time in
in

history the musical art

work became

an expression of man, of human passions, and of human drama. His spe

cific

musical idiom lasted through the age

of Bach; but the basic conceptions of composition, of harmony and melody, of

expressiveness, all of

which arose with

Monteverdi, transcended his period and became those of our own music. The author sets Monteverdi's music
within
its

cultural

and

historical enviion-

ment, drawing on the broadest resources of scholarship to show the growth of his art as it developed step by step in uniquely logical order. And by means of the de tailed analysis of many musical composi

he draws together the elements of and expressive ness in Monteverdi's music and relates
tions,

history, aesthetics, style,

them

to seventeenth-century

life.

DEC 17

199!

780.92

69-473?! 780.92 M76ls Schrade $10.00 Monteverdi 69-47361

MONTEVERDI
s^.
Creator of

Modern Music

Claudio Monteverdi, from Fiori Poetici, 1644

Qreator of ^Modern

o
LEO SCHRADE

Qnator

o
LEO SCHRADE

W W

NORTON & COMPANY

INC

New

York

COPYRIGHT 1950 BY W. W. NORTON & COMPANY, INC.

First

1969 published in the Norton Library

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

PUBLISHED SIMULTANEOUSLY IN CANADA BY GEORGE J. MC LEOD LIMITED, TORONTO

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How

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TO

ALBERT SCHWEITZER
as a

token of deep
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|0 .cP

CITY (MO.)

^oLlC LIBRARY

CONTENTS

Preface

1 1

PART ONE The "Perfect Art":

ONE

A Prelude

to

Monteverdi
17

The The

Perfect Art, a Classic Ideal of Music in the Sixteenth

Position of the

Century

TWO
Italy

Ars Perfecta

in Sixteenth-Century

48

PART TWO The Struggle with

THREE Beginnings in Cremona. FOUR The Style of the Cantiunculae
FIVE
six

the Past
77 86 106

Monteverdi's Canzonette

The Madrigal: The New Artistic Medium SEVEN The Madrigals of i$<)o
to

124
135

PART TKREE Rise

EIGHT

Fame: The Foundation of the

New
151
1

Music in Mantua NINE Monteverdi in the Household of the Court TEN The Mantuan Madrigals ELEVEN The Mantuan Music Drama TWELVE Sacred Music in Mantua

68

179

224
247

PART FOUR The Years of Fulfillment

THIRTEEN Venice FOURTEEN The civ An of Madrigals FIFTEEN The Art of Representation:

265

276
Ballo,

Scenic Cantata,

Drama
SIXTEEN

296

The Composer

at St.

Mark's

14

SEVENTEEN Fulfillment of Madrigalesque Composition EIGHTEEN The Final Drama

Bibliography

326
345
371

Index

378

ABBREVIATIONS

Adler,

HMG

Adler, G.

Handbuch der

Musikgeschichte, 2nd ed.

(1930)

AfMW
CS

Archw -fur

Musikivissenschtft

E, de Coussemaker,

Scnptorum de Musica Medii

in

DTOe
Festschrift

Aevi Nova Series Denkmaler der Tonkunst

Festschrift

Oest err etch

t

Hermann Kretzschmar zum

(Leipzig, 1918)

siebzigsten

Geburtstage uberreicht von Kollegen, Scbulern,

und Freunden

GBA
Kirch.MusJb.

Gazette des Beaux- Arts

Kirchenmusikalisches Jahrbuch

M&L MR
RaM

MfM

Monatshefte

-fur

Musikgeschichte

RM
RM1 S1MG StzMW

Music & Letters The Music Review La Rassegna Musicale La Revue Musicale
Rivista Musicale Italiana

Sammelbande der internationalen Musikgesellschtft

Studien zur Musikwissenschaft, Beihefte der
Vierteljahrsschrift -fur Musikwissenschaft

DTOe

VfMW ZfMW

Zeitschrift fur Musikwissenschajt

ILLUSTRATIONS

Claudio Monteverdi, from Fieri Poetici, 1644 Claudio Monteverdi

Frontispiece facing page

96
97 128
129
129 288

2. 3.

Orfeo: Aria Possente spirto Letter of Monteverdi, February

2,

1634

4.
5. 6. 7. 8.

The

Parlor of the

Nunnery, Venice

Palazzo Mocenigo, the Salon Cantoria of St. Mark's

9.

Chapter-House of St. Mark's Venice,- from an Engraving by Giuseppe Heintz Ulncoronazione di Poppea, the Sinfonia of the Prologue

288

289
320

TO.

The Tomb

of Monteverdi

PREFACE

Monteverdi ORACOLO

DELLA MUSICA,
in 1640

such was the

Ferrari,

title

addressed to

by Benedetto

admirers, a younger friend, and, as

one of his unreserved a musician, his devoted follower.

Monteverdi, "the prophet of music," the creator of modern music! Indeed, the prophetic novelty of his work overthrew the art of his ancestors to bring about the dawn of a new age. At the beginning of
the seventeenth century the new era rapidly approached and by 1640 the oracle's marvels were all but fulfilled.
Ferrari's lavish praise
its

zenith,

verdi's

was exceeded by the actuality, for in Monte work modern music became a reality. The artistic principles he developed within his work were to become those of our music and of

our musical understanding as well; they lived beyond the epoch that brought them to light. Despite a long and uneven advance through manifold complexities, music has always hewed to these principles; even our own contemporaneous music has not abandoned them com pletely. In fundamental principles the art of Monteverdi has actually more in common with the music of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, or even of Brahms, than with that of Palestrina, his immediate and now best-known precursor. And yet, more than two centuries passed be fore the age of Brahms, while on the other hand the young Monteverdi shared about twenty-five years of life with the elder Palestrina. His tory establishes strange relations if genius guides its course, and rarely
does the logic of evolution cast any light upon the artistic phenomenon in history. In view of the foundation of lasting principles, Monteverdi was more than the creator of a style of historic significance. Styles
live

lasted

but during their given epochs, and his specific musical idiom through the age of Bach. But the basic conceptions of composi

harmony and melody, of expressiveness, all of which arose with Monteverdi, transcended the ephemeral nature of style. Monteverdi's true stature is again being recognized, for in recent years his work has found many a new friend and admirer. If we do not
tion, of

12
misread the
signs, the

PREFACE
We

new response to his music no longer comes from connoisseurs of and scholars alone but from a large the small group lovers. like to think that Monteverdi has entered music of society
our musical
to regain the place he once occupied in the musical culture of his time. His place in our own musical culture will be se
life

cured by the

artistic

greatness that exists irrespective of the specific

idiom of any age.

response, however, seems^to be traceable to our own reto the music of Monteverdi. The "rebirth" of any music ceptiveness of the past is never truly successful unless we are prepared for it. Such

The new

situation, rather than

preparedness undoubtedly results from a general, cultural, and social from a better understanding of technicalities or

from purely

aesthetic evaluations.

Monteverdi's operatic work is no longer an unknown quantity. That the composer of today values it is not surprising. Stravinsky's

Orpheus
artist

reveals that there is again an affinity of minds between the of today and Monteverdi. But apart from any kinship among composers, Monteverdi's music drama has gained a new hold over a

much

larger audience.

His Orfeo has become

a standard

work

of the

operatic repertory in France.

The

magnificent selection of madrigals

recorded under the direction of Nadia Boulanger has had a most ex

traordinary influence on the favorable response of the modern listener. English concert life has frequently given the work of Monteverdi a prominent position, resulting in a rapid increase in the number of

admirers and enthusiasts.

Venetian Francesco Malipiero, Italy's renowned composer, has completed the edition of all the works of Monteverdi. Despite the criticism that has been voiced against the scholarly accuracy of the edition, its great merits far outrank any aspects open to criticism. Should Monteverdi's work now become more widely appreciated, Malipiero's efforts will doubtless have the largest share in this

The

now

popularity. In this book, all musical examples are quoted the edition of Malipiero. Ever since Padre Martini, the

won

newly from

eighteenth-century authority

on

erudite composition, scholarship has intermittently paid tribute to the prominence of Monteverdi in the history of music. The

Carl von Winterfeld opened

new vistas,

incomparable

historians generally followed his lead, ploring the historical details. From the eighties on, research has re mained more or less consistently alive to the various problems of

was many years before broadening the views and ex

but
it

PREFACE
Monteverdi's work; and the
list

13

of "specialists"

now

includes dis

all countries: Emil Vogel, Hugo Leichtentinguished scholars from Francesco Malipiero, Dotritt, Louis Schneider, Henry Prunieres,

menico

de' Paoli,

Hans Redlich, and Jack Allen Westrup, the

latter

two being largely responsible for the recent resurgence of Monteverdi in English musical life.

The

with by Emil Vogel biography of Monteverdi has been dealt

in the most exemplary fashion. The fact that after his research of 1887 has been added to the bio very little, and nothing of startling novelty, the thor an be will outstanding testimonial to always graphical data, he investigated his subject. As so often in the with which oughness earlier history of music, the life of an artist rarely, if ever, presents in most cases, remains complete entity. Our knowledge, the fragments we know hardly any which shed fragmentary, and of
itself as a

light

upon the

intimate complexities of the

artist's

human

nature.

Rarely are

we

allowed more

than a fleeting glance into the

is

human

All evidence aspects of the personality. to artistic activity. The story of the artist's life

more or

less
is

directly related

the story of the

facts of the

growth

of his

work. The

cannot attempt to composer's interpreter

present his

life as a series life

of biological events. All

known

composer's
sis,

must be integrated into the

strict

artistic process.

The

analy

under the

thetic value together ment. Thus, in this book, the attempt has been made to interpret the music of Monteverdi as an integral unity in which the life of genius, of culture flow together to of art, and the the

aes unfolds guidance of historical thought, the^ with the human substance of the artistic achieve

problem produce one of the most

music.

phenomenon

felicitous

of accomplishments in the history

Dixon (Graduate School, Yale to Arthur gratitude goes of the manuscript, in the preparation University) for his valuable help

My

W.

and, especially to John

advice Derby (New York), whose admirable

and penetrating suggestions yielded countless improvements of style; of the to Alvin Johnson (Yale University) for the careful preparation musical examples; to Miss Sylvia W. Kenney (Graduate School, Yale and preparing the index; to Miss Eva University) for reading proofs O'Meara for continual help in making all needed material available. to Alfred Einstein, whose most generous oifer to Special thanks go read the whole manuscript in proof has been of great benefit. I grate to this work by acknowledge the interest and support given
fully

Edgar

S. Furniss,

Provost of Yale University.

14
Finally,

PREFACE
my appreciation and thanks
go to the
staff

of

W. W. Nor

ton & Company, whose most co-operative efforts have given the book its pleasant appearance, the author a gratifying experience.

LEO SCHRADE
Yale University,

New Haven,

Connecticut

PART ONE

The

"Perfect
to

Art":

PreWe

Monteverdi

CHAPTER ONE

The Perfat

Art, a Classic Ideal of

Music

in the Sixteenth Century

AMONG the blessings that come by chance upon mankind, the birth
jtX. of an
artistic
is

genius

may

well be the greatest.

is

The

benefaction

comprehensive as it is undivided and wisdom abounding are the happy results specific. Truth when a genius creates a work of art that is in harmony with the art of life. Claudio Monteverdi was such a genius, at once prodigiously artistic and intensely human. He based his music on the secure foundation of truth of art and form, on integrity of craft and style, on the authority of law and norm. But his art also embraced the truth of human passion, experience, and tragedy, of all human existence. Monteverdi was the first and greatest among musicians in his blending of art and life. do not hesitate to view Monteverdi's new alliance between artis tic form and human life as the most revolutionary advance in the mod ern history of music. Yet his innovations in purely musical techniques, structures, and idioms were no less revolutionary. Through this new union of music and man and by providing a new basis of musical com Monteverdi became the creator of modern music. So funda position, mental a change as he brought about can probably not take place without the force of a revolution. But the constellation of historical circumstances within which the artist is born determines whether this
spontaneous,

genius accords

as lasting as it

as

We

revolution shall occur with the abruptness of an outburst that sweeps which everything aside, or as a slow growth, a gradual transformation tradition. The vision of the artist and the nature of his genius
respects are responsible for the revolution
itself.

But preparatory conditions

i8

THE ''PERFECT ART":

PRELUDE

its character. It is these factors, per that decide whether the revolution will than the individual, haps more a well-considered metamorphosis. or be a sudden process of destruction a man of in born was Claudio Monteverdi May, 1567, to Baldassare, art of the musical the time that At at Cremona. the medical profession did not forecast the coming of a revolutionary

and inner causes help to determine

mid-sixteenth century musical culture had already reached what change. On the contrary, of artistic achievement. What had already was the men

thought been achieved

peak

was regarded as the complete fulfillment composition work of Northern of the nature of music. These compositions were the climactic the with birth coincided phase of ers, and Monteverdi's held had of ideal composition Netherlandish music. The Northern most the taken have to and now appeared sway for many decades classic shape. Mastery of the technique of Com and perfect, exquisite, classic standards of style inevitably as was at its
in

position

height,

any

craft. Italians, as well as Northerners, looked upon imply a matchless Netherlandish polyphony as a perfect art that could not be surpassed. At For it they had worked out the strongest intellectual justification. widest its the time of Monteverdi's birth this perfect art had also attained

From one end of Europe to the other, in Eng geographical expansion. in land and Germany, in Flanders and Austria, in Spain and France, art musical of one and Denmark and Poland, in concept
Hungary
Italy,

prevailed

the ars perfects of the Netherlands.

Monteverdi lived among the bearers of this perfect thirty years this music was not the felt and music power of this art at its height. But to be his. He was to eliminate its style and do away with the myth of its to become its greatest antagonist, to mark the beginning perfection, of a new age and become its herald. The perfect art he had studied in his before his day was to become archaic. The youth in fact, all music music of our time looks back to Monteverdi as its founder, and because

For

of him

we now regard all music before his day as old music.

This extraordinary success no doubt constituted a revolution. Since Monteverdi came face to face with a perfect art at its height, not at its end, this confrontation forced upon him three decades of severe strug
gles;
it

slowed down the pace of this revolution;

well
as a revolutionary, a

it

made him

a tradition

alist as

careful builder who must

weigh

conservative as well as an innovator, a each stone to test its fitness for the new

years later, the his list him as an artistic Jacobin. But since would of music probably tory for thirty years he was forced to cope with a well-established, at first
construction.

Had Monteverdi been born twenty

PERFECT ART,
artistic

CLASSIC IDEAL
he became

19

ideal, apparently unshakable, his goal, but conservative in his method of reaching it. What was the position that Netherlandish music had attained? It had begun to spread over Europe about 1450, when Ockeghem, the founder of the school, was about thirty years of age. With its artistic achievements it created among musicians a pride in their abilities and

revolutionary in setting

a belief in the climactic importance of their compositions. With proud confidence the Netherlandish musicians made their appearance in the
countries of Europe.

They

believed that after long centuries of bar

barism and obscurity their work had raised music again to a high cultural level The work of the Netherlander made an impressive unity that in music from about 1450 to 1600. Although there were vari

prevailed ous shades of style during this period, there was such power in the unity of their musical concepts that Ockeghem and Palestrina used the same the difference of nationality and the 175 years which language. Despite birth of the founder from the death of the last offspring, separate the both spoke, as it were, the same mother tongue. This unity was such that hear his musical language Netherlandish musician could

any

always

spoken

in

no matter what European country he chose as the scene of his

that of

activity.

As the various generations came and went

Ockeghem being

the first; that of Josquin des Pres, Pierre de la Rue, Heinrich Isaac, Alex ander Agricola, the second; that of Willaert and Gombert, the third; and that of Palestrina and Orlandus Lassus, the last new contributions

were made

to an ideal that remained unalterable in principle. No nov of their introduced by these generations affected the substance elty is music. It is, perhaps, true that the uniformity of an artistic style great here, probably, in the est at the time of its most vigorous expansion At all events, it would naturally be greater at that work of

Josquin. the beginning, when novelty often provokes violent mani stage than at festations in the struggle between the new and the old greater also arise that new the when an imperil than at the end of concepts

epoch,

the old ideal merely

by

their presence. Palestrina at the

end of

his life

was no

his style without question longer able to impose

Italy.

upon

the whole

of Europe, or even of

development,
a century.
essential

with a turbulent years ran parallel the like of which the musical world had not seen for many
His
final

estrina

Yet Netherlandish music can be said to have maintained its until 1594, the year of the death of both Pal unity unbroken and Lassus.

that Monteverdi, then, confronted an ideal of musical composition

20

THE "PERFECT ART":

its

PRELUDE

had on

side not
also

ognition also beset

but

and international rec only the power of uniformity His struggles were old of the noble justification age.

by other complications.

He faced the intricacies of a doctrine

North

along of perfection this At times, Netherlands the polyphony. with, and in support of, formidable opponent doctrine of perfection seems to have been a more a doctrine is than the artistic style on which it was based. For when but of alone reason a creed, ideas become objects not of accepted as
a faith that

in music that had been established in the

men will not easily sacrifice. The numerous discussions of artistic perfection in the Netherlands on the carried on by musicians in various countries may, compositions follow to reluctant be well we and may surface, appear as pure theory;
all

more was in the twisted paths of such theoretical thinking. But the fifteenth of achievements cultural The a mere volved than theory. and enthusiasm and of a men centuries sixteenth and pride feeling gave
led to the belief that an altogether

new epoch had dawned upon man

of intellectual
life

kind.

A universal movement in every province

man
to culture and ushered

sig

naled the rebirth of

in the Renaissance.

In

view of this new greatness and perfection, the consequence of this the beginnings of this inspiring rebirth, men began to inquire into what had enabled mankind more in order to understand fully process served to strengthen the into search This attain perfection. past again to search was com The to restored a culture of awareness their greatness.

mon to

all; artists,

men

of

letters,

musicians, shared in the quest;

it

was

a European phenomenon.

The Italian humanists who began the inquiry

and
painters,

were joined by

architects

Thus originated the doctrine of perfection

understanding of the

and the musicians followed suit. with a fuller regained. Along

cultural beginnings came an insight into the the climax of perfection. In the early years to various phases that had led of man's rebirth and the concept of the doctrine of Monteverdi's life,

new

a perfection trenched.

that had

been regained in

all

the arts were

still

firmly in

In the period between 1450 and 1600 musical leadership lay in the hands of the Netherlanders, so that it was quite natural for the North
erners to think that the restoration of musical culture was the result of also made their contributions to the doctrine of their work; and

they

rebirth.

1 This doctrine has never been discussed by historians of music. Monteverdi directly intervened in the doctrine, but in terms of opposition. The doctrine has a fascination of its own, and the reader will quickly draw the parallels between music, literature,

PERFECT ART,
The

CLASSIC IDEAL

21

THE NORTHERN SCHOOL OF THOUGHT

Netherlandish musicians, too, began to appraise the rise of their music as an event that called for a new estimate of musical devel as a whole. Enthusiasm for the new achievements led to the
of eulogies whose authors named the new style frequent appearance ars nova, a new art, and found it to be endowed with an amazing range of power. The first to outline the rise of music in this phase of culture seems to have been Johannes Tinctoris (ca. 1446-151 1), the great the
orist of the early

opment

.new composers.
fay, Binchois,

"Who

Netherlandish school, who praised the works of the does not know men such as Dunstable, Du
Busnois, Regis, Caron, Carlerius, Morton, not bestow the highest praise upon these
all

Ockeghem,

Obrecht?

And who would

whose compositions, spread

over the universe,

fill,

with the sweetest

sounds, the temples of the Lord, the palaces of the kings, and private homes?" 2 These words of praise are from that bold treatise in which

he attempted to summarize the Complex of the Twenty Effects of the Noble Art of Music. Tinctoris inaugurated a new phase in the interpre The nineteenth of his twenty effects of music tation of musical
all those that are expert in it." And whom glorifies did music glorify? Tinctoris first praised the musicians of Greek an the philosophers of music. He then turned abruptly to his own tiquity, 8 Dunstable at one end, by Obrecht at the other. On delimited

stated that

history.

music

time,

by

the one hand was antiquity with its pre-eminent monuments of musical the men of his day greeted culture; on the other was the new art which with so great a feeling of elation. But there was nothing in between!
and visual arts. He will recognize the similarity of the ideas the musicians expressed and those he knows from the work of Leonardo Bruni, Flavio Biondo, Filippo Villani, Matteo Palmieri, Ghiberti, Alberti, Marsilio Ficino and others. The best and most recent discussion of the general problems is in Wallace K. Ferguson's The Renaissance in Historical Thought (Boston, 1948). 2 In 1547, little more than half a century later, Henricus Glareanus dropped the name Dufay from the list of prominent composers. He had a more consistent view of Netherlandish music, the beginning of which he properly assigned to Ockeghem. Gifted with a keen sense of observation, he selected a more uniform group of repre sentative musicians. No longer did he mention Tinctoris. Through Gafori, to whom Glareanus felt intellectually indebted, he nonetheless had indirect relations with the theoretical school of the "Fleming," as Tinctoris was called in Italy. Gafori had ex
with Tinctoris in the late seventies of the fifteenth plored many a musical phenomenon had not wholly been forgotten; century when both were at Naples. Yet by 1547 Dufay he remained in the memory of men until the middle of the sixteenth century when

Fra Angelico da Piccitono praised Dufay as a most excellent musician, a man "even of such excellence that in his day he held the first place and the highest degree among
all
3

other composers." CS, IV, i 99 f.

22

THE ''PERFECT ART":

PRELUDE

From

the downfall of antiquity to the rise of the Netherlander there was one huge gap a complete lack of musical culture. It was with this of two widely separated cultural epochs in mind that juxtaposition the Netherlandish school began to consider the historical the men of

development of music. Tinctoris had more than once concerned himself with this problem of history. He devoted the entire preface of his famous treatise Proporin tionale to this question and discussed at some length the periods own their to which men contributed to the glory of music, and thus

renown.

to the musical culture of antiquity. assigned first place After it had reached the phase of fulfillment, there came "summus ille musicus Jhesus Christus" (Christ, the greatest musician) By the forma He had tive virtue of number, active in the world and in music alike, the been had device same the as created the universe, Orpheus by Christian the with accordance In times. ancient in of early cities builder
.

He

idea of "Christ, the greatest artist," Tinctoris named Christ the great Most of the est musician, the first in a new musical epoch of mankind.

musicians Tinctoris then listed belong to Christian antiquity: Gregory, Ambrose, Augustine, Hilary, Martianus, and Boethius. Only two were musicians of the Middle Ages proper: Guido of Arezzo in the eleventh and Johannes de Muris at the beginning of the fourteenth cen

century

not composers. tury; and they were theorists, enormous gap in historical develop that came upon Again Tinctoris for any of the medieval stages in the art of com ment. Without
position,

Burgundy. Dufay by the "modern!": Ockeghem, Busnois,

regard he skipped at once from Christian antiquity to the ars nova, whose "fount and origin" lay, for him, with Dunstable in England and and Binchois in They were immediately followed
Regis, and Caron.
4

Thus

the

art of music had reached its cultural peak twice only, and the curve of the historical process had dropped to its lowest point between an

tiquity

and the new

art.

a further observation. Although he fully recognized the new rise of music, he also observed in his own time a certain de As the erudite cline, actual or feared, in the learned doctrine of music.

Tinctoris

made

knowledge in music and musical composi was dedicated to the youth, to students who were anxious to study music as a "liberal and honorable" art. The stu dent of music should become once more a student of a liberal art ac new art should stand cording to ancient conceptions. Antiquity and the
but indispensable
basis of all

tion, his Proportionate

Ibid., p. 154.

PERFECT ART,
side

CLASSIC IDEAL

23

would make possible a direct rivalry by side, and this proximity between a living present and an ancient model the old ait offering as though the most ideal type of musicianship and the new, advancing
driven
of musical composition, a certain revolu term the Tinctoris coined the phrase ars nova, implied faded soon character away, however, tionary spirit. This revolutionary school ex Netherlandish The nova ars and even the term disappeared. new more more and and wider composers circles, panded in ever of the school achieved the distinction of leadership. With the advance little of receded, the new of rise the Ockeghem and figure generations, the art of added to his fame. The by little, into the past, where myth Netherlanders became a fuller entity, and as new musicians, representa became members of the tive of the latest variations of the growing style, art shifted. Ockeghem this of school, the emphasis upon various phases Pres came and his work graduaUy disappeared from sight; Josquin des the not reflected position only by to the fore. The new situation was

by man's aspiration to excel the When, out of his enthusiasm at the growth

ancient culture.

but also by of Josquin's work within the total European repertory, bestowed his upon him. the unrivaled reputation contemporaries maintained his sixteenth the of middle to the century, Josquin theoretical dis the in and in music, place as Europe's greatest genius out as the true repre cussion of musical development he was singled

Up

Henricus sentative of the style. Of those who sang his praises, of his music. seems to have penetrated most deeply the characteristics of Erasmus, friend erudite humanistic and the
Glareanus, thoroughly of Josquin's compositions and from them de analyzed a great many duced his own theoretical maxims.

Glareanus

Although Glareanus published

bis treatise,

the Dodecacbordon,

about the middle of the century for twenty were based upon the musical work of a generation dead of men few worthy found He more. living composers very years and Nether account into took He only of less much
tion,

observations (1547). his theoretical

appreciation. of secular music, which landish music and did not touch on the subject refused to to advance with vigorous strides. had

by 1547
as a

begun

He

consider the novelties his

once decline. "I notice that Germany perishes, period of cultural fear I of intensely that, all; the noblest nation, now the most miserable will before countless sects, Germany because of all her liberties and in utter was Glareanus despair robbers." a den of long be turned into a negative With strife. to of a land torn at the pieces by religious
sight

time produced and even looked upon his age

24

THE "PERFECT ART'':

toward
his

PRELUDE

rime and a determined emphasis on an art a conservative. Indeed, he besought already past, he was fundamentally to imitate its ideal to adhere to his contemporaries Josquin's work,
attitude

own

and complete perfection.

From the study of Josquin's work, Glareanus arrived at the principles of classicism in music. Josquin's work was "the perfect art to which can be added, after which nothing but decline is to be ex
nothing
It was pected," the name of serving
5

to be taken as the lasting

classic, regardless

formula for

all

music de
in

of

its

of spirit, harmony every formal aspect, richness vidual achievement, and an absolute, ideal formthese were the funda mental attributes of a classic work of art. Apparently Glareanus was

inner

period. Completeness between indi

the

that unless composers subordinated first to apply to music the idea themselves to the established ideal nothing but decline would be the
result. In

doomed

to deteriorate

mit nothing

else, necessarily obeyed decline might be temporarily postponed if composers were willing to as possible by imitation. Since "classicism" as cling to the ideal as long an artistic idea was unimaginable without a definite concept of histori Glareanus formulated his idea of the ars perfecta in cal

that music after Josquin was consequence, he considered from old age, since the law of nature would per natural law. At best the and art

development,

relation to the broad aspects of the history of forth his views of historical growth in music.

music

as.

whole and

set

In the thirteenth chapter of the third book of his Dodecachordon, he his selections of illustrative musical works. explains the reasons for

Among them he grants preference to the "learned songs of Jodocus a Prato and other classical composers." In order that the student may learn from a variety of styles, he chooses other works also, which repre
sent, as
it

were, "three different periods."

The

first

group, of which

"we

shall give but a

few

illustrations," comprises

compositions that

"are old and simple and, so to speak, from the time when this art was in its youth. The first inventors of this style made themselves known

music

about seventy years ago, I believe; as far as I can see, this first phase of is not much older. To say quite frankly what 1 feel, the vocal

composition in this style at times gives me wonderful delight because of its simplicity, if I take into account the soundness of the olden times

and

set in contrast to this the licentiousness of

allies a

our music. For

this

com

position of old
5

marvelous seriousness to a majesty that will im-

nihil addi potest, ita nihil ei

Henricus Glareanus, Dodecacbordon (Basel, 1547), p. *4 I: ars perfecta, "cui ut quam Senium tandem expectandum."

PERFECT ART,
press

CLASSIC IDEAL

25

seemly

the ears of an intelligent person far more favorably than the titter and noise of those who are wanton."

un

In this picture of a historical development, Glareanus expressed an idea that was still current when Monteverdi made his great distinction

between old and new, secular and sacred.

When art is in its

childhood,

which corresponds to the it is supposed to possess a striking simplicity of life. In contrast, at the time time that of and intensity healthy vigor when Glareanus was living, art had attained greater variety, but men were anxious to pursue one novelty after another and exhibit the stig mata of a decadent and superrefined civilization. The luxurious cupiditas rerum novarum, for which Glareanus expresses his scorn in no
it

uncertain terms, could be observed everywhere, not merely in the arts; was even responsible for the countless religious sects that sprang up
like

mushrooms. Glareanus describes the past as simple, serious, and with "old"; the honest, and these characteristics came to be identified calls on the other hand, he noisy, decadent, shallow, foolish, present,
confused by multiplicity. Works of art produced in times of folly must be flimsy toys. Later, as a result of Monteverdi's art, men will speak of vel antiquus, the grave, old and sacred style, in con the
stylus gravis
trast to the stylus luxuriant vel

modernus, the luxurious, modern, or

secular style of music, but with no condemnation of the present, despite

its

"luxury."

Glareanus dated the beginning of the first, youthful, and vigorous at about 1475. This first phase of polyphonic choral music had style as its foremost composer. Glareanus speaks of him as though

Ockeghem

his

information were based on hearsay only:

"Ockeghem

is

said to

have excelled all others in genius." Yet he knew some of his works. Then he characterized the second period. Its compositions "are such
as

in the belong to an art that grows

state of

it is to ripe at last; ing strength, In his opinion, this sung forty years ago."

become

known

maturing and of gain that they have been

second generation flourished

around 1500 and shortly thereafter; and its compositions were very because they already were products of the true spirit. pleasing The last group of musicians soon followed, the best of whom was
then, Josquin, their "princeps." His,
itself.
is

the perfect

art,

complete in
is

Nothing can be
is

desired. It

art at its

left to be nothing added; nothing climax about "twenty-five years ago." Josquin

altered,

bequeathed
ca. 1500,

to the

world an absolute model of

treatise,

classic

composition;

the Allowing for the writing of and ca. 1520.

the approximate dates

may be

ca.

1475,

26
for

THE
it

PERFECT ART'':
may grow
old,

PRELUDE

to be sure, his art

it,

but

men

will

do well to perpetuate

can never be superseded.

But alas, musicians, in their anxiety to invent something new, were not content to remain on the pinnacle of perfect composition. "Un fortunately, this art now has slipped into such a state of unbridled laxity that it must call forth almost a feeling of disgust among the learned.

The reasons for this are many. Especially, however, there is one reason: we are ashamed to follow the steps of our elders who rigidly observed
the rules to be applied to the relationship of the modes, and in deviating from their traces we have produced a different, but distorted, com

have is by no means pleasant except that it is new. complained about this previously." And whenever an occasion arose, Glareanus continued to complain about novelties that disregarded the
position that

We

laws of an absolute

art.

The

completely negative attitude toward

his

own

time that

made

of spirit and seriousness was reflected in his judg ments on musical style. Or did his musical criticism, perhaps, come first

him condemn its lack

and his condemnation of the age follow? This is unlikely, if we con sider the religious strife and inner tension of the age from which no one could keep himself free. In his despair at this time of religious and
Glareanus was not alone, although he presumably did not share Luther's wish that the day of the Last Judgment might dawn upon mankind and put an end to all the trifling achievements of human culture in which men so boldly took pride. Glareanus seems rather to have followed the view of Erasmus, who blamed Luther for having destroyed the values of the humanities, a view that even Melanchthon would not have rejected entirely. It is probable that Glareanus, through
political discord

the eyes of Erasmus, saw musical studies rapidly declining as one of the and hoped with the Dodecachordon to prevent the youth from completely losing sight of the scientia musicae. Erasmus once
liberal arts

wrote to Pirkheimer that the humanities had perished wherever Lutherdom prevailed. As genuine a humanist as his friend Erasmus, Glareanus
could not join in Luther's hostility to culture and to a
life

whose end

was merely

civilization.

Tracing the development of music in history, Glareanus recognized only everlasting antiquity on the one side and Netherlandish music on the other. Although he greatly admired the artistic values of the Gregorian chant, he did not place it securely in the main stream of the
history of music.
historical,

phenomenon.

He appreciated the chant as an artistic, rather than a He even went so far as to encourage its re-

PERFECT ART,
quence

CLASSIC IDEAL

27

form, thus understanding it, as it were, to be a "timeless" appearance. the se According to Glareanus, Netherlandish music was arranged in of man's ages: a phase of childhood, followed by an age of

growth
old age.

that led to a climactic period of prolific maturity

five years after the

and

finally to

Dodecachordon, Adrianus Petit Coclico, of the of the admirers of another Josquin and himself an offspring a new exposition of the history of music. Netherlandish school,

Only

gave In some of his ideas he was as queer as he looked, a pygmy with an ante diluvian beard reaching to his knees. Listed in the registers of the Uni as Hadrianus Petit Flemingus, Musicus, of Flan of
versity
ders, Coclico

Wittenberg was about fifty-two years of age when he published his Compendium music es at Nuremberg in 1552. In the first part of his work he had a special chapter on the different classes of musicians, "De musicorum generibus," which gave him an opportunity to de

of music in history. He distinguished velop his views on the progress oldest four classes of musicians. The comprised those qui frim musicam to invent music) It is a strange first the were invenerunt (who among
.

most heterogeneous figures side by side: "Tubal, group, since puts the Arenensis [ ] Ockeghem[!], Ja Amphion, Orpheus, Boetius, Guido cobus Obrecht, Alexander et alii." Regardless of the quaintness and
it
!

inaccuracy, what
It

the significance of this apparently senseless list? when we consider the names in his second such as Duf ay, Tinctoris, and Busnois, some of them musicians group, older than Ockeghem, Obrecht, and Alexander Agricola in his first. One obvious explanation of this historical escapade is that Coclico no either of Burgundian music, prior to longer had accurate knowledge, that of the Netherlanders, or of the beginnings of the Flemish school second explanation, however, is found in the influence of proper. medieval musical treatises, in which the writer was required to answer in more or less stereotyped fashion the question of the origins of music. listed Prehistoric, mythical, or legendary figures were indifferently
is

seems

still

more

senseless

as the inventors

from

biblical history,

and originators of music. Names from pagan antiquity, from the Middle from Christianity, and
early
list,

Ages made up the

which was gradually expanded to bring

time. Since

it

ever

closer to the writer's

own

myth

confers the greatest

fame

musician along with Orpheus, Pythagoras, upon men, mention of any to confer the highest distinc Boethius, Guido of Arezzo was intended to have the tion in the hall of fame. Myth and legend were considered
singular

power of

to regions of translating an artist

superhuman glory.

28

THE "PERFECT ART":

PRELUDE

Only

in musical thought those of unique genius, creative originators It was obviously distinction. that and composition, were ever granted Middle the Ages and such an idea, transmitted from antiquity through to name Coclico that prompted still held in the sixteenth century, a legendary were too he as Ockeghem together with Orpheus, though figure.

The second and third classes were the musici mathematics and the the musica mathematics, musici poeticL The second class, the masters of
were utterly
disqualified
as

composers,

for Coclico had lost

all

under

music. He was one standing of the older the doctrine of proportions as the foundation of musical recognized aside many great men of whom he ap structure, and so he brushed had little or no knowledge. They were lumped together as parently Busnoe, Caronte." In his "Jo. Geislin, Tinctoris, Franchinus, Dufay, too long upon the teach dwelt that their chief error was they opinion, and upon speculation. "They piled up immense difficulties ing of rules and other things." Coclico had a multitude of

of the theorists who no longer

by accumulating

signs

no appreciation of

plicity but five years before.

or the striking sim profound learning of the old masters whom the humanist Glareanus had praised
either the

not fully understand earned Everything he did

the works of the the abject title "mathematical," and, in his opinion, musici mathematics were only fit to be discarded. There remained, however, the third class, the musici poetici, the "In the third group there are the most excellent mu "kings of music." of the rest; they do not cling to the sicians, and, so to speak, the kings the best and combine but theory and practice in teaching of the art, of virtues the to attention manner. songs and to most learned

to orna the innermost disposition of compositions. They know how ment melodies and how to express all the emotions through them. This melodies of these masters is the highest in music, the most elegant. The are admired by everyone; they are the only ones worthy of admiration. first and one Among these musicians Josquinus de Pres is easily the most expe The rest. the all above whom I find every reason to prefer

They pay

rienced musicians and the most skillful symphonists in this group are: Petrus de la Rue, Brumel, Henricus Isaac, Ludovicus SenfH, Adrian Nicolas Willarth, Le Brun, Concilium, Morales, Lafage, Lerithier,

Gombert, Criquilon, Meyster Jan, Lupi, Lupus, Clemens Petrus Massenus, Jacobus de Buis, and innumerable others/'
7

non Papa,
7

Not only
"De musi-

Petit Coclico,

Compendium music es (Nuremberg,

1552),

Prima

pars,

comm

generibus."

PERFECT ART,

CLASSIC IDEAL

29

did Coclico give Josquin first place in this rather large group, but he also qualified him as the master of all masters; -he mentioned panegyrskill in teaching, although the composer 's ically Josquin incomparable few real talents. Coclico also praised Josinterested himself only in a criticism of his own works and pointed to the com quin's scrupulous awareness that genius alone established the true value of any poser's This recalls the illuminating letter written to Duke Erwork. artistic
cole of Ferrara

by his art manager, who,

in discussing the possibility of

or Josquin, carefully weighed one against the engaging either Isaac other and attributed to Josquin's genius a uniqueness that money could

not buy.
Coclico further set up a fourth class of musicians,
that he

who

comprised

was making a distinction in his own generation. It appears fourth group as one that the characterized time, not in kind, for he of class third the of the school composers: "ex tertii ge emerged from 8 of the third group Musicians sunt." ecti neris musicorum gymnasio prof the praecepta, established had had already perfected composition; they
the ideal laws of musical form.

They

the core of the composition, how or nas ornare." So did the composers of the fourth group: "ut suaviter, the from perfect nate et artificiose canant." Inviolable rules resulting the fourth balance between theory and practice made it impossible for of the third. To apply these rules consciously group to surpass the work of the fourth class. Thesethus became the one task of

to penetrate to to ornament melodies: "sciunt cantile

also

knew how

composers

could not hope to excel younger composers

their teachers,

but they

the should strive to maintain the level of their art and to preserve conservative to then principles, Coclico ideals. classic

and

it is

stress

his generation

gave expression of this conservatism that he placed frequent probably because of which the musicians of upon the praecepta as an inheritance, must show themselves worthy keepers. Shy of admitting

must necessarily that after the perfect art the curve of development drawn be could out, Coclico be downward unless the state of perfection of musicians, colorless and group created this fourth, somewhat vague could to adherence characteristic was whose given precepts. They
ators.

only continunever be creative originators, but were doomed to be merely

Those
Ibid

theorists

who conceded indisputable

greatness

to the past but

We should recognize the emphasis

curring term.

of musicians. There have been many controversies concerning the fourth group on the praecepta, a continually re Coclico

distinct mastership in

rules previously established

what does

placed to handling musical material according this mean, if not conservausm?

artistic

30
still

THE "PERFECT ART":

PRELUDE

believed in the possibility of further historical development were more liberal in their opinion of the art of their own time and escaped the static conclusions forced on the conservatives. Four years after the of Coclico's Compendium musices, Hermann Finck, an publication other fervent adherent of the Netherlandish school, advanced the time of the latest perfection in music by a full generation. Finck's brilliant the theoretical work, the Practica music a of 1556, was influenced by the Protestant center of which was of

Wittenberg, spirit Netherlandish music.

becoming

The

Practice musica sheds

much

light

on con

historical development in music. The perennial temporary views of the and the inventors of music gave Finck, like the of the

origin question other writers of his day, an opportunity to display his views. In the fifth book of his work he explained his relation to music past and pres ent. He anxiously avoided the simple and easy estimate which so often adherent of progress, that the latest achieve misguides the thoughtless aside any personal than ment is always better anything previous. Setting "the more he or for past "impartially" compared present, predilection of his own the men the earlier of those with musicians recent period"time with those of Josquin's generation. His links to the Netherlandish and he conceded to the two groups an "equal music were still
strong,

measure of natural

gifts."

But while the older composers had

distin

themselves through a larger proportion of "art and study/' it guished was Finck's opinion that the younger men carried off the prize with 9 "the gracefulness of their delivery." "It has rightly been said" that the older generation created the art and the younger "polished it," but it would be a mistake, "which some nowadays seem to make,"

people

to put the older generation far in the background, "for we still enjoy the outstanding accomplishments of the older." "They have laid down

a foundation built upon firm principles." They also enabled their suc cessors to take advantage of the artistic model they invented. It was but
natural that the younger

men should refine the art they inherited, keep

by the ideal. Al worthy of praise, princeps musicomm. In him he recog

though he still admired Josquin

nized a

within the limitations set ing, nevertheless, always Finck admitted many older musicians to be
as the

of the highest genius and profound erudition, a diligent the nature of musical art, the composer who had shown inquirer into the true path. musicians modern

man

Finck thus accepted the creative uniqueness of Josquin's work and

9

The

the qualification of

younger men has much

in

common

with the fourth group

of Coclico.

PERFECT ART,
beyond Josquin, for

CLASSIC IDEAL

3!

intense admiration, while conceding that Josquin must regarded it with suffer the consequences of historical progress. He saw music advancing

invention did not stand still because originality of of the greatness of the past but was part of a continuing process. inventors in music, Finck included new contributors who came after

Among

he omitted the idea of an absolute perfection or, rather, Josquin, and closer to his own day. Finck attributed the point of perfection brought to Gombert, whom he took to be the achievement latest the
important

him with among the composers of his day, and credited 10 in a manner some his contemporaries how to compose shown having what different from that of Josquin. To Finck, the art of music seemed Since Gombert still to move forward and the end could not be foreseen. had been successful in reaching a new peak, would all artists now come to a standstill, or would they follow a downward path? Finck believed were on a pinnacle, but he did not say what man his
central figure

contemporaries ner of future he visualized for music.

In discussing the Netherlandish musicians, Finck showed a growing awareness of national, or native, talent in comparison with the over of the Netherlandish style. His was not powering and ubiquitous might so much a "nationalistic" tendency that made him "relate a few things
in defense of the

Germans"

as a certain pride in the rise of native

com

He had no desire to deny the superiority of the Netherlandish posers. musicians. He refuted the commonly held opinion that the Germans
were completely unmusical, and disagreed with the saying, at that time on all lips, that the Germans bawl, the Italians bellow, the Spaniards 11 his coun howl, the Gauls sing. While Finck claimed nothing more for
trymen than
a better appreciation of music, a defense such as his,

made

the awakening of new talent, indicated a change in possible only by international style. native the relation of groups to the predominant,

The Germans of that time never went so far as to characterize any Netherlandish composition as "outlandish" music, but the Italians, who at first praised the Netherlanders as incomparable masters of musical from the Northerners to a point where re art, gradually moved away lations with them were all but severed.
At first they had not doubted that all accomplishments in music were
due to the Netherlanders
or, to use

the Italian term, the Oltremontani

(men of the North). All the

such unlimited recognition.
10

theoretical literature in Italy was full^of It would be natural for a learned musician

"Qui omnibus musicis

11

The

ostendit viam." Netherlandish musicians saying includes the

among the

Gauls.

3 z

THE "PERFECT ART":

PRELUDE

sitions

or theorist to form his judgment according to the Northern compo he knew, but it is significant that the cultivated layman and the

general public also expressed complete admiration for the musical work of the North. Every honor was given to the Oltremontani, and ap parently it did not occur to the Italians that these men from beyond the

work began

Alps were actually foreigners. Thus in 1506, at the time when Josquin's to get its firm hold over Italy, Vincenzo Quirini, the Venetian ambassador to the Burgundian court, wrote in praise of the
that "there

Netherlander
the

were three things of highest excellence":

first, finest, most exquisite linen of Holland; second, the tapestries of Brabant, most beautiful in design; and third, "the music, which cer 12 tainly can be said to be perfect." While Quirini took note of the unmatched perfection of Nether landish music, other Italians went even further and, in their eulogy of the Netherlanders, used arguments they were to reserve for their own music as soon as their relationship to the Oltremontani underwent a basic and complete change. They maintained that the Netherlanders had fulfilled the very nature of music with their art. Later, the Italians were to say that these same Northerners had distorted its nature be cause they lacked all natural gifts for music. Yet around the middle of the century Italians did not find anything that was more natural in its perfection than the music of the North. Federico Badoero, at that time the Venetian ambassador to Philip II, said in plain terms that the Nether landers were born for music (alia musica par che siano nati) and that their composers were excellent. 13 This, then, was best expressed by Lodovico Guicciardini, son of the famous Florentine historian, who during the sixties published at Ant

werp

a widely read description of the Netherlands. In speaking of

they brought it back to perfection, for one particular reason: "They owned music as a property natural to men and women, one that enabled them to sing in a natural manner, with abundant grace and melodiousness. It

were "the true masters of music"; and with the climactic culture of ancient music in view, he accorded to the Northerners the restoration of music as an art;

their music he stated that the Netherlanders

was through this that the Netherlanders succeeded in joining art 'to nature; because of this newly achieved unity, they effected that display and harmony, of voices as well as of instruments, which could be
"La terza e la musica, la quale certamente si puo dire che sia perfetta," in Relation! degli Ambasciatori Veneti at Senato raccolte, annotate, ed edits da Eugenia Albert (Florence, 1839), Series I, Vol. I, pp. 11-12. Series I, Vol. Ill, ., p. 290.
12

PERFECT ART,

A
all

CLASSIC IDEAL
Christian princes." This
Italian

33

was the artistic feeling whose highest possible praise, had been trained by the study of antiquity and whose sense of criticism had been guided by keen observation. It was the musician of the North
courts of perceived throughout the

coming from an

who, in singing and composing alike, had revealed the nature of music, who, indeed, had come closest to the natural forms in his artistic ac to Guicciarcomplishment. And who were the men whom, according "In modern musical such with endowed had nature dini, gifts? singular times there came from this nation Giovanni del Tintore di Nivelle
.
.

of extraordinary faculty, Josquino di Pres, Obrecht, Ockegem, Ricciaf ort, Adriano Willaert, Giovanni Mouton, Verdelot, Gomberto, and Cornelio Lupus Lupi, Cortois, Crecquillon, Clemente non Papa, 14 Canis, all of whom have died." is this adherence to the past at a time when Not without
a
significance
Italian

man

the time Guicciarcomposers had begun to gain in reputation. By had reached Palestrina dini wrote his description of the Netherlands, the Venetian and and school, though a certain maturity of age work, under the artistic patronage of the Netherlandish Willaert, could count to his among its members many an Italian who was bringing renown Guicciardini's recognition of the uncontested predominance

country. of Northern music in Europe is all the more astonishing in view of the as way Italians were then glorifying their painters and sculptors perfect
art and nature. was shortly before the middle of the century when Italian writers side of the Netherlanders. began to mention their own musicians by the names of Italians ranked The Oltremontani were still highest, and the

harmonizers of
It

did not appear in competition with those of the Northerners but merely who were learning how to harvest fruits of Northern as docile
pupils instruction. In his

Recanetum de music aurea of 1533, Stefano Vanneo was one of the first to add a number of Italian names to the list of lead It was more than a score of years after ing Netherlandish composers. the middle of the century before Italian and Netherlandish names were
a.

Italians began to think that the disciples had, after placed in rivalry and as their teachers. Italians were then all, become as good musicians

of composers, although they still kept their work strictly within the confines of the Netherlandish style. They had in no way estranged themselves from the artistic ideal of the North-

given

first

place in

lists

"Lodovico

Guicciardini, Descrittione di tutti

For the most recent discussion of the superior position of Oltremontani

Paesi Bassi (Antwerp, 1567), p. 42. in Italy, see the

new standard work on the

history of the madrigal: Alfred Einstein, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1949;, I, 6"fT,

The Italian Madrigal

34

THE "PERFECT ART

PRELUDE
skill in a field

they had now acquired equal Netherlanders formerly had all to themselves. In Venice, whose greatness in music Monteverdi was later to increase, there arose a peculiar situation. The Venetian school attracted many in artistic native musicians and gained the reputation of being bold of liberal in the international communication and experimentation their hands at a tried even school this of artistic
erners, but they felt

the

reinterpretation
its

thoughts. Composers of the Netherlandish style, but they did not abolish

fundamental principles, however bold their novelties. The Venetian and all school spoke more audibly than any other with a note of its own, As character. who knew music immediately recognized its original ex Gabrieli Giovanni as the century drew to its close, such Venetians of this style to the extreme. But despite their panded the inner capacities Venetian variant, these musicians never to create a
efforts

specifically

intention. freed themselves from the Northern model, nor was that their its last and a Netherlander, founded Willaert, The school had been by Willaert's to adhered member, Giovanni Gabrieli, devoutly jdeals. The compositions of the Venetians indicate the extreme possibilities of the Northern style, but they never went beyond its limits.

ITALIAN REPRESENTATIVES

was subordination of Italian music to Netherlandish principles Gioseffo Venetian the of school, chief the advocated by spokesman of Zarlino (1517-1590). His Istitutioni harmoniche, the first edition which appeared in Venice in 1558, was a glorification of the work and Adrian Willaert and, through him, of Nether style of the incomparable landish music. Zarlino, the most distinguished theorist among Willaert's Italian students, applied his profound knowledge of musical materials he to a penetrating exegesis of Netherlandish composition. The older had which ideal that to conform his theory grew, the more he made As the Counter of music that was a

The

essentially religious. produced style Reformation began to get a firmer hold on Italy, and especially after Cardinal Giovanni Pietro Caraff a, known for his fervent advocacy of Paul IV, Zarlino inclined more and more became the

theory now lent itself to the new hope for a ginning in Netherlandish music revival of the original intensity. After 1555, when the Counter Ref ormation made itself felt for the first time, Palestrina also began to pay

riforma, Pope toward the religious renewal that reform was expected to bring about. He showed this leaning not only in his theological treatise but also in of music. And the religious quality embodied from the be his

PERFECT ART,

CLASSIC IDEAL

35

closer attention to the oldest, already obsolete, characteristics of the Netherlandish style, whose religious expressions were thought to have been the purest. Thus, at the moment when the long reign of the Netherlanders was nearing its end, sacred music was more than ever identified with the Netherlandish style. With a completely new mean of the "perfect art." Northern music had become
ing,

As Hermann Finck had moved

by
a full generation,

from Josquin

representative the climax of this perfect art ahead to Gombert, so Zarlino shifted his

to Adrian Willaert. Zarlino, too, gave a complete emphasis forward of outline of the history of music and set up antiquity as the standard culture. Since the Greeks considered music "the highest and most

doctrine" and held their musicians in the greatest esteem, in singular estimable reverence had been bestowed upon them. The general decline

of the learned disciplines which ensued coincided, strange as it may from the seem, with the coming of the Christian age. Music toppled of the bottom the to fell and had stood in ancient times height where it in caduta e era collocata, "da quella somma altezza, nella quale abyss: were there when vile and to be held was infima bassezza." Music abject no longer any learned men to care for it. But recently a new ascent, a of return to the old musical culture, had occurred, for "by the grace rarest the of one Adrian have now times our Willaert, Lord the surely
all minds." This genius "explored, in the manner of a new Pythagoras, the particulars of what is possible in music; he discovered innumerable to eliminate; he brought music back to that errors which he

began

and dignity which it commanded in times past and by degree of honor It was he who gave the clearest evidence that necessity must occupy."
music had developed toward a

new

climax.

But what was to come after Willaert? Zarlino belonged to a younger and although he did not put the classic art so far back as to generation, first exclude his own lifetime, Willaert lived but four years after the
of the htitutioni. As a member of the school of Willaert, publication Zarlino felt obliged to maintain the classic ideal; indeed, he could dp this else unless he chose to admit a decline after Willaert, and

nothing he he shrank from doing. Zarlino was fully aware of novelties, which an essen feared would imperil his ideal, but instead of recognizing that he insisted that the alarm tial decline in the classic art was taking place,
of deterioration were merely symptoms of superficial dis ing signs of the choral technique or other details eases, such as the mishandling and did not affect the organism of the composition. of the

performance, Thirty years after the

Istitutioni,

he once more and without change

36

THE "PERFECT ART":

PRELUDE

of view regarding the historical development of expressed his point music and the accrescimento, or growth, of the arts. When he published more his Sopplimenti musicali in 1 5 8 8, the signs of a new time were still

"somma altezza" upon which he had placed in 1590 without abandoning his ideal of a died Willaert. But Zarlino the decline of his type of music or recog admit not did perfect art; he
in contradiction to the

nize the birth of a

new style. 15

that

of the development of the arts was Perhaps the most famous theory who was a contemporary of in Vasari, expounded Italy by Giorgio Zarlino. Vasari discussed this theory of growth mainly in the prefaces of his chief work, Le Vite de piu eccellenti to the various
parts
literary

the first edition architetti, pittori, et scultori italiani,

of which

dedi

cated to Cosimo de' Medici

appeared in 1550. Only

the edition of

1568 contained

this theoretical discussion in full, in addition to

other

In accordance with the prevailing conception supplementary material. of history, Vasari maintained that ancient art was not only the oldest but the most perfect and had established incontestable models for all was something apart, not a period in artistic forms. To him
antiquity
history,

one among others, but the measure of of the very essence of beauty in art. expression

all

things

artistic,

the

With the breakup of the Roman Empire,

the arts entered

upon

their

decline. "That fall involved the complete destruction longest phase of of the most excellent artists." Although much of this destruction was

due to the recklessness of the barbarians who descended on Italy from the North, Vasari boldly asserted that the Christians must share the "But the most harmful and destructive force which
responsibility.
fine arts was the fervent zeal of the new Christian operated against the Every effort was made to remove and utterly extirpate
.
, .

religion.

the smallest things from which errors might arise." Zarlino, less auda cious than Vasari, spoke merely of the barbarous epoch that started with a fall that brought about "ruin and disorder, the fall of the

Empire,

Lodovico Zacconi occupies a place of particular importance. The first part of his treatise, the Prattica di Musica, appeared in 1592. (Although the date of publica tion is 1596, the researches of Chrysander, Kretzschmar, and Vatielli have proved the existence of the earlier edition.) In this treatise Zacconi showed himself to be an ardent and uncompromising follower of the Netherlandish art. He laboriously dif ferentiated between the "ancient" and the "old" composers of the various generations of the Netherlanders and thereby outlined the history of music in the same way as other Zarlino and Palestrina!) theorists. (Among the "old" composers he named in 1592! Later, however, he changed his point of view considerably, and in the equally ponderous second part of the Prattica di Musica, published thirty years later (1622), he is a different man; he has experienced nearly every phase of the breakdown of the Northern art.
*5

huge

PERFECT ART,

CLASSIC IDEAL

37

the malignity of the age, or the decree through the negligence of men, 16 of Heaven." The period when all the arts slumbered while barbarism was wide to Vasari, it was the work of lasted for centuries.

awake Cimabue

that started the arts

According on their new

ascent.

As

art progressed,

the artists became more familiar with antiquity. The first period reached the three arts its height with Giotto. But "in the first and earliest period and architecture] are seen to be very far from
[painting, sculpture,

and though they possess some amount of excellence, yet that they certainly do not accompanied by such imperfections if I may say so, taken now, merit extravagant praise. Having these three arts from the nurse, and having passed the age of childhood,
perfection,
this
is
.
.
.

there follows the second period in

which

a notable

improvement

may

be remarked in everything." This second period, the youth of the arts, had men of distinction such as Brunelleschi, Masaccio, Lorenzo Ghibe considered truly perfect because berti, and Donato, but it could not that time of the improvements that came afterward. The masters of rule they a as "but and good" works, general accomplished "beautiful

"made did not attain to the state of perfection of the third age." They for lacked freedom," but necessary the to arts," "they great additions
perfection.

Leo

This second period was surpassed by the "golden epoch" under Pope X (Giovanni Medici, son of Lorenzo the Magnificent). During and produced his pontificate (1513-1521), art entered its manhood above all, succeeded at last in works without
equal. Michelangelo,

He of art as completely as any controlling the material ancient^artist. man "The times. of all even excelled antiquity and became the master
who
all the rest, bears the palm of all ages, transcending and eclipsing in one art not is who supreme is the divine Michelangelo Buonarroti, who those all have, not at once. He surpasses only only but in all three who ancients also, famous most the but as it were, surpassed Nature, works her. ... If by chance there were any undoubtedly surpassed be brought of the most renowned Greeks and Romans which might in value and would his only gain forward for comparison, sculptures became renown as their manifest superiority to those of the ancients not were more apparent." Vasari also believed that the artists of his age view a Greeks for their efforts to the same extent as the

rewarded

Zarlino shared with him. If they

were equally rewarded, the men of

first

IB These words which Vasari wrote in the preface to the almost literally quoted by Zarlino in the Istitutioni.

Lives are part of his

38

THE "PERFECT ART":

PRELUDE
than the an

his age would soon prove themselves "greater and better that Michel cients ever were." Vasari frequently repeated his idea stood for had that obstacles the all was the first to overcome

angelo

centuries between art

played such

art,

and the achievements of antiquity. "He has dis that I may say with due respect grace and vivacity

that he has surpassed the ancients, making difficulties appear easy, those who copy them." This idea was also though they are found by musical writers, who maintained that classic form con current

among

sisted in superiority

over the ancients as well

as in easy

control of matter

and form. So great was the praise Vasari bestowed upon Michelangelo that even more than his own generation suffered by comparison, perhaps for the remained little he may have wished to imply. Theoretically, to to resort were unless to do, willing successors of Michelangelo they achieved the had who with vie To Michelangelo, complete imitation. the aim of the fullest harmony between art and nature, became indeed which fourth the This next period,

goal distinguished generation. Vasari himself represented. He accepted the perilous position in which the artists after Michelangelo found themselves. Their work must al be threatened by the possibility of decline, since none could hope

ways

to surpass their paragon.

17

A CHANGE TO OPPOSITION

A new phase came with the Florentine musicians, who belonged to an artistic society known as the Camerata. Their leading theoretician, Vincenzo Galilei, discussed this change in his famous Dialogo delta musica antica et della moderna of 1 58 1 An ardent opponent of Zarlino, Galilei made the cultural aspects of ancient and modern music the
.

theme of a program intended to rid musical composition alto Netherlandish concepts, which he considered a collection of of gether monstrosities. His argument was developed against the background of
central

musical history as a whole.

He followed Vasari closely

and must have

17 It seems that Vasari observed the beginning of a new phase in the latest works of Michelangelo. Historians of art have assumed that in his old age Michelangelo ad vanced toward the baroque; that, in fact, he became the founder of the baroque. Vasari's is extremely interesting. He says that "before his death he [Michelangelo] passage burned a great number of his designs, sketches and cartoons, in order that no one should perceive his labours and tentative efforts, that he might not appear less than He was "endeavouring to realize a harmony and grace not found in perfect. Nature, saying that it was necessary to have the compasses in the eye not in the hand, because while hands perform the eye judges." Lives,, in Everyman's Library, edited by Ernest Rhys, translated by A. B. Hinds (London, New York, 1927), IV, 171.
. .

PERFECT ART,

CLASSIC IDEAL

39

studied the Lives, for he reconstructed the history of the arts in the same manner and with the same point of view. Galilei also placed the
in the time of Cimabue and Giotto, beginnings of the art of painting who "renewed" the art by bringing it closer to nature as the ancient masters had done. For that, they were worthy of praise, and if they had some deficiencies, those were excusable, since their period retained

something of

a primitive simplicity. The the matter he dealt with; but of novelty had begun. 18 and Giotto Cimabue

artist still
it

suffered from the was a true revival which

As

the painter had to acknowledge antiquity as his teacher, so the

musician should take the art of old as his guide. Not only did the Greeks arts (that is, arts worthy of the free regard music as one of the liberal d'huomo liber o), but they were also the masters and in man

degne

ventors of music (maestri, e inventori di essa) as well as of all other sciences. Such were the words with which Galilei began his Dialogue, and they were to establish the musical point of view of the seventeenth to the Greeks for all they knew of century. The Romans, indebted and music, had cultivated its theatrical side for recitations in tragedies theoretical or aspects. Continually comedies, rather than its scientific
in part responsible to be forgotten. The barbarians of the North had brought about final disaster with their inundations which swept over Italy and erased all signs of culture. The destruction of ancient culture meant the end of all civilization,

occupied with

political affairs, for the fact that music as a liberal art later

the

Romans were
came

for man's very impulse to acquire learning was extinguished by the darkness that fell upon science. Men lived for many centuries in a

of ignorance," desiring no knowledge, content in their "grave lethargy then inertia. Of the art of music they knew nothing, until first Gafori, in darkness the Zarlino, brought music out of Glareanus, and
finally

which it was buried and gradually led it back to its present state. Such was the historical development of music up to the time of Vincenzo Galilei. The picture he drew harmonized with that of other
writers before him, but a characteristic difference does present itself. Whereas other writers had attributed the rise of musical culture to of the Netherlandish school, such as Josquin des
Pres,

Ockeghem, composers Gombert, or Willaert, Vincenzo Galilei singled out the prominent

theorists as innovators,

men who

in their profession certainly excelled

but whose importance scarcely equaled that of composers in deter-

isy
i

Galilei,

Dialogo della musica antica

et della

moderna (Florence,

1581), pp. 124,

4 if.

40

THE ''PERFECT ART'':

PRELUDE

However insignificant this mining the course of musical composition. the on surface, it was presum the theorists may appear preference for which the theorists music the due to Galilei's attitude toward
ably
represented.

In this he took a decisive step, presaging a revolution in to do more than destroy mere formulas. intended and music Other writers, in dealing with the same problem, had declared that en after centuries of a pitiful degeneracy the Netherlandish school of the ancients. Galilei found no such abled music to reach the
height

achievement in the compositions of that school. Even the theorists whom he singled out as envoys of a new musical culture exhibited seri ous deficiencies. "To some intelligent men they did not appear to have
to its ancient state, and this could be verified by truly restored music innumerable passages of ancient histories of both poets and philoso did they obtain the true and perfect notion of music; phers; neither the rudeness of the times in this, perhaps, may have been caused by which they lived, the difficulty of the subject, and the scarcity of good were praiseworthy, if for nothing else, at least interpreters." Yet they moved many other men to attempt with which for the

they impetus 19 Here Galilei cut the reinstatement of music in all its old perfection. himself off from the Netherlandish "past" and from all that was con nected with it up to his own day. It is significant to see Galilei con even Zarlino as a man of the past, as if Zarlino's deficiencies
sidering

could be explained by the general "rudeness" of a primitive past, though he was but three years older than Galilei himself. Nothing could close the gap that Galilei opened between his own world and that of Zarlino, whom he marked as a musician of a time now obsolete. Monteverdi's

Netherlandish influence day would come, when all music that exhibited would be declared antiquated and remote, whether composed around

1600 or

much
on

earlier.

But

it is

larger

and more momentous

issues that Galilei

was

at

variance with his contemporaries. Was it true, as many past and present writers assumed, that the Netherlandish music of their time had brought
the art back to the cultural level of the ancients? In his discussion of

modern music Galilei never lost sight of this fundamental was the core of his comparisons. On this point he parted question; with most musicians of his time; for it, he fought relentlessly. company
ancient and
it

He

agreed with those

who

believed that the downfall of the ancient

19 Ibid., p. i. It is noteworthy that Galilei speaks of both the merits and deficiencies of Gafori, Glareanus, and Zarlino, in exactly the same manner and wording as, in the course of the Dialogo, he is to speak of Cimabue and Giotto.

PERFECT ART,

CLASSIC IDEAL

4!

world had brought upon men the catastrophe of barbarism from which

for many centuries. When at last, they were unable to recuperate around the middle of the fifteenth century, men manifested a new desire to restore the arts and sciences, a new phase in history seemed to dawn.

In this movement, music had its share, and musicians, in great haste and with false hope, thought that each step would bring them closer to were anxious to work the ancient ideal to be. what

They they imagined out their contrapuntal, Netherlandish style with more and more re finement. This style consisted chiefly in combining several in-dependent that melodies into a harmonious entity. "It is a matter of certainty
.

the present manner of singing several melodies together simultaneously is not longer in use than 150 years. Counting from the year when the start of musical history was, there fresh the was Dialogue published, to the present day, all the fore, around 1430. "From that time on up belief that music had their best musicians were united in expressing
3 '

reached the greatest peak of perfection that man can possibly imagine." So they thought; but they were grossly in error. For, Galilei went on to say, "from the death of Cipriano de Rore, a musician truly extraor to the present, music has dinary in this manner of counterpoint, up 20 increase." than rather decline by proceeded by also by other men than Galilei Cipriano de Rore, distinguished Nether in him to was highly respectful terms) (Monteverdi praise landish by birth, had been a leading figure in sixteenth-century Italy and had died in 1565. Granted that he was a prominent musician, who had mastered his style of composition in sovereign fashion; granted he had succeeded in marking his music with the sign of excellence; granted that he was perfect in his own way: further Galilei thought he could Galilei parted company with Cipriano. On the matter of not
,

go.

style

The Northern

line. The very fact that in that style severely limited his merit. If he was said wrote Cipriano to have been perfect, his perfection should be taken as relative only. One should measure his greatness in precisely such terms as a Nether

in his counterpoint was not

lander would apply to his composition. Making this allowance, Galilei could say that Cipriano had developed his style toward a climax. As Glareanus had seen in Josquin the representative of the an perfects, as Gombert as the leading master, as Zarlino Finck had

distinguished believed the summit of musical composition to have been reached by at the peak of the de Willaert, so Galilei placed Cipriano de Rore difference: with one essential Glareanus, Finck, and Zarlino

velopment,
20

Ibid., p. 80.

42

THE ''PERFECT ART":

PRELUDE

of their own musical faith; Galilei respected their masters as messengers assumed the aloofness of an observer who approaches his object for critical analysis. No longer should men be allowed to imagine as many as there were generations of composers. Galilei peaks of perfection decline had already come; the Netherlandish style that the clear made it

had gone downhill since Gpriano's death. Other musicians might hold a different opinion, but for Galilei the decline was an indisputable fact. For the first time, then, the development of music was viewed under
observation. In it Galilei discovered the rise, climax, aspects of historical and decline of a musical style. Men's achievements come and go, as

men

themselves are born and

die.

This law of history presented

itself

to Galilei as a result of his opposition to the school of contrapuntists, as distorters of the true music. Although whom he wanted to show

up

he uncovered in musical development the law of natural growth and thus provided an idea indispensable for birth, maturity, and death he was no true historian. An observant out future
historiographers,

he was not dispassionate; assuming no share in Netherlandish a distance, music, he was not indifferent; reflecting on that style from he was not disinterested. His every word, in fact, was put down cum
sider,
ira et. studio.

hatred the contrapuntists awakened in the mind of Galilei was his belief that none of them had truly revived the ancient fanned

The

by

modern music, the moconstantly measured the so-called derna prattica, against the ancients and presented an almost endless list of reasons to prove that contemporary music had nothing in common with the musica antica. This bias casts its light upon every problem
music.

He

21 alone orders the chaotic material of his Dialogue. Galilei's tone ranges from calm and restrained judgment to aggressive

Galilei tackles;

it

invective,

from appreciative respect to

at this vacillation unless

may wonder

he

derisive contempt. The reader realizes that Galilei's mind is

the desire to eliminate the music of the con passionately possessed by to revive that of antiquity. 22 His passion often drives him and trapuntists into open contradictions or embarrassing misinterpretations of both

Greek and Netherlandish music.

passion thinkable.
It

We

should, nonetheless, accept this

his

as a

human phenomenon without which

scholarship

is

un

took wondrous courage to declare war against the contrapuntists,

Dialogo has often been criticized for the lack of any organization, as recently by Fabio Fano, the editor of Galilei's compositions. 22 clear distinction should be made between the revival of Greek music proper and the restoration of Greek culture in music.

21 Galilei's

PERFECT ART,
who had on their
dition of one

CLASSIC IDEAL

43

and

side the strength a half centuries.

of experience given them by a tra The "declaration of war" this is

affected the majority of
adversaries Galilei chal

the term used

by

Galilei's Florentine friends

the most renowned composers in Italy.

The

or unlearned, as a man who lenged were by no means dull, brainless, have known. Were he act must for midst their had lived in sixty years

we should readily characterize Galilei's ing to preserve a tradition, attitude as the obstinacy of an old man impatient with the arrogance of youth, like Artusi's later condemnation of Monteverdi. But Galilei did not act to preserve the tradition; his message was addressed to the must bear in mind that Galilei was a con musician of the future.

We

five years his elder. And while, by temporary of Palestrina, in fact, more and more involved in the tech 1580, Palestrina was becoming with nique of the oldest Netherlandish phase, Galilei, though speaking

was making a determined effort to undermine respect of Palestrina, this ideal of composition. One cannot belittle the significance of Galilei his treatise, or to the disloyalty by pointing to the mistakes he made in or to the contradictions be teacher one-time his Zarlino, he showed
tween the
ideal he preached and the music he actually composed. Al he was the first to compose monodies, Galilei was not dynamic though 28 renewal of music that he foresaw. to enough bring about the complete of As a thinker, however, he had the vision to prophesy the future

music and the courage to pull for the new.

down the

old that the path might be free

the In his vision he saw monody as the art of the future, before which Netherland the and Northerners moderna prattica, maintained by the backed by the author ish Italians, had to way. This contention was

give whose wealth of thought was inexhaustible enough the of ancients, ity make to provide arguments for every case. Did Galilei's opponents as work their consider Did well? as good as use of ancient sources they
Galilei plainly called this assumption an impertinence, the ethical effects of ancient music were achieved by the even not for forced to conclude that either their music or was One contrapuntists. its first being," the nature of man had considerably changed "from

Greek music?

was sheer which the Greeks had established for both man and music. It the mastered had that made the contrapuntists think they ignorance
meaning of ancient music.
The

The Northerners, furthermore,

devised rules

in the Lamentations of Jeremiah and the song of Dante's Count Ugplino instru lost. The extant works now madrigals, are of Galilei monodic composition be superior to composers of the mental compositions, motets do not show Galilei to attacked. school which he

44

THE "PERFECT ART":

PRELUDE

and laws of composition which they made out

to be sacrosanct. Galilei

of the contrapuntists. denied these inviolable laws (the leggi inviolabili) showed himself well Galilei So long as Greek music was not involved, inviolable are laws no that eternally on the way to the discovery thesis his by arguments drawn art, but since he continually supported not result from free did his that clear is it discovery Greek

from music, It was Monte and critical observation of the historical development. the changing nature demonstrate would his in verdi who compositions

and all those who still of musical laws against the arguments of Artusi had faith in the leggi inviolabili of the Netherlanders. word and tone, a subject Galilei also discussed the relation between Galilei stands here on firmer that he thought needed urgent revision. to the word by the con done he criticizes the violence ground, when inferior and be Never should the word degraded to the trapuntal style. of the work the it forced upon polyphonic by ancillary function re-established be should role according to the Northerners; its leading in the understandable be must word The ancients.
practice

of the

This so that the listener can follow the text as a whole. physical sense, tears the text to which a in is not possible polyphonic composition,
pieces It is, therefore,

and

calls

monody

for the simultaneous enunciation of different words. alone that, in true kinship to ancient art, can

once and for all restore the word to its old dignity. be There were still further principles governing the relationship in the reflected be should tween word and tone. The textual rhythm
music,
if

not

literally,

at least

by

a full awareness that the text has a

by rhythmic order the word should have meaning expressed through

of
its

own

to be followed

the music. Finally, the its musical equiva

lent.

On

this subject Galilei's ideas are in part related to the past, in

of the future. The meaning of words is discovered by part indicative their importance in the sentence, and such key words imply an "emo 24 This is to be tional" element, called the affetto (the "affection"). treated as the concetto deU'animo, to use the term of Galilei and the

men around him, for it is in the mind of the composer that the affection becomes a concept to be translated into the medium of art. The pur
is to imitate this affection; it is a constant with pose of all composition which the composer must always deal and which is independent of his Galilei advises the musician At this or own
v

point, experience. to beware of a frequent error, the literal imitation of the individual

feeling

2*

Throughout
affetto.

this text

we

shall use "affection" as the English seventeenth-century

term for

PERFECT ART,

CLASSIC IDEAL

45

word. In any text there are many words that signify physical objects or motions and the like. The composer will be at fault if he attempts to a musical figure formed from the material depict them realistically by to apply the principle of realistic image of the object. If he attempts imitation to every word in the text, he will shatter the unity of the
or the unity of a certain part of the composition. The continual the listener, who, carried from one change of affections will confuse will not understand the composition as a the to realistic picture next,

work

whole, will not grasp its predominant affection. Hence Galilei demands that the composer determine which affection governs a phrase, or a sentence, or the text as a whole, and see to it that the music expresses this affection alone. However rigidly Galilei may propose this rule, he himself does not observe it without exception. There are passages in
his madrigals that, as pictorial translations of individual

words, betray

form of musical realism we should not expect

it

to find in his works,

though we know
of his rime.

to have

been lavishly used in other compositions

was almost entirely limited Although the influence Galilei exerted the Camthe of one he was which to the society of spiritual founders, him credit to has historian the which with merits the erata Fiorentina, his influence on his contemporaries. The Dialogue is far beyond go the most important as well as the most comprehensive theoretical docu ment that originated in the Camerata, and it is probably not too much that Galilei fathered the Florentine version of monodic music. to
of course, cannot be regarded as the invention of a man or a "invention" in the ordinary sense; nor can group of men, or even as an the result of purely theoretical considerations, for a it be explained as reform of music such as the Florentines had in mind can never come

say

Monody,

from theory

alone. In this,

they made in

all

likelihood their

most

seri

in the creative capacities of the ous, if not fatal, mistake: they believed that integrity of theoretical convinced were theory of music. They would exert a salutary ancient authorities, considerations, guided by of what was truly a clarification that trusted on music. effect They the elementary redeem to be would not was what and ancient

enough

in musical composition. Monteverdi was to have such confidence; he was to begin at the beginning. was in the field of criticism, where Galilei's

powers inherent

no
he

accomplishment

the music of his time and thus forced passed a severe judgment upon musicians to take inventory of the materials used in their compositions.

Habits of long standing, though sanctified by age, were to be examined

46

THE'"PERFECT ART:

PRELUDE

his voice against for their vigor and usefulness. When Galilei raised was declared. The emulation falsifiers of the ancient art, a new program of the sixteenth of the ancient music, a practice familiar to all writers Musi direction. fresh a in arrested and pushed century, was suddenly to re efforts their from rest cians had previously believed they could achiev was what achieved store musical culture, for they had already of the Netherlandish counterpoint. Galilei came able within the

to disparage nearly

to teU them that they had never they had done; in their own works, that the than been more remote from the ideal that all had from far restoration of ancient music was being a reality, on at dwelt Galilei great length to be done over again. In his Dialogue he musica delk of <thog&); such "abuses in the music today" (abusi the before old the to set be end should an wanted to demonstrate that
all

scope

new could grow.

It has

that the new epoch of music begins around always been said of the musical drama, but it is notable that foundation 1600 with the

and the Lamentations of Jeremiah he may have Ugolino, by Dante, in 1582, offered practical guidance to the music of the future. When, he submitted these two works to the Duke of Mantua, he stated that he

attention to it; his Dialogue offers no point particular In his compositions the Lamento of Count the for of departure opera.
Galilei pays

no

among
of the

had composed them "according to the use of the ancient Greeks" that of solo song, not in the polyphonic ways common is, in the manner 25 Friends musicians, "contrary to their bounden duty."
living
Galilei

and followers of

saw

in these

two compositions the beginning

new music.

In a letter to Giovanni Battista Doni, Pietro de' Bardi

their novelty (Conte di Vernio) declared of these works: So "great was that they caused much envy generally among the professors of music 26 and were a source of delight to the true lovers of music." Though

of general historical significance, this was not the tendency which Galilei expected his Dialogue to foster. It was his intention to remove all the obstacles that barred the musician from the land of the future.
Galilei fulfilled an important critical task

when he demonstrated "what

a difference there
25

is

between the ancient music and that which people

in Bertolotti, "Artisti in relazione coi Gonzaga," Atti e Memorie R.R. Deputazione di St. Pat. per le Prov. Modenesi e Parmensi, Ser. Ill, Vol. Ill, Part I (Modena, 1885), pp. i96f.; also: Musici alia corte dei Gonzaga (Milan, 1890), has often been reprinted; see Angelo Solerti, Gli Albori del Melopp. 6of. The letter

See the letter

delict

dramma, I (Milan, 1904), 39. 26 Angelo Solerti, Le Origini del Melodramma (Turin,

1903), p. 145.

PERFECT ART,
commonly
it

CLASSIC IDEAL
that

47

2T

sing today."

The music

men had

held to be

beyond

reproach had

was
27

Galilei

now been exposed to the light of severe criticism, and who took the first decisive step toward a change in six

28 teenth-century music.

In the letter which Galilei wrote to Guglielmo Gonzaga when he sent him his The letter is dated January 2, 1581 (1582). Cf. Bertolotti, Atti, p. 195: "quanta differenza sia dell'antica musica a quella che comunemente oggidi si canta." 28 With this, the attitude of Italians toward the Oltremontam definitely changed to antagonism. In analogy with similar reactions, noticeable in the visual arts, the Oltremontani were named Goths, that is, barbarians. Netherlands musicians were now thought to be as barbarous as the Goths who destroyed the Roman Empire. (See, for instance, the letter of Pietro de' Bardi, in A. Solerti, Le Origini, p. 144.) Giovanni Battista Doni, the first and best historian of the Florentine Camerata, is most vociferous on the sub ject. He speaks of the "inundations of the Barbarians," ancient and medieval; he scofTs at the "German- Arabian" style (identical with the Gothic style; see Milizia, Memorie degli Arcbitetti [Parma, 1781], I, 135). He even ridicules the names of Netherlanders:
Dialogo.

"whose very names demonstrated that they were barbarians." This mockery at Northern names came in vogue when Francesco Berni started his pasquinade, the Poesia Bernesca, against Pope Hadrianus V from the Netherlands. Berni, a Roman with the most
malicious tongue and wit, subtle, but fatally spiteful, thought that
all

Netherlanders

foolish as to make a dog laugh." Others, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, reported on the historical evolu tion of music dispassionately. The first who assumed the objectivity of a historian apparently was Marquis Vincenzo Giustiniani, a "gentleman historian." (See his "Discorso sopra la musica de' suoi tempi," in Angelo Solerti, Le Origini, pp. 996% 1036.) Finally, Pietro della Valle (see his "Discorso della musica dell' eta nostra" of 1640, in

were ridiculous for the very names they have, "names so

Origini, pp. 148!?.) declared that compositions such as those of Palestrina held in esteem, not because they were used for practical purposes, but be cause they were preserved by being deposited in a museum, like the most beautiful antiques. Palestrina's work had thus become a museum piece.
Solerti,

Le

were

now

CHAPTER

TWO

The

Position

of

the

Ars Perfecta

in

Sixteenth-Century Italy

"\
so

1 V J_

yTUSIC in Italy in the second half of the sixteenth century presents a picture of the most colorful variety. The colors are, in fact, dazzling as to confound the student. Of the uncounted thousands of

editions

compositions, only an extremely small number are accessible in modern 1 a fact that is too often forgotten. It is misleading to judge

the musical art of that time merely from the accomplishments of a few prominent men, but the enormous quantities of material to be examined
are enough to frustrate the most tireless efforts. The further the student advances beyond the middle of the century, the more disconcerted he is apt to become. Faced with the task of setting the compositions in modern scores, the historian of sixteenth-century music must feel, most of the time, like a scribe who copies endlessly with a feeling of increas

ing futility.
It is

Italy at the time

necessary, however, to attempt a description of musical style in when Monteverdi began consciously to react to his

artistic environment. It is, of course, generally accepted practice to sketch the historical background of an artist's life work, and if Monteverdi had merely made new contributions, no matter how valu able, to music as it then existed, if he had merely added another story to a structure already of staggering height, this background would pro vide the student of history with an understanding of the connecting
1 In material the sixteenth century of music. Critical modern editions
is one of the most prolific periods in the history comprise no more than one-hundredth of what interpret sixteenth-century music largely on the basis of secondary

actually exists.
literature

To

must lead

to deplorable results.

48

THE POSITION OF THE ARS PERF ECTA

continue,

49

of a gradual development. Monteverdi's work, however, almost phases from the outset, was in reaction against the prevailing musical style; not but to resist was his mission. He did not intend to use the to
of his elders but to oppose the influences of his en impressive legacy

vironment. Monteverdi started out as a heretic, and until he had found that he his own idiom, he simply dissented. What was the musical style the describe must we this answer To neutralize? set out to
question, characteristics of the musical environment, not of

Cremona

alone, but

of the whole Italian repertory of music.

This repertory can be

classified

by drawing

three lines across the

with their stylistic diversi confusing variety of musical compositions, artistic personalities, native their and schools different their ties, regions, somewhat simplified, to be sure is This and

partly religious reaches into the sphere of secular music and includes the madrigals. The embraces native songs, such as the canzonetta, last group, also secular, villotta. or villanella,
liturgical

on the various categories of com The first group, then, comprises sacred music, with the Mass, position. which was always strictly liturgical, and the motet, which was partly in a more general sense. The second group and

arrangement foreign. clear enough to serve as a guide based

Masses and motets rank first, chronologically and quantitatively, created the prevailing style of the epoch. It was in the medium of sacred music that Netherlandish music achieved its epochal distinction.

and

but certain shift of emphasis took place within Netherlandish music,

in its first phase, initiated by Ockeghem, the Mass was the dominant form and stands out as the ancestor of the style. Neglecting the forms

favored

extraordinary des Pres gave rise to an generation of Josquin the increase in the number and importance of motets, which became music. Netherlandish of second the in chief vehicle of the style phase became noticeable in the motet, which was Changes in composition first used for every kind of experiment. Josquin brought the motet into with his famous Ave Maria and other works composed in

by

his predecessors,

Ockeghem composed an

number of

Masses.

The

prominence

from about 1495 to 1505. He achieved a trans and formation of the Netherlandish style by dropping the cantusfirmus suc of the text a free motif to be stated inventing for every phrase was continued by the each musical voice. This new
the decisive decade

the next generation of Willaert and Gombert and lasted throughout cantus a on firmus gradu sixteenth century. Compositions based given comin number and, with some composers, disappeared decreased ally

cessively

by

style

50

THE ''PERFECT ART'':

also placed

PRELUDE
the

pletely. Josquin's contemporaries to a lesser extent motet,

new emphasis upon that master. His great rival than though Heinrich Isaac tried to maintain the Mass as the most significant form,
as the relatively great

the movement initiated by Josquin's Ave Maria. Even really belong in of that form in the so, Isaac's motets indicate the rising importance musical repertory. The third member of the triumvirate, Pierre de la Rue, the most outspoken in his Netherlandish manners, distributed
his interests

number of his compositions in that category extensive collection of motets, the Choralis ConHis clearly proves. does not stantinus, so called perhaps because of its regional implications,

firmus,

motets. His use of a cantus evenly between Masses and the heritage of Ockeghem. to a however, reveals

greater loyalty
art

Lack of contact with the Southern

quin's development may tion which cannot be answered here.

which greatly influenced Jos

but that
is

partly explain this loyalty,

a ques

The

vast contributions of Josquin's generation established the pre

dominance of the motet and resulted in a rearrangement of the musical and performance, the motet became less restricted repertory. In purpose and better fitted to every expression of religious life. The Nether for which such broad landish school made the motet a
composition
characterizations as "religious" or "sacred" must often suffice. Indeed, so manifold were its uses that in the course of time "motet" became a

first it

kind of collective name for every composition with a Latin text. At was used to mean a composition whose religious character was

in the liturgy. As a liturgical work, the objectively by its place motet took the form of De Tempore music, allied to the church year and dedicated to the proper of the Mass and the officium. Hymns,

shown

of the Gospel, sentences from the Holy psalms, sequences, passages to music, were called motets. The term Scriptures all these, when set motet was, furthermore, applied to a large group of compositions with were religious in a broader sense, for Latin words. These

compositions

they were not linked to any specific service and, as a matter of principle, were not taken into the service. For that reason their religious character

was considerably less

distinct.

They might express some religious

"feel
as a

with any religious act ing," but since they were not connected

definite part of the service, their place in the religious life of man shifted constantly. Dedicatory texts for saints, pious invocations, prayers,

that gave expression to man's religious devotions might furnish the material for such motets. Sometimes the direct purpose for which

poems

they were composed cannot be

identified.

By

stressing the private

THE POSITION OF THE

religious

AR

PERFECTA

51

of nature of religious devotion, these motets represented the sphere such of function activities outside the church. The indefinite

motets did not, of course, preclude an intensity of religious feeling, which might be present, but had no unequivocal terms of expression. Sometimes the feeling can be inferred from the particular circumstances in an hour of despair and with surrounding the work. When Luther,
the composer forebodings of death, wrote to his friend, Ludwig Senfl, a motet of religious consolation, Non mortar, sed vivam. with replied that the circumstances of compositions were recorded. But it is

rarely motet's great variety of purposes was not without influence on and thus an its style. It often became a medium for experimentation of stylistic development. In writing occasional interesting indicator motets the composer presumably felt less responsibility to tradition than

The

when composing

Mass or

strictly liturgical motet,

which demanded

that he abide by rigid, though unwritten, laws whose slightest trans attract criticism. In a Mass or a liturgical motet he was gression would the public eye, which judges by custom. to more exposed was very small in third The group of purely occasional compositions festival motet in the days of Dunthe Netherlandish school. The

great

stable

and Duf ay accounted for much of the total output and was dis in number but also in quality, exhibiting the most tinguished not only devices of the time. But contributions in this and structures striking more in quantity than in Netherlanders diminished form
like Josquin and Isaac writing such works, composers quality. which devices still maintained the extraordinary give distinction to two Isaac's occasion. motets, one dedicated to both the work and the to other the Maximilian I, the Pope Leo X, are compositions

by

rapidly,

When

Emperor whose masterly techniques were quite unusual even in a period which 2 abounded with composers of the greatest skill. The next generation of Netherlanders still composed festival motets, as is shown by the work of Willaert, Gombert, Crecquillon, Senfl and others. Gombert, who lived for many years in the suite of the Imperial court, was often called occasions. Perhaps his most famous upon to provide motets for political the Mass he composed for the coronation of Charles composition is strife at Bologna in 1530. Some of his works also reflect the religious

of which he was a close witness at the Imperial court; and he composed oca motet for the Diet of the Empire at Augsburg, as did Senfl. The
six voices, was published for the first 2 optime divino, for Pope Leo X, written for be time in 1520 after Isaac's death. The work, therefore, must have been composed dates tween 1513 and 1517. For stylistic reasons, Virgo prudentissima, for Maximilian I,

from the same

period.

52

THE "PERFECT ART":

PRELUDE

casional motet was of less interest to composers of the last generation of the sixteenth century. While Orlandus Lassus admired this kind of

motet,

we know little of Palestrina's activities in this form. The festival

motet was no longer distinguished by the finest devices and techniques of the time; it became standardized and lost its pre-eminence. In all three classes the motet regularly formed the largest part of the with changing stress in one or the other group but repertory, appearing The second group is its distinguished significance. always preserving its variety and a degree of of because most the interesting, stylistically motet of the first group was slower to individuality that the liturgical achieve and because it was ready to accept influences even from the secular side. The madrigal and the motet here exerted a mutual influ characteristics. Toward the end of the cen ence on each other's
stylistic

tury

this

group was well on

its

way

to

becoming modernized
so that

that

is,

from a stylistic mained to be overcome by 1 600 when composers began to transform the motet to accord with the vocabulary of the monodic style. The pre the motet to undergo the change ceding experiments had fully prepared 3 into the monodic form. Although our knowledge of the actual output
of compositions cautions us to avoid any hasty generalization, it ap the position of the motet during the sixteenth century casts pears that on its place in the baroque age, when it had lost its previous some
light

secularized point of view,

few

obstacles re

significance

new

preserved the free religious motet, he preferably chose the modern secular style of monody; the great festival motet, however, died out and was, in 4 cantata. and artistic replaced by the

and the composer complied with the tradition in various the composer sometimes ways. For the strictly liturgical motet, the Netherlandish style, by then completely outmoded; for

purpose

The

quality, third and last group of the musical repertory, comprising only

secular compositions, contains

distinguished representative

on the one hand the madrigal, the most of all profane music, and on the other a

8 This does not to be always hold true for composers who did not allow their style turned away from the Netherlandish motet of Palestrina's time. Angelo Berardi, for ob instance, who continually cites Palestrina whenever an example is to be shown, serves with no pleasure at all: "I moderni Musici vanno cercare d'allontanarsi in certo modo dallo stile antico, non per altro solo che per ritrovare una singolare espressione della parola, per maggiormente muovere gli affetti e passioni deiranimo." See Mis cellanea Musicale (Bologna, 1689) , p. 48. * In Bach's work the a funeral composi position or the motet, which had become tion, has completely changed. The composition of motets no longer belonged to the functions of the cantor. The liturgical motets were taken from an obsolete repertory, a hundred and more years old. See Leo Schrade, "Bach: The Conflict between the Sacred and the Secular," Journal of the History of Ideas, VII (New York, 1946), 15 iff.

THE POSITION OF THE ARS PERFECTA

body

53
as

of minor, but at times greatly influential, compositions such the villanesca, villanella, villotta, canzona, canzonetta. Before the rise of the madrigal, Italian secular music was largely confined to the
frottola, barzoletta, strarnbotto,

and related types.

Many characteristics

of music at the close of the century have their source in secular music, and bound to baffle the historian. He is apt to yet its status is peculiar in nearly every province of human cul achievements consider Italian at least up to the middle of the cen in ture as essentially profane spirit, from the Reformation onward the authority of the even

though tury, secular spirit began to wane with the growth of the new religious con science of man. From Leon Battista Alberti almost to the time when

Caraffa, the leader of the party of riforma, acceded to the papal throne, the world of culture was ruled by the secular, or better, the human and have been accustomed to look upon the man of the Renais urbane.

We

sance

as

the ruler of the or bis terrarum. This does not, however, imply

that the sovereignty of the temporal sphere abolished the authority of the religious element. The mundane spirit may have affected religious

not for a intensity, but

it

moment did it

ence. It merely assigned to religious does not so readily meet the eye of the historical observer.

discredit religion's right of exist expression a secondary place where

It

must be

remembered that religious belief in the theological and dogmatic sense and the expression of religious thought in terms of art are two different the other. Religious and that one does not
matters,

expression

in art lives

necessarily imply under altogether different conditions from those

religion. Although religion of a culture, cultural epochs

The spirit of the Renaissance is as far necessary for the life of dogma. from atheism, or even dissent, as the art of the romantics is from true must be regarded as basic in the formation
do not necessarily
call

for religious forms

of expression at all times.

When we look at the half-century from about

by

1480 to 1530,

we

are so dazzled

and man that

mind, and

at first, perhaps,

we

the profane brilliance of both art see solely the workings of the secular

that we discover traces of the only on closer scrutiny undercurrent. The religious faculty of man has not been religious made void; it has not been abrogated; but since it has been driven under of its mundane spirit. neath, the lasting impression of the epoch is disturbs this impression, musical the repertory seriously glance at ur for it is predominantly religious. imagine a period of refined most intense the its music and expressed profane grandeur, yet banity devotion. It was also the time of the revival of ancient studies
it is

We

religious

and the humanism of the

liberal arts, called liberal

because of their

54

THE "PERFECT ART":

to

PRELUDE

power

make man's mind

agreement between

theorists of the period Greek writers attributed to music.

this point, there was at least some and music, for the musical situation the general knew the ancient theory of music and the im

free.

At

knowledge portance an accumulation of tradition rather than a direct relationship to ancient the theorists were closer to their medieval and in this
sources;

But

their

was

respect

predecessors

than to the venerated ideals of antiquity. The sixteenthmedieval or traditional than the century theory of music was more

theories of the other arts.

link with Italy; we think of important is its unbreakable Even we think of the Renaissance. discounting the calami Italy when life intellectual on had tous effect the Reformation by reason of its hos

Among the general notions that make up the idea of the Renaissance,
least

not the

tility

to the humanities,

we

can readily agree that in

artistic

matters

the Germans understood little of the true Renaissance and that the French were quick to make the Renaissance an academic proposition.

an Thus, the creation of the Renaissance style in art is almost entirely Italian affair. But the music of that age hardly fits into such a picture, for there the Italian element is missing. In the visual arts the Italians set the pace and tone for the whole of Europe; in music they submitted to the art of the Northerners. They recognized that leadership in music

was not
go
Italian

that theirs, that greatness, fame, and, in fact, all the elements to the forming of a style, must be attributed to the Netherlanders.

churches and palaces were full of Northern composers; any renown was occupied by them. The Italians simply recog position of nized that they had no composers who could compete with the Oltremontani, who had created the style for religious compositions, such as

motets and Masses.

There were, however, genuine compositions in Italy, native in origin and characteristic in style. This secular music was composed from the last quarter of the fifteenth century to about 1530, and when the Netherlanders wrote secular songs, as they did but rarely, they followed
the Italian concept closely. Carnival songs, strambotti, barzolette, the bulk of these compositions whose structures had nothing in

form

com

mon with the

Netherlands music.

Is this,

then, the major contribution

of music to the Italian Renaissance, and is it in these native songs that the spirit of the Renaissance chiefly manifests itself? Certainly not

and for several reasons.

Compared with the great art of motets and Masses,

are inferior, quantitatively

and

qualitatively.

these native songs Their number does not

THE POSITION OF THE

approach the quantities

A R

PERFECTA

55

of music composed by the Northerners, and

of their position in the general repertory has little weight. In terms artless artistic quality, the native songs have an unpolished, simplicity Their raw, boorish that is foreign to the leading style.

completely

character and almost shocking directness may bring out, at times, tones of extraordinary freshness, in comparison with the codified manifesta tions of a highly developed style, and they often seem robust and rustic youth. Indeed, many of these native songs had their healthy, as a the music of rural folk, of village and peasantry, so that sim in origin and neglect of art are their distinguishing marks. But by the plicity time of the Renaissance the circumstances under which these songs
to do with rural conditions or the life of simple appear have nothing raised into the sphere of civilization and art, and been have They musicians and artists in the of a are

folk.

composed by

service of the court.

expression of

men

professional is no longer a natural simplicity they display accustomed to a "natural" behavior, but an artificial

group

The

and by people whose satiated taste regards simplicity product made for as a device to relieve the monotony of a stylized life. When noblemen
trained in the grandiose discipline of a sovereign culture suddenly dis cover the charms of a farmer's life, the tone of their delight is too shrill to be genuine; it shows signs of a weariness induced by a strict and burdensome code of life. retournez a la nature has been sounded more

than once without ever bringing Although the courtier Gontier is

taste of coarse bread, milk, cheese,

man back
filled

to "natural" conditions.
at the

with delight
butter,

unknown,
scene

and

consumed

in a pleasant
set the

countryside

a brook, of course, a forest, and a

meadow

he will

still

make

love to his noble lady according to all the rules of

the palace. The idyl is at best a dream, and the simplicity of the native crude as its vitality may appear, is nothing but song in the Renaissance, does not a literary experience used by the artist to amuse the nobility. It to the man of relation a new that herald the dawn of an age proclaims off An naturalness. of sense a new him in forth natural world or calls spring of
court,
ties.
5

low parentage, the native song has been admitted to the where it sounds like a "parody" of country life and its simplici
against

skill

intentionally

In imitating the native crudeness of the song, musicians of great artistic rules and make mistakes that blunder
cate

would be ludicrous were they to appear in compositions of higher

gories.

s F or the first time, Alfred Einstein called attention to this parodistic character of 2i2ff. the native song; see "Die Parodie in der VUlanella," ZfMW, II (1920),

56

THE

PERFECT ART

PRELUDE

By the time the native songs thus became "art," though of a lower rank than works in the prevailing style of the time, they had traveled a long way from their original contact with folk customs. When Baldassare Castiglione speaks of them and he knows this type of music and its composers well he shows them exclusively in the atmosphere of the "Nobleman's" life. To the question whether the Nobleman should display his activities to the public eye and go about among the
crowd
of simple people

from the country

at a

dance or any other fes

tivity, Castiglione gives lates that in his part of

a negative answer. But Caspar Pallavicino re the country, in Lombardy, men do not have

such scruples; the young folk, noble and lowly, mingle with one an He sees no harm in this liberal behav other,
ior,

dancing, fencing, sporting. for such contests do not test nobility but only physical power and dexterities wherein country people quite often match men of noble

birth. 6
artistic

Lombardy

the appears to have been one of the regions where ideal flourished. of native Castiglione's songs composition

courtier finds pleasure in listening to these songs and regards them as an extraordinary addition to his entertainments. In order that he may he takes legitimately avoid any contact with their boorish originators, the songs out of their hands and provides his own supply by imitation. He is fully aware that they are now an art which he allows to exercise

an influence upon him. In speaking of the marvelous effect of music, Castiglione mentions one of the chief composers of this type of song, Marchetto Cara, along with Leonardo da Vinci, Mantegna, Raphael,
7 Michelangelo and Giorgione, the creators of pictorial impressions, thus a native imitated of placing representative composer songs, artistically

for purely artistic purposes, directly by the side of artists who cer tainly have nothing to do with the native art of the lower classes and
peasants.

Although bestowing upon the native song the rank of

art,

the ideal

courtier seemed fully aware that this type of music was inferior to the Netherlandish art. The fact that the native song was no longer an

anonymous expression of popular customs but an artificial product ap peared to be the only reason for granting it the dignity of art. In style it was as far from the Netherlandish concepts as simplicity of popular
expression is from subtlety of artistic accomplishment. The Nether landish work and the native song up to 1530 existed side by side in
different categories, one clearly separated
6 7

from the

other.

There were

Baldassare Castiglione,
Ibid., p. 63.

//

libra del Cortegiano, ed. L. Corio (Milan, n.d.), p. 94.

THE POSITION OF THE ARS PERFECTA

a

57

few Netherlander who, because of their connections with Italian some individual interest, tried their hands at imitating the forms of the native songs in Italy, but they would never allow peculiar such experiment to influence the "true" art which was theirs. On
courts or

any

the contrary, they were concerned with keeping the spheres of style thus maintaining rank and order in the musical repertory. clearly apart,

The Northern composers showed only a desultory interest in

the

com

of native songs, probably because of the trivial effort needed position works songs that were pleasant entertainment but not forms such for

which to manifest their musicianship. They had long grown unac customed to occupying themselves with simple structures and had in herited an aversion to such forms from the very beginnings of their
in

school.
It

took the refined and

artistically

more appropriate poetry of the

to secular music in Italy. They had already made French profane music conform to their contrapuntal, choral style, when they discarded poems with fixed structures, such as the rondeau,

madrigals to attract

them

bergerette,

or virelai, and chose a loose poetical form like the chanson as more appropriate. This gradual elimination of pre-established struc called for a sectional organization of tures was natural, since
quite

they

the

work according

to groups, periods, and clear caesurae,

and could

Netherlands style, which demanded an hardly be reconciled with the of contrapuntal lines and carefully flow uninterrupted, sweeping and all that might set off segments of the work. avoided cuts,
phrases,

Naturally, also, the Northern composers dropped

refrains

all

forms based on

which strongly favored

sectional organization.

This process

was already well advanced when Petrucci came out with his earliest of chan editions; and by 1533 when Attaingnant began his last output of because fixed forms with sons, secular compositions had lost contact

power of the Netherlandish style. The elimination fixed form was complete, and isolated specimens that here and there do not count. We may recall that emerge from incoherent situations
the immense

of the

it

remained for the poets of romanticism to reintroduce the forms of who unearthed ballades, rondeaus, and virelais to literature; it was they

those structures from the grave where the Netherlandish musicians had buried them. In Italy all native songs were based on pre-established structures that were difficult, even impossible, for the Netherlandish style to handle. The textual refrain and the strophic order of the poem were barriers
that kept the native song

from being overrun, and were the chief reason

58

THE "PERFECT ART":

PRELUDE
with

why the Netherlander did not attempt the native forms in Italy

out many reservations. It must arouse our astonishment that the Nether landish generation which died out around 1520 kept away from the while less than a decade later Netherlander set off an outburst f
rottola,

of madrigals.

The canzona has always been considered the

frottola

intermediary

and the madrigal, 8 yet the assumption of this transition does not fully explain why the older Netherlander, many of whom composed the French chanson in quantities, neglected the

between the

frottola

when

it

was

Loyset Compere seemed more interested than the others, but this may be due to local conditions at Florence, where we know him to have taken part in t^e

at its height. Josquin paid little attention to it; made only a scanty contribution; Heinrich Isaac

An inner antagonism on the part of the composition of carnival songs. been the decisive reason. to have Netherlander appears themselves had taken the initia musicians Netherlands By 1530 the seem to have started not of creators become and tive madrigals. They
so
ideas.

much from the tradition 9 The "founders" of

came
their reaction to the

of the frottola as from their

own

set of

Willaert

the madrigal Verdelot, Arcadelt, and from the North, and the earliest madrigals probably

were

low standards of the

native songs.

These

reflect their desire to please an aristocratic world madrigals may also which expected musical art to be genuinely expressive of its own under most certainly represent the of cultural entertainment.

standing

They

answer given by the Netherlander to native talent. That the level of secular music should suddenly be raised the very instant the Oltremontani lay their hands on it can otherwise scarcely be understood. of free structure and did not were Moreover, the
madrigals
poetically

follow a pre-established scheme; consequently, they were ideally suited to the form of music the Netherlander had brought into being.

Their composers immediately began to eliminate the structural con between the voice that carried the melody and the instruments that functioned as accompaniment. These contrasts had been marked in
trasts

the secular songs previous to the madrigal. Because the Netherlander "vocalized" the chanson in France gradually and persistently after
8

Cf. Rudolf Schwartz, "Die Frottole

im

15.

Jahrhundert,"

VfMW

(1886), pp. 42ynv,

Gaetano Cesari, "Le origini del madrigale cinquecentesco," RM1, XIX (1912), iff., 380, and separate (in German). Walter Rubsamen, Literary Sources of Secular Music in Italy ( 1943), pp. ?f. 9 Alfred Einstein, in Adler, HMG, I, 361, points out that the development leads directly from the frottola to the villanella, while the frottola did not directly produce
especially,

the madrigal.

THE POSITION OF THE ARS PERFECTA

1450,

59

they made the madrigal primarily a vocal music had bestowed upon composition. the top part as the bearer of the melody ran counter to the Nether landish concept of expressing melody by distributing it evenly over involved. They were also deeply concerned with material all the

from the very

start

The

distinction that secular

parts element of izing the

melody

in their
this

own

fashion, that is to say, in a

all at

melismatic style. Apparently, radical solution, for some of the

once by a madrigals composed by Netherof melody that were not in keep all in show landers parts syllabic types their traditions and ideals. They interspersed quite frequently, with ing
could not be done
first

nevertheless, short melismatic passages readily imitated

by

all

voices. It

and his pupils, who did away with any made Northern between style and native concept. Willaert divergence the madrigal conform to the structure of Netherlandish composition and superimposed the form of the motet upon the secular composition, so that it acquired the rank and respect the Netherlanders gave to all their forms. It came to be the property of the Northerners to such an extent that it challenged the future opposition to the Oltremontcmi almost as forcefully as did the motet, and the total transformation of the madrigal became an artistic necessity, if the Italian musician was to free himself from foreign influences. The madrigal had to bear the

was

Willaert, his generation

brunt of the struggle with the Northerners about musical style as a whole; such was the price for having been made an integral part of the Netherlandish forms. While the Netherlanders raised the madrigal in rank and created for
it

a style different

from that of the traditional native song, they confined

to the secondary sphere the frottola genuinely native expression had once occupied. The villotta and villanella were to follow, taking
all

the place of the previous native songs. As was the case with the frottola, the earliest collections of villotte or canzone villanesche alia napolitana are anthologies in which individuality of authorship does not appear
to play an important role. It is only from the 1540*5 on that the in dividual composer makes his influence felt. From the time when Gio

vanni Domenico da Nola, in the form of the villanesca, and Baldassare Donato, in that of the villanella, began the publication of their most
the collections of these native songs reflect ingenious and subtle works, a certain emphasis on individual authorship. Before the middle of the shown an interest in these century some Netherlanders had already
types.

Among those who first acquainted themselves with the villanesca

Willaert, perhaps the most

was Adrian

open-minded of

all

Northern

60

THE ''PERFECT ART'':

first

PRELUDE

musicians in the
first

half of the century. Less than a decade after the

appearance of canzone villanesche, Willaert made his contributions to the species. Even so, few Netherlander interested themselves in the
miniature forms of songs, and their concern was cursory. It could not be otherwise, since the villotta and villanesca were songs based on schematic structures, fixed, sectional, connected with the dance, and
as

much opposed

to Flemish

conceptions as the frottola. Diff erence of

form again is apparently the reason why only a few Northerners touch these songs, which were "a clownish musick to a clownish matter," 10 to quote Thomas Morley's Among them description of the villanella. were Werrekoren, in Italian sources named Matthias Fiamengo, who imitated the native villotta as he copied Jannequin in La Bataglia Talin Antonio ana (Italiana) descriptive of the battle of Pavia in 1549; who the middle of the century composed a few villotte; 12 Barges, by and in the fifties Giovanni Nasco, who manifested a certain interest
13 in the villanesca, obviously as a result of his Of con stay in Verona. siderable interest is the first work of Orlandus Lassus. Published in

yet not unprecedented, anthology, it can be re harvest of the extensive journeys of his youth. garded fitting He placed Italian madrigals next to French chansons, motets, and villanesche. 14 Lassus here shows the characteristic reaction of a Flemish
a strange,
as the

the

form of

composer to native forms, although most of them never gave evidence of such prolific and profound versatility. One of the most productive of the Netherlander^ Philippe de Monte, never cultivated the villanesca, though he was greatly interested in the madrigal. Other Oltremontani
contributed to the native songs in the last quarter of the century a pupil of Philippe de Monte, Giovanni de Macque, in Naples, and Giaches de Wert, with his canzonette and villanelle of 1589. Both

who

were

these artists
10

were predominantly interested in secular music, Giovanni

Plaine

Thomas Morley,

and Easie Introduction

to Practicall

Music ke (1597),
(Elsa Bienenfeld).

p, 206.

Barges published interesting ricercari in typically Netherlandish style. See a catalogue of his works in Don G. Turrini, "De Vlaamsche Componist Giovanni Nasco te Verona," Tiidschrift der Vereeniging voor Nederlandsche Muziekgeschiedenisy Deel XV, ze Stuk (Amsterdam, 1937), Cf. also the notes 841?.
pp.

11 Cf. 12

MfM

(1871, 1872)

Kirch. Mus. Jb. (1871, 1873)

S1MG, VI

concerning Magister Johannes Nascus de Flandria, in Giovanni d'Alessi, "Maestri e CantoriFiamminghi," ibid., Deel XV, 36 Stuk (1938), pp. i 59 ff. See G. Turrini, "II Mae stro fiammingo Giovanni Nasco a Verona," Note tfArchivio (Rome, 1937), Nos. 4-6. 14 It is only in the earliest collection that we find the mixture of villotte and motets in the the frottole collections have this mixture also as an exception repertory (1535); r
(1526).

interesting

THE POSITION OF THE ARS PERFECTA

6l
15

madrigals, including sacred compositions can hardly compare. But in his function published as maestro di cappella at the Ducal Chapel, Santa Barbara ("Jaches

de Macque perhaps exclusively so, unless nearly all his motets are lost. Giaches de Wert, the predecessor of Monteverdi in Mantua, had an enormous output of secular compositions eleven books of about 350 the canzonette, with which the volume of his

Wert musici suavissimi ac chori illustriss.

et excellentiss.

Ducis Mantuae

he must have composed more sacred works than Magistri musices"), were printed. Perhaps in this there is an indication of the future, for
chiefly choir leaders at cathedrals or princely chapels, stressed secular music It is as in their though the productions of their official
publications.

we find an ever increasing number of composers who, although

functions could no longer satisfy Monteverdi. definitely true of

all their artistic

intentions.

This was

Although these Netherlanders, and a few others, turned to secular music and the native forms, native talent played a much larger part in its development. In any list of the repertory the names of Northerners almost disappear amidst the impressive group of Italians. The repertory of madrigals is full of Oltremontani, but they rarely appear in the list of
the evaluation of the repertory as a composers of native songs. In whole, this is of decisive importance for the future. Whoever sets out to oppose Northern art in the field of secular songs will be free from will find something he can regard as an un foreign influences and of Italian concepts in music. Here he equivocally genuine expression will not have to reckon with a musical form that was Netherlandish
resources tap musical foundation. to its to shake the Netherlandish style powerful enough Monteverdi discovered the possibilities inherent in the native song, and when in 1584 he appears as a composer of canzonette, he is already on to oppose the Oltremontani. his

even

when composed by

Italians.

Here he may

way

ANTHOLOGIES

The musical repertory, with its various species or

and position
to respect
is

categories of

com

their individual styles,

forms an inner harmony, an in

dissoluble unity.
its

Each category of composition compels the composer form before he can venture to manifest his own individu-

possesses the identification

That motets must have been lost is obvious. The communal library of Thorn an organ tablature which contains motets of Macque arranged for organ;
is,

however, not incontestable

as

motets are long as the original

missing.

62
ality.

THE "PERFECT ART":

A

PRELUDE

teristics of style

the air"; it must be studied within thought to be "in writes a motet composer who the category of which it is an example. which does not form its style merely by applying generalities upon little force. have and uncertain too are these music as a whole is based; He is obliged to consider the path along which the motet has traveled, This has de is toward the

A composition cannot be discussed according to general charac

category. into whose fixed limits the of and endurance the style termined vitality this must fit his own individual concepts. To be sure, the

and

his strongest responsibility

composer

process reaches

him

motets on those of the last phase of the closest to him and of which he must was Netherlandish school, which of the motet style have had the strongest impression. The last phase of Willaert: school the within Venice in large seems to have begun and then in compositions by first in the work of Willaert himself, the latter like Willaert an de and Rore, Gabrieli Andrea Cipriano
to have modeled his
first

When Monteverdi began his career as a composer, we should expect

but a category causes a relatively slow stylistic development, its of once in the period its predominance.

peak only

the 1 540'$, phase occurred during decade this In time. was continued for a long though the older form works Venetian printers once more printed Northern compositions Verdelot, non Willaert, Clemens Papa, Crecquillon,

Oltremontano.

The first signs of this

by Gombert,
Morales, and

other musicians of minor significance. Girolamo with regard to the choral music Scotto, who was fairly conservative instrumental in music, published large interest his of his time despite the decade. He was anx of motets and Masses

many

collections

throughout

ious to

in the most prominent Netherlanders widely known the about and some of his collections of the forties reappeared Italy, in Venice, the printer birth. Scotto's

make

time of Monteverdi's

competitor

out the and composer Antonio Gardane, followed suit in bringing of collection a twenty-six motets, music of the North. His Flos florum,
in 1545, is as genuine a picture of Netherlands mostly psalms, published to Arcadelt, Gombert, Lerehe art as can be expected; gave preference in his selection is by an work a not and single thier, Lupus, Verdelot; also drew on works Gardane decade the of last the In Italian.

years cantus firmus that Scotto had previously published, as the collection of Masses of 1547 proves. So far as the motet and the Mass are concerned, Gardane continued for a long time to include the older generation of

the Netherlanders.

Gardane opened the

fifties

with

his

famous collection of psalms,

THE POSITION OF THE ARS PERFECTA

divided into
also

63

two choirs, the corispezzati, composed chiefly by Willaert, of but by a few other Northerners. The enormous compilations motets in the fifties in Antwerp by Susato, Phalese, and Waelrant, have
their equivalent

special

on a smaller scale in Scotto's Motetti del Laberinto, with of Clemens non Papa and Crecquillon. emphasis on the work
fifties

Altogether the

of motets, while incredibly large output the place they from Italian collections of Netherlandish Masses decline

show an

held during the previous decade. Antwerp, Nuremberg, and Venice seem to have worked closely together, and the repertories of anthologies
in those cities have many features in common. The printers had printed a lively exchange and made up their anthologies on the basis of common cross sections of the so that these collections offer
interests,

musical repertory of the time.

It is significant

illuminating that the voluminous

which the alert and careful anthology Novwn et insigne opus musicwm, in of Neuber and Nuremberg, published in three parts printers, Berg and old itn 22 4 motets "f tne most f amous symphonists, i55 8 ~59 Festa new," contains no more than two works of two Italians, Costanzo writ of the Netherlandish ways and Vincenzo Ruff o, both devoted to of books in five 229 No less important is the Thesaurus Musicus, ing. and Neuber. They motets, published in the year 1564, also by Berg here a group of famous musicians from Josquin to Orlandus presented than Lassus and a very large group of minor composers with no more to local importance, yet the Italians were still neglected. Gardane seems have been stimulated by this extraordinary survey to show in his own the art of motet composition at its finest, and also at its

publication

was made by Pietro Joanelli, who at his 16 own expense, edited the works in the office of Gardane in 1568 and musicians whose Maximilian II, dedicated the anthology to Emperor included. Old and new were combined in this volume, and he
average
level.

The

selection

liberally

even Josquin was represented by

a composition.

Among

almost 250

the Italian composer of motets, there are only two by Andrea Gabrieli, of the more compre one in Once Venice. in school the Willaert again hensive anthologies containing works of composers whose average in the talent seemed important enough to the editor to be made known would Venetian printer South, Italian talent was still neglected. The in five large volumes this Novus Thesau of not have
rus, if

trary,
16

printing thought he expected only disapproval and negative returns. On the con there must have been a fairly strong demand for such a work,
"Petri loanelli Bergomensis de Gandino,

Novus Thesaurus;

summo

studio ac labore

collectae, eiusque expensis impressae."

64

THE "PERFECT ART'':

PRELUDE

otherwise Claudio da Correggio would hardly have reprinted the Mutetarum divinitatis Liber primus, originally a Milan publication of 1543. have been in use when Monte The New Treasure of 1 568 could
easily

verdi started his musical activities under Ingegneri in the cathedral of

Cremona.

The anthologies published during the seventies in Italy contain no sacred compositions but stress all forms of secular music the madrigal and the various types of the villanella or canzona. The Netherlanders have a prominent position in nearly all the collections of madrigals, as vol in La Eletu di tutta la Musica intitolata Corona de diversi of two
umes; yet the
hold their own. In collections that contain native songs, however, Italian musicians have the whole repertory to themselves, as may be seen in the Corona with villanelle napolitane (the 7 or in the first book, 1570-71, the second and third books, ijyr)/ de Antiquis edited in 1574 with various Giovanni which anthology contributions of his own, all in the form of the Neapolitan villanella.
Italians also

There were also continual reprints of earlier collections for which there was still considerable call anthologies of madrigals in which Netherlanders and Italians kept a nearly even balance. to say why the seventies, and even the eighties, did It is impossible not yield any collection of sacred music. The reason may be that the since 1550 had already satisfied all needs. The fairly large output Theatrum musicwn, edited in 1580, is centered on the motets of Or-

such as Clem up the works of older composers, non Papa or Manchicourt, as well as those of younger composers like Cipriano de Rore and Philippe de Monte. However, it does not 18 seem to be an Italian publication. A great many anthologies which
landus Lassus but takes
ens

contain madrigals and canzonette do not change the picture materially, men such as Luca Marenzio, except that they include works by younger Merulo. But the NetherClaudio and Ingegneri, Vincenzo Ruffo, the in their landers still keep repertory of the madrigals. Some place almost have the of collections deceptive titles; they are called
eighties

Harmoma Celeste, or Musica Divina, or Symphonia Angelica, or Musica

Spirituale,

making use of terms ordinarily reserved for sacred music.

17 The date 1570 for the publication of Book I of the Corona is not certain; we have contain only the reprint of 1572. Books II and III are not real anthologies since they only works of Girolamo Scotto, the printer, with the two exceptions by Giovanni

Bassani in Book III. 18 Cf. Robert Eitner in in both volumes with and VI. The MfM, print appeared out name of location or printer. According to its content it is more likely than not to have been edited in a Northern country, perhaps Germany.

THE POSITION OF THE ARS PERFECTA

This

65

well be due to the influence of the Counter Reformation. Books were also published containing compositions of native forms in the style of the Neapolitan canzonetta, with Italian texts of religious Verovio character: as, for instance, the Diletto Spirimale of Simone

may

(1586) oxtheCanzonetteSpiritualidediversiatrevoci
collections of secular music

(I,

1585).

Most

in the eighties are "spiritual," either In that in title alone or in the individual texts of the compositions.

made

of parodies in which originally secular appeared a collection in the Italian madrigals were provided with new sacred texts. Finally, four in books, all collection of 165 Laude Spiritual!,, the

decade

also

Alessandro Gardano in Rome. The anonymous, was published by to Cardinal Frederico Borromeo, dedicated third book was significantly a leading part in the religious taken had to the as advisor a man who Pope
revival of the Counter Reformation.

eighties

large

In the sphere of sacred music, a growing religious intensity marked the rather sparse collections of the eighties. While printers or editors on had, in most cases, selected the music according to style from

1550

and individual reputation, there was now a noticeable emphasis on The individual composer and modern or fashion liturgical principles. as the able styles were neglected in favor of religious factors, such to be were the which order of the service in compositions liturgical motets selected for of Venice, thirty example, sung. Angelo Gardano, to be used in the church of Santa Barbara for all major double feasts, with complete disregard of authorship. This may be the truest form of of the s&rvice makes observance, since the quality
objective col the individuality of the artist unimportant. Although no general the procedure of listing works lection followed Gardano's
liturgical

arrangement, of the church year was taken up by other according to the services

importance.

publishers. All in all, the eighties presented themselves as a decade of decisive of Italian composers in col The increased

representation

lections outside Italy reflected clearly a rising interest in

them

in

North

ern musical centers, where previously Flemish men alone had been heard. This interest was largely due to the enormous output of madrigals after 1550, of which fully half were the work of native Italian talent. The Northern publishers now became acquainted with the names of them a new hearing. Hubert Waelrant, a Italian musicians and

gave keen and farsighted publisher, may be taken as a fine example of this in the development of Italian music, the advanced stage lively interest in madrigals by Giovanni Ferretti, Luca of which he
represents chiefly

66

THE "PERFECT ART":

19

PRELUDE

Marenzio, Vincenzo Ruffo, Gastoldi, Orazio Vecchi, and Ingegneri. He also includes a number of minor Italian composers and cites Netherlanders only in passing.
It is quite

in Italian composers was also comprehensible that interest

notice the change in the reflected in collections of religious music. Harmoniae miscellae cantionum sacrarum, ab exqziisitissimis aetatis

We

Germany), a collection edited in Nuremberg in and Lechner Leonhard published by Gerlach by of sacred music Italians equal 1583. For the first time in an anthology the Northerners in number: Alfonso Ferrabosco, Andrea Gabrieli, Annibale Padoano, Costanzo Porta and Gioseffe Guami,
nostrae musicis (never before printed in
Palestrina stand

by

Monte, and Cipriano

Ingegneri, the side of Lechner, Gosswin, Lassus, Philippe de de Rore. Gerlach kept a close watch

apparently
in
1

on musical events in Italy, for two years later,

advance of an almost revolutionary nature.

585, he

made a further

It

was previously unheard

of for a publisher in the North to proclaim the excellence of Italian musicians and make himself the agent of their fame, but Gerlach's dedicated to the most editor, Friedrich Lindner, selected the motets,

from compositions "of the most prominent feasts of the church year, some of them published before in famous musicians of Italy and now edited for the Venice separately, others entirely new this small collection of In and churches." schools German benefit of
.

obtained the first place, although the forty-one motets, the Italians Northerners were not ruled out completely. Lindner even called at tention to minor musicians among the Italians, though Claudio Merulo and Palestrina gave the anthology its special character. From that time of sacred on, publishers who planned to give as complete a cross section Italian to music as of madrigals attributed fresh significance composers

of motets.

this aspect. in 1588, his Milan in for Masses edited Giulio Bonaiuncta publication

Of course, not every anthology reflected

When

Lassus and Adrien Hauvil and anthology represented chiefly Orlandus contained only one Mass by an Italian, Antonio Piccioli, a man of no
local importance. But the sphere of influence the Italians had gained for themselves was rapidly growing. Friedrich Lindner and Gerlach used the relationship between North and South as a principle In their volume of according to which they chose their collections. Masses in 1590, they placed Palestrina and Guami next to Northern

more than

18 It is the collection Symphonia Angelica di diversi Eccellentissiml Musici (Ant werp, 1585), published in the house of Pierre Phalese, containing fifty-eight madrigals. Waelrant did not publish the work himself; he collected the madrigals and added also five of his own. The anthologies of 1583 have the same character.

THE POSITION OF THE ARS PERFECTA

trina, Ingegneri,

6j

In their Corollariuw cantionum sacrarum of that same year, composers. about two-thirds of the motets were by Italians, among whom Pales-

and Andrea Gabrieli were treated with special distinc included so young a composer as Giovanni Gabrieli, even tion. They whose works had been published before 1590 only with those of Andrea, his uncle. Lindner and Gerlach continued their publication of
with an anthology of Magnificat compositions, put in order for liturgiol use according to the eight ecclesiastical modes. At the beginning of the nineties eight new anthologies of sacred music were published in Italy. Most important for the characteristics of the Musica per concerti ecclesiastic! di diversi autori, which repertory is the Vincenti published in 1590. Here for the first time an anthology of sacred compositions consists of Italian works only, chiefly parts of the collection was intended to represent the ordinary of the Mass. The
Italians in 1591

Venetian school, but its very nature shows that the Oltremontani were no longer needed to make up a sacred repertory. Though he was the father of the Venetian school, Willaert had been dropped. The same
edition published in Rome in 1592. The development is seen in an et Antiphona 'Salve Regina* anthology Psalmi, Motecta, Magnificat, Diversorum Autorum has Felice Anerio, Palestrina, Ruggiero GiovaPaolo Quagliati that is, the entire Pales nelli, Giovanni Maria Nanini, trina school, excepting Luca Marenzio, who is represented with only This shift toward native composers does not imply one

composition. an original native style of composition, for the sacred music of Italian musicians still adhered to its Netherlandish prototype. It merely shows that a definite preference was granted the Italians, now considered the the Netherlanders whose idiom they had imitated long enough equals of
to

become masters

in their

own

right.

A similar pattern was followed by Northern publishers. The Treas ure of Litanies which Adam Berg published in Munich in three vol umes ( 1 596) has nearly the same arrangement as the Northern antholo of the eighties, and in the second book Palestrina leads all other
j
,

gies

the foremost printer in the center of the Flemish out composers. Even in Antwerp, could not escape the ever growing influence Phalese, put, of the Italians. He had the "phonascus" of Notre Dame in Antwerp,

Matthias Pettier, who is known only through a Mass for five voices, edit the Selectissimarum Missarum Flores, ex praestantissiwis nostrae collecti (1599) in which all the Masses were by aetatis authoribus
.
.

Italians,

with the exception of two by Orlandus Lassus and one

by

Pettier himself.

68 At

THE "PERFECT ART

PRELUDE

the end of the century, the contributions of Italians were so numerous as to allow the arrangement of a repertory for the North school of composition in according to the characteristics of a special mentioned. Another been have such Two already anthologies Italy. famous anthology which belongs to this group is the Sacrae symphoniae diversorum excellentissimoruw authorum, whose first volume came out

under the editorship of Kaspar Hasler in 1598, followed by a second in

Hasler doubt, the relations of Kaspar's brother Hans Leo at school with Venice were a good reason for showing the Venetian twelve and its best in fourteen works of Giovanni Gabrieli composi
1600.

No

tions of Claudio Merulo.

The compositions were also obviously selected who of writing, so that Northern composers according to the style similar were included. manner Venetian wrote in the arrangement in 1 599 is followed in the Motets and Psalms, which Vincenti published with a dedication to Cesare Schieti, canon in Urbino and also a com

the composers have been chosen from the Roman poser. Although a definite school, Palestrina himself being represented, the style shows that the evidence toward the Venetian idiom and gives further

leaning

Italian dialects of the musical language,

still

basically Netherlandish,

have acquired enough strength to regulate certain sections of the reper

tory.

The numerous anthologies reflect popular taste and demand, though

the they do not always indicate
and, in
ral,

latest

developments in musical style

many

any phase and presented first in books containing his compositions exclusively, and from such collections novelties are later chosen for the anthologies.

since

is quite natu cases, exhibit a conservative tendency. This of style is initiated by the individual composer new

At

times, however,

it is

surprising to see

how

quick the editors or

were to include any new trend printers

from survey of all the anthologies published the middle of the sixteenth century to the birth of Monteverdi oif ers an instructive Although the numbers in the groups are merely
picture.

in their anthologies. in the two decades

approximations,

we
20

groups
of
all

is

nearly correct,

believe that the basic relationship between the and that new findings would not alter the situ

ation essentially.

We have seen that the Mass, the most distinguished

was not favored by
collectors of antholo

liturgical compositions,

that not more than fifty Masses of various composers were pub gies, so collections in the years 1550 to 1570. If we except the work in lished

of Palestrina, the Mass occupied the same relative position in the output
*

In this survey, the anthologies of French chansons have been disregarded.

THE POSITION OF THE ARS PERFECT A

69

decisive part in of individual composers and no longer played any a few com sixties and fifties the of style. During forming new phases to that of motet, so that it was kept Mass of the the style posers adapted the past in abreast of advances in composition, but others drew upon The decline in Masses in a more modern of

stead

for the Mass influenced Monteverdi's attitude to original composition ward compositions for religious services, and it is of historical interest born. to see that it had taken place by the time he was of motets the This decline of the Mass was offset by superior position the generally religious, of all kinds, including the strictly liturgical, linked to certain occasions, mostly dedicatory and compositions psalms, amounts to in character. The total output of motets in anthologies 21 of other exceeds and category every about twenty-five hundred, in the reper foremost the motet The place occupied composition. that was followed in nearly all other compositions. and set the
^

composing

style.

tory
It

style
as

was regarded

the noblest

medium

in

which

of composition of the time. Counting all forms and motets together, the repertory in the anthologies presents approxi hundred compositions of this sort or about 72 per mately thirty-five the motet cent of the total. When Monteverdi began his musical career, most the and rank in important in was the most significant composition
style.

to express the ideals of Italian secular music

the anthologies by a little more than represented in native songs one thousand works, including madrigals as well as such a fifth of this secular music is in About canzonetta. and villanella the as a large part of them the form of native songs; the rest are madrigals, these Flemish Flemish musicians or style. Thus, written either

Secular music

is

by

collections contain about eight

two hundred villanelle

hundred madrigals and approximately and canzonette. Since native songs were seldom
this part of the

total,

a repertory has specifically in the total modest a place Italian quality. They occupy, however, very of the cent 6 than less to per of thirty-five hundred works, amounting makes due one cent. 22 the while

composed by Netherlanders,

per madrigals comprise and adds allowance for madrigals composed by Flemish composers in the are clearly majority, one this quota to the motets, where they in repertory and style. fair idea of their continued preponderance gets a the repertory of for same the These percentages are probably about some of whom composed nothing but motets and individual

When

composers,

claim to absolute correctness. Bibliographical been used for the estimate. materials as well as transcriptions have
21

T hese are round figures without any

70

THE "PERFECT ART

still

PRELUDE

others wrote only native songs, and a few to all the forms. contributed, with universal capacity and flexibility, be judged by cannot therefore and Mass the on Palestrina concentrated

while liturgical music,

the relatively

without

Lassus demon interest, are historically irrelevant. Orlandus strated the importance of the motet by the vast number he composed, but we must not overlook the large body of his secular music, for without his secular music, Palestrina can be

few madrigals he composed, which, though by no means

though

comprehended

Lassus cannot. Although individual composers gave distinct preference to various forms of secular music, there had been no reaction against the the Netherlanders at the time when Monteverdi was born. Neither

repertory nor the style sacred music maintained

as long as any such assumption, for achieve could no opposition superiority, to be had on based Northern The success. religious concepts, style, overthrown before style and category of composition could attain a

bears out
its

fresh and integral unity. is Doubtless, the most fascinating of the Italian composers Marenzio, who before Monteverdi, or almost simultaneously,

Luca made

secular music his supreme form of artistic expression. The list of his works shows not only the unparalleled fame he enjoyed in his own time and thereafter, as evidenced by numerous reprints, but exhibits secular music at its greatest breadth. Amidst an endless list of madrigals, for the feasts of villanelle, canzonette, the book of forty-two motets

not impossible, to explain. He also wrote a few other sacred compositions: a Magnificat, a Mass, and several other motets, preserved in anthologies and manuscripts. Since
issued
its

the church year, published in 1585 for the first time, makes a strange almost confusing effect. Though this book appearance and produces an more reprints were shared in Marenzio's reputation for three

high

existence

is

difficult, if

the printed motets of 1 585 are all for four voices, while those in manu are for five, six, and eight voices, it may be suggested that the script selected from previous print compositions in the manuscripts have been
ings

now no

longer in existence.

Even

so, these

motets are somewhat

abnormal in Marenzio's work, and it is hard to account for the appear ance of a motet book based on strictly liturgical factors. One possible school and the religious tend explanation is the influence of the Roman encies awakened by the Counter Reformation; but the motets are so

which lies in the sphere of rootless. and secular music, that they appear "aimless" are marked Marenzio's of by the Northern style; madrigals Many
completely alien to Marenzio's
artistic goal,

THE POSITION OF THE ARS PERFECTA

many

*]

of his secular songs, however, are remote from the influence of the very the North, for he placed great stress on native forms from secular his of section not only constituted a large first, and the villanelle the with Marenzio in but also influenced his

began general. style was most highly appreciated: that for five and some ad voices. After publishing four books of these madrigals and native to he turned songs, villanelle ditional
music

form of the madrigal

that

spiritual madrigals,

which he published seven books within three years. It had discovered new musical values opposed to those of he is as though led the madrigal to its climactic height within the Marenzio North. the of the sixteenth-century idiom, which he expanded to the
canzonette, of

utmost without ever breaking with its basic concepts. In this respect he remained the fulfiller of secular music in terms of the sixteenth century. With him the old ended, but the new did not begin. Marenzio did not in set out to eliminate the art of his age; he is its final representative
secular music.
It

capacities

may

have taken a leading part observer of the events that led to the Florentine opera. With his vigor ous concentration on secular expressions in music, Marenzio broke a which Monteverdi could proceed, and his work was a neces path along to the new music. sary prelude who showed Monteverdi his way from his early days those Among de Rore, and Marc' Antonio Ingegneri Vincenzo Ruffo,
on,

well be that had he lived longer he, too, would in founding the new style, since he was an

take the

Cipriano of these composers anticipated the exclusivelist ness with which Marenzio worked in the field of secular music. The of their compositions is another illustration of the character of the de Rore made a decided shift toward secular music, repertory. Cipriano two-thirds of his output being given over to madrigals. approximately under the guidance of For a man born in the North and
first

place.

None

working

Willaert, this

is

other composer, ments of Flemish music.

but Cipriano, perhaps more than any quite unusual, with all the technical refine the endowed
madrigal

The

rest of his
his

Masses and motets, which show fully

ing.

output is divided between Northern origin and school

never They are "conservative" in the sense that Cipriano the strength and character of the Flemish style to be diminished. The Mass Vivat Felix Hercules, dedicated to Ercole II of Ferrara, was ap after a model of Josquin des Pres, but his later parently composed Masses increase the fullness of sound by extending the number of parts
at least in the Turba to seven. His famous Passion, printed in 1557, has choruses the style of the Flemish motet. Any religious form was

allowed

72

THE "PERFECT ART":

PRELUDE

as is clearly the case in his motets proper, subject to Northern concepts, of Adrian Willaert in building initiative where Cipriano followed the his motets, however, are com of books The first a Venetian dialect.

up

posed in the purest

Flemish fashion, and

among them are a few composi

text. tions that represent a rare species, the secular motet with Latin to set a few lines of Virgil's Aeneid as well as an ode of Horace Cipriano discussed was the ode Calami music. Best known and most

widely

sonum ferenteSj a work that

in
style.

marked an epoch the treatment of chromaticism within the scope of the Northern

composed before

555

Among the

secular motets the dedicatory type

is

represented in

Lahore primus Hercules. Despite Cipriano's flexibility and his eagerness the style, but main to add new tones to the old ideal, he did not
corrupt
tained the pure Netherlandish concept in his last motets with as much think especially of the as in his first. determination and
clarity

We

omnium auxilio destitutus, which he must grandiose motet Infelix ego 22 have composed in his last years. It is a double motet, that is, one with two texts, the first alto singing the initial words of Psalm 56, miserere
which the psalm tone is used as mei, throughout the composition, for cantus firmus, nine times repeated in the prima pars of the motet, four teen times in the secunda pars, while at the end all voices take up the
exclamation simultaneously. The model for this structure is Josquin's miraculous Miserere mei of around 1500, which fathered many imita tions. In Cipriano the full strength of the Netherlandish form appears, whom we too often remember the whole life of a

composer influencing his motets and Masses. As Zarlino only for his madrigals, forgetting the father of all sixteenth-century music, so Willaert designated the leader in musical art. Ingegneri younger men regarded Cipriano as wrote in 1586 to Octavio, Duke of Parma, that Cipriano had advanced
the art of music so greatly as to be an example forever and the master of all in perfect composition. Ingegneri's opinion, at least in part, was later shared by Monteverdi.

Vincenzo Ruff o, of the same generation, had many features in com

mon with Cipriano, especially in the field of madrigals. Ruff o kept pace
with the novelties Cipriano introduced; both worked toward the same
22 The motet has been in Sacrae published posthumously by Gardano (Venice, 1595), cantiones quae dicuntur Motecta. (The portrait of Cipriano names the composer as *'Flemish.") Infelix ego, No. 32, appears as a certain climax at the end of the collection, which contains thirty-four motets. See the modern edition of this work in Josef Musiol, Cyprian de Rore, em Meister der venezianischen Schule (Breslau, 1933), p. 80 and Ex

ample 34. Musiol did not recognize the relation of the cantus firmus to the psalm; neither did he notice the relation of the work to Josquin's model.

THE POSITION OF THE ARS PERFECTA

73

end; both were advanced; and Ruffo even anticipated many the madrigalesque style. Yet while Cipriano's repertory re phase of flected the composer's concern with the promotion of the madrigal to a more distinguished position in the repertory, Ruffo's works were between sacred and secular music. Exactly half of evenly distributed half were motets and Masses. In were his works madrigals, the other did not deviate from the North Ruffo sacred of music, his compositions ern precepts and even attributed great significance to the liturgical ele ment that the motets and Masses should represent. In so doing, he made
use of the Flemish style to strengthen the religious qualities of his music. strict ob It is interesting to see him arrange collections of motets in are dedicated order, in which various psalms servance of the
liturgical

a later

to the officium of the ecclesiastical hours. It

is

also striking to find that

some of
tion,

his religious

which, musically speaking, music of a religious character. In the eighties Ruffo published a collec tion of Masses, which was expressly "purged" of any inadequacy or of the Council of Trent." The eighties error, "according to the formula were probably the period when the Counter Reformation exercised its effect on music, and it was then that Marenzio edited his book
greatest of motets

works were influenced by the Counter Reforma for church adopted the Flemish style

and published

his "spiritual" madrigals. Ruffo's

work is a per

fect example of the experience of many composer of the time: he gives of full recognition to what was regarded as the necessary superiority the in interest a the motet, while retaining strong madrigal.

Marc' Antonio Ingegneri was considerably younger than either Ruffo or Cipriano and closer to the generation of Luca Marenzio. He stood precisely midway between Ruffo, whose pupil he was, and Monteverdi, whose teacher he was to be. Ingegneri favored secular music only to the extent of composing madrigals, most of which show no trace of the influence either of the villanella or the canzonetta. The are less advanced than those of Ruffo and majority of his madrigals of Marenzio; he leans toward as pure a Nether to
28
1

say nothing Cipriano, 23 exhibit a decided preferlandish style as possible. Ingegneri's works
In her dissertation,

Ellinor

Marc Antonio Ingegneri als Madrigalkomponist (Berlin, 1936), Dohrn explained the relationship between word and tone as though it were a thus always a sign of "modern style. The phenomenon of the madrigal alone and
'

type found

treatment of the schichte der Messe (Leipzig, 1913), p. 402, had observed "the concise Ruffo or text" to be a peculiarity of the northern Italian musicians, and not only of influence of Ingegneri on Monteverdi has not been the on The chapter Ingegneri. the influence to have been included in the dissertation. E. apparently assumed

in Ingegneri's works holds true for the motets also, not only of Ingegneri Peter Wagner, Gehimself, but also of the older Netherlandish-Italian composers.

Dohm

very strong.

74

THE ''PERFECT ART'':

PRELUDE

ence for sacred music in the form of the motet, with Masses and motets making up almost two-thirds of his compositions, and his example proves that we must not take it for granted that a musician who was closer to the end of the century would necessarily devote himself to
secular composition. Ingegneri belongs to a group of composers, Costanzo Porta among them, who continued to express their firm belief in the Northern ideal of the predominance of the motet. The famous

Responsories of Ingegneri have been erroneously attributed to Palestrina on bibliographical grounds, but there is a certain stylistic support for the error. 24 Both were vigorous representatives of the Netherland ish ideal. Instead of yielding to modern tendencies, Ingegneri strength ened the position of the Flemish style in Italy by cultivating once more new concepts of its finest qualities. Between this conservation and the Monteverdi there would seem to be no bridge.
24

As is well known,

these Responsories appear in the complete edition of Palestrina's

works.

PART

TWO

The

Struggle

with the Past

CHAPTER THREE

Beginnings

in

Cremona

Marc' Antonio Ingegneri, of Verona, was appointed cantor at the IN

1567, the year of Monteverdi's birth, or perhaps a year later,

and maestro

cathedral of Cremona, and in due course was made prefect of music di cappella. 1 Since the cathedral was the focus of musical

have been chiefly responsible for Cremona's activity, Ingegneri must a center of musical culture. The city had given birth to rapid rise as musicians of renown before Ingegneri received his appointment:
Costanzo Porta, Tiburzio Massaini, Benedetto Pallavicino, all were in their own country and abroad, but they perfected their art elsewhere. All of them were considerably younger than Ingegneri, and since they left Cremona at an early age, it is difficult to imagine what tradition they might have established and how Ingegneri might have know no prominent composers who chose Cremona continued it. 2 for its glorious tradition, and nearly all records of Cremona's musical time of Ingegneri. There was before him, of greatness date from the course, a certain Cremonese tradition in music, but its level was ap-

famous

We

iEllinor Dohrn, op.

from Verona
del secolo

to
e

Cremona. Gaetano
i

XVI

the year 1568 as the limit for Ingegneri's change p. 12, takes Cesari, La Musica in Cremona nella seconda metd primordi delV one Monteverdiana, in Istituzioni e Monwnenti Dell'tit. y

Vol. VI (Milan, 1939), p. x, accepts the date. Despite thorough investigation of the documents, the biographical dates of Ineegneri remain obscure; very little has been discovered. The most recent publication or G. Cesari does not give any clear picture of the musical activities at Cremona, except for organ music at the time of Ingegneri, for which more documents are available than for other musical

Arte Musicale

Italians.,

activities.

Costanzo Porta, Tiburzio Massaino e Benedetto Pallavicino." Obviously Cesari takes the birth of these men in Cremona as reason to attribute the foundation of an artistic tradition to them, although they were much too young.
77

Ibid.^ p. artistica di

LVII:

"Ingegneri,

il

quale proseguiva' allora in

Cremona

la bella

tradizione

78

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

We

the no higher than that of many another place. Connect parently Adrian of the Willaert, school and Venice with Porta name of Costanzo with cities where he played a leading part, such as Padua or Osimo, but not with Cremona. When Alessandro Lami di Federico, a nobleman

of Cremona, sang the praise of the city's music in his poem Sogno non men piacevole che morale of 1572, he attributed its world- wide fame to Ingegneri and did not mention Porta or Massaino, but, instead, Barera all men of (Barella), Cherubetti, Maineri, Morsolino, Zermignari his com and Of Maineri and now only names. purely local significance, in his day celebrated was we know nothing, yet he probably
positions as organist at the cathedral of Milan.

After Ingegneri, however,

original contri

Cremona ranked high

butions to music.

as a city

which made notable and

Musical

life

training was

in the hands of the

there was organized around the cathedral, and musical church musician, who fortunately re

ceived vigorous support from his superiors. Choral compositions made was the only organization up the repertory, and the church choir

of the style in all Italian cities where Flemish adequate to the needs choral singing had taken root. Such an organization naturally trained more people than one which was based on solo performance and de of virtuosi and the needs of a to the

voted, consequently, development small minority. Choral technique required a high average of musical was so talent, and there has rarely been a period when group singing to certain was such and reached heights. Any large city widespread have well-trained choirs of great merit, which provided the best imagi first-rate composer could for a steady growth of music. nable

grounds

make

impetus

excellent use of this highly developed instrument, and such an was undoubtedly given to Cremona's musical life when

musician. Ingegneri became its chief This choral training was the background for Monteverdi's musical there is no record of his being a chorister in the education.

Although

cathedral, such a beginning can be taken for granted. Composition was and Monteverdi would become taught, as well as choral technique,

familiar with the choral music used

ices

by Ingegneri both

for church serv

and on lay occasions. Almost nothing is known of the civic festivals known upon which music cast an extraordinary splendor, and little is of musical activities in the palaces of Cremona's noble families. Lack of documents, however, does not imply a lack of such activities, and there

is

no reason

to believe that

music was

less

enjoyed by the nobility of

cities,

Cremona than by

the Italian nobility of other

where madrigals

BEGINNINGS IN CREMONA

79
were

were sung and compositions for solo instruments, such as the lute, the palaces, and motets were sung or played when religious played in needs or artistic interests called for them. That the young Monteverdi
shared in

Cremona was widely celebrated in another field of music: the manu music facture of musical instruments, especially of violins. All lovers of who the the Stradivari, Guarneri, spread the have heard of the Amati, his work before Amati world. the began city's glory throughout to Cremona, and throughout the sixteenth century the Ingegneri came for the production of excellent instruments was wide city's reputation There were also instrument makers by the name of Monteverdi,

many such activities can be taken as a matter of

course.

who may indeed have been relatives of the composer. At any rate, we know that Monteverdi got his first appointment in Mantua as a violist, and that it was probably Ingegneri who taught him that skill. The Libri di Provvisione della Fabrica del Duomo of Cremona, in
3

spread.

notes that Ingegneri "was a violinist of vestigated by Luigi Lucchini, distinction and ... had the privilege of having trained our gready Under famous Claudio Monteverdi in the school of counterpoint. . .
.

the direction of the able Marc' Antonio Ingegneri the musical 'cappella' to be supported by a company of players in the began, around 1593, 4 Toward the end of his life, and perhaps orchestral of an manner
in 1581 as maestro di cappella, Ingegneri, shortly after his appointment be called a player of the violino di grido, produced a collaboration tween the cappella of the cathedral and a company of instrumentalists. of the city, this company may well have Consisting of the musicians been organized according to guild rules. All the larger cities had thenown musicians, the compagnia di suonatori, and the musician's guild, a medieval organization, lasted till the end of the baroque originally the choral institute of the cathedral and the civic musicians age. Between the maintenance of the town there were occasional disputes concerning and singers administration the between such of privileges. Some quarrel or Guild di the and suonatori, Mark's St. at Compagnia of the cappeUa was Monteverdi when sensation a caused and of Minstrels Players, a contest maestro at St. Mark's. This dispute had all the earmarks of
Concerning Domenico Monteverdi, Maestro di Musica Claudio Monteverdi," in Atti
79.

distinto
*

see Stefano Davari, "Notizie biografiche del della R. Accademia VirgiUana

.
.

stonci su i piu celebri Libri di provvisione, V, fol. 93. Cf. Luigi Lucchini, Cenm of course, erroneous, musicisti cremonesi (Casalmaggiore, 1887), p. 13. The date 1593 is, misread the manuscript. Ct. tL. since Ingegneri died July i, 1592. Lucchini must have Cesari was unable to correct the date. 14, n.27. Gaetano Dohrn, op. cit.,
p.

(Mantua, 1885), p.

80

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

between free labor the singers of St. Mark's and the organized union 5 the guild, which exerted pressure on the singers to join it. In Cre worked together mona, however, singers and players seem to have for was without friction, and Ingegneri making possible a new praised
the two musical organizations. co-operation between The cathedral choir, the town company, and the activities in the

noble families made up the musical life in which Monteverdi shared, and academic studies at the it has always been assumed that he also took of some distinction, was Monteverdi's family University of Cremona. education of his to the care much to have and his father is said given to vie with the was who man the that than children. It is more
likely

musical

artists

of antiquity,

the basis of his

who was to conceive of the liberal arts as to distinguish himself by profundity of was who work,
of knowledge, took advantage of the opportunities 6 Only one other musician of the time

thought and breadth

furnished

by

the university.
rivals

Heinrich Schiitz

in mastery of the humanities, and be based on the humanities. should music both it is to a went Schiitz that know probable that university, and man. a also was Monteverdi university of Cremona was neither as old nor as distinguished The

Monteverdi

understood that the art of

We
as

University

of higher learning, and the days of its in the fifteenth century, when it was founded. were probably prime Thanks to the imperial leanings of the Condottiere Gabrino Fondulo, the ruler of Cremona, and in gratitude for many signs of his loyalty,

many other Italian institutions

the

Emperor Sigismund

II

drew up the

brief of foundation for a uni

erected in Cremona. In this edict of May 8, 1415, he de versity to be creed that "the general study of theology, of jurisprudence, both ca nonic and civic, also of medicine, of philosophy, natural and moral, and

of the liberal arts be set up and be observed forever after."

The

uni

to have the same privilege, liberty, immunity, special license, versity was and favor (indultwri) enjoyed by the studia generalia at Paris and 7 were included, the subject of music may Bologna. Since the liberal arts

have been taught

5

as a part

of mathematics, but

we do

not

know

what,

See

pp. Prunieres, op. cit., p. 5, suggests that Monteverdi studied at the university. 7 See Antonio (Milan, Campo, Cremona fedelissi?na Cita et nobiUssima colonia. .' Studium generale Sacrae Theologiae, 1645), pp. noff, "Ut in eadem civitate Cremonen. videlicet tarn Canonici, quam Ciuiles, necnon Medicinae, Philosophiae utriusque Juris, naturalis, et moralis, ac artium liberalium, erigatur, et ex nunc in antea perpetuis tem.

verdi

(New

the interesting references to this quarrel in io6f. and notes ioof. York, 1926),

Henry

Prunieres, Claudia Monte-

poribus obseruetur."

BEGINNINGS IN CREMONA
if

8l

was adopted. 8 Though the best days of the uni any, course of study the time Monteverdi was old enough to attend versity had passed by for those studies that laid the he its
courses, groundwork presumably his life and gave inspiration to his art. occupied him for the rest of The first work Monteverdi published a collection of motets came out in 1582. By that time the output of his teacher Ingegneri was con for four voices, three books for five siderable: two books of
voices, a

book of Masses,

madrigals a book of motets for five voices, and presuma

not available in print. The hymns and psalms bly many compositions for the of instance, were published posthumously and may vespers, It was at this time, from Monteverdi's birth date back to the

through the

eighties. the influence eighties, that

of the Counter Reformation

It engendered an at must have become familiar and Monteverdi which with mosphere which seems to have affected his first works. Ingegneri himself was

made

itself felt in

the musical

life

of Cremona.

with men who played a leading part in the intensifi closely associated cation of all aspects and expressions of religious life and dedicated part of his sacred work to this end. The Counter Reformation was thus a
decisive factor in the early life of .Monteverdi.

Marc' Antonio Ingegneri dedicated

voices (1576), as well as
to Nicolo Sfondrato, Bishop cardinal in 1583 and elected Pope

book of motets for five three more collections of Masses and motets, of Cremona since 1560, who was made a
his first

XIV in 1590. As Bishop of the ideals of the Counter for Cremona, Sfondrato fought vigorously a Reformation. His attempts to restore truly religious conduct in the the affairs of church and clergy were instigated by Carlo Borromeo, IV Pius of adviser chief the became Archbishop of Milan. Borromeo of co-author was and Trent of Council the at all matters of reform
Gregory
in

Romanus. Since Sfondrato was an ardent admirer and and musicians, he was among those in the Council who patron of music discussions concerning the renewal of church in took the initiative
the Catechismzis

music. Moreover, he saw to

it

that the principles formulated

by

the

Council were put in practice by the musicians who composed for church in Cremona, services. Ingegneri came into close contact with Sfondrato

and

this led to

Ingegneri

to

work

an intimate friendship. Sfondrato certainly encouraged for the ideals of the Counter Reformation; and the

"Music and the study of music at Italian universities, see Paul Oskar Kristeller, Italian Renaissance," Journal of Renaissance and Baroque Music, the in Early Learning

On

(1947), 2555.

82

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

9

of four books of sacred compositions, three of them dedi publication cated to the patron himself, was obviously in response to his inspira
tion.

The

ideas Sfondrato

must have discussed with Ingegneri were not

the composer, who may have made a direct acquaintance entirely new to with the new principles of church music in Verona, where he worked

under Vincenzo Ruff o.

was to the chapter of the cathedral of Verona that Ingegneri dedicated his first book of Masses in 1573. Ruffo col laborated as closely with Carlo Borromeo as Ingegneri with Sfondrato, and after 1563 he was maestro di cappella at the cathedral of Milan, where Borromeo became archbishop. Ruffo's collection of psalms, as well as his Masses, was revised according to the formula of the Council
It

of Trent. "My intention in both the Masses and the psalms is to show how one can introduce into the divine offices a form of music, grave, to the spirit sweet, and devout, and such a one as to be totally adequate of the Sacred Council of Trent, which does not permit music to be
that has an impure or lascivious char sung in the churches of the Lord 10 Thus Ruffo and Borromeo in Milan, Ingegneri and Sfondrato acter." in Cremona, took decisive steps toward realizing what appeared to the

leaders of church reform to

be the true nature of

religious

music.

The

dedication that prefaced the famous Responses of the Holy Week, once attributed to Palestrina, shows that Ingegneri had an intense in

Counter Reformation. This preface is addressed at some time before 1588 held a meeting of learned and pious men to whom he explained the na ture of hymns, antiphons, and responses, Ingegneri must have attended that meeting, for his Responses were intended to embody the religious the Abbot spoke, and to materialize those tones of intensity of which
terest in the goal of the

to the

Abbot Marc' Antonio Amidano, who

in the words of Amidano, religious ecstasy enables angelic origin which, man to perceive. The influence of the Counter Reformation resulted in a renewed

Netherlandish polyphony and furnished this style with new new artistic justification. In the eighties Ingegneri advo and strength cated the purest form of the style for the sake of restoring religious to music and supported his plea by writing Masses for four and qualities five voices. Most of his motets follow the same ideal, and the most
interest in

For the relationship between Ingegneri and Sfondrato, see E. Dohrn, op. cit^ pp. and G. Cesari, Istituzioni, p. xxvm, !<> Preface to the Psalms of Ruffo (1574); quoted by F. X. Haberl, in Kirch. Mus. Jb. a reform (1892), p. 92. Haberl assumes that Ingegneri obtained the ideas concerning of church music from Ruffo. Sfondrato was probably more influential in this respect.
9
i6fT.

BEGINNINGS IN CREMONA

83

"modern" phase he would concede to the motet was its Venetian ver considerable increase of parts and a sion, which had brought about a of volume in sound effects. So far as the fundamental structure growth of his religious works is concerned, Ingegneri always clung to the Netherlandish elements, which he and many other Italians regarded as
the most genuine musical expression of religious values. does Monteverdi's work fit into the movement of which his Does he contribute to what Inge teacher made himself a

How

spokesman?

had set up as the ideal of composition in the reli gneri and Sfondrato first work is the collection of twenty-three Monteverdi's gious form? three for motets" "little voices, published by Gardano in Venice in 1582 11 and dedicated to Stefano Caninio Valcarengo. From his texts, we
should assume that Monteverdi began his musical work in full harmony with the ideas that flourished in Cremona during the eighties. The texts
are of a religious nature, selected from the Bible, and provide external evidence for classifying the compositions as the continuation of Ingegneri's plans concerning cathe result of his musical studies in the school of counterpoint at the 12 of the the historical shows examination dral But a closer significance

church music.

One

could take them to be the

work
of

to be less simple and less clear, and there are certain features which strike the attentive observer as peculiar: first, the unusual brevity

the compositions, which is stressed by the name given them a combination of only cantiunculae; second, the use of the tricinium, three voices; third, though of lesser importance, the omission of the cus and purpose in the dedication. tomary reference to religious significance The use of a three-part form is startling. The motet had long since and for attained the fullness afforded by the combination of five parts in further often was voices of number the sake of greater fullness, the an of become have to seems tricinium the something creased. In fact, Netherland the favored form a been had It anachronism. by
all

originally

ish

for independent motets and for sections in composers, who used it musi serted in the Mass. The bicinium was also favored by Northern of Netherlandish music of the characteristic more were both and cians, after 1550. As a first half of the sixteenth century than of the period and was used out died the tricinium gradually category of sacred music, Netherlandof the the insisted on preservation only by musicians who
11

The

first

modern

edition, all biographies

thought to be lost. Malipiero and G. Cesari.

12

was published around 1910 by Terrabagio. Despite have neglected the early work of Monteverdi, which was The Sacrae Cantiunculae are now available in the editions ot
edition

this

G.

Cesari, Istituzioni, p. LV.

84

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

published

ish style. After the middle of the century, most anthologies of tricinia in the Northern centers of Netherlandish music. In were

three books of motets in the form 1569 Phalese, of Antwerp, published 13 of tricinia, and their repertory characterizes the situation as a whole. Almost all the composers belong to the generation of 1490 to 1500 Clemens non Papa, Morales, Crecquillon, Costanzo Festa, and Willaert.

The

Orlandus Lassus, who contributed only two of the contained in the three books. The origins of sixty-two compositions Lassus' motet composition were Flemish, and it was natural that he should still contribute to the category, as he also did in his 1575 edition of motets for three voices. But Palestrina, one of the most ardent fol did not compose motets as tricinia, lowers of the Netherlandish youngest
is

style,

contribution to the collection of Laudi spiritually except in his possible where the use of three voices was in keeping with tradition. In Italy, some interest in the category seems to have survived thanks to the
influence of Willaert,

who

for the tricinium.

The

alone appears to have had a genuine liking motet gradually discarded the form of the

tricinium after 1550, except in a certain

also

few

sections of the Mass.

field

Three-part composition middle Many collections of madrigals and chansons published after the of the century contain tricinia, but wherever the madrigal appears as tricinium after 1 550, the composers Gero, Willaert, Festa, Animuccia the oldest. In the second half of the century the favorite are

occurred in the

of secular music.

among

combination was that of five voices, four and six parts being also in use. Gardano and Scotto brought out various collections of three-part works of Arcadelt, Giachet Bermadrigals during the sixties: in 1561, 14 in 1562, Giovanni Nasco, Willaert and Ruffo; chem, Donato, Gero, // primo libro delle Muse; in 1566, the Musica libro primo, with Arca
tions

Berchem, Donato, Festa, Gero, and Willaert. But these composi no longer embodied the ideal most favored during the sixties. There remain the villanella and canzonetta written for three parts, the canzonetta also appearing in four parts. For these forms of what
delt,

called the native song, the tricinium was a medium not only in keeping with tradition but entirely genuine and "contemporaneous," even in the second half of the century. For the villanella and the can zonetta, the tricinium must have been the most satisfactory expression.

may be

Was
rum
**

Monteverdi's choice of the tricinium for his

sacrarum cantionwn
(qzias

first

motets an atflores,

18 Sele ctissimarum

vulgo moteta vocant)

triwn

vocum: ex optimis ac
.

praestantissimis quibusque diuinae Musices autboribus excerpta.

. .

. . (Louvain, 1569). Mctdregali a tre voci de diversi eccellentissimi autori

(Venice, 1561).

BEGINNINGS IN CREMONA

85

tempt to revive a species already obsolete and dying out, or a result of the influence of secular music? The answer to this question is of extreme
importance in any consideration of the beginnings of Monteverdi's art. If he chose the tricmium in order to keep up an antiquated form, he must have done so because he believed in Netherlandish art as a whole. If he selected it in order to carry over types of native song into the motet, he must have opposed the Netherlandish music from the very start. Only a careful investigation of the style of Monteverdi's Cantiunculae will reveal the full story.

CHAPTER FOUR

The

Style of

the

Cantiunculae

HPHE brevity of the Cantiunculae arouses suspicion as to the

JL

reli-

gious connotations of certain cuts made by Monteverdi, and his treatment of the texts is decidedly individualistic. These motets are

sacred compositions in the truest sense: they are composed for definite liturgies, and most of them belong to the officium. Monteverdi's selec
tion shows that certain parts of the services of the church year have been given preference. He obviously preferred texts that were lyrical and expressive, and singled out those that refer to the stark events of
religious history. Many of the compositions are dedicated to the liturgy of saints and, most significantly, martyrs. The officia of SS.

Stephan,

Andreas, Lucia, Helena,

Peter,

and Thomas

are represented.

This

emphasis on martyrology was encouraged by the Counter Reformation in all the arts and letters as fostering a new, intense devotion. From an
artistic

point of view, these stories of passionate

martyrdom allowed the

composer increased musical expressiveness.

Several texts of the story of Christ's life, as given in various services of the year, were chosen by Monteverdi, notably those centering on the Passion, which strike the same note as the stories of the martyrs. The Christmas text has a narrative form the report of Christ's birth given by the angel to the shepherds taken from the Gospel of Luke and used for the antiphon to the lauds on December 25. The same sub
ject is treated in Hodie Christus natus est, the antiphon to the Magnifi cat at the vespers of the same day. Both texts have an emotional intenthe
special officium of St. Helena. Monteverdi used Vent, sponsa Christi, antiphon to the Magnificat, in both vespers of the Commune Virginum. Vent, sponsa. Christi is also the antiphon for the first vespers on the Feast of St. Mary, in Apparitione
1

There was no

B. Mariae Virginis Iminaculatae,

on February
86

1 1.

THE STYLE OF THE CANT1UNCULAE

sity, especially

87

the second, which consists of joyful exclamations be of the feast. The second group of the Christ motets nature the fitting works which treat several incidents of the Passion or are comprises to the Holy Cross. With the exception of Magnum Pietatis, prayers the antiphon to the first vespers in the officium to the Feast of the InLauda Sion Salvatorem to be the ventio S. Crucis 3 ) and

sequence (May all the Christ motets fall in the weeks sung In Festo Corporis Christi, around Easter. Passages from the Gospels, from the Psalms, or from the texts, nearly all of them expressive Ecclesiastes make
,

up

liturgical

of Christ's martyrdom. Two motets stress the adoption of Christ's doctrine as the basis for the foundation of the church. The St. Peter it also belongs motet, Tu es pastor, can be added to this group, although three compositions are dedicated the motets for the saints.

among

Only

to the Virgin

Mary: one whose text

is

the medieval

poem Ave, Maria,

Song of

the other two with texts from the highly poetical gratiae plena, 2 them to be sung in the canonical hours. all of Solomon,

two texts, all the compositions employ pas one of the two exceptions may be a para and Scriptures, a Bible text. Most of the liturgical works use antiphons of the phrase of and one the passage of officium, four take up the texts of responsories, 3 view of not are texts of a lesson. Paraphrases infrequent. In Gospel

With

the exception of

from the sages

the strict observance of the liturgical place to be assigned to the motets, we should not hesitate to assume that Monteverdi's compositions were Reformation. the intended to intensity of the Counter

Yet

we

freely,

religious express find that Monteverdi had treated some of the biblical texts in a manner that did not conform to the principles of the Counter

Reformation. The leaders of the reform were severe in their insistence version. that musicians should not change the texts from the approved de from such texts their Often composers did no more than purify that the office of demands the with granted viations in order to comply
of arranging the imprimatur. Monteverdi, however, had his own ways made He the from chose he frequent cuts a the passages Scriptures. with other composers, as some texts were too uncommon not practice in their entirety. But it was not common practice to cut, long to be used verses of the Lauda Sion to three the as Monteverdi
did,

twenty-four

lines!
2

The motet Surge propera

by G.

to the official text. pulchra es does not literally conform motet is not the antiphon to the first vespers, but 8 The second part of the St. Peter the third lesson in the matin, the responsory (without verse) of the first nocturn after

any further indication

version of Cesari, Istituzioni, p. civ. Monteverdi's

has been assigned to the "Feast of

St.

Mary" without

Quam

88

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

his texts,

Monteverdi made various deviations from the often is repetition, established versions, the most harmless of which text with a change of word order. The fifth motet has the following eorum sum, in medio in the tenor: "Ubi duo vel tres congregati fuerint nomine meo, dicit in nomine meo, dicit Dominus, in nomine meo, in The text is drawn from Dominus, dicit Dominus, Alleluja (six times)." in nomine tres vel duo congregati Matthew xvni. 20: "Ubi enim sunt the of order The gospels grammatical meo, ibi sum in medio eorum." the accents: made the sense, but Monteverdi shifted
In arranging

proper naturally its importance he severed the "in nomine meo" from its context, stressed com concentrated on the climax the ending of the and by repetition, " wanted the the added exclamation "Alleluja! Monteverdi with position at the end, and attached so much importance artistic climax to
appear
to this effect that he frequently

even at the expense content are emotional of grammar. Words or passages of important If no other the even in the middle of composition.

changed the

text,

usually repeated, as a repetitive climactic device is available, Monteverdi adds "Alleluja" formula. the in found be not it liturgical may exclamation, even though additional this with end "Alleluja!" Most of the motets drawn Another way of adapting the material is by combining texts in the liturgical has sources. This

from

different precedent procedure of the year often combine books, where the texts for the services motets different books of the Bible. One of Monteverdi's passages from on used nocturn the Friday illustrates this procedure. The response of Dominus of the week after Easter has the official text: "Surgens Jesus,

noster, stans in

gavisi sunt discipuli 4 for sentence of Luke (xxiv. 36) with one of John (xx. 20). Except text. the did not Monteverdi the of change the "Alleluja;'

medio discipulorum suorum, dixit: Pax vobis, alleluja; viro Domino, alleluja." This is a combination of a

repetition

also must have freely combined passages availed himself of arrangements made by others. The he unless account, the motet No. 20 has two additions that cannot be accounted for: com text the and "O Adonai." For the rest, "O bone

The composer

on

his

own

exclamations

Jesu"

a sentence bines the fourth verse of Psalm 12, with slight deviations, of these each In of Psalm 30. of Luke 46), and the sixth verse
lines,

(xxm. however, the version

is

not

literal

and must be taken

its

as a free,

the motet has nonliturgical arrangement, although

4

definite place in

et dicit xxiv. 36: "Dum autem haec loquuntur, stetit Jesus in medio eomm, Pax vobis." John xx. 20: "Gavisi sunt ergo discipuli, viso Domino." Monteverdi's official version as combination of the texts does not contain "slight variants" of the

Luke

eius:

G.

Cesari, Istituzioni, p. cvi, assumes;

it is

the responsory without change.

THE STYLE OF THE CANTIUNCULAE

A

89

but characteristic, combination is presented in the liturgy. peculiar, the motet Quam pulchra es et quam decora. The text is a mixture of four lines taken from the Song of Solomon, each of which has an en
tirely

different context in the original.

The second
teresting

Magnum pietatis opus offers an in part of the motet of Christ's death: "Eli arrangement. It contains the story

clamans, (Eli damans) Spiritum Patri commendavit, latus ejus lancea miles perforavit, terra tune contremuit et sol obscuravit." For this text, all four versions of the Gospel have been used: Matthew xxvii. 46, 50;

Luke xxm.

45, 46;

Mark xv.

34, 37;

and John

xix. 34.

Though

This free and easy treatment of official texts suggests that Monte verdi did not intend his Cantiunculae as contributions to the musical the Counter Reformation, since the authorities would cer plans of took with the Scriptures. have objected to the liberties he tainly in their function as settings for the services, the
religious

motets are entirely lacking in the intensity considered suitable to the the Counter Reformation. Monteverdi's choice of texts, his purposes of the important phrases, ways of combining passages, of underlining artistic of the result are the considerations, not of accents,
distributing
religious

devotion.

The

Cantiunculae are not part of the

movement

and Ingegneri gained distinction for Cre through which Sfondrato certain that Monteverdi did not com almost it in fact, mona; appears these works for Cremona at all. The motet that is related to the pose officium of St. Helena and another composition set to a text used in
the

Ambrosian liturgy suggest that Monteverdi may have composed the Cantiunc^llae for a specific diocese or monastery or parochial church.

This

may

account for the use of only three voices, in order not to

overtax the local musical resources.

At any
first

the texts reveals no link between this

rate, a careful appraisal of collection of motets and the

the Counter Reformation. But is Monteverdi as far from the goal of as he is from the ideals of the religious move Netherlandish
style

ment?
In several ways the Cantiunculae are the work of a beginner; they have a certain stiffness and some technical deficiencies, but not because
of the lack of
6

skill

one
.

is

Eli,

46: "Et circa voce magna, emisit lamina sabacthani?" 50: "J esus autem iterum clamans xxin. 46: "Et clamans voce magna Jesus ait: Pater in manus tuas cornLuke spiritum." mendo spiritum meum. Et haec dicens exspiravit." Mark xv. 34: "Et hora nona exclama. 37: "Jesus autem vit Jesus voce magna, dicens: Eloi, eloi, lamma sabacthani?" . emissa voce magna exspiravit." John xix. 34: "Sed unus militum lancea latus eius apeest medium." ruit," Luke XXIIL 45: "Et obscuratus est sol, et velum templi scissum

Matthew xxvn.

prepared to find in youthful compositions. horam nonam clamavit Jesus voce magna, dicens: Eli,

90

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

We should not expect the fresh vitality of youth in any product of the
that may be at aged sixteenth-century music, but there is something tributed to the adolescence of the works a monotony as distinct as of sound for the works were not This is not a it is
striking.

monotony

intended to be performed one after the other in the manner of a concert from a concentration program but a monotony of method, resulting of view and narrowness of on only one or two problems composition. to draw forced Monteverdi musical a lack of continually knowledge

on the one technique he had studiously acquired. But in quite a differ ent sense he was also a beginner: he began to obscure the categories
of composition. He did not develop the motet out of its own tradition, but allowed the intervention of other elements. It is a definite indication
that a certain musical category has entered a phase of insecurity, when tradition no longer protects it from arbitrary change, for soon the

At a superficial glance we would not category itself will be questioned. hesitate to assign the Cantiunculae to the Netherlandish style of motets, but on closer examination we are likely to revoke our judgment com
pletely.
is revealed, naturally, by the structural of the material as a whole, but most of all by the treatment disposition of melody and rhythm. of the Cantiunculae reveals a serious disturbance of bal An

Their musical character

analysis

ance. Alien elements appear to yield with reluctance to the artistic unification. There is a fluency which never comes to a halt, process of never allows the inner periods to become noticeable, never permits the
this is in

caesurae to organize the composition, and strong cadences and sharp accordance with the Netherlandish concept of musical form.

There

is

also

something of the uninterrupted melodic flow which

is

appear the bold curves that encompass an ample range and it does not have the drive which makes Netherlandish melody irresistible. Netherlandish

essential to the nature of Netherlandish melody. Nevertheless, these to be somewhat superficial, for the melody lacks characteristics

melody

is

essentially melismatic,
6

but Monteverdi gives

conflict

essentially syllabic shape.

Here begins the

his melody an between the ele

ments that make up the structure of his melody. Monteverdi's melody is based on declamation derived from the natural qualities of the syllables. This procedure has many implications for melody and rhythm alike.
All long or accentuated syllables are regularly given a higher rhythmical
more or less large groups of tones set to a whereas the syllabic style shows only one tone to a syllable. The melisma may combine tones from three upward to any number; Netherlandish melismata with twenty tones to a group are not rare.
6

The

melismatic style of melody has

syllable,

THE STYLE OF THE CANT1UNCULAE

value,
cases,

pi

and since the relation between long and

avoided. stereotyped formulas are easily
i
b.

short values varies in all

Ex.
a..

J.

H
.1

c.

- ve rta-ri

-a

Do-Tni-rnu

tc - CUTTI

Tn

ts

Pastor

vi-nm

JJ

JJ

Jill

,M

,1

JllJ'
t
in,

J.

H
J
.

re - gni coe-lo-ram more

mor-tu-a.

tu.tvc

ca-pi-te

JJJJ
.
i

,M
t

J
i

Jll
.

'*

dls-ci- piL-km

-ju

^luw-i-cu: me-\u

prde-va.-

lu.-it

ad-ver-a$ e-

J 1 vilt

^J
- ne jfet

III

N
vcl

J.

J>

v-ni-re

|>o$t

me ab

sc -

mct-ip-iw

bt

du

tres

coftHjre-

Thus the musical rhythm follows harmoniously the accentuation of the Since the text is prose, without regularity of meter or any organ ized succession of rhythmical qualities, the musical rhythm is never
text.

crystallized

into a pattern,

and the rhythmical formula never becomes

we can easily imagine that such treat stereotyped or repetitious. But ment of a text with a metrical or rhythmic regularity would automati
in repetitive patterns. cally result in imitative relation to the text Musical

attribute
liberately

rhythm produced of the Northern school. At times declamation was used de and by Josquin, and some Venetian
energetically, especially

is

not an

of Adrian Willaert had introduced composers under the guidance in their melodies. Motets by Andrea Gabrieli elements declamatory have originated with Willaert himself, that continued a
practice

may

and Orlandus Lassus treated declamation

it

still

more

seriously,

making

a specific

mark of

his style.

have inspired Monteverdi, of imitation as the main source of musical rhythm. That

well Although these predecessors may the none of them acknowledged principle
this imitation

92

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

varieties

brought forth so many

tistic intention. Imitative,

was by accident rather than from ar declamatory, and principally syllabic rhythm

was used by Monteverdi in his first compositions. Syllabic declamation, exclude the use of the melisma, though kept up on principle, did not two tones 7 a which assumed two forms: simple ligature combining
or a full group of tones varying in numbers. Monteverdi used the melisma for two purposes. One was to distinguish an individual word In this use, the melisma varies in length, and underline its
significance.

depending on musical
Ex.

necessities.

JIJTJJUJ
-Tiis

et

can

ti-cis

The

the melisma whenever examples show that Monteverdi used

the meaning of a word naturally suggested it, or when the importance of a word made it musically prominent. The word "Alleluja" has, of
fa course, a special place in this category. The Netherlanders were last in the kind of with this miliar melisma, particularly generation of

the school, and it was from them that Monteverdi learned its use. One form of this melisma is the realistic imitation of a word through tones which take on the character of a material gesture to convey the mean

ing of the

word

rising either according to the scale or

word

"Surge."

by The Netherlanders made

at times

symbolically. Thus, a succession of ascending tones, an interval, may represent the

use of this form of realism,

and Monteverdi
Ex.
3 ?1

adopted it in

his Cantiunculae.

xiv, 8

$ur

-.--gttttt--

-_

__gc

Ex.

3,2

Mpw
It is

Sur

Je- -sus

however, that this type of realistic gesture was less used by Monteverdi than by Northern composers, probably frequently because he realized that the realistic melodic motif, with a procedure
significant,

of
7

its

own, did not conform to

ligature used
is

syllabic declamation.

The only

the so-called ligatura

cum

opposita proprietate.

THE STYLE OF THE CANT1UNCULAE

Of greater importance is when the regular declamation
value to

93

Monteverdi's second use of the melisma

requires a relatively large rhythmic

mark an accentuated or long syllable. When Monteverdi puts come both forms side by side, the pure declamation does not ordinarily
with the melisma as an increase and intensification, but the melismatic version is used first and then reduced to the declamatory type.
first,

Ex. 4

n
et quit
b.
lie

n
- to

ie

to - -

ve-

TII

ve -

-Tit

ve

ve - ni

e
j
j
ve - nit

XLUI
ho

ve -nit Ho-Td.

----

ve-nit ho-ra.

|po-

je-Al

---

tij

^^F^
cam an-

xu
ocu
- los

me-

OS

7ne-o$

\
two

At

times

two

different melismatic versions are set over against

declamatory forms and made When melisma taking the place of a long rhythmic are considerable artistic the occur in the same composition, implications that dissociates motifs of terms in of a and reveal melody concept of Monte melodic a When Northerners. the from phrase Monteverdi to be melisma the a to form, proves reduced be can verdi's primary
original phrase. superimposed upon simple as the essential part of landish composer, however, took the melisma terms of the melisma. in his melody, for his melodic thinking was always of He never started with a basic and simple phrase which any and all
a

to alternate symmetrically, with the both forms value.

form of the

The Nether

Such a concept would ornate variations must be regarded as offspring. the above motif uninterrupted melismatic a clearly defined
produce

94

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

He
this is precisely what takes place in Monteverdi's handles the motif, set to a text phrase, as a melodic entity,
its

stream of melody, and

melody.

which has

own force and

tends to organize the melodic course, not

for the sake of producing endless melodic lines, but to achieve clarity of the individual phrases. This by means of the well-designed contours

force which organizes the melody, though

still

irresolute

and some

what

indistinct, is strong enough to make be such as of Monteverdi's work. The power of a melodic motif may it to that the of text; say, its immediate to regardless

itself felt in certain sections

produce

sequel,

because of

its

tendency to complete

itself,

one melodic type

text.

may

be

used for two different successive phrases of the

Ex. 5

xiv,

12

- ci -

p7~~"

spi-ri-tu-m

Tne-unT''

<t

-ne

sta-ta-as

il-

H*

Hoc ^ec-ca-tam

Motif a

is

productive
its

in that the logic of

its

motion

calls

forth a

variation of

own,

b.

Thus

of progression, is the text, and shows the evolution of a melody for its own sake. This is when the composer allows a group of tones to be crystal
possible only lized into a motif

own law

the motif has independence, follows its to cover two phrases of sufficiently strong

Monteverdi thinks of

which proceeds according to melody as composed of

its

own

power. That

short, concise motifs

rather than as a flow of melismata without phrases or caesurae is most the motet of the Song of Songs Quam pulchra strikingly shown by
es
8

The melody
is

is

these motifs
as sequence.

marked

the same, or varied, form of analyzed according to the motifs a-d; 2 refers to the last phrase within c , treated a l -d l The letter
.
.

Dr. Alfred Einstein kindly called my attention to a most interesting find made by Mr. Arnold Hartman (Columbia University, New York), to whom I am indebted for the information. Mr. Hartman discovered that for Quam pulchra es Monteverdi made liberal use of Costanzo Festa's three-part motet on the same text. The motet of Festa is contained in Gardane's Motetta trium vocum ab pluribus authoribus composita, of 1543, which has been used for the modern editions by Burney, History of Music, and in Monumento. Polyphoniae Italicae, Vol. II, "Constantius Festa, Sacrae Cantiones," ed. motet Quam the four-part by Ed. Dagnino (Rome, 1936) , pp. 15^. Dagnino also included between pulchra es by Festa from the collection of motets Antiqui published in 1521; the two compositions of Festa there is an obvious relationship. It seems certain that Monteverdi followed the sixteenth-century custom of using models to produce "parodies," and surely any young musician was advised to parody models as a study of composition. For the first part of Quam pulchra es, the quotations from Festa are more or less literal, but always characteristically changed or shortened; for the second part, they are few and almost entirely free. At all events, the changes Monteverdi made are extraordinary and conclusive as to his inability to be truly Nether landish. For he changed the declamation, the cadences, the motifs, the accentuation, the rhythms, the phrasing, the harmony; and what he cut out from his model is as as the change or the material he used.
revealing

THE STYLE OF THE CANTIUNCULAE

Ex. 6
orfrfnU

95

xiv,

13

A
TtiiUfi

A further simplification gives the following picture:

Ex. 7
J

'Mr

IE

J
<ju4ra

N
.

pul-chr*.

4,-

rnl-

ea.

a.-

^ni-ci

mc>

&

The order of Monteverdi's melody is ruled by a symmetry that only

motifs can provide. Even if Monteverdi embellishes the phrases with melismata like those of Costanzo Festa, the frame of the melody is built

according to rigid principles of phrasing and accentuation, and the melismata merely adorn the melody, without serving any such struc tural purpose as in the motet of Festa. The three melodic phrases set to "et quam decora" have nothing to do with the text but grow out of the When the requireplan to complete the melody by way of symmetries.

96

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

the text ments of symmetry are fulfilled, the melody is complete, and When the has to be repeated as many times as the melody requires.

to "quam pulchra es," the first motif reappears composition proceeds 1 and the section progresses (in the original a rhythmically reduced), A: A\ which in such a manner as to materialize the structure of couplets or phrases motifs the of each the model actually suggests. Above all, as Netherlandish the from Monteverdi is, in fact,

parodies model. pects of the

"purified"

Firm melodic outline,

a balanced relation clarity in phrasing,

the constituent sections, logical correspondence of rhythmic accents all these are char sequent, and precise groups of Monteverdi's acteristic of songlike structures and occur in the melody a preMonteverdi applied motets. Contrary to Northern procedure, be to tones the allowed and grouped established structure to his

of antecedent and

between con

melody

in melodic patterns. At times he even and the rhythmic pattern coincide.

went so

far as to

have the melodic

Ex. 8

xiv,

15

4ri

a.

_3

plt-na

D-Wi-

TWf tt-

accents of entities held together by a concise rhythmic pattern. The the text are translated into terms of a musical rhythm that imitates the accentuation of "Ave Maria." The result is the pattern: JJJ|JJJ, which appears several times in its proper form. All deviations from it are devices to cover up the stereotyped appearance of the pattern or to meet needs arising from the combination of the three voices in other of Nevertheless, on account of the from the

These phrases show the tendency to complete themselves rnelodically clear in such a way that the entire melody is made up of complete and

words,

problem

harmony.

pattern,

the

rhythm

throughout
chose for

exercises a compelling effect that makes itself felt the work. The polyphonic structure that Monteverdi

his

evenly and simultaneously form.

style,

Cantiunculae does not allow such patterns to be stated in all the parts. But each voice, taken in

that is the result of a prevalent rhythmic dividually, exhibits a regularity Of course, the melismata, characteristic of the Netherlandish

tend to interfere with the establishment of a fixed pattern, since

(bmsbruck,Ferdinandetm)
i

Claudio Monteverdi

n
1

It 11 111
!

till lit H
<
!

<

1 \

if
eJfJL t

tin

THE STYLE OF THE CANT1UNCULAE

irrational

97

the Northern composers eschewed rhythmic patterns and cultivated

forms of rhythm.

of a motif that influences the growth of the melody perhaps best demonstrated in the Christmas motet Hodie Christus natus est (No. 12). The initial melodic phrase is pre sented as a unit:
as a

The predominance
whole
is

Ex. 9

xiv,

26

r
Ho-die
Chri-

EI

-f-t-r
tlut

5
tuf c$t

im-

sections a and b, treated as the basic constituents of the are melody, responsible for all that follows. The twenty-one motifs which make up the melody can be derived from the initial "theme."

The two

Monteverdi cuts it in two, handles the sections separately, inserts the motif to "Hodie" (a) in alternating fashion, either unchanged and shifted to another or in its inverted form, which in turn merely pitch,
gives rise to a new motif for another text, while section b always pro duces "variations" of the original form; a and b, first a unit, are alter nating with each other.

Ex. 10

rl
Ho. di-

II

PI

H-

di- e

Ho

di

Ha-<lJ-t
j

Ho-

Jt-

Oerivfil /row *ht fnvr*t#n(a,

Ho--

<U-

Ho-dfJ
r
jn-

e
at

fn

tr-r* oi-iwit

x-u|-

titit

ju J

- -

--

is

P -

II

rl

Mr
Al
-.

f-U
le-

M
ja

II

tU

*-al-l4it

Jtt

J-

A comparable situation can be found in Salve, crux preciosa (No. 1 7 ) and in O Domine Jesu Cbriste (No. i3#), 10 although the derivation of the melodic material from an initial "theme" is not so clear as in Hodie natus est. The latter motet shows how the composer operates with two brief motifs, of which one is the inverted form of the other:
9

10

The numbers refer to the sections of the melody, of which there are twenty-one. O Domine Jesu Christe is the secunda pars of the motet No. 13 with the same

indpit of the text. There are also "thematic" relations between prima and secunda pars for instance, on "deprecor te."

98

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

xiv, 32

Ex. ii

de -

pre-cor

te

at

In-

a- ni-ma.

-me-

AC

I'
-

p-e

cor

te

slit

T*. me-di

um

Frequently Monteverdi links the melodic phrase and the text closely call for the together in such manner as to have one and the same text same melodic motif. This occurs either in literal form, or as a melodic
sequence, or together with a slight variation.

Ex. 12
A.

ti

- -

ti

tra-li- tie

nuit

U-

-tw e-jw Itn-tf-a

*
C

ad fa-ita -

TW

a- it

jp^Jjl *^
t
-

f
bi

Jl

ira-dl- ite mnt

^rTr
la.-

rl

T^
Ua-

tm e- ju

M-A
Literal

virution. it ike

to establish can be seen

The variation of a melodic type whose original form is often difficult by comparing three melismatlc specimens of

one motif, whose melisma Monteverdi gradually reduces without ever giving it in unornamented form.
Ex. 13
xiv, 36

f=tati=

varied

This displays the technique of melodic variation in which the least form appears last and shows how Monteverdi relies on the sharp

outlines of a motif in order to develop

melody. Without them,

this

technique would be impossible.

THE STYLE OF THE CANTIUNCULAE

are pieced together to

99

Some melodic and rhythmic formulas may present themselves to the when the motifs hasty critic as genuinely Netherlandish, especially
form
typical

seemingly, without organization.

without end and, instructive highly interesting and

Northern

lines

example

may

be closely examined.
xiv,

Ex. 14

15

be-

-ne-dic- t&

in

mu.- U

If

we disregard the text, we should not hesitate to

it

consider the phrase

the distinguishing marks of Netherlandish Northern, for of tetrachords (f-c, d-a) are the points of tones the melodies: marginal of the melody; each tetrachord is passed through by limit for the
has
all

range

the descending scale (f~e-d-c; d-c-b-a)

the

melody does not

rest

on

its

lowest point but swings immediately to its other end, the junction made by the characteristic skip of the octave. But every connoisseur of such melodies will be disturbed in the second half of the phrase (b)
,

where there occurs an element of

a Netherlander,

though comprehensible

interference, strange if presented by as a form used by Monteverdi.

The

entire phrase is brought forth in such a way as to make section b follow as a well-balanced response to the first (a), so that melodic

and one section harmonizes with the other. completeness is established b contains a Netherlandish From the point of view, however, period be to of center the for "wrongly" gravity appears confusing factor, it on c (*) , and a Netherlander would not have Monteverdi
placed.

done so. The melodic phrase swings into motion by a syncopation. As soon as the lowest point in the melody is reached, the Northern com
the force that the syncopation grants. In order to avoid poser maintains he would have anticipated the center of any break in the melody, or he might perhaps have it in the skip of the octave, gravity by placing on never on c", as Monteverdi has done. located the concentration d", version of the phrase would go as follows: Netherlandish genuinely

puts

Ex. 15

100

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

is

The next motif is

Monteverdi
Ex. 16

and important, as it shows that equally interesting 11 not in full accord with the model he tries to imitate.

xrv, 15

br-wf- die- -

....

U* froc-Ui

order of the melody seems to be in the Netherlandish manner, flow of the rhythm, the "swinging." The succession of especially the a half notes morion, and, as a counteraction, a continual

The

gives

regular

But a Netherlander would have been forced into syncopation appears. interferences by his understanding of rhyth constant of this swinging mic movement. With Monteverdi, this motion is mechanical, for it but from the syl results, not from the needs of melodic progression, labic declamation, and the syncopation in period b is caused by the Monteverdi's declamation does not have the of the
qualities
syllables.

Northern swinging movement that produces an unin melodic lines that force singer and listener alike terrupted stream of In this case, it is the text that produces the melodic into their
characteristic
spell.

Cantimotion, and there are many other such examples in Monteverdi's

unculae.

What

is it,

then, that conveys the impression that these early

com

under the influence of Northern music? If the positions originated is formed according to motifs and a syllabic declamation, which melody at times even allows the rhythm to take the shape of patterns, there would seem to be no traces of the Northern style. This is where the
Monteverdi's motets become manifest. He used two methods of composition, both drawn from the Northern the inner school, and applied them so forcefully that they cause all the contradictions. The first of these the method of piecing melody
historical contradictions of

has already been discussed. The second concerns the fact that almost all the Cantiunculae have canons, canonic technique, or
into a whole

between the voices. Monteverdi invented phrases with such clear outlines and caesurae that he must have had enormous difficulties in realizing a melodic unity.
imitation

In order to avoid the

divide the

full

consequences of the tendency of caesurae to

melody into sharply defined periods, he joined his brief, to one another without breaks, or any sort of stop, and motifs syllabic
11

The

phrase

is

connected with the preceding melody without break or

rest.

THE STYLE OF THE CANT1UNCULAE

IOI

thus produced long lines, not as melismata, but as persistently syllabic declamation. When a cut is unavoidable by reason of a cadence, Monte
verdi has recourse to a typically Netherlandish technique. He bridges the by prolonging the rhythmic value of one or the other tone to

gap be carried into the phrase to come; or, when we expect a lengthy rest, he makes the last accentuated note of the cadence intentionally short and
continues immediately with a long rhythmic value, thus producing

This was a favorite de instead of J|J 5 J|J syncopation: J|J JJ| its secure to Northerners the of vice continuity. Monteverdi knew an it as it but it to his were, remained, and effect melody, wisely applied short motif of declamatory charac for the external
.

'

application,

precise,

we have the paradox that Monteverdi's melody has the full size and length of a Netherlandish melisma and is as "endless" as a Northern melody; yet it is not organi but is syllabically organized according to patterns, cally a melisma of a song. motifs, periods, and symmetries, very much in the manner It is not surprising that Monteverdi did not succeed in his attempt to combine these contradictory elements. Songlike organization and the historical incongruities. melody of the Netherlandish motet are
ter

functioned as the creative element. Hence,

technique Indeed, a beginner probably could not expect to be heard unless he mastered the Netherlandish manner of poly gave evidence of having in the traditional field of the motet. Monte phonic writing, particularly result in that it cov of this verdi's use technique had an extraordinary voice individual that the contradictions ered up many by itself would make obvious. The asymmetrical entrances of the voices made all the

the canonic and imitative technique is one to which the Northerners devoted their musical mastership and enor mous skill. In nearly all his motets Monteverdi piously observed the of canon and imitation for the structure of his compositions.

The second

device

melodic

lines

uneven

as irregular as the entrances.

in length, so that the endings of the phrases were This was of considerable assistance in ob

that appear in Monteverdi's melody. scuring the caesurae and periods Monteverdi carried the extraordinary regularity with which Despite

out the canonic technique, his compositions structure than their Netherlandish models.
verdi imposes upon the procedure phrases,

have a far

less

convincing

organization Monte the melody, the use of motifs, the conciseness of according to patterns, the correspondence of

The

that melody should accord with all these express the concept phrases the structure of a song. Such a structure, however, requires one melodi-

102
cally

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

to which all other parts should be subordinate. prominent part and Netherlandish melody, designed for polyphonic interweaving "relative" melody. formed with all the other parts in view, made use of a the other hand, demanded that one part should on structure, Song tried stand out as an "absolute" melody. No matter how Monteverdi not did he succeed, fully to obscure his songlike concept of melody, this type of for in applying the Northern technique of imitation to

elements. He made use of that melody, he was combining incongruous of Northern composition, "endlessness" the technique since it afforded formal The artificial. was but his solution impression of

exceedingly

inconsistency in his Canthmcuhe

comes from this inner discrepancy and not from an unskillful handling of the technique of imitation. But the of the technique, as though it were nothing but stereotyped application
a

of the procedure. In Monte are arti verdi's work all the features expressive of the Northern style of result the is ficial. The long, "unorganized," endless line of melody imitative the and motifs or phrases together without a break, piecing structure is not a natural outgrowth of the melody. Monteverdi had no he was not born with understanding of the Netherlandish form;

mechanical device, shows the

artificiality

genuine

that sense of the

Northern melody which was

still

found in

Palestrina.

In later years he admitted as much. When he consciously tried to imi tate the Northern style in certain Masses, he had to confess that it took considerable intellectual effort to force his mind and musical nature
into a style in

which he actually

felt

himself a stranger.
it

When he com
to

posed at follow the traditional Northern style as variance with the Netherlanders from the very beginning. The natu ral qualities of his musical gift directed him toward forms other than
the motet and

his Cantiunculae, the sacred motets,

was necessary for him his model, yet he was

away from the

tradition.

The

Cantiunculae must later

have appeared to him as faulty youthful works, to be pardoned for their immaturity, but fundamentally unsatisfactory. They awakened him, however, to new necessities, to the beginnings of his struggle with
the past. It has been said that Monteverdi acquired the technique of counter for these first motets in the school established by Ingepoint needed called forth the particular form Yet Ingegneri could hardly have gneri. of melody which appeared in the Cantiunculae, since his motets adhere

Northern melodic concepts. He still had a natural understanding of melismatic melodies, and the procedure of piecing syllabic motifs found in his motets or Masses. On the other hand, together is nowhere
to

THE STYLE OF THE CANTIUNCULAE

it

103

was only by an extreme

effort that

Monteverdi could produce any

12

The category of the to Netherlandish melody. thing comparable motet necessarily linked his first compositions to the Northerners';
the otherwise their structure would have been entirely different. For music secular of the from came form of Monteverdi's melody categories

with

This he realized after the Cantiunculae. His songlike structures. be a struggle with the musical art of the to was the past struggle with that art in any theoretical manner, condemned he because North, not
its

but because he could no longer reconcile

his

nature to

it.

MADRIGALI SPIRITUALI
to work systematically his of definite end, and every phase development is a step in this process. truest sense, in that one step logi the in is His development progressive with fascination a process that we observe that so cally follows another, trained to think in terms mind of a marks the bear to seems

From now on Monteverdi was

toward

powerful

of artistic necessities.

Monteverdi started with a certain

belief in the religious qualities

of music that led him to accept the musical forms of Northern origin. When he came to realize that his talents were not suited to such forms, with the ideas of a them. But in a time that was

he dropped permeated in a place where men of fervor were devoting and renewal religious their efforts to the advancement of religion, a complete turning away from religious subjects would have been unsuitable. And so Monteverdi in his work, while giving free rein retained certain
religious aspects to the secular form.

The work that follows the

is

Cantiunculae, the collection of Madrigdli

a typical product of the Counter Reformation in that the Spiritual^ nature of its music is found in an enforced alliance substantially secular know only too well that with the prevailing religious tendencies. differ musically from of the the numerous

We

period spiritual madrigals in that the Italian texts, instead of being pro ordinary madrigals only devout. Such a compromise was fane, are intentionally made to appear the standards of the time. But was it also ac apparently acceptable by artistic standards? Monteverdi did not seem to think so.
ceptable

by

After completing
together.
12
its

his

Madrigali Spiritual}, he dropped the category

al

Stylistically,

modal character.

solmization. as a whole.

under the aspects of melody of Monteverdi cannot be judged writes melodies according to the modes and the system of in the disposition of the melody This, however, is not the essential factor
the

He

for four voices, published in of which have the contains twenty-one compositions, ten I5 8 3 , alone has It is unfortunate that the bass part customary seccnda pane. artistic a been preserved, the three other voices being lost. From purely the since compositions the loss may not be significant, point of view, the technical standards of the Cantifar not have

104 THE STRUGGLE The collection of Madrigali Spiritual*

WITH THE PAST

may

the point of view of his logical development, however, the loss is severe, for the Madrigali Spiritual* surely represent important to the nature of a melodic and rhythmical expression closer steps toward historian the Saverio

gone

beyond

unculae.

From

Quadrio, eighteenth-century his gifts. Francesco of Italian literature, surprisingly mentions the spiritual madrigals,
tell

but

14 about them. Their stylistic character, therefore, has nothing to have had some cannot be established, but the choice of four voices may 15 and a second his first book around 1570

implications. Publishing madri book in 1579, Ingegneri had preceded Monteverdi with secular Monte that be well It more than a decade. may for four voices
gals

verdi

About 1580, of such compositions. in declined voices importance, rapidly however, the madrigal for four was beginning to and even during the seventies the five-part madrigal series of four-part be favored. Ingegneri himself did not continue the Monteverdi pub when time the At book. second the madrigals after were antiquated. slightly already lished his Madrigali Spirituali they was trying to maintain a link with tradition, for Monteverdi Perhaps the past sud he was never an abrupt revolutionary, who broke with
denly and completely,

by worked under the influence

16

Though

the Madrigali still dom the composer was now ready to oppose the Northern heritage inant in Italian music. his This opposition is evident in Monteverdi's next works. Again
is The bass been published in facsimile by G. Francesco Malipiero in Opere part has (Asolo, 1926-42), Vol. XVI. has often been stated. Francesco i* Quadrio does not "describe" the madrigals as Vol. II, Book II (Milan, Saverio Quadrio, Delia Storia e della Ragione d'ogni poesia, in Bologna, 1739), p. 324: "Claudio^Monteverde, 1742 only the first volume is published un Volume e Maestro di Cappella di San Marco in Venezia, pose in Musica, pubblico nel 1583." It is Brescia in fu stampata di Madrigali Spirituali a 4. Voci, la qual Opera not even clear if Quadrio had really seen the work. In Tomo VII (Milan, 1752), p. 176, and eighth books of he added to the list of Monteverdi's works mention of the seventh the latter he stated that Petrarch's sonnet Vago augelletto appeared at the of madrigals; seen end of the book, which is not correct. Here too, it is uncertain whether he had

but always proceeded slowly and systematically. come within the religious sphere, Spirituali still

the publications. 15 The year of the

not established, since all copies have been lost. Only 12. the later editions from 1578 on are preserved. Cf. E. Dohrn, op. cit., p. later madrigals is negligible. is The influence of Ingegneri on Monteverdi's
first

edition

is

THE STYLE OF THE CANT1UNCULAE

capacities

105

course sprang logically from the phase represented by the Madrigali Spiritual!. What the Cantiunculae had merely indicated was about to be realized in the canzonetta, whose Monteverdi now tested.
indeed, he had begun to visualize opposition to the Oltremontani as necessary to overcome their manner of writing and we believe he did the shift to the canzonetta was the logical forward. It was also
If,

step

momentous decision the young man could have made. For now he was to experience the full power of a rhythm that strives for steady patterns and to make use of the clarity and distinctness which the
the most

motif can give to melodic organization. His musical disposition and the must have met halfway. What had previously been possible only obscurely and indirectly was realized in
characteristics of the canzonetta

perfect harmony. Monteverdi made the all-important discovery that the tradition of Italian music already possessed in the canzonetta a form which was bound to effect opposition to the Oltremontani. The native canzonetta had properties entirely foreign to the Northern ideal, which merely needed to be used as part of a planned opposition to make the disintegration of the Northern style an artistic reality. But first Monte verdi was to be the student and explorer, one who set out to fathom the innate characteristics and potentialities of the native song in the form of the canzonetta. This development was to have far-reaching con
sequences.

CHAPTER
FIVE

Monteverdi s Canzonette

printers

Canzonette h tre voci were published in 1584 by the Venetian Giacomo Vincent! and Ricciardo Amadino. In these
different
art

compositions Monteverdi was using a category traditionally from everything Northern. The canzonetta was the third

form

evolved by native talent in Italy. The first of these, the frottola, was followed by the villanella, which was from the outset "a protest against the madrigal." * For this reason, the tone of the villanella was a novelty,

although there was nothing really new about the character of the text, which was straightforward, sometimes uncouth and obscene; at all events it was rustic, and in most cases intentionally simple, boorish, and unpolished. The same simplicity and "popularity" were artfully employed in the music. The villanella was gradually superseded but not eliminated by the canzonetta, which added a more courtly tone to text and music. At times the canzonetta was musically more pretentious, and the number of voices was occasionally increased from four to six. This increase in volume brought the canzonetta closer to the stylistic techniques of the madrigal, which in turn was somewhat influenced by the fashionable canzonetta., The number of canzonette had been constantly on the increase since the seventies, and in the year 1584, when Monteverdi published his canzonette, no fewer than 170 com positions in that form were brought out. By the time Giovanni Gastoldi
published his first collection of dance canzonette in the early nineties, the output was well past the first thousand, not counting the many
1

A. Einstein, "Die mehrstimmige weltliche Musik von 1450-1600," in Adler

1

HMG

(1930),!, 371.

06

MONTEVERDI'S CANZONETTE
collections in

107

which

particularly effective

and successful compositions

were reprinted.

The art of the canzonetta had come from the South, particularly from
Domenico da Nola was its most prominent Naples, where Giovanni canzonetta of Domenico rapidly spread over all Italy The exponent. arid called forth fresh energies among the musicians of northern Italy.

By

1570 there were a number of

alike, cultivated

cities

where musicians, Southerners

songs.

and Northerners

the

new native

From

Milan, a

Apennines, SiniFerrara, Bologna, Imola, and, on the eastern coast, Ravenna and these centers, Venice, Milan, Modena, and Bologna were Of gaglia. In Venice, interest in the native song probably the most important.

center of this activity, of these songs spread: one, south of the Alps, leading through Verona, of the Padua, Venice, and Treviso, to Capodistria; the other, north Modena, to Mantua, Viadana, Reggio, Correggio, leading

there were two routes along which the influence

was

contributions and traditional; Willaert had made distinguished stimulated the greatest of his Italian pupils, Andrea Gabrieli, to con tinue in that vein. Since Venice had become the publishing center for such songs, Venetian musicians had a comprehensive and immediate

knowledge of their various forms. The interest of Milanese composers was at least equal to that of the Venetians, but many musicians there seem to have concentrated exclusively on the canzonetta. Cesare Borgo, were among those who specialized Gasparo Costa, and Giuseppe Caimo in importance, while Modena next was form. in that Bologna perhaps
in the composition of canzonette chiefly its great distinction of work Orazio the Vecchi, whose compositions made the through name of the city familiar all over Europe. Vecchi was not the first in Modena to concentrate on this kind of composition; his predecessor,

achieved

Salvador Essenga,

is also said to have been his teacher. a few leading figures, the musicians who took part in the for Except advance of the native song did not compose in the musical forms of the such as the motet. In this respect, the situation characteristic great style, in of the frottola around 1500 repeated itself with the canzonetta is known to have composed nothing musicians of 1570. large group but native songs, though their works in other forms may have dis of time. Apparently they paid no attention to appeared in the course the Mass or the motet, not even to the madrigal, whose character should have satisfied their craving for secular music. It cannot now be deter mined whether this concentration was solely due to their narrow talents and one-sided nature. Since the native song was stereotyped in char-

I08
acter

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

and developed along traditional lines, the intention of the com done by a to maintain the traditional tone, and this could be poser was a as as talent minor by composer of first musician of skillfully perhaps talent might even the mediocre the to closer tradition, were he If rank. have have an advantage over the genius. This may be the reason why we so many entirely colorless and unknown composers of native songs,

who make

a their appearance in anthologies of songs with less than result the handful of compositions. But if a genius chose the category,

was nearly always achieved, since no

for the reasons that

notable, not so
real

much

profundity was possible

use
it.

for the greatness that he in the category, as

made him

Such was the case with the canzonette of Monteverdi. He used a in his development, to comply with a fashionable type which was new, of a musical structure whose trend, and also to acquire knowledge His acquaint Netherlandish the to nature was utterly opposed style. the marked of branch this ance with beginning of the end composition
of sixteenth-century concepts.

The texts Monteverdi chose have the structure of the villanella rather than that of the canzonetta, whose Anacreontic character was becom toward the end of the century. The couplet in rime ing the fashion basciate (a-a) is preceded or followed by verses differently rhymed, 2 and at times a refrain concludes the stanza. The length of the lines also conforms to the scheme of the villanella, for they are in meters of seven
or eleven syllables.
usually

As

unknown,

the structure of the poems, whose authors were so does the nature of corresponds to the villanella,

Monteverdi's music, which is closer to the older type than to the later Anacreontic canzonetta which, though light in character, is more and more artistic musically. In other words, ambitious
poetically

fragrant,

Monteverdi maintained the villanella's original significance, its opposi tion to, and derision of, the highly artistic madrigal. August Wilhelm Ambros has described the villanella most vividly as a form which has the result of "an escape from the only "a reflected simplicity," and is of the madrigal into lower noble atmosphere distinguished,

can occasionally relax themselves without re regions where people their inborn and well-bred manners of nobility." And so

nouncing
2

The

appearance of s who Occasionally the name of a poet is mentioned. Aluvise Castellino, for instance, libro delle villotte in Venice in 1541, is the poet and the composer published // primo of his villotte. The stanza of the villotta has a certain resemblance to that of the villa
nella.

refrain must not be literal; slight variations often occur especially for the last the refrain.

MONTEVERDI'S CANZONETTE
gentleman who leaves
his

109

marble palace in "these songs are much like a at Mark's St. the the crowd of order to rush into disguised as masques the is of and cut The or Chiozotte genuine, but cap
material
is

Barcajuol. velvet and silk."

gown

This seems to be precisely the character Monteverdi assumed

he

when

made

use of the canzonetta tradition at a time

when

the villanella

had already begun to lose its deliberately satirical quality. He may not aimed at satire. Perhaps always have hit the target, but he most certainly the student of his work will discover that his music reflects a satirical intention even more clearly than do the words. The texts do not use
witticism directly or extensively to ridicule the higher poetry of the in obvious allusions to the language of madrigal, nor do they abound Their method is to exaggerate the usual tone that cultivated
species.

of the amorous madrigal by overindulging in sentimentality and by the torments caused by unrequited love. Their detailing repetitiously satirical intention is revealed by the stereotyped sentimentality and the use of exaggerated expressions, which expose the feeling as false. The he does not feel what he presents as a poet treats his subject artificially:
lyrical expression

in

its

but parodies a poetical form that was highly esteemed of the madrigal was made up proper noble setting. Since the idiom

of greatly refined and stylized expressions that were practically formulas and since the nobleman's behavior was also regulated by the
strictest rules of fashion, a slight

overaccentuation of these stylized

forms could easily produce a travesty. Another way in which the texts achieved an effect of caricature was by the combination of incompatible
elements. If a simple, unpretentious form like the villanella is made the vehicle of learned allusions to ancient mythology, the effect can hardly^ be serious. An excellent example is Number 1 2 of Monteverdi's texts,

which depends
has
little

entirely on this del genuine wit. In Quando sperai

contrast

between form and content and mlo servir mercede (No.

or in 10) the use of an old theme excludes any personal experience dividual feeling and at the same time reveals the witty ingenuity of the of a familiar subject. The poet tells the story poet in ,his treatment the listeners to take it as his own. The eager lover, without

expecting

the having most carefully prepared

field

of action, finds himself sud

fellow comes to pluck; and when denly deprived of the fruits the other he bursts into the extravagantly clamorous refrain "E il frutto, ohime, comic. The listeners are di mie fatiche ha colto," the effect is

broadly not expected to pity the unhappy lover but to think

*

his stupidity

August Wilhelm Ambros, GescUchte der Musik,

III (1868), jiof.

IIO

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

In only one of the texts is gross indecency assumed to rightly served. be witty: in Qodi pur del bel sen, felice pulce (No. 16), which treats the well-known theme of the flea that has unspeakable privileges in its

ever pizzicando approach to the girl. But the villanella should occasion be base if it is to be true to the nature of the category, and the wit ally does not lie so much in the indecent story as in the shocking contrast of
a base subject appearing in refined society. Being a "cosa bassa," as Vincentino declared, the villanella strolled like a clumsy stranger into where it startled a society that did not of the
dislike

nobility, high sphere being shocked.

The
picture.

musical character of Monteverdi's canzonette confirms this The student will observe an undeniable lack of originality, or

better, of individuality in the musical

has a double significance: First,

it

to a musical category which precludes undermine its nature. Second, capricious turns might

form of each composition. This shows Monteverdi to be responsive an ingenious individualism whose
it

proves

his subtle

understanding of the

villanella,

which was never

and

quent

more

feats of artistic composition. The or less alike in their basic structure

suited to grandilo canzonette of Monteverdi are

their characteristic

sim

Since the villanella was a "cosa bassa," the learned theorists plicity. seldom paid attention to its music or to the forms of its ancestors. When ever it was discussed, the simplicity of its structure, particularly ap a villanella for three parts, was always pointed out. Cerone, parent in who in El Melopeo devoted a chapter to the composing of frottole,
strambotti, and canzonette,
is

emphatic in

his

statement that these "folk-

like and vulgar melodies" (cantares aldeanos y grosseros) should be ac by the simplest chords. He derives their harmonic make-up

of the f auxbourdon, where singing in parallel thirds 5 and sixths, or tenths, or even fifths, was customary. Three or four such successions of fifths should not be taken as faulty or unusual. Zacconi has an additional explanation of this singing in parallels: he declares them to be habitual when people attempt to seize upon the 6 melody while singing in parts. This parallelism in the harmonies of the canzonetta and its ancestors is, at all events, regarded as a f olkish, nonartistic

companied from the nature

form which belongs

in the sphere of usus} rather than of ars. 7

6 Domenico Pietro Cerone, El Melopeo (Naples, 1609), p. 693: "como es haziendo cantor las partes con cantares unisonadas a modo de fabordon. Aqui se concede et cantar immediatamente con dos, ties, 6 quatro Quintas." 6 Zacconi: musicale." "per rendere il canto simile al canto 7 These medieval terms ars and usus may here be accepted in order to distinguish artistic compositions from those that originated without any contact with art and

artistic

problems.

MONTEVERDI'S CANZONETTE
We must
add that
in the course of the sixteenth

in

century this utterly harmonic as chords of parallel accompaniment is not simple succession in to is but of folk music, a natural outgrowth artificially brought toward the with in of tendency arouse conformity
feelings
rusticity,
8

text. Monteverdi's canzonette embody this con travesty found in the in the almost monotonous simplicity of their chordal of harmony cept This combination form, with its characteristic parallel thirds and sixths.
all of tones in the manner of the fauxbourdon is the frame that holds har of other the harmonic problems together. In fact, few problems are allowed to arise, and when Monteverdi breaks through the

mony

frame of the fauxbourdon, he does so for special reasons which will be mentioned. presently Within this concept of harmony, he also made use of the parallelism and even four such of fifths, and Cerone observed two, three,
perfect

fifths in succession.

The

in the villanella purest type

is

this:

Ex. 17

rr
(I .

s
f
f
.

TJL-

mew-

- i*

uses such harmonies cannot possibly be thought or perfect conso to have violated the artistic rule that perfect fifths, He is merely fol succession. in follow not should nance for that matter, art and the outside established an old custom, sphere of

The composer who

still

firmly lowing 9 of found today under certain local conditions. The appearance as be cannot in regarded these parallels sixteenth-century composition with as rules to do with a violation of artistic rules, for it has as little
of musical habits had shifted into a though a compact group new province, where they did not retain their original meaning but were used as a sort of musical allusion to what they had once expressed become "art"; and so there in their former environment. They never the laws of art. Although of violation no can be no neglect of rules,
art. It is as

this parallelism of fifths to the extent of making a full composition or even of a large section, of feature it the major These long rows of successive it into he nonetheless play.

Monteverdi never used

fifths, set

brought without hesitation in the clearest possible manner, represented in the of course the purest type of nonartistic usages which appeared
a the meaning of such techniques has been given By far the best interpretation of A. Einstein in ZfMW, II (1920), iioff. 9 See the example quoted in footnote 10.

by

112

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

villanella,

where they were supposed to be particularly effective in manners. Giovanni Domenico da evoking uncivil, rustic, and follash Nola and many other practitioners overworked this mannerism, but Monteverdi did not allow it to govern the work as a whole. In one instance he invoked the nature of the parallelism most effectively by result of a traditionally learned making the succession of fifths seem the and octave, a time-honored in unison the device. He applied canon,
the Netherlandish school product of learned composition employed by This combining artistic and varieties in all its possible complications. a primitive and with canon the device artistic of an
elaborately nonartistic device

the parallelism of fifths

gave an effect of pro

nounced travesty.
Ex. i8
10

x,

15

Cor*

that Monteverdi even intended something of a quite possible the Oltremontani. At any rate, just as the passage of covert mockery
It is

"Corro volando" of the canzonetta Corse a

la

morte contains contradic

which prevent its being taken seriously, so the tory musical techniques text also reveals an incongruity. The commonplace love affair of a lad
told in terms of learned comparisons. Narcissus, Helen of Troy, and Ganymede appear, but the simple lover speaks with an ordinary vocabu The heavy classical comparisons do not fit, lary and in flat imagery.
is

and the result is ridicule of a platitude. This incongruity was underlined

by Monteverdi. A learned composer using elaborate tech have set a fuga (fugare-cznon) to words such as "run" or would niques
musically

Monteverdi proceeds in the passage "Corro "fly" (correre, volare), so volando" to apply the canon device as faga on the ground of words that
There is an interesting example of the very type (principle in fifths) mentioned by Felix Mendelssohn in a letter he wrote to Carl Friedparallels Mendelssohn 1822. rich Zelter, dated Secheron, September 13, speaks of an experience which he had in the Berner Oberland in Switzerland; there he heard girls singing in
horrible parallels of fifths
10

same

of canon and

which he quickly corrected because he thought them to be a

mistake.

MONTEVERDI'S CANZONETTE
fifths
is

113

the profound result! Nothing Parallelism of suggest its use. of the category. nature the more could show eloquently of parallel fifths, though fairly use Monteverdi's In however,
general,

frequent, was often repeated,

fifths

confined to
is

two

in a row.

A special

procedure of

his,

perhaps

also expressive

of hidden ridicule, of travesty

and contradiction.

He

paper. only by and unequivocally brings out the straight parallels. passage plainly example may stand for many:

his voice-leading.

appears to be intentionally avoiding parallel The actual sound of the on But

One

In

i*r-

r- T4i

h-

ri

no rules have been violated may be achieved, impression that in theory, by as many variations as there are cases. Since the listener, the voice-leading in however, is more than ordinarily conscious of

The

a three-part composition, the impression of considerably less variation. is

conveyed by the actual sound

significance. also written for three voices,

capable The matter of parallelism between fifths may by itself be of little But if we compare the Canzonette with the Cantiunculae,
it is

immediately clear that Monteverdi

motet but not in the canzoby the rules of counterpoint in the from netta. This parallelism is one feature of a harmonic concept derived note to such primitive types as the fauxbourdon, and it is important har the of that their vertical, chordal structure was the basic principle
abides

mony

in Monteverdi's canzonetta.

114

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

in sharp contrast In addition to this harmonic verticalism, which was allowed a forms melodic to Netherlandish ideas, the rhythmic and traditional char the Here North. the to effective opposition brilliantly to Monteverdi's own nature. acteristics of the canzonetta corresponded he painstakingly but un those as such contradictions no There were

to resolve in the Cantiunculae. Here the objec successfully attempted were in perfect agreement tive medium and the subjective disposition with the dance and linked was As a native song, the canzonetta the dance demands that without saying dancelike rhythms. It goes that does and to repetitive patterns a strict adherence rhythmic groups has a grouping in the canzonetta. Nevertheless, the canzonetta

not

exist

and a rhythmic feeling that tend to

pattern.

crystallize
is

into a clear

and
its
1
,

definite

The melody of the

canzonetta

generally syllabic,

rhythm
and
.

1 3) based on a line containing an odd number of syllables (7, 9, ^i various combinations, these allowed canzonetta Since the stanza of the

number of variations. the rhythmic group might show a corresponding of this opportunity to himself avail not did Monteverdi But always of his music. He often seems to have pre modify the structural basis the rhythmic ferred symmetry to variety and frequently subordinated considerations by repeating the words of order of the words to melodic a line. He thus regulated of end the onto a or the line tacking repetition often using this device the lines and balanced the melodic
phrases,

whenever he wanted enough to establish it as a recognized procedure a of cadence the melody to swing into the natural phrase. was achieved On the other hand, a variety of rhythmic groups
great

by a continual change in the basic rhythmic units,

flexible relation

made

possible

by the

between the long and short values and the accentuated as declamation, so that the verses changed their rhythmic grouping

selection picked at often as the composer altered the basic unit. of musical the indicates random from the Canzonette great variety
line of seven syllables: groups possible in a

Ex. 20

nj|j |fn
*j

Dp

ji

JLL u- flu
j

'

J|rM*J|*

J.

hi
i>|j

i|'J

i|

MONTEVERDI'S CANZONETTE
=

115
1

The possibilities are, in fact, infinite. If the composer changes the short; or J and J basic units for long and short values ( J long; J new a he rhythmic group for each verse, produces respectively, etc.),

of syllables remains the same. If this procedure although the number there will be no repe is carried out consistently throughout the stanza, canzonetta the makes tition of any rhythmic group. This appear more insists nature whose the from further it dance, artistic and moves

away

that the patterns be repeated. In composing the canzonetta, Monteverdi wanted to use the potentialities of the dance form, but he was more eager
to achieve clarity of
literally.

the dance rhythmic organization than to interpret

in

Monteverdi revealed

another way that for him the canzonetta was

still close to the actual dance. His canzonette were regularly organized in two sections, each of which was repeated. In a few of his composi tions the second section has a rhythm. Out of twenty-one can

triple

zonette in the collection only three (Nos. 2, 4, 9) have the triple sec 11 while one (No. 16), Godi pur del bel sen, puts the first section tion,
in triplets. This appearance of triple rhythm clearly relates the section to the so-called proportio or Nachtanfrthzt is, to that secondary part of an actual dance which turns the tonal material into the triple pro

This was the arrangement used in instrumental dances through portion. out the sixteenth century, and its particular effectiveness came from the of material, first in duple rhythm and then in triplets. presentation whose musical structure and social purpose were Vocal
compositions
related to the dance occasionally took over this sectional grouping, and the closer they were to the dance, the clearer was this arrangement.

dance with the proportio as his point of de or a refrain-like part of the canzonetta refrain the parture by making in the characteristic triple rhythm. All three of his compositions appear literal in all in that manner end with a refrain that remains more or less

Monteverdi

stressed the

the stanzas. Canzonette d'amore (No. 2) has the refrain "Le man bacci12 ando a la mia beila Clori." Raggi, dotfe il mio bene (No. 4) ends with

a refrain of two

13 Su su su che'l n'andro cantando." refrain "Che fan cantando a la bell' Alba the (No. 9) brings giorno 14 In two of these refrains, the poet explicitly calls for a song, honore."

lines:

"Ch'io

me

11

The

"triple"

form of tempus imperfection cum rhythm corresponds to the older

<

prolatione majore. 12 The third stanza, however, ends with "In sen vivendo alia mia bella Clori. i* The refrain is literal at the beginning and has changes toward the end. Only the in duple rhythm. first line of the refrain is in rhythm; the second line is again
triple

i* The last lines of all five stanzas have variations: z. "Fan mormorando a la bell' Alba cantando riverenza honore." 3. "Che fan partendo a la bell' Alba honore." 4. '"Facciam a 1'Alba." 5. "A far cantando honor a la sua Dea."

Il6

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

in

singing as though a group of bystanders were being requested to join the refrain. This direct reference in refrains to singing, and at times to of songs that have their origin in the dance, dancing, is characteristic

and such
It is

triplets. refrains were often put into a dancelike rhythm not likely that Monteverdi implied any actual dancing when he rendered the refrain in such a way. Monteverdi used several methods to give the refrain special distinc tion. When the beginning of the stanza had its structure broken up by successive entrances of the voices and loosened by the use of figurative in compact harmonies the the refrain would

of

material,

pull

parts together

and omit all figuration. This at once clarified the rhythmic organization. The broken form of the first part did not allow the rhythm to fall into and the figuration in particular gave the rhythm a somewhat patterns, went closely to artificial cast. In the refrain, however, all the parts the omission of figurative material produced a simplicity of gether, and so that the rhythmic motion became as clear and syllabic progression, intense as the rhythm of a dance. Raggi dov'e il mio bene reveals Monte
verdi's intention clearly. Despite
its

of brevity, characteristic

all

can-

three contrasting structural ele composition combines It begins with a figura narrow a within concentrated each ments, space. tive melisma on "raggi," obviously invented in madrigalesque imitation of the meaning of the word. This melisma is at once taken up by the and the whole first section runs into a harmonic cadence two other
zonette, this
parts,

of firm texture.
is

The refrain

of

two

verses follows.

While

its first

verse

by rhythmically "Questi son gPocchi che mi dan la vita,"

diff erentiated

the striking

triplets,

the second verse,

falls into

the rhythmic pattern:

simple imposed upon all three parts, which proceed simultaneously chords. This directness of rhythmic and harmonic impact is in con formity with the nature of the dance.
in

The reverse procedure is rare

harmonies and the second
m&rtir tengo (No. 6)
is

where the first section is in compact more figurative style. // mo be an example. Here the refrain might perhaps
in a looser,

mio mal" pretentiously assumes "canonic" structure. an<* the * pattern has an even motion ( JJJ JJJ )> voices enter successively in canonic fashion, so that the whole refrain maintains an uninterrupted motion in equal quarters. The continuity of
"Nessun
cred'il

The rhythmic

the

rhythm

aspects of the structure.

as allusions

creates a certain quality of the dance, in spite of the learned These "learned" devices are employed merely
affect the simplicity of the compositions.

and hardly

MONTEVERDI'S CANZONETTE

117

of In Monteverdi's approach to the canzonetta, a new organization a was canzonetta the Since artistic problem. rhythm was a primary artistic. be likewise should musical its setting recognized literary form, related to the verses, served to express some use of varied

The

rhythms,

from the straight of these artistic tendencies and led Monteverdi away rather a come we Here question. dance puzzling forward upon song. the The texts he chose resembled the villanella closely in structure, and an unimpaired di musical form of the villanella was distinguished by more intimately rectness of the rhythmic order and was, therefore,
related to the dance song than

was the canzonetta.

If

Monteverdi was

concerned with rhythm, why did he not at once avail himself primarily to realize his in of the villanella which offered him a better chance in name and not in canzonette his are Or merely tentions? compositions 15 The answer seems to be that the villanella had no very high rank fact?
in the

world of

art

and

that the technical problems

it

posed were prac

tically nonexistent.

canzonetta ranked higher and, though also a the could serve artistic needs while preserving some of light genre, the from was It villanella. the madrigal of a dance song, such as purposes a more refined nature: that the canzonetta obtained certain idioms of

The

melodic phrases, chiefly figurative and melismatic, that

were realistically

of the connotations of words (e.g., cantare, fiantme, raggi, expressive at the imitative outline of voice entrances, usually ridere, foco, etc.); mu of device to the the beginning of the lines without strict adherence melodic motifs. All these madrigaland of and rhythmic tation; variety in the canzonette of Monteverdi, de esque idioms were incorporated Thus it seems that his leaning toward the style of the villanella. spite forms by preserv both of Monteverdi wanted to take fullest advantage some of the out with canzonetta the of along ing the artistic quality villanella. the "cosa that of bassa," standing characteristics choice of the canzonetta as the medium for a new

In Monteverdi's

as important as the Sacrae Monteverdi's of the native dance song. rhythmic implications nor satisfactory, though they Cantiunculae had been neither successful that the had had a beneficial effect in making the composer recognize Northern to was opposed melody. In the temper of his melodic gifts that of a form met agreed with his melody however, he
artistic expression,

the element of

melody was

just

canzonette,

inclination

toward

IB Tn XVI, 542, Malipiero published taken the date of composition of this viUaneUa, for three voicet also only innamefs impossible to establish; * may from *^manuscript of the Biblioteca Estense, Modena, canzonette or of the early scherzi. havVbeen composed in the period of the

Owe

short a clear organization achieved through fairly Monteverdi's Ahi che si parti, a villanella,

Il8

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

The
canzonetta

phrases.

melody was organized

the line, with each phrase ordinarily coincided with an entity. To secure the completeness of a phrase, the melodic

in short periods which set to a line com

posing full cadence, either half-conclusive (that is, "open") or final, was given enormous control over the organism of the melody. The organizing its structural forms. In the of the melodic cadence

power
this,

melody gave whose melody of the canzonetta resembled the dance songs, allThe cadences. short melodic periods were similarly organized by the all was flow melodic the role of the cadence in regulating
the

important

more striking because

of the brevity of the composition. If, in a stanza or five lines, the melodic phrase of each line ended consisting of four with a more or less complete cadence, the rapid succession of cadences

was

primary
power,

eif ect.

The cadence,
jective
first

indeed, has something of an elemental force, of an ob which might well dominate a composer's will Often the

tones of the melodic phrase hold the potentiality of the cadence, and only an artificial intervention can prevent the immediate release
of that potentiality. Such an intervention can easily be recognized. The cadence is delayed by extending the phrase for the sake of balance, by in all the parts successively, or by swinging repeating the same cadence This last procedure is followed only when tones. cadential the around
the risk of getting phrases too short for the melody. For, in the conciseness of groups and the precision in aiming at the general, cadential tones, among which the intervals of the fifth and fourth are
there
is

most frequent, contribute to the ideal canzonetta melody. All these features appear in Monteverdi's work. The potency of the cadence is the organizing factor throughout; in fact, there are melodies that seem
to consist of nothing but cadences.
cases:

One example may

17).

illustrate

many

Giulia quel petto giace (No.

Ex. 21
x,

20

AE

Pp

L!Lj

I*

MONTEVERDI'S CANZONETTE
The composer
of the cadence because he
is

119
sure

exploits the power that structural clarity in the melodic groups will be the reward. Clarity a clarity that is the result of han is essential to the canzonetta melody

matters in a simple manner. Also, the grouping of the dling simple as tones within the phrase is simple enough. The cadential tones, such a does seldom and the determine single range, fifth, fourth, and octave,
the whole range of an octave. This occurs only for phrase go through such as the imitation of the meaning of words like special purposes, "sole." "raggi" or

Ex. 22

x,

Ex. 23

x,

15

Car- TO

vo-la.n40

vf

- v'ln

pft.-ra.-di

Only once before

in the history of

music

in the first half of the

play did musicians allow the melodic fifteenth century this occurred the in role the leading melody, Significantly, organizing which cultivated subtle, but clear, shapes of melody: the in a
category
solo song, such as the rondeau, with instrumental accompaniment. in There are rondeau melodies of Gilles Binchois or Guillaume Dufay the after cadence conventional one

cadence to

which each phrase brings

other.

The

result

is

stylized, a matchless clarity of organization.

This art of ex

melodic cadence for the benefit of the structure was completely ploiting whose melody fol obliterated in the polyphony of the Netherlanders, the dance songs retained lowed a totally different ideal. But the native without less refined, quite though in a form considerably
conception,
subtlety,

and rather crude. Monteverdi's discovery of the

imparted

potentialities

the native forms. of the melodic cadence came, of course, through the conception of a Monteverdi to the canzonetta
of his early training. As structure antagonistic to the Northern school were so of melody and rhythm a matter of fact, the characteristics all the factors that structure formal of to the elements closely allied the melodic worked together. The procedure of lucidly arranging
Finally,

I2O

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

was further groups, of setting up well- designed rhythmic patterns, cadences harmonic and aided by the activity of harmony. Melodic
the whole became perspicuous usually coincided, and the structure of This clarity affected the organiza through the clearly defined periods. been As has a whole. tion of the canzonetta as mentioned, all the com
section being repeated. At times the positions were bisectional, each first section covered nearly the full stanza, and only one line remained

for the second. In such cases, the musical composition would have been thrown entirely out of balance, and the lack of proportion would have had a peculiarly painful effect in so small a form as the canzonetta. Monteverdi, therefore, lengthened the second section by repeating the times as was needed to restore the balance with the first line as

many

section, so that

all

the canzonette in the collection have sections in per

fect balance.

The harmonic characteristics of the canzonetta affected Monteverdi's

more deeply and more decisively. thinking in terms of musical form still The canzonetta or the villanella, for that matter offered him an the opportunity to grasp musical form as a phenomenon governed by the element harmonic and the bass. One interaction of the melody was entirely concentrated within the highest voice; the
melody
was exclusively assigned to of the melody and the har relation contrasting the constituent elements of a certain tension between mony implied had its of since each own structure, activity, and constituted a sphere
other element
the harmonic function

the lowest part.

The

major problem. Not all of his canzonette were devoted to a solution of this problem, and not every canzonetta in which the problem oc curred carried it through the whole of the composition. Monteverdi often locked the parts tightly together and, in consequence of the fauxbourdon, moved them in a parallelism that had a disorientating ef fect upon the melody. In such parallel motion, it no longer mattered where the melody was located. While the part of the soprano (descant)

might prevail to

a certain degree, its claim

upon the melody could not

had to share

compositions, the cadences usually prompted a change in the situation. The bass moved out of the limitations of the parallel motion and took over the independ

exclusive. Because of the parallelism, the descant the melody with the bass and the tenor. Even in such

become

ent procedures of the harmonic function

-that

is, it

set

up

the basic

tones of the chords and took the steps needed to produce the harmonic cadence. This procedure on the part of the bass simultaneously impelled

the upper parts to contrasting activities of their own: the descant moved

MONTEVERDI'S CANZONETTE

121

the into the melodic cadence, while the middle tenor usually followed definitive the was descant. of the This, then, melodic

independence to the musical arrangement: the functions were distributed according the in of and the bass in of elements upper parts of melody harmony structure dualistic this allowed the cadence be To the composition. sure, of to be established only on a rather small scale, but the frequency the cadential periods in the canzonetta increased the importance of structure. Monteverdi also used this arrangement outside the cadence,

man in larger sections of the work, and therefore in a more significant his to rise ner. It was the cadential situation, nevertheless, that gave
dualistic

conception of musical structure.

Within the scope of this dualism Monteverdi formulated a procedure that was to become basic in the structure of his later works and of the baroque era. As a through him in the structural vocabulary
matter of fact, the procedure is only an expansion of the cadential ar of its historic importance, it deserves detailed rangement, but because chief part, and, as it were, the "productive" one, is The description. in a standardized or stereotyped form. usually the bass, which appears The limits of its range are fixed by harmonically decisive tones, such tones are as the tonic, the dominant, and the subdominant. These or reached gradually, usually stepwise, by passing through the scale, even in slow motion, at all events in a simple, rhythm. As
dinarily

an example, the canzonetta

Tu ridi sempre

(No. 13)

may be
by
is

cited. It

is

a work notable for the use of this device, though not absolute aesthetic values. The bass of this canzonetta

reason of any

as f ollows:

Ex. 24

x,

Per

<lo.r-

wi

ft-

nee go&-

Per

dar-tnl

ft-

<

$*

return to to the dominant again, with a ogy) to the tonic (F), final^ "melodic" no with these between bass the tonic; that is, the poles swings

The bass proceeds

here from the dominant (to use

modern terminol

and in no relation to the text; all its tones, rhythmically expressiveness harmonic purposes exclusively. It is also noteworthy serve emphatic, not have the initial line; it takes the second line, re does bass the that in relation to methods too, is twice. This
peated
the that Monteverdi later used extensively; it has a certain bearing upon is bass the time. Finally, basso ostinato, which will be discussed in due

procedure,

significant

122

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

it

not necessarily the first part to enter; in this canzonetta, the bass is, in ond. This belated entrance is the more surprising since factor second the of the composition. Here fact, the productive part and a duet a form of the structural device occurs. Both the upper parts it as were, bass sheds, unit. The melody, however, is derivative. The the bass moves the melody for the upper part. That is to say, while the upper the to tone other, from one harmonic slowly and regularly
parts present
as their

comes sec

melody

a figuration of the basic tones, derived

directly

from the
x,

bass.

To illustrate from the same canzonetta:

*em

Ex. 25

16
Tu
ridi
-

ma-

-i

Tu

Per

dar-

As Monteverdi progressed, he worked out this device until he estab harmonic lished it as a norm of baroque musical structure. The purely
of the bass with a stereotyped formula will determine the figuration in comes it when even creative its retain will power upper parts and of the bass will where the will be
last.

figuration

There appearance compositions be preceded by a fairly long passage whose material has already profited from the formula of the bass. Since the basic motif is stereotyped, the derived from it will have the same characteristics. The des
cant of the canzonetta

Tu

ridi is

worth quoting once again

as a stereo

conventional formula: typed,

Ex. 26

x,

16

Tu

Such stuff is to become part of Monteverdi's idiomatic vocabulary. The more on conventional materials gained composer is to rely more and
through figuration.
the basic motif shall
It

make its appearance

seems to belong to the nature of the device that in the upper parts at some time

given unadorned, with out figuration. This canzonetta has the motif directly following the of the brevity of the composition. Since its structure figuration because
in the course of the composition,

and then

it is

is

compressed into the narrowest possible space,

this little

composition

MONTEVERDI'S CANZONETTE
is

123

most ingenious work, whose importance can hardly be overrated in view of its far-reaching consequences.
a

In his use of the canzonetta,

song, Monteverdi

by

definitely won new ground.

exploiting the elements of the native His new structural con

ceptions affected all three essential elements of composition: melody, rhythm, and harmony. In handling these fundamental materials he ac quainted himself with new organizations of form which had nothing in common with the Northern music. The canzonetta was a guide, a
revelation that told

him of the existence of

different conceptions of art.

With the knowledge and

the technique gained through the canzonetta, he could attempt to overthrow the past, to dethrone the art of the North. But was it imaginable that such a truly ambitious effort could

be made through the medium of so unpretentious a form as the canzo Even if Monteverdi had been most enthusiastic about the clarity achieved by the native songs, he could not have mistaken the rank of the canzonetta in the hierarchy of musical compositions and must have
netta?
it stood outside the highest circle of artistic forms. In the sphere of profane music, only the madrigal qualified as a high-ranking category. Monteverdi now abandoned the canzonetta and shifted his artistic activity once and for all to categories of higher rank. The can zonetta, however, had determined the course he would take in his

realized that

struggle with the past. It had clarified his views and established his to begin. position in the music of the time. The new epoch was about

CHAPTER
SIX

The

Madrigal:

The

JSJeu; Artistic

Medium

A^TER

the publication of the Sacrae Cantiunculae in 1582, the Madrigali spirituali in 1583, and the Canzonette in 1584, Monte verdi needed time for thought and careful preparation. In turning to

the madrigal he was about to become a rival not only of the Northern polyphonists but also of the most renowned madrigalists. This was not a task to be accomplished lightly or impulsively, and it took him nearly

of twenty-one madrigals for Venetian printer Angelo Gardano published the Primo Libra of the Madrigali a cinque voci di Claudio Monteverde Cremonese, Discepolo Sigr. Marc Antonio Ingegneri. Monteverdi's decision to compose profane music must have estranged
his first collection

four years to complete

five voices. 1 In 1587 the

him from
theless,

his master, Ingegneri, at least in his official capacity.

Never

he called himself the pupil of Ingegneri, and there is no reason to doubt his sincerity in so doing. As he abandoned his interest in reli Monteverdi now came closer to circles whose cultural cli music, gious

Although we know little about the role of music in assume that the aristocracy there was as sensitive to the amenities of social music as it was elsewhere in Italy. One noble house which opened its doors to all who were devoted to the genius of music was that of Count Marco Verita. He attracted many musicians of renown by his magnanimous patronage and had many composi tions dedicated to him. It was this Count Marco to whom Monteverdi mate was
secular.
it is

Cremona,

safe to

dedicated his "fiori di Primavera," the

i

first

madrigals, the flowers of

are twenty-one individual compositions, but one, Fwnia la Pastorella, con of three parti which belong together; the final madrigal Ardo si ma non famo has a "risposta" Ardi e gela and a "contrarisposta" Arsi e alsi.
^

There

sists

124

THE MADRIGAL: ARTISTIC MEDIUM

his artistic spring.

125

He

must have found the Count a benevolent con

the

taste enabled him to recognize the genius of 2 in the dedication Monteverdi referred twice for young composer, to courtesies (tante cortesie) graciously shown him and to favors re ceived from the nobleman (favori c'ho ricevuti da lei).

noisseur

whose cultured

Monteverdi had now wedded his art to the profane forms of music. Why, if he had neglected the guidance of his teacher, did he still call of politeness or utilitarian ad himself
Ingegneri's pupil? Irrespective His adherence to vantage, the statement was objectively possible. true in sacred hold events at all theoretically, Ingegneri's style would, and in the field of profane music Ingegneri had never been

polyphony,

his master. In view of the first book of madrigals, he has sometimes 3 "been reproached for having been a "faithless disciple" of Ingegneri. at all, and his compositions of 1587 have no he was no

Actually

disciple

roots in the madrigals of Ingegneri. Marenzio's influence, well-estab

lished zio

by 1 587, was presumably greater, though none too strong. Marenhad already composed one book of madrigals for four parts, three books for six parts, and five books for five parts, the latter being the most important for Monteverdi, since style and number of parts were Monteverdi pointed to Cipriano naturally interrelated. In later years
de Rore
as his real teacher in the art

of the madrigal. Since that admis

sion was made in connection with a polemic dispute, in which the name of Cipriano was cited in order to give greater authority to the stylistic features under discussion, its importance must not be exaggerated. As a matter of fact, Cipriano's style does not appear to have had any re markable influence on Monteverdi's first madrigals. Far more important than the influence of any one composer was the artistic problem to which these madrigals were designed as a solution. This problem was the unification of the characteristics of a five-part madrigal with the achievements gained through the native song. Marenzio had already

imparted
rigal,

stylistic

yet of styles involve conflicts between the different categories, which each individual composer must resolve in his own way. In his solution to the startling logic of Monteverdi's advance revealed it this

elements of the canzonetta to the many-voiced mad Monteverdi had to discover his own solution. Such mixtures

problem,

self,

and the came clear.

2

significance

of his previous

work with

the canzonetta be

The

dedication

is

reprinted

in

G. Franceso Malipiero, Claudia Monteverdi (Milan,

and oftener in the
literature

1929), p. 68. 8 In H. Prunieres, Claudia Monteverdi, p. 7, verdi.

on Monte

126

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

way, were not eminently

Monteverdi's canzonette, though appropriate and delightful in their 4 artistic works, nor were they intended to

showed

express great individuality. It was in the madrigals that Monteverdi for the first time the hand of a master and established himself

among the leading madrigalists. His previous compositions scarcely be trayed the scope and depth of his genius, which was probably only revealed in social intercourse with his friends and patrons, such as Pietro
Ambrosini, the recipient of the Canzonette, or the Cremonese lover of music, Alessandro Fraganesco, to whom the Madrigali spirituali were dedicated, or now Count Marco Verita, who, with the madrigals in his hands, held the first real token of the composer's promise.
In his choice of poems, Monteverdi seems to have followed no par
ticular plan. Later he

was careful to
is

select texts that

own purposes and ideals. But in the first book no special

any poet can be detected, nor
madrigalesque poetry discernible. There

agreed with his preference for

any bent toward a particular type of

are, however, two groups of madrigals which form cycles in the middle and at the end of the collec tion. Fumia la Pastor ella with Almo divino raggio (seconda pane) and

AlPhora i pastori tutti (terza pane) make up the first cycle by Antonio one of the minor poets in the second half of the century. The second cycle concludes the collection and may have added significance both because of its place and the poet whose texts Monteverdi chose Torquato Tasso. This cycle begins with a famous madrigal that chal
Allegretti,
artistic imagination of many composers, Ardo si ma non Giambattista Guarini. Two years before, Giulio Gigli of Imola had collected no less than twenty-eight musical renderings of this poem in had by various composers and, with Adam

lenged the
t'amOj

by

Berg

Munich,

published them as an anthology called Sdegnosi Ardori. Guarini's mad rigal also^ served as a challenge to the poets, and Torquato Tasso parodied it in his Ardi e gela a tua voglia and Arsi ed ahi a voglia, one being the "risposta," the other the 5 "contrarisposta." Monteverdi combined the three. Guarini is also represented by another madrigal, Bad soavi e carl, which Monteverdi gave one of the finest settings in the collection. Among the poets of Monteverdi's choice is G. B. Strozzi, who appears with Questa ordi il laccio.

mm

Monteverdi chose the poems because

* It

they represented poetic material

seems that students of Monteverdi's work have always overrated the canzonette trom an individualistic point of view. It is true they are charming little pieces but so were hundreds of others of that time. To manifest artistic was not their uniqueness * purpose. 'See the discussion of the relationship of these poems to one another in Anselo Solera s edition of Tasso s works, "Le Rime di Torquato Tasso," in Collezhne dJ olere * ***** o rare (Bologna, 1898), II, 453 ff. Arsi ed alsi is attributed to Tasso.

THE MADRIGAL: ARTISTIC MEDIUM

with which

127

which they

the madrigalists of the time were thoroughly familiar and Monteverdi selected Guarini's often set to music.

When He

Ardo
in

si

ma non famo,

it

was because of the fame of the poem rather

content.

than the challenge of

its

followed

his

fellow-composers

madrigalesque repertory of the time, adding choice of poems was not made on the basis of any individual relation the poet and the composer. In this first book, Monteverdi ship between was not so much concerned with a choice of poems as with raising
his skill to the his

and

a level where he could challenge Northern art, by the madrigal with the characteristics of the native song. paring The canzone tta affected the madrigal in two ways: in individual ele ments, such as the organization of melody, phrasing, diction; and in the over-all aspects of structure. glance through the five-part madrigals shows that Monteverdi used a grouping of parts peculiar to the native
his

medium to

com

and quinto. The quinto is song. The parts are: canto, alto, tenore, basso, whose a voice old vox like the range is not stable but shifts vagans, a high voice, now a middle.! now and "wanders" around, (vagare) joins now the bass. The range of the quinto thus changes with every'
,

part,

madrigal.

Out

middle range gave as harmonic bass. He repeated this combination in the same composition imitate a pre by altering the range. Thus a duet of low voices might the way in which the threewas This voices. in the duet high ceding
voiced canzonetta influenced the grouping of the madrigal. The trio, that is, the duet with harmonic bass, intervenes in order to regulate
.

of these voices Monteverdi formed a duet in high or this duet the support of a voice that functioned and

the groups of the composition, so strongly that at times only for very^ short passages are all five voices simultaneously active. \The imitative the form of trios that follow each other with various com replies in binations of voices have been said to show the stylistic influence of the
so-called chori spezzati, of separate choirs as choral units, cultivated by the Venetian composers since Willaert. But these surely had nothing
in

with Monteverdi's early madrigals, whose form is shaped with the three-voiced canzonetta. The beginning of Se nel partir da voi could be part of any canzonetta that Monteverdi had

common

in accordance

previously composed:

Il8

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

first

composition of almost programmatic significance, chosen to indicate the artistic of the entire book. In every feature it tendency, the stylistic program, the canzonetta. First: It illustrates the of influences the shows

The

madrigal CWio ami

la

mm vita appears to be a

powerful

grouping of material into the opening shows this type of

a duet of upper parts and a harmonic bass,

trio at its purest.

and

Second: Clarity of to is achieved by allowing cadence, melodic and harmonic, organization role as in the native song, where the music is brought to same the play a cadence, total or inconclusive, at the end of each line. Rhythmic ir
regularities, anticipations

of motifs, successive entrances of voices, or the all these devices together are used to connect the lines and keep the of the little into units, yet clarity composition from falling apart the bass to made is An obscured. Third: give attempt period is never the form of a motif capable of holding together the structure of the work. Monteverdi has the bass enter last, and its sections separated by

long rests.

With the exception of one small

is

a bisectional motif that

the purpose repetition serves tural unification. The example deserves proper illustration.

the bass is built upon phrase, in spite of the change of text. This repeated of a basso ostinato as an element of struc

(The
is

phrases same or varied.)

are here written

one below the other, whether the motif

the

Ex. 28

i,

la.

vi-

-U wi-

4.

an attempt, and no more, to use a basic motif as a structural of any connection with the text. This repetitive entity, regardless function of a motif is a step toward the basso ostinato that is, toward

This

is

one of the most powerful structures of the coming age. This procedure, however, has nothing to do with the canzonetta, while the conciseness

u/^t^c &&? &f*4

^^i$4

'-T'
,

>

V>,-,

'^|^P(M^^,

"'4:1^:,

V-,!'

;;

:;^'

V^l^^fi^t/,

'

^Sf^ '^ '*X*^'

:

":,;-

! ,

Letter of Monteverdi, February person in Rome

2,

1634, addressed to

an

unknown

The

Parlor of the Nunnery, Venice; Presentation of

Masque with Music

VKNEZI-A

AGU

INlZt

DEL

SEC. XVII

5 Palazzo

Clormda

Mocenigo, the Salon* Where Was Performed

//

Combattimento

di

Tancredi e

THE MADRIGAL: ARTISTIC MEDIUM

of the motif may be regarded
as a result

129

of the native song. Fourth:

The

literal madrigal is divided in three sections, the last being a complete and b are as a, of the and b Sections second (a ||: closely repetition :[|).

material for the individual verses, yet they are second part clearly recognizable as sections. The repetition of the at the end is a structural arrangement taken over by the madrigal^

connected

as the

from the canzonetta. Thejnadrigal often contained

of in repetition dividual phrases, motifs,_or single words, but repetition of a full section of this was~a feature borrowed from the native song. special form

tried out several times by Monteverdi. Instead of repeat repetition was to the letter, he exchanges voices. Nothing is materially the section ing
altered, except for a
ears.

change in tone color perceptible only to sensitive These madrigals, however, are all rendered soloistically, and there
is

fore even such slight alterations are effective. This structure of sectional repetition (a:bb)

an important

stylistic

factor in Monteverdi's madrigals and gives rise to one of the leading forms in the opera and the cantata of seventeenth-century Italy. The sectional aria, structurally organized through the repetition of its sec "dal segno al fine/' is a direct derivative later to be marked ond
part,

by

from such a madrigal

as

Monteverdi's CVio ami

la

ma vita and
of

is

there

fore an indirect descendant of the canzonetta.

From the time

Monte

verdi on, and chiefly in the second half of the seventeenth century, this as to be called the "seicento type of aria structure became so popular
aria." In

view of

this

eminence,

it is

but appropriate to give Monte

in

verdi's madrigal

its

due.

Other devices that were to be of increasing importance

verdi's creative
Filli

Monte

work

are also anticipated in this book.

The

madrigal

cara e amata shows an ingenious arrangement. Phyllis is to answer the immortal question of whether her beautiful lips will belong to her lover: "Questa tua bella bocca, non e mia?" (Thy sweet lips, are they not mine? ) As the question is naturally the core of the matter, it re treatment. Hence Monteverdi provided for the words quires emphatic "non e mia?" an exclamatory motif with simple sustained tones, which
also fulfills a

harmonic function:
i,

Ex. 29

21

130

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

of the motif, the upper voices in a duet heighten the impression more softly the first part of the ques

To

are at the same time declaiming tion, "Questa tua bella bocca?"

Ex. 30

i,

21

(*.}

a simple trio passage, with the melodic declamation in the in the bass. The harmonic func upper duet and the harmonic support tion is, in fact, so strong that at first we are scarcely aware of the sig nificance of the phrase as a motif. However, when it recurs in immediate with the declamatory passage rendered by a differ repetition, together ent combination of voices, its importance becomes clear, especially

This

is

since an equally sustained motif to

"non

mia"

is

set against it in

count ermotion:

-non

-4

tion,

This basic motif appears with different texts throughout the composi both with slight variation and in literal repetition.
EX. 32
I,

22

^m
O'a.

ttfil

frit

^
0'a-ia.r
in

r-

ba-

cl

This device of inventing a special motif for the artistically and emo tionally central material and using it as the basis for the composition
as a

whole was employed by young Monteverdi only on a

relatively

THE MADRIGAL: ARTISTIC MEDIUM

small scale, and
tions
its

13!

meaning becomes apparent only in his

later

composi

with their intricate structure.

He invents simple or rather ordinary

motifs even for the most expressive phrases of the text which is sur in a composer capable of writing melodies of extraordinary and
prising

noble beauty.

The simplicity of the motifs, however, serves harmonic and to the structural organization by reflecting contributes purposes the importance of a phrase in the text. When we hear the initial trio in Filli cara e amata, we are never conscious that behind it lies the
discipline

of intellectual logic. The effect in this and similar madrigals written an of is engaging and highly sensuous euphony apparently the their to senses. The more mature Monteverdi grew, for only appeal

the

more

successful he

became

in disguising such artistic devices

by

element was ever present, alluring effects of sound. The rationalistic hidden. similar situation existed in the early part of the but

wholly

fourteenth century, when the rigid scheme of a rational organization was concealed by a sweetness of sound that seemed to preclude any
intellectual approach. Monteverdi re-established this relationship tween the senses and reason in his first madrigals.

be

he intended to unfold the emotional implications of the text for expressive purposes only, Monteverdi used less original techniques, closer to the tradition of madrigal composition and to the idioms of his time. Such words as "pain" (dolore) and "death" (morte) almost are of an always call forth certain chromaticisms. Since the poems amorous nature, using stylized expressions for unfulfilled love, which
causes pain and brings a longing for death, the chromaticisms are a re current feature. Other words of extraordinary tension and objects which convey emotional associations are chromatically expressed, es
pecially

When

"heart" (cor), as the seat of

first

all

emotions. All these forms are

commonly classified as madrigalisms. The specific chromatic procedures

de Rore, madrigals reflect his study of Cipriano relation intimate Their constructions. elaborate but without the most
of Monteverdi's
to the canzonetta limit Monteverdi's madrigals to a concise, but vital,
brevity.

Decorative melisma is
as

chromaticism.

as much a part of the madrigalesque vocabulary Words such as "flower" or "laughter" are often ex

or less extensive length. Such melispressed in groups of tones of more mata are at times carried in successive imitation from one part to the with the other, and this interplay loosens somewhat the direct contact individual word that originated the melismatic figure and brings a structural element into the foreground. Not all the melismata, however,

132

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

are expressive of the connotation of words; some seem from the very start to have been invented with structural purposes in view; others re

main ambiguous as, for instance, in Questa ordl il lac do where the words "fiori," and "erba" occur, but the melisma is set to "il tese":
Ex. 33
r,

46

il

This melisma culminates in a definitive cadence reached in the of a diatonic run through the scale. The phrase is impelled straight line to complete itself in the cadence. Something of a favorite with Monte as a similar verdi, such a formula was also used in previous canzonette, show: bene il mio e dotf in motif may Raggi

Words that refer to dancing, singing, or the attendant gaiety are here and there expressed by the rhythm. To imitate the dance, a passage of the madrigal may change its basic meter from duple to triple time,
and
all

impersonal,

An simultaneously swing into dance rhythm. or in Puma la Pastor ella. Usciam homai, Ninfe example given and other madrigalisms in a rather Although Monteverdi used these one of these idioms seems to have though skillful, manner,
the voices
is

may

in

more individuality a special expression of the torments of love in which the tones gradually die away. A passage of lively declamation
and then, at an emotional phrase, in particular with the word "morire," the motion slows down and the voices proceed with and lose rhythmic de hesitation; they decline, fade away, linger on, a with dies and the languid sigh. This ex termination; away

may precede,

principle,

passage of the pain of sorrow and death, realistic in pression of melancholy, most convincing, and it is a striking mark of is
poetically

art. The first madrigal gives such a form ro the words "il and there are other remarkable examples, such as the pas a morire" in the madrigal La vaga Pastorella, where sage "Ch'io mi sento the lover begs his shepherdess not to flee or else he must die. What we

Monteverdi's
cor
afflitto,"

discover in these youthful works is probably not a perfect artistic ex as genuine and individual as any in the pression, but one undoubtedly

THE MADRIGAL: ARTISTIC MEDIUM

later

133

The group

works of the great tragedian that Monteverdi was to become. of three madrigals with which the collection ends is of

interest. Students of Monteverdi have severely criticized particular these compositions for their complete lack of originality and because 6 of the composer's failure to render the dialogue of the lovers dramatic.

These criticisms are rather beside the point. It is true that Monteverdi's first book showed that he had not yet discovered how to give an ade or to direct speech, a task he set for himself later. quate form to dialogue inferior to the rest from of this last But madrigals is by no means group a technical point of view, and the problem Monteverdi wanted to
solve

was an
is

entirely different one.

The

relation of the texts to each

a

other

not that of a true dialogue, but of

parody. Tasso's

poem

and Monteverdi translated the parody into parodied Guarini's madrigal, musical terms by patterning one composition on the other. When he Ardi e gela as Tasso's "risposta" to Guarini's Ardo si ma non

composed of famo, he used the musical material of the first madrigal. The bass all in Ardi e gela is, in fact, a variation of the first madrigal, while parts both have the same ending, with only slight variation. The next parody
Arsi e
alsij

the "contrarisposta," has

many features in common with the

strikingly

two preceding
themes:

compositions,

as

is

most

shown

in the initial

Ex. 35

i,

61

n
Ar

Ex. 36

i,

67
A C*tilo

M
e
.!-

*
I

ArIt is this

composers by tensively tion of madrigalists. Monteverdi tried it out here in a

a mixture of madrigal

that Monteverdi accepted as a problem to technique of parody a minor problem. Parody had been ex means no is it and be solved, by and also by the older genera all Northern used

medium

that

was

and canzonetta, and

this

appears to be the sig

nificance of the last three madrigals. One more collection of madrigals

left
6

was completed before Monteverdi to Cremona, and was published in Venice in 1590. It was dedicated
and Redlich have made
this criticism.

Leichtentritt, Prunieres, Schneider,

134
a

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

nobleman of Milan, Giacomo Ricardi, President of the Senate and a with which Monteverdi's Cremopatron of music. This second book, nese period concluded, showed the musician well advanced beyond his of how to incorporate the form and previous work. The problem characteristics of the canzonetta into the madrigal had been given a solution he could well regard as definite, and the study of native songs had borne fruk. The second book gave evidence that he was now to raise the formal conceptions of the madrigal to new emi
attempting
v

tail.

nence and using the canzonetta only to give color to subtleties of de No longer did the canzonetta control the form of the madrigal as a whole. This relation between madrigal and canzonetta was to last for many years. The native song continued to play a secondary role until Monteverdi, in a fresh approach, found new resources in the wealth of material it had to offer.

CHAPTER SEVEN

The Madrigals

of

1590

first and second books of madrigals, Monteverdi rapidly matured in discipline, logic, and creative originality. In spite of the differences between the two books, there is no break in the logical continuity. The differences are not the result of revolutionary changes, but the product of an orderly mind that presents each book of madrigals as a uniform entity. The most striking change is in the choice of texts. In the first book Monteverdi yielded to the fashion of the time as to what was befitting a madrigalist and did not permit the texts to pose problems of their own, concentrating all his thoughts on the music. In the new madrigals, as a result of his greater artistic freedom and assurance, the choice of texts took on added significance. The second book of madrigals contained works by several new poets: two by Girolamo Casoni, two by Filippo Alberti, one by Ercole Bentivoglio. There is again one poem by Guarini, and the concluding work 1 is by Pietro Bembo. The appearance of Bembo came as an anachronism. By the time Monteverdi began his work, the days were over when

TN THE three years between the publication of the

JL

Petrarch's Canzoniere filled every collection of madrigals, and Bembo's in the style of a classical purist were favored by madrigalists. Petrarch was not represented in Monteverdi's earlier books, and Bembo very rarely once in the second book, and once again in the third. The poetry of the age had discarded Bembo's severe classicism based on

poems

the imitation of ancient rhetorics, his elegant, formal verbiage and his ideal of beauty for beauty's sake.
1 Rudolf Schwartz, "Zu den Texten der ersten f iinf Biicher der Madrigale verdis," in Festschrift (Leipzig, 1918), p, 148.

Monte-

136

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

In the place of Petrarch and Bembo was the new glory of Torquato Tasso. His lyrics were chosen by Monteverdi for the place of honor in the second book, and ten of its twenty-one madrigals were by him.
Monteverdi's choice thus established a personal relationship to a certain kind of poetry. It was an avowal that poet and poet and a certain musician were dedicated to the same ideas and influenced by the same This does not imply that such a relation had never existed before, spirit. but it existed here in Monteverdi's work for the first time, and he main
tained
it

the poet its age, of

si

in his later collections of madrigals. The musician turned to who seemed to him the truest incarnation of the spirit of the

artistic ambitions, and gave Tasso's Non at the beginning of his second distinction of levava ancor the place

human

desires

and

book.

How does this agree with

In
1584, at the

Tasso's

own

views on madrigal writing?

pleted his

when Tasso wrote most of his dialogues, he com "La Cavalletta owero de la poesia toscana." In this dialogue
time

he

and

day with surprising directness have nothing to do with the would he that practically suggested new tendencies, "In the course of degeneration the music of the mad
criticized the madrigal writing of his

rigal has

argue." that the best of the past always seems to have, ciplined seriousness now be revived.

and effeminate; and we shall beg of the Messrs. and any other master of the Striggio, Jacches [de Wert], Luzzasco, to that gravity, in deviating it back excellent art of music, to bring But about this it is better to its balance. lost from which it has partly 2 of The than to old, the restraint and dis be silent gravity

become

soft

must

to come from Tasso! But perhaps the strange demand, indeed, time at which he made the statement helps to explain his opinion. This
in Tasso's darkest period, when, after roaming dialogue was written to Ferrara in 1579, as northern around Italy, he returned restlessly a sinister fate that must take its predestined course. drawn

though

by

Shortly after
of

his return,

Anna for several years. Not until

service Monteverdi

he was confined in the Insane Asylum of St. 1586 was he freed by the intervention
heir apparent of to enter.
this period, the

Mantua, whose GerusaDuring lemne liberata was published without his supervision; his lyrics were revised by Ferrara's court poet, Guarini; and Tasso himself, maddened

young Vincenzo Gonzaga, then

was soon

by the unseemly treatment of

2

his poetical

work, suffered from repent-

See Tasso's dialogue "La Cavalletta ovvero della poesia toscana,*' in T. Tasso, Dtaloghi (ed. by Alessandro Tortoreto), p. 221,

THE MADRIGALS OF 1590

137

ant scruples, from hallucinations, and from the persecution of the In It may well have been under the strain of haunting thoughts quisition. and demanded that gravity of that he made himself the

frivolity judge be restored to the music of the madrigal that gravitas which was the mood of the Counter Reformation. But his lyrics were un prevailing affected by this critical attitude, and a musician could admire Tasso's with his pessimistic views on the subject of poetry without agreeing When Monteverdi, still in Cremona, chose Tasso as his poet,

madrigals.

he certainly did not heed the demands of the Counter Reformation, whose ideals he had abjured in his youth. He was drawn to Tasso's
lyrics

by the character of their poetry. In Tasso's lyrics the element of music had come to new life. The and he spoke in images de fancy of the poet was fed by his emotions, to call forth similar emotions. Not the clear vision that appeals signed to reason and to human knowledge, not the definite objects that make human world, but fleeting feelings and in up the abundance of the distinct emotions were his subject matter. The uncertainties of his emo tions corresponded to the uncertainties of human life. Life in an aging with risk and tragedy, and the tone most society had become fraught suitable for poetic expression was one of melancholy. The world pre sented a scene, however colorful, for though ambitions
and
desires

melancholy were strong and unrestrained,

their fulfillment

remained

uncertain.
(XII, 66)
:

An

soave"

(A

Tasso's Gerusalemme liberata example of this is from "In queste voci languide risuona/Un non so che di flebile, e sound, I do not know, of sweetness and of grief/A ringing

stylized, rhymes). The rhymes that made the emotion, the languor, the lachrymose melancholy musical listener weep with the poet. The floating rhythms and the a strong appeal had emotions broad human vague images expressing idiom of the the was artistic for the musician. The melancholy

echo

in these languid

were

like the

stylized

which the composer also spoke, not because he had gone through belief the same personal experiences, but because he shared the poet's
time,
in the artistic expression of the lyrical affections. Tasso's idiom as a master of the technical Monteverdi at once

spoke

structure needed to

convey the

poems. The placing indicated the "program" of the second book from the poetical point of view, and the musical form given this madrigal was undoubtedly and to set the structure, expression, and also meant to be

the affection, the prevailing feeling of the si levava ancor at of Tasso's beginning

Non

programmatic
as a

the style for

book

whole.

138

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

unit that comprehensive structural

The traditional madrigal had no

"motifs" or "subjects" were governed the subordinate elements. The

invented for the text of each line and imitated successively

fashion. parts in polyphonic

by

all

the

de Cipriano de Rore and Giaches

Some of the madrigalists, especially Wert of Mantua, were successful in

the repetition of one or another structural establishing greater unity by 3 Monte section, thus paving the way for new, over-all organization. con a new and to invent such structures verdi started from this

point

His inventions were by no means unique, but as a trapuntal must have felt much "program" the principle was new. Monteverdi
style.

like Forestieri, the chief interlocutor in Tasso's dialogue "La Cavalfrom in accordance with said, "The rule is bent and letta,"

who departed the occasion; and this deviation from the rule is at the discretion of the 4 artist." The goal of the first madrigal was a structure deliberately linked to the occasion.
used for two madrigals that belong together. After a narrative part that sets the scene for the two lovers, there follows the amorous dialogue; and it is there, with the words "E dicea Tuna sospirand alPhora," that Monteverdi begins the second part of the

The poem

of Tasso

is

madrigal. It is significant that he differentiates stylistically the description and the dialogue. 5 This arrangement, made in accord ance with dramatic considerations, shows Monteverdi's advance be

between

yond the madrigals of his first book. The idea of such a dramatization was not original. Marenzio, Giaches de Wert, and others had pro
vided models
the
that, in all likelihood,

two

madrigals

Non

si

levava.
is

and

stimulated Monteverdi. Although E dicea are compositions to be

sung together, each of them

or structural
tive
diff erentiation,

a musical entity, and in spite of stylistic

the dramatic contrast between the narra

and the

direct speech

is

complete entity. conflict, but is merely an external contrast based on the division of the
material, each section of
situation,
8

The

dramatization

not realized within the continuity of one is thus not the result of an inner

which

is

musically complete.

The harmonic
as the

however, pulls the two sections together,

second

and
*

Tasso's dialogue "La Cavalletta" contains an interesting account of style, structure, or formal repetitions in the madrigal from the poetical point of view. especially u che la regola sua si torca e si pieghi secondo 1'occasioni; il qua! Ibid., p. 204: . . piegamento e il giudicio dell' artefice, o almeno egli non e senza il giudicio." c In his analysis of this madrigal, H. R. Leichtentritt, SIMG, XI, 261 f ., referred to the division, while Redlich, Claudia Monteverdi (Berlin, 1932), pp. 52f., called attention to the stylistic differentiation of the two sections, one being contrapuntally composed, the other homophonically.
.

THE MADRIGALS OF 1590

re-establishes the initial "key," to

139
d-G//g-d.

complete the

circle:

On the

other hand, Monteverdi rounds off the prima parte in such

self-sufficient completeness that it

can be fully understood without is built recourse to the seconda pane. The first part of the madrigal

upon
rising

repetition,

with slight
first

which the whole initial section recurs at the end variation and to a different text. The characteristically
in

risen." ray of daylight a with wholly But when toward the end the same material appears again the first line is different text, the connection of the first theme with of all its force, and the purely structural consideration of the deprived as such music takes precedence. Indeed, the repetitive arrangement are form of structural makes it obvious that clarity and completeness

theme with its descending counterpoint is probably designed *

the line:

to

accompany

"Not yet

has the

first

Monteverdi's

first

concern.

similar arrangements

is certainly repetition in the canzonetta-like madrigals of the first book,

The

derived from

used to perform new functions. For undoubtedly the composer 7 of da capo repetition into the madrigal, is here carrying the principle where it naturally strengthens the impression of roundness and finality. The composer thus reveals his conception that a repetitive cyclic order also to an interminable co-ordination of the sections. He is

but

is

preferable in evaluate sections as primary and subordinate, just as attempts to the a native of voices uppermost part, song, handling the different from a melodic point of view, and the organic bass, from the harmonic to the sub of view, are given a privileged position in contrast point in used elements the of This composi ordinate middle parts. gradation of form, and Monteverdi tion is basic in the rise of new conceptions the madrigals of his second book. carries this process a step forward in an example of Monteverdi's in as serve ancor Non si levava may It of "thematic" invention the tentions in another respect material^ determine the peculiar bears the mark of a personal style. Three factors to the connotation the of relation a theme: melody form of the possible and the a as the of stereotyped formula; of the text; the shaping melody of the material The tenor of the structural
exploitation
possibilities

and the quinto, which in this madrigal has the range

have the following themes:

of a second soprano,

the theme's "Provenienz aus der So Redlich, op. cit., p. 53, who believes that weiteres klar ersichtlich wird. Stofftichkeit des Gedichts ohne to the da capo structure of the madrigal but 7 Leichtentritt, op. cit., p. 161, pointed to the canzonetta the motet More likely is its relationship related this arrangement t tried out the principle. and those madrigals in which Monteverdi had previously

140

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

n,
i

Ex. 37

the subject sung by the tenor may have the pointed out, of the text. But the par of bringing out the meaning purpose a gradual rise and passage through the ticular form of the subject has been scale with a strong tendency to reach the melodic cadence Monteverdi before in different contexts and always in a char used

As has been

realistic

by

acteristic

at a

manner. This would seem to imply that Monteverdi is aiming formula in order to obtain the objectivity of a stylized expression.

The

functions as the counterpoint. It issues in full part of the quinto contrast to the tenor subject and moves against the tenor in prolonged

rises. Such an arrangement be values, descending stepwise as the tenor comes the basis of a structure in which two subjects of equal import

ance are used, both appearing simultaneously. theme of the quinto is to give Although the main function of the the subject melodic character, its form testifies to its structural nature. The line of tones descending stepwise in slow and even rhythm is a Monteverdi is beginning to use as an organic bass. There are
figure various such basses in the madrigals of this collection.

A passage
anticipation

in the range of a fifth in

Non

sono in queste
is

rive,

with

by the canto seven measures

n, 37

before,

shown

here:

Ex. 38

'
i

Ci,*

-U

chr

m',r.4i r

f\*

ci

A more characteristic example

Ex. 39
n, 61
Bdsio

is

presented in Mentre

io

miravo

fiso:

"

' i i 1

r
nil-

TI
If

'iu

.11

j
-

j
ti

Fa.-ceTi-do

utar-i'f

nit- If

gi

And finally, in an equally brilliant madrigal, Ecco mormorar fonde:

THE MADRIGALS OF 1590

Ex. 40
n, 73

L'a.u-r4

to*

i-

$t-

r*. e

None

of these basses results from imitation of the text, and they are

not invented for the sake of melody. The more stereotyped, objective and nonmelodic such a bass is, the greater its structural strength and
capacity;
it

draws the upper parts or any combination of them into

is

its

sway, and their form

si

also stereotyped.

levava ancor,

all

the examples

shown

the exception of Non have the duet in lively motion

With

above the
coupled in
in

bass, the figuration

being typical.
sixths,

The
and

parallel

motion of thirds or

are parts of the duet since the duet follows

the bass, the descent is a general one, perhaps more ingeniously rendered

Ecco mormorar fonde.

The

duet with a harmonic bass remains an essential factor in the

all

the madrigals. Monteverdi has increased its artistic possibilities and has used it with elaborate finesse. Clear but sectional divisions, set off by themselves, no longer simple groups of
structure of nearly

appear,

unless there

is

to special reason

employ them. Monteverdi has

developed a subtle technique of rapidly changing the parts that make up the duet. Small, precise, figurative motifs are given to the duet, and
the voices successively share in these motifs, as the parts assigned to the duet continually change in the five-voiced madrigal. The varieties
all

are even greater

secondary

parts.

when a distinction is made between primary and The duet and the bass are given pre-eminence. How

may not appear in pure form; it may be accompanied by one or more subsidiary parts, but always in such a way that it remains the leading group. With these devices Monteverdi probes all possible
ever, the duet

combinations, and not only achieves a highly effective structural variety but also exploits the potentialities of tone color which the rapidly

The madrigals of the second book give changing combinations afford. keen sense of vocal effects produced Monteverdi's of the first evidence view. in The with tone color procedure is similar to that of an "orches
where shades of color are put in for the sake of special effects. Monteverdi often uses the dark colors, the low regions of the tonal somber emotions of sorrow and tragedy. By altering system, to reflect
tration"

the structural components of the duet,

combinations bound

to motifs,

continually recasting the the motifs now in light and by imitating

by

142
high,

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

now in low and dark, now in middle and mezzotint colors, Monteverdi reveals that his structural genius has reached maturity. have been pointed bass, whose characteristics

The slowly descending influence the out in various examples, has two further aspects that derivation of the one involving structural form of the composition of the bass variation the other the the material in the duet from the bass, fashion. brilliant a in both demonstrates itself. Mentre io miravo fiso the with values even in line rhythmic After stating the descending
text

"Facendo mille scherz' e mille

giri,"

the bass proceeds to the fol

lowing passage:
Ex. 41
ii,

62

Fa.-c<fTiJo

mille scherzf e

mille tnille 51
Qufwto

rl

tn/lle

fu-jjhett'itornot

=te?

iE

J
I

II

gy

mil-le Atfw-tl

4nirW it.tu> A ar.

F*-nd
still

mi

I- It

ichTz'e wire milt fl-fi

And

twelve measures later the bass,

holding fast to

its

original

"theme," gives a

new variation:
8

Ex. 42

n, 63

J=^E
-de

1
On-df con dol-ti

^
a-mor-o-si
la.i

condol-d

a-mor-o-ji

l&-i

a In these passages, there is noticeable a certain unity of material, the of musical force that embraces different texts and gives evidence of the original material. Motif a, derived from the de productivity the same as motif b, used for^the scending steps of the bass, is exactly and the derivaduet; and the long line of the bass, slowly descending, Thus the productive power of tory motif in the duet sound together. the bass sets off a varied duplication (c) and imposes simultaneously a the other parts. The result is a unity that derivatory small motif upon
is

nearly basic tones of prime, fifth, fourth, and continually swings around the octave and, with these intervals, indicates the points of harmonic supIt
8 See the bass in the "theme" of the last verse, "Che madrigal Eevea Fillide mia; the dolcement' anch' ei mi bacia il core," is identical with the theme quoted above.

the over-all importance of the bass. entirely due to all cases, the bass has fully absorbed the harmonic function. In

THE MADRIGALS OF I59O

port.

of contrapuntal polyphony have gradually disappeared. The poses bass has lost the position as a melody assimilated to the other parts, structure, and its harmonic function which it had in the

This clearly shows that

all

the melodic characteristics and pur

polyphonic

are madrigals in which the bass consists of nothing but harmonic phrases made up of supporting tones. Such basses are stereotyped and lack the individuality that comes from

has

now become

the strongest.

There

more melodic treatment. In certain madrigals of the second book, which are particularly illustrative of Monteverdi's extraordinary gifts, he invents basses that are stereotyped and impersonal, and that may be but which still preserve a certain amount of used for a
a

variety purposes, of expressiveness. To illustrate this situation, three phrases may be taken from the bass of Dolcissimi legami, a madrigal of the highest artistic
qualities:

Ex. 43

n, 20

So.

10

of the baroque age, which shows how basic Monteverdi's material was to the period he initiated. Despite the objectivity, all three phrases are of the text, or of special words. They obviously related to the meaning caused the figurative melisma (a) ; have that are, first, the "scherzi," accentuated (V) ; third, the "catene" (the chains) , second, the

jectivity

All three phrases are so standardized, so impersonal, that their ex seem wholly irrelevant. Their impersonal ob pressive implications could easily be attributed to any composer is so great that they

rhythms

which are

realistically
Is

the bass (c).

of portrayed by the peculiar, sequential steps there not an irreconcilable contradiction in expressing

a unique situation, which would seem to call for a characteristic phrase, seem the form least fitted for by a stereotyped phrase, which would such an expression? But such is the mystery of genius that the con the contrary, tradiction does not become apparent artistically.

On

Monteverdi will more and more use such stereotyped phrases, each of

them

directly invented

from the material

in the text.

144

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

is

its given over to harmonic functions, thereby losing character as an independent melody within a polyphonic structure, is of a contrapuntal style in these madrigals? Counter it possible to speak

If the bass

that each part must have a certain melodic in point normally implies

a distinctly melodic voice-leading. Monte dependence, in any event, for a counterpoint that will combine the look to verdi is beginning and the melodic independence of the bass the of function harmonic The madrigals of the second book show that his findings other
parts.

and definitive, but each discovery will contribute to the foundations of modern counterpoint. It is the distinctly harmonic bass that begins to guide the form of the motifs to be used contratones of the bass indicate certain harmonies, and the puntally. The motifs of the upper voices are determined accordingly and bear the marks of chordal invention. When such motifs are used for the simul
are not always mature

taneous "accompaniment" of the bass, the chordal form of the upper natural and needs no special explanation. This form is of parts is quite as a duet, interest, however, when the upper parts, combined
particular

tones of the bass and strive to maintain spring from the harmonic themselves as a counterpoint against the bass. Perhaps the best example is found in Ecco mormorar Vonde^ which seems to be the most modern

With the verse that begins "E sovra i verdi," madrigal of the collection. the bass (here the lowest part, the alto) starts a purely harmonic line that cannot possibly have any relation to the text:
Ex. 44
n,

69

c**-Ur

!..*

ft

nun-

t*

This form speaks for

itself

Above this bass is a duet of two soprani,

with regard to the harmonic outline. canto, and quinto; and the duet

the character of largely operates with chordal material drawn from the bass, except for the figurative passages on "cantare" and "rider," surely intended to be expressive of the text:

Ex. 45
C
*4

n, 69
wj

THE MADRIGALS OF 1590

tion.

145

Innumerable are the motifs built upon the material of the chord as indicated in the bass, but handled in the polyphonic manner of imita and the successive entrances of the The motifs are
fairly short,

each other rapidly; yet the imitation of one and the same parts follow motif is seldom carried out through all the parts. Since the motif is chordal in outline, it is the impression of harmony that prevails. Hence it uses the horizontal approach, but only the "method" is polyphonic; This method, the motifs without making independent melodic lines. abstract as it appears to be, therefore does not aif ect the harmonic core of the motif. The short motifs, the unsystematic incomplete imitation, will re and, above all, the invention of the motif out of the harmony The beginning of of the character of main

baroque counterpoint. in canzonetta fashion has the da capo which o narcisi, giacinti is indicative of the contrapuntal motif. The repetition in varied form, whole madrigal, with the exception of a brief middle section, builds that operates with short, itself up by way of a polyphonic technique ever making a com without imitation for very precise material set up be this the all Indeed, round madrigal can well
part

Non

plete

through

parts.

regarded

model of Monteverdi's treatment of motifs which half a dozen tones. than more of no
as a

consist

The new counterpoint

freedom from
strict

or predictable regulations.

has an additional feature of importance the The solutions the com

do not suggest any rules. The freedom may be only in poser presents in these madrigals of 1590, but it surely lies achieved completely within the range of the composer's vision as an ideal. The composition motif by one voice and con may begin with the statement of the first Thereafter the process verses. tinue with new motifs for the following its course, while the take of imitation on the basis of the first motif may
second motif
gives
is

contrapuntally set against

it.

Of

this,

Non mi

grave

a characteristic illustration.

pearance

of the motifs can in

is

Such a procedure means that the ap no way be foretold. His method if

inspiration

method

there

springs

from the

that a special

poem

has

after called forth. He may or may not work with the motif immediately imitation structural the not or he been it has delay stated; may may now which at all events comes unexpectedly; he may imitate a motif, the in twice in two voices, now in four; he may repeat another motif

from same voice. Of such unpredictable varieties there are many, and the allows which none can a rule be deduced. This great flexibility,
is another result of the in seemingly unlimited freedom, Because of this, vention of motifs with harmonic implications in view.

composer

146

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

most of the motifs

and if for a certain closely resemble each other, situation remains basically the same, which length of time the harmonic in fact is intended, the motifs will easily fit into the picture wherever
they are inserted.
the argument: so close is the resem blance of the motifs on the basis of the fixed harmony that they might

To overwork

be even interchangeable.

whenever it had novel features, madrigalesque counterpoint, with the old polyph brought about a certain simplification compared it was, this new counterpoint did not merely ony. Simplified though cut out whatever appeared difficult, learned, and according to the

The

manner

of the old polyphony. With a somewhat hesitating gesture, Monteverdi reached out for the new artistic "license" that discovered a point of departure for the new contrapuntal style. The new technique rested principally on considerations of harmony; the old technique was in terms of complete hori of melodic the
essentially

product

thinking

zontal lines.

new direction had been Although the first decisive advance in this his thoughts systematically, or did not Monteverdi made, present
radically,

or even completely.

a picture in

small degree,

The madrigals of 1590 did not present one color, with one theme. Old elements lingered on to no while the new features, though often distinct, were not
this collec

concentration on Tasso in always prominent. Monteverdi's

tion of madrigals indicated a certain advance over the first book and of poetry only. was more than a given to a poet for reasons

preference All the poems of Tasso in this volume

show Monteverdi's musical

stylistic

composition

at its

most advanced stage from a

is

point of view,

conception usually artistically occurs in a work based on a poem of Tasso, and the features of the are basic to the new style can be linked madrigals in the first book that with the Tasso madrigals of the second book.

and none of them

inferior.

Any new

Nothing was lost in

that Monteverdi's artistic

this

mind had previously absorbed

more advanced phase. The refrains, favored in the canzonetta, were used again and more elaborately worked out as da

short motifs had previously been tried out under the influence of the canzonetta. The rhythmical patterns, among which

capo repetition.

The

the canzonetta formula JJ7J J(JJ

*
|

grew

to be typical, retained their

its full organizing force of the cadence kept striking precision. skillful made use his now of Monteverdi but the effect upon structure,

The

work with

motifs to cover

up

the cadences and interlock the phrases.

THE MADRIGALS OF 1590

There were even intimations of the harmonic polyphony
madrigals.

147
in the earlier

The
their

Donna nel mo

Tasso composition announced the modernistic trend. Even at the beginning, with whose motifs,
ritorno,

especially

slow rhythmic motion might suggest an older form of the of this modernism, for it has a purely madrigal, is in fact representative harmonic counterpoint and, above all, a continuous use of cadential in the madrigal in which one cadence effects. There are

long passages 9 follows the other without splitting the composition into little groups. Monte The last madrigal seems to be a total recantation of all that verdi had presented as "modernism." This composition, Cantai un has the characteristics of the old, polyphonic style in all its

tempo,

purity. Nothing modern, turbs the picture. All students of

10

of the style. was in contradiction to his plans for the foundation of a new style? The was Bembo, a representative of an older epoch that had little
to say to Monteverdi's generation. The younger men had not lost a the greatness of their elders, but they were striving for other feeling for was aware that tones, new words, and new expressions. Monteverdi and it was this the to of his Bembo and the past, belonged
spirit

none of Monteverdi's own stylistic idioms, dis Monteverdi agree upon the antiquity What was the reason for closing with a composition that

poem

by

poetry

the past as a part of history that began to take shape in his feeling for mind. When he turned to the poetry of Bembo, he knew that he was
alive that had already been marked by death. For the keeping something the past made first time in the work of Monteverdi this awareness of and had Monteverdi matter. itself felt as an artistic systemati logically

cally

apprehended

the polyphonic style of the old madrigal and was

referred to the "altere Madrigaltechnik," an opinion The arrangement by cadences as well as the har accepted by monic counterpoint seem to speak against it. The melodic contours have no resemblance characteristic influence of to the polyphonic line of older madrigals; they show the S'andasse amor a caccia (Tasso) has been re considerations. The
9 Leichtentritt, op. cit., p. 263,

Redlich, op.

cit.,

p. 56.

harmonic

madrigal

lated to the style of the

French chanson by Leichtentritt, op. cit., p. 264; A. Tessier, Claudia "Les deux styles de Monteverde," RM, Vol. Ill ( 1922), p. 242, nn. 3, 4; Prunieres, There does not seem to be any particular Monteverdi, p. 13; Redlich, op. cit., pp. 571". characteristics of the bril reason for this. The lively declamatory motifs and other
like to point work can be better explained through the Italian canzonetta. a canonic entrance of the to the interesting beginning of the composition it has died out as this voices. The tradition of setting a "caccia" in canon had not entirely
liant

We

and other works of the sixteenth century show. characterized the 10 Leichtentritt, Prunieres, Malipiero, and Redlich appropriately that was as a "copy of style" and considered it a "farewell gesture" to an age
madrigal
past.

148

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PAST

capable of writing in the language of the past, but he had to assume the style consciously and for a definite purpose; it was not naturally his own. There is an important difference between an influence of the past
that penetrates the work without the full awareness of the composer, and the imitation of the past as a conscious act, and this difference is clearly reflected in Monteverdi's madrigals. In some of the compositions of the second book there are details that obviously must be taken as

reminders of the style of the older generation, the artistic fathers of Monteverdi. There is, also, this perfectly uniform madrigal in the old style, presented as an imitation. In one case, we have Monteverdi, the heir of the past; in the other, Monteverdi, the historical observer. Thus, Tasso's Non si levava ancor, the initial composition of the second book, announced the program of a new style, and Bembo's Cantai un tempo, the final work, reminded the listener of what the artistic program of the
past had been.

When many
verdi

years later the

artistic ideal
first

showed the

republished Arcadelt's

new style was all completed, Monte of old in still another way. In 1627 he book of madrigals for four voices, which
of the

had appeared

in 1539.

The composer

homage
and

to the master of the old madrigal

new age could, thus, pay whose idiom, though foreign

historical,

might be worthy of admiration.

PART THREE

Rise to Fame:

The

Foundation

of

the

CHAPTER EIGHT

Music in Mantua

THE GONZAGAS

book of madrigals to Giacorno gentleman of Milan, we learn that Monteverdi had been in that city and had appeared there as a player of the viola. Ap parently he had given a good account of himself, for he felt that the favors he had enjoyed could be repaid only by affectionate reverence and "atti armonici" (compositions) By the time he had composed these new madrigals, he was obviously beginning to look around for condi tions that would allow his talent to come into its own in the service of a
the dedication of the second
a

FROM Ricardi,

renowned patron of music. Cremona

offered

him

little

opportunity,

since the only outstanding position there was occupied by his teacher, Ingegneri. Relations between Cremona and Milan were close, and it

was natural for Monteverdi to try his fortunes in the larger and more important center, but nothing came of the attempt, and he returned home to complete the madrigals and prepare them for publication. It was not long, however, before an opportunity arose that held great a musician of Monteverdi's caliber. He was appointed prospects for
"singer and player of the viola" at the court of the Gonzagas and went to Mantua in 1590. Despite his youth he was twenty-three this was a respectable position, though not one of the first rank. It is worthy of

note that in the same year he was elected a member of the Congregazione ed Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, a rather astonishing
sign of recognition.
1

The

list

of the

Roma.

1604-1643,"

members is quoted by Alberto Cametti, "Girolamo RM1, Vol. XV (1908), p. 702, n.i.
151

Frescobaldi in

152

RISETOFAME
time the house of

At this

Gonzaga seemed

to be at the height of

its

the long reign of Guglielmo Gonzaga, Mantua had en glory. During and its wealth had grown immensely. Despite joyed great prosperity,

the extravagant luxury of this court, the Duke administered the economic resources of the Mantuan lands exceedingly well Much of the cloth its wealth and commercial fame had been contributed by

weavers,

since the fourteenth powerful guild home and abroad, at the had wares highest reputation century. Their to suffer much, were weavers the whom under his son, and, unlike to encourage this flourishing commerce. Related how knew Guglielmo the Medici in Florence and the houses in to some of the

who constituted the most

great

Italy

Este in Ferrara-

and married to Eleonora, daughter of the Emperor court since the Ferdinand, Guglielmo had been influential at the papal of Gonzaga, who in 1561 presided at the days of Cardinal Ercole
Council of Trent, and had become one of the most powerful princes
in all Italy. In an age

when public

display

was the indispensable accom

of princely might and glory, the Duke enjoyed paniment and symbol the brilliance of his court on fitting occasions, and the
exhibiting chroniclers had

many

opportunities

to describe the dazzling scenes at

building upon no minor part among Guglielmo's artistic projects and surely a major share of his budget. During his reign Mantua had a considerable reputa tion as a center of the arts. Works of art had been collected by the house of Gonzaga for over a century, especially by the famous Isa bella d'Este da Gonzaga, and her successors were tireless in adding to the collection and in employing artists to work for them. The Mantuan collection had become so highly renowned that in the dark from all over Europe awaited days to come dealers and agents of princes

such as the official visits of princes or state marri special celebrations, also spent extraordinary sums to satisfy his passion ages. Guglielmo for architecture and derived particular satisfaction from the erection of the Chiesa Regio Ducale di S. Barbara, his favorite church, which of his palace at Goito took his initiative. The was built

with eagerness the final blow that would disperse the Mantuan wealth and art. Guglielmo, it is true, could not rival the artistic splendors of one of his predecessors, Federigo, who had employed Giulio Romano as court painter and architect, but he continued in suitable style the of his house. A fondness for music and musicians traditional
patronage

was equally

traditional with the Gonzagas and apparently grew the generations, reaching its height about the time with stronger Monteverdi went to Mantua. Duke Guglielmo had called musicians

MUSIC

IN

MANTUA

153
de Wert, who

of extraordinary fame to his court, among them Giaches had the reputation of being one of the best composers in Italy. At Guglielmo's death in 1586, only four years before Monteverdi's than ever and its government arrival, the dukedom appeared stronger

was regarded
of Italy.

respected
justice

exemplary among the sixteenth-century principalities The wisdom of the Duke had raised him to the place of a His work in the administration of the adviser
as

among

princes.

and

his revision of the criminal

laws had brought him the

esteem of other sovereigns and the love and admiration of his subjects, to him as to a paterfamilias. In his minute description who looked

up

ported over the

of the Duke's funeral procession, the chronicler Federico Follino re that the people who lined the streets burst into lamentations
loss

of their sovereign, and we may well believe their tears were sincere. "Thus departed Serenissimo Guglielmo Gonzaga, a man of admirable judgment, of the keenest intellect, of the most vivacious and goodness, and so well memory; endowed with infinite prudence were his equals in the world if that few, versed in the liberal arts any, and effort in the study time so much he above of his day; but all, spent in these he rose to we can that music of and of theology truthfully say: 2 The death of else." even or level the same with,
surpassed,

anyone

the second of Monferrato, was cenzo, the fourth Duke of Mantua and to make full use of the wealth his father had accumulated; but like many
sons of strong princes, he added much to the glory and display, but to the power, of the state.

Guglielmo closed

a glorious period of

Mantuan

history.

His son Vin-

nothing

Follino also described Vincenzo's coronation, which took place on The ceremonies betrayed the new duke's unre September 22, 1587. strained liking for luxury and pomp. The gathering of high dignitaries

from the various parts of Italy was most impressive. The gowns they wore displayed a dazzling abundance of colors and jewels, of gold and
satin,

but Vincenzo's ceremonial dress far outshone the others. The interior of the cathedral of San Pietro, where the coronation was held,

was decorated with drapes of cloth of gold, silk, taffeta, satin, velvet and brocade. Musicians were present in large numbers, divided into 3 choirs of singers and bands of trombones and cornets. The coronation
2

Sigs

Don Federico Follino, Descrittione deW infirmita, morte, et funerali dell Sereniss. H Sig. Guglielmo Gonzaga, III. Duca di Mantova, e di Monferrato 1. (Mantua,
Don

del Sereniss. Sig.

Federico Follino, Descrittione delle solenni cerimonie fatte nella coronatlone errata 11. 11 Sig. Vincenzo Gonzaga. llll Duca di Mantoua, e di Morf &c. (Mantua, 1587), fol. A4- The "Concern" mentioned here are the choral groups of instruments and voices.

154
Mass, said
casion.

RISETOFAME
by the Bishop of Mantua, had
particular significance

Of

was

a solemnity befitting the oc the ceremony of the kissing of

the Gospel, the kiss of Peace, and the incensation. After the Gospel had been read, the Missal was brought to the Duke and the members of his family to be kissed where it was opened at the page of the Gospel of the day. Since the incensation involved all the dignitaries, the cere "the con mony lasted a long time and was musically accompanied by
cert!

the Offertory on more Mass was altogether coronation the for solemn days." "most perfect and to this effect composed by the very excellent musi cian and Maestro di Cappella of His Highness, Mr. Giaches de Wert, of his com a man most famous in the world because of the excellence

which were usually performed during

4

The music

positions."
nets,

The performance included "concern for organ, voices,

fi

cor

and trombones." After these concern had moved to the door of the cathedral, ceremony was over and the court
all

been played, the

where Vincenzo,

a luxuriously garnished "Sedia Imperiale," received the oath of allegiance taken upon the Gospel. He promised and exercise jus the welfare of his that he would
sitting

on

people always guard As a token of his good will and generosity, he at once and forever abolished half of the taxation on wine. "A harmonious concerto of trombones began to be played, placed on an elevation of above the door of the church toward the piazza, and at marble,
tice in all integrity. just

joy, in such a noise truly the onlookers could not understand their
large,

the same time there was an outburst of cannon, of drums, small and even of horses neighing, and of so many bells that of cries of

own
was

words."

This spontaneous benevolence probably characteristic of the Duke. His taste for magnificence and

ill-advised
his real

mag

a prince of princes had they been nanimity might have made him 7 But he lacked both wisdom and and blended with wisdom discipline.
restraint.

pellent

Vincenzo's character was a contradictory mixture of noble and re traits. He enjoyed the benefits of the meritorious government

1 "& a far * amtorono i concert! che si 4 questa cosl lunga cerimonia, Ibid., fol. delTOffertorio nelli di piu solenni." sogliono fare a quellhora B lbid. fol. B: "Finita la Messa, la quale fu di Musica perfettissima, composta per } Musico & Mastro di Cappella di S.A. il Sig. Giaches questo efifetto, dall' eccellentiss. & spediti i Vuert, huomo per 1'eccellenza dell' opre [sic] sue, assai famoso al Mondo: concerti d'organo, voci, cornette, e tromboni, si cominciarono tutti ad incaminare per una sbarra, che correua al longo alia Chiesa, sino alia porta: & era guardata dalli Arcieri,
:

perche

la

moltitudine del popolo iui concorsa

3-

non

1'occupasse."

#Mol.B T

See L. P. Volta, Compendia Cronologico della Storia di Mantova, under the year

1587.

MUSIC IN MANTUA

155
in a position to be

of his father, and the wealth he inherited put him The wealth as generous as was suitable to the dignity of his station. secure its or it to add of Mantua was not of his making, and he did not
in fact, his craving for splendid display and lavish enter permanence; tainment largely undid the work of his father. His indiscriminate gener his lascivious dissipations were notorious while he was still osity and

a youth. The scandal of his divorce from his first wife, Margherita had married in Farnese, the daughter of the Duke of Parma, whom he at his dissolute life and was the cause of alarm for reason 1581, gave to strained relations between Mantua and Parma. His father hoped

detach Vincenzo from the path of license Medici, but his hope was vain.

by marrying him to Eleonora

Endowed with handsome

his friends

clers
able.

features and impressive stature, liked by Vincenzo had excellent traits that his chroni have duly praised. His magnanimity and sympathy were undeni He freed Tasso from ignoble confinement in Ferrara, though an

and

his people,

ambition to glorify the Mantuan court by the presence of this illustri ous poet may have been his main incentive. Many persons of distinction were attracted to him, not always for material advantages, for even

when Vincenzo was

their due, they exceedingly slow in giving them to the house of and Duke the to an unswerving loyalty preserved Monteverdi's arrival was for Gonzaga. Rubens, who ten years after devoted feel often court official the some expressed his

painter, years letters to Vincenzo, and Monteverdi himself was perhaps the ings in best witness to a bond of loyalty which held over the years through all wrote while in service at trials. Almost all the letters the

composer

was always considera in its demands for advance well in its payments, though bly behind in had many other Monteverdi artistic productions. The letters reveal that at his not Mantua, where he reasons for irritation and did stay enjoy

Mantua contain bitter complaints

that the court

from the oppressive humidity arising from the lakes and held his fevers and continual headaches. Nevertheless, he it responsible for remained attached to Vincenzo for many years after he left the Man
suffered

tuan service.

There
those

is

no doubt that Vincenzo had

qualities

who worked for him. One

of his letters shows a

which attracted all wisdom scarcely

dated to be expected of one devoted solely to dissipation. This letter, Annibal Chieppio, the ducal secretary, 1608, was sent from Paris to

with

Monteverdi able administrator and a

whom

also

had some correspondence. Chieppio, an man of great honesty, had been exposed to

156
slander and malice.

RISE TO
"My

FAME

received your

dearest Chieppio," wrote the Duke, "I have write you two letter, in response to which I want to

words only. Pay no

tain

attention to
evil

they please; people speak

your conscience pure, as I one gossip to his liking. That is

8

let them say what of Christ. Main even the of world, am convinced you do, and then let every

what the people say;

all

all I

have to say to you

at this

time for

your consolation."

Vincenzo's patronage of Rubens and of Francois Porbus, the other

Mantuan court

painter

who had come from Flanders,

arts.

reflected the old

of the Gonzagas for the passion

to his collection of paintings, attracted to the extraordinary as

Vincenzo was most eager to add but he also craved curiosities and was

much

as to the

genuine in

art.

On

his

France, he was on frequent journeys to Hungary, Germany, Holland, the lookout for artists, to be sure, but also for artisans and craftsmen

known

for odd skills. He no longer had that instinctive the sign of generally high standards of culture, and his craving for novelties undermined his taste and, certainly, his funds.
taste

which

is

The Italian poets were also honored by Vincenzo s patronage. Tasso 9 dedicated a canzone to the Duke on the occasion of his coronation,
and Guarini, Tasso's great rival, whose poetry was soon to absorb Monteverdi, dedicated his pastorals to Vincenzo. Ottavio Rinuccini, the foremost poet in Florence at the court of the Medici, had frequent discussions with the Duke on matters poetical and musical, and Monte verdi was to benefit from these close relations when he later used
Rinuccini's lyrics and dramas for his work. Chiabrera dedicated odes to the Duke, and his poetry also offered Monteverdi material worthy of interests thus created an atmos set to music. Vincenzo's

being

literary

phere in

which musicians and poets worked together in an

ideal unity,

so that both arts could serve a

common

purpose.

10 and Monteverdi, Ru Guarini and Rinuccini, Marco da Gagliano the in took all harmony that Vincenzo bens, Porbus, and Viani, part

conducted. In that harmony, Vincenzo gave first place to the theater and to music in general, to singers in particular, and most of all to
8 From the "Lettere dei Gonzaga" in the Archives of Mantua quoted by original* Armand Baschet, "Pierre-Paul Rubens, Peintre de Vincent ler de Gonzague, Due de Mantoue (1600-1608)," in GBA, Vol. 20 (Paris, 1866), p. 427. 9 Canzone nella coronations del serenissimo Sig. Don Vincenzo Gonzaga. Duca di Mantova et Monferrato &c. del Sig. Torquato Tasso (Mantua, 1587). The canzone,

but is rather con consisting of ninety-three lines, has no particular poetical quality, ventional sixteenth-century poetry. 10 Vincenzo in the madrigals and motets of Marco da Gagliano. expressed his interest

MUSIC IN MANTUA
women
singers.

157

His fondness for theatrical representations and for was apparently a real mania, and the troupes he engaged were the most welcome guests at his court. The Duke was anxious to have other princes witness these costly entertainments, and did not tire of to kings and princes in behalf of writing letters of recommendation
actresses
his

comedians. Thus

we can

easily

understand the proverbial reference

These displays required a proper setting, and Vincenzo had Antonio Maria Viani, his architect, build a new theater. Viani, a Cremonese like Monteverdi, had also done work at
to the Duke's comedians.

the Appartamento di Corte and at the new palace, the "Villa," in Maderno on Lake Garda. This new theater was used to splendid effect
at

creative

an event that was to be of the greatest importance in Monteverdi's life: the marriage of Vincenzo's son Francesco to Margherita
activities

of Savoy in 1608.

Vincenzo's theatrical
the

had another important

effect:

they

the opera. way for the appearance of the musical drama, prepared Monteverdi was to give Mantua opera only a few years after its first creation in Florence. Intermediate as well as incidental music had cer

been used for theatrical performances long before the first opera tainly was produced in Mantua, but though the insertion of music into the as a precursor of the opera, this spoken drama is generally regarded occurred everywhere, and there was nothing specifically Mantuan in
such usage.
special
It

was the unlimited enthusiasm for the theater that gave a

flavor to activities at the court.

The

Duke's fondness for the

theater

must have produced connoisseurs of acting and drama, and of the Mantuans to all manifestations of quickened the responsiveness the art of the theater, so that when the music drama first appeared, it

redoubled an already existing enthusiasm. Vin Interest in the new music drama must have been awakened in
cenzo when, in 1589, he visited Florence on the occasion of the mar Ferdinand of Medici to Christine of Lorraine. Vincenzo was riage of a niece of related to the Medici by his second marriage, to Eleonora,
Ferdinand.
spent no

The Duke of Mantua displayed all imaginable pomp and when he appeared in Florence, and it is reported that he magnificence
less

What he could have added to the the marriage almost had that Ferdinand himself provided for splendor Florence no longer that told are we For human imagination. surpasses a fairy tale, with of out a but seemed like her own self,
than 100,000 ducats.

looked

scenery and

city scaffolds erected for great pageants, tournaments, sea

158
battles,

RISE TO

FAME

and the storming of a Turkish fortress. A full month passed in the presentation of one spectacle after another, each more impressive
than the
last.

of the most sensational and most favored productions was the intermezzo // Coinbattimento performance of Ottavio Rinuccini's cradle of the been has This col regarded as the serpente. cPApolline in itself, of course, it was not a music drama. All the opera, though intermezzi had basically musical subject matter, and included in the ballet of the planets was a representation of the music of the spheres. than the production, which could not have been en More

One

to tirely a novelty

Vincenzo, was the participation in it of the men who were to collaborate in the music drama during the last decade of the Emilio del Cavalieri. Some of century Count Bardi, Caccini, Peri, the on took Peri, for instance, and Marenzio. the musicians

important

The famous
performance

stage parts had an active share in the madrigalist Alessandro Striggio as one of the instrumentalists. The Grand Duke Ferdi

n Great the decoration of the Great Hall." singers were responsible for Vittoria the Archilei, heard in the performance, especially glorious
who
enchanted the listeners

his architect, Bernardo Buontalenti, to build the stage and scenery. "The Intermedii were of a special kind in view of the almost supernaturally artistic presentations and machinery, an in vention of the excellent architect Bernardo Buontalenti, who also was

nand had commissioned

among whom, we have no

doubt,

Duke

Vincenzo was one of the most rapturous. Besides Archilei, the singers Luca and Margherita Caccini participated in the singing and dancing.

The great success

Among

the

artists,

of the intermezzi called for several repetitions. such as Rinuccini and Count Bardi, the subject of

have come up for discussion. It had been a and Vincenzo Galilei began a dispute about the revision of the musical style. Even if Duke Vincenzo did not talk with the artists, it would have been strange if one who was continu
the music drama

may well

favorite one ever since Bardi

on the lookout for artistic novelties and employed agents to search for them had been apathetic on such an occasion. His later contacts
ally

with Florentine artists, the commissions he gave Rinuccini, the musi cians he drew from Florence to his residence, all prove that Vincenzo was an attentive listener. So it may be assumed that he returned to Mantua with new ideas to enliven still further the theatrical and musical
activities of his court.
11

Unfortunately, in the same year, 1589, his

own

grintermedi

See Bastiano de Rossi's fascinating description: Descrizione dell apparato e defatti per la commedia rappresentata in Firenze (1589).

MUSIC IN MANTUA
Teatro
di Corte, located in the beautiful Reggia,

burned down and

brought a temporary halt to his plans. The new musical possibilities of the theater had given fresh vigor to Vincenzo's passion for singers. When the time came, he seized upon the music drama, with its new style of virtuoso singing, as a most ap
for royal display, The style that evolved from the propriate vehicle music drama was to be called the stile rappresentativo because of its

use in stage presentations of musical and dramatic material. It was Vincenzo who discovered the possibility of adapting such a style to courtly
his own. The drama and comedy indeed, all of the arts had been put to good use for court display, but the music drama of all. Inherent in might well become the most glorious presentation

purposes of

less

the relations between art and the nobility was the fact that art was esteemed for its aesthetic value than as a symbol of princely power The new art of singing, the virtuoso star, employed and and
position.

fondled

by the prince, to the luster of the court.

dramatic music proper all were but additions But the brilliant singers and the elaborate

musical machinery would be purposeless without the important con tribution of the composer, whose genius would create the setting for the new ideal. Monteverdi was to supply the genius, but it was to be

many years
pointment

before he was called upon to do so. At the time of his ap to Mantua, Vincenzo had just witnessed the magnificent

Florentine spectacles, and there was no indication that Monteverdi would be asked to contribute his services in the field of dramatic music.

THE COMPOSERS IN MANTUA

When Monteverdi came to Mantua in the double capacity of singer

and instrumentalist, he must have been deeply impressed by the bril liance of the court life and cultural activities. The city's prosperity, material and cultural, had the appearance of lasting vitality, though
there

were

indications of an unhealthy

growth

that

would eventually

indications were to During Vincenzo's reign these produce seemed all but in well, even promis numerous indeed, 1590 grow very activities in Mantua were at least as lively and cultivated Musical ing. the churches of the city, especially as those in the other arts.
disaster.

Though

the cathedral of

S. Pietro,

were partly responsible for the

musical culture in Mantua, they did not approach that of court. The music at S. Barbara, the Cappella Ducale, surpassed instrumentalists and the other churches, since the musicians, singers,

vitality the standards at the

of

were always the best the court could provide.

l6o

RISE TO

FAME

the time of Monteverdi's arrival was prominent figure at as maestro di cappella He had Wert. de still Giaches resigned his post of the court. He was musician the remained but Barbara S. of leading

The most

called

upon

to

compose the

festival

Mass for the coronation of Vin

cenzo and half a year before the event notified the ducal secretary that he hoped to be able "in music to sing the praise of both the Saint and His Highness," indicating that the Mass was to be dedicated to St. Bar 12 bara and Vincenzo. His fame rested largely upon his numerous mad
rigals,

of which he published eleven books. Although his longest period of service was in the reign of Guglielmo, who favored religious music, he must have been held in special esteem by Vincenzo, who un In 1584, when still "Prince doubtedly preferred profane compositions. de Wert had set to music Giaches that learned Vincenzo of Mantua/' and requested a copy, canto cVal musico modi, Tasso's Qual gentil

should include any new madrigal he might adding that the composer have composed; in short, "the greater the number of your compositions our that are sent me, the more shall I be obliged to show gratitude at
convenience."
ls

on his return from the wedding of Ferdinand Man in Florence, Vincenzo was resolved to bring the music drama to No dated Muzio of letter a in Manfredi, note tua? There is a curious is mention in which to "Giaches written Duuert," and vember 20, 1591,

Are we

to assume that

made of the
14

of the Pastoral [Poema boschereccio] that "representation Manfredi had sent to the Duke, and for which music should be com
posed."

Was it composed in a monodic form, or in a set of madrigals? no more about the matter; but it seems to Unfortunately, we know
that the

show

Mantuan

efforts to attain dramatic

music were about

as

old as the discussions in Florence.

We

of Giaches de

Wert to the request.

also know nothing of the reaction That he was capable of a "dramatic"

madrigals. 15 that attracted Monteverdi.

he had amply proved in his latest rendering of a musical composition the was modern, dramatic style of his madrigals Indeed, it

The

successor of Giaches de

Wert

as

ducal church was Gian

Giacomo

Gastoldi.

From

maestro di cappella at the his youth he had been

a singer in Mantua, and in 1582 he was promoted to this leading posi12 gee A. Bertolotti, Musici alia Corte dei Gonzaga in Mantova dal secolo XV al

XVHI
13

" Ibid., p. 46.

15 1

(Milan, 1890), p. 46. See the letter, ibid., p. 45.

Mass.),

wish to express my gratitude to Dr. Alfred Einstein (Smith College, Northampton, who generously permitted mfe to study his copies of madrigals by Giaches de

Wert.

MUSIC IN MANTUA
tion.

l6l

His post involved

his

official duties as a

composer of religious music,

was large, though not compre and output of sacred compositions hensive from a liturgical point of view. His Masses were not numerous
and
his

motets were few, but

his

for the vespers, psalm compositions

and eight voices, and for the whole year, had an extraordinary success and were reprinted far into the seven teenth century. Gastoldi's world-wide fame, however, was based on his balletti. The native song was his chosen medium and harmonized The list of his works shows a balance be best with his
collections for four, five, six

temperament.

tween sacred and profane music, and the discrepancy between his natu Gastoldi. ral interests and his official functions caused no conflict in and the camera da musicians of court), (of Although the appointments fre activities their made were the Mesa da church), separately, (of of the musica da camera af Moreover, the
quently overlapped. fected that of the musica da

Mesa.

style Gastoldi,

who went

about the per

formance of his duties in church and at court without concerning him the balance self with the possible complications of his position, swung
native song. definitely in favor of the Monteverdi was quick to recognize Gastoldi's special gifts.

He

had

idiomatic qualities of the native akeady had his attention drawn to the of Gastoldi's profane compositions strengthened song, and his study his sense of rhythm. The dance rhythms that underlie Gastoldi's balletti of great simplicity that run through the proceed in regular patterns whole composition. The chosen pattern is repeated verse by verse, often the entire variation, and without the

composition.
close relation
is

slightest The balletto

frequently governs

more than any other category retained a with the dance. Indeed, in compositions whose rhythm

reduced to one pattern, we may safely assume that the dance is still an active force. Gastoldi ingeniously tapped the resources of powerful, and taught his contemporaries the proper use of rhythmic organizations these contribu Monteverdi accentuated rhythms. studiously observed his influenced and understanding of rhythmic tions of Gastoldi, they 16 other source. and more lastingly than any profoundly expressions Benedetto Pallavicino, the musician next in prominence to Gastoldi, served the Duke wa^EOToriteverdf, a native of Cremona and had He became maestro di cappella when Giaches de Wert since
^

1582.

Prunieres and others have advanced the theory that these pattern-like, rhythmic Monteverdi from the French metrical compositions of organizations were drawn by native song is the more the Royal Academy. In view of the early canzonette, the Italian shall discuss the theory at length together natural and historically correct source. with the analysis of the compositions.
i

We

162
died,

RISE TO

FAME

and held this post until Monteverdi succeeded him. His work re sembled that of Giaches de Wert, but was of somewhat less artistic and aesthetic value. His religious compositions were about as important as the comparable works of Giaches, and in his eight books of madrigals he followed the path of his predecessor. His madrigals were for from
four to
as
six voices,

bold nor

as

with five-part compositions predominating. Neither he was still an artist of con experimental as Giaches,

siderable merit, but his place is not among the great. His lack of origi on tradition may explain why Monteverdi took nality and dependence no special interest in his work. Consciously or unconsciously, Monte to the qualities verdi seems to have made a differentiation with

regard

in 1601 Pallavicino's post became the to Duke, in the first letter of his vacant Monteverdi submitted

of the

Mantuan composers.
his request to

When

that

be appointed "maestro de la camera et de la this letter he referred to the "famose sig. In musica." chiesa sopra to the "eccellente Giaches," to the "eccellente sig. Fran-

we have,

la

Striggio,"

sig.

We may
i 1

Pallavicino." ceschino," but also to the "soffitiente messer Benedetto into his qualifi be mistaken in derogatory

17

reading something

cation of Pallavicino as a "capable" (sufficiente) musician; nevertheless, between "fame" and "excellence" on the one side and "talent" on the

other there seems to be a distinction that is clear enough in any language. meant to differentiate in a subtle manner, the If Monteverdi
really

that the remark was made in such an official only element of surprise is document. The "Franceschino," mentioned in Monteverdi's letter is Francesco Rovigo, who, according to Mantuan documents, was a of Mantua from 1570 on, when he was sent to protege of the dukes Venice to study organ under the famous Claudio Merulo. Later, he for study in Germany, after which he must got a year's leave of absence 18 have promised to return and resume his service at the court of Mantua. his of him the grant, for the Duke had to remind Apparently, he abused the position of organist at the court church promise. Rovigo occupied of S. Barbara, as his death certificate of 1597 informs us. Monteverdi seven years of collaboration and men thought highly of him during as maestro di as one of his of 1 60 1 tioned him in the letter

predecessors

musica.

Two

other leading musicians in

Viadana and Salomone Rossi, or "Ebreo,"

attracted Monteverdi's attention a
17

Mantua were Lodovico Grossi da as he called himself. Both few years after he had begun to
p. 128,
p. 57.

Letter

No.

i,

ed. Malipiero, Claudio

alia

Monteverdi,
.

18

See Bertolotti, Musici

Cone

MUSIC
work
at the court.

IN

MANTUA

163

Lodovico came to Mantua in 1594 from Viadana, one of the Mantuan possessions. He was not connected with the court, but became maestro di cappella at the cathedral of S. Pietro. Of a strong,
he appears to have entered the order of the Franciscans pious nature, took over his duties at S. Pietro. In that capacity he he after shortly

remained nearly

in Mantua. Were long as Monteverdi worked Grossi's relations to Monteverdi of more than incidental significance
as
is

the assumption of nearly all historians? Grossi is commonly regarded as one of the precursors of modern musi share in the origins of the figured bass, although cianship because of his he was not its inventor. However, if we take an inner conflict with the
in the latter's development, as

choral polyphony of the sixteenth century as essential to the new style of modern music, we shall hesitate to count Grossi among those who led He hastened to comply with the secular character of the
opposition.

the coming age, as his canzonette and two books of madrigals prove, but his profane music has little or no importance in comparison with not his sacred compositions. This emphasis on religious music was the of out his official functions but goal forced on him

by

grew

he

set for himself

and for music in general: music should serve "ad

Grossi's compositions were created This holds true especially of his motets,

majorem gloriam Dei." Most of

to serve a liturgical purpose.

whose place within the order of the

the liturgies of

year he wished to

secure. This intimate relation to a religious service raises his sacred work above the level of merely personal piety and gives these composi the attempt to build up an impressive In a tions
objectivity.

profane age,

work must have cost the composer strenuous effort. There is no doubt that he drew on the sacred polyphony of the Netherlands, well be that the ideals of the Counter Reformation gave him and it
liturgical

col the enthusiasm necessary to carry out so difficult a task. An early com was in 1595, lection of his works, the vesper psalms, published "iuxta ritum sacrosanctae atque orthodoxae ecclesiae expressly posed

may

a standard formula used by composers who served Reformation. It is no accident that Grossi's Counter the ideals of the and pub taken soon work was up by Northern (Flemish) printers Northern that of with music of sacred in composers lished anthologies non of the sixteenth century, in one case even with a Mass of Clemens en most its Nor is it an accident that Grossi's work received

romanae." That

is

Papa.

a reception not confined to his thusiastic reception in the North to a famous Cento Concern Ecclesiastic? of 1602 but also accorded

large

body of

his liturgical

music. His religious purpose and his habit

64

RISE TO

FAME

of thinking in liturgical terms prevented him from opposing the North ern musicians. He could not possibly renounce the art of the past with out proposing a new end for his music. In view of these considerations, there is obviously no bridge between Grossi and Monteverdi. Grossi was only three years older than Monteverdi and belonged to the generation whose work would cover a third of the new century. nor even It was not, therefore, a difference in age that separated them, of music, but the difference between the sacred and secular purposes

a difference in

do we not think of the Cento Concerti Ecclesiastici as the work with which Grossi stepped forward of the concerto as a con It is true that the into the new
artistic style.

And

yet,

age?

principle

trast

between soloistic voices and basso continue accompaniment by the organ was applied by Grossi in his collection of 1 602. But his reasons for these innovations were decidedly negative. He had observed seri
ous defects in the musical performances given
tions connected with the cathedrals.

by

the choral organiza

the choirs, to say nothing of their most ludicrous performances of sixteenth-century choral polyphony, which required a well-trained and profusely equipped choir such as no longer existed in most churches. Since he could not hope to restore Grossi set out to offer a remedy choral institutions to their former
glory,

There were not enough singers in lack of training! He had heard the

He would compose motets to fit any situation, the available equipment. He composed concerti modest how matter no
in the composition
itself.

for one,

two or

into the harmonic

the conception

three parts, and shifted the "many-voiced" sonority was not accompaniment of the organ. This, clearly, of the structure of the modern composition but the

totally negative approach

of a soloistic

art,

of

monody with an accom

an eye to the future, but in the paniment. It was designed, not with in the music of the past. hope of saving all that could be salvaged that his melodic writing has shows concerti of Grossi' s close

analysis

the older Northern composition. There are passages whose lively mo tion at first glance suggests a modern treatment, but they are not an for special words organic part of the melody, only "ornamentations" in the text (Alleluja, radium, velociter, gloria, etc.), such as can be found even in compositions by Andrea Gabrieli. The contours of Grossi's melody are exactly those of polyphonic works of the sixteenth awareness of the function of century and are constructed with full

nothing in

common with

the

new form but

bears

all

the earmarks of

the voice within the whole polyphony But his melody can only sketch the general contours and must renounce the polyphonic relativity of

MUSIC
many
voices, so that
as

IN

MANTUA

165
soloistic

modern it is convincing neither as a Grossi differed and Monteverdi old an polyphonic type. melody nor Monteverdi even fundamental in their adopted one or ideas, though two features of Grossi's music in his sacred compositions. Monteverdi's relations with Salomone Rossi were much closer, for with Rossi was a thoroughly modern spirit and even collaborated essential an Monteverdi in later years. Rossi can hardly be regarded as im influence in Monteverdi's artistic growth, but he was certainly an more a at the Mantuan court and probably gifted portant musical figure either Lodovico Grossi or Benedetto Pallavicino. than composer Mantuan by birth, Rossi belonged to the historically famous Jewish

his family apparently enjoyed par city, in which 19 must His esteem. and ticular distinction extraordinary musical gifts to the drawn was he and a at have been recognized fairly early age, Like Monteverdi, court, perhaps at the time of Vincenzo's succession. and was Rossi was both a singer and an instrumentalist a violinist he where do not know as an instrumentalist in 1622.

community of the

still listed

We

received his musical training, possibly at the synagogue in Mantua, canticles in Hebrew, since he published a unique work, the psalms and introduced The volume was by Leo di Modena at Venice in

1621*

the use of the choral psalms in (or Juda da Modena), who explained and shows Rossi's in a is the Hebrew service. The work great rarity wkh the of the music the synagogue tention to harmonize religious
artistic style

of the period. Rossi was in sympathy with the profane most the For part, however, in that prevailed at the court. His canzonette and madrigals spirit late as book of madrigals for five voices, published cluding his fifth were all a direct outgrowth of the sixteenth-century tradi as 1622
tion in secular music,

21

and it was only after Monteverdi had left Mantua, from and surely under his influence, that Rossi finally turned away fame to claim his which on of 1628, In his
that tradition.
rests,

Madrigaletti

he gave his version of Monteverdi's

trio cantata, the

is

lent of the trio sonata. Rossi's originality

the great and

vocal equiva artistic value

so far as the stylistic behavior of his instrumental compositions high, but is concerned, the typically baroque of combination of the standard parts
"i. See Ed. Birnbaum, JwKscb* Musiker Musici alia Corte ... i89 3 rBertolotti,
1

am Hofe
t

lists

*u Mantua van 1 542-1629 (Vienna, him among the "musici straordinan as

SL

of the original. (Paris, 1877), gives 1620 as date an interesting study of this aiDr. Edith Kiwi (Jerusalem) has prepared

^S^JK?^1^ ^

Naumburg and Vincent d'Indy

work.

l66
form of the
a direct derivative

RISE TO
trio sonata did

FAME

from the vocal

not originate in instrumental music and is solo duet with accompaniment. In

Monteverdi's five-part madrigal the basic structure of the trio cantata had already been anticipated. With his keenly creative mind, Rossi was the first to carry over to instrumental music the principles of Monteverdi's vocal composition. This by no means diminishes his histor ical merits, which suffice to make him stand out on the threshold of
the

Monteverdi overshadowed the figures around him have here and made them appear smaller than they actually were.

new

age, but

We

of time, since Rossi's successful considerably anticipated the course new vocal style to instrumen the of to adapt the achievements
tal

attempt forms did not occur much before 1610, that verdi's stay in Mantua.

is,

at the

end of Monte

have named the leading Mantuan musicians who were associated with Monteverdi and exchanged ideas in frequent communications, each with something of particular value to contribute. Many other are but names musicians, listed in the records of the Mantuan Archives,
to the historian; and the lists are probably not complete, failing to re cord all the musicians who came and went after special performances.

We

convey, however incompletely, that surely gave the musical life at the court thing of the colorfulness its distinction, so that we can understand why Monteverdi was attracted

What these lists and names do

is

some

to

Mantua when he received his first appointment. The demands upon the musicians, singers, and instrumentalists were The regular services in the Court Chapel of S. Barbara re great. of work, and we may be sure that at least on Sun quired a great deal

the artistic tastes days there was a solemnity of performance befitting of the Duke. The heaviest burden of these services was undoubtedly but the participation of instrumentalists in church the carried

by

singers,

new style and the new age. profane at court were still greater. Vocal and the musicians side, the duties of instrumental music made a regular appearance, and on special occa
music increased with the
the
sions,

On

such

as receptions, feasts, entertainments for visiting guests,

both

contributed to the magnificence of a stately show. At all dances and balls the instrumentalists provided the music as a matter of course. To the demand for artistic recitals that would display the skills of
satisfy

of the harmonies performer and composer and allow an appreciation

court, camera, composed for familiar poetry, other gatherings were arranged. Vincenzo also managed to have frequent opportunities to hear his brilliant singers at weekly soirees on Fridays in the brilliant

of the

the

MUSIC

IN

MANTUA

167

Hall of Mirrors. There madrigals with or without instrumental ac companiment could be heard; there the virtuosi presented themselves for the admiration of connoisseurs; and there each new composition met its first critical audience. Every occasion required its own music, novelties were in continual demand, and the composer often had diffi culty in keeping up. This ever changing renewal of the musical reper tory is the true mark of vitality in musical activities, as the work of
the composer lives for the occasion, and the frequent occasions offer a perpetual challenge to the musician. Works of particular artistic

worth, enthusiastically acclaimed by the audience, were naturally called for repeatedly, but the essential element in this musical repertory was a continual renewal, an uninterrupted growth. No wonder that Monteverdi once complained to the Duke that he had no time left for the studies he was expected to pursue in order to gratify His High ness' taste. The large output of new compositions made frequent re hearsals necessary. Monteverdi did not approve of presenting unre hearsed compositions, even when he had the services of virtuosi, and at one time he reported that rehearsals of singers and instrumentalists

were taking place every day.

CHAPTER
NINE

Monteverdi in the Household of the CourtTlte Journeys

to

Hungary and FlandersInfluence

The French

position in

Mantua was not one of

great re

MONTEVERDI'S sponsibility. Although appointed as a violist and singer, he was

presumably expected to contribute compositions. He had made a name for himself as a madrigalist, and Vincenzo was the last person to over look any talent in those with whom he surrounded himself. That

Monteverdi was called upon as a composer from the very start seems to be confirmed by the publication on June 17, 1592, of his third book of madrigals, which he dedicated to Duke Vincenzo. His compositions

were in the nature of voluntary contributions, since his position did not include the obligation to compose. For a good many years Monte verdi's official position did not change, and his salary remained de plorably low. His letters are full of justified complaints that grow more
and more
bitter

sarily reflect the

every year. This inexcusable neglect did not neces Duke's appreciation of Monteverdi's gifts. Vincenzo

was never quick to pay his musicians and artists their due, though he was always ready to make enthusiastic use of their gifts. Among the court instrumentalists was one Giacomo Cattaneo, whose daughter Claudia was also a musician, a singer in the court household. Some time before 1595 Claudio Monteverdi and Claudia Cattaneo were married with the consent of the Duke. Claudia continued as a singer of the court, thus adding to the small income of the young couple. Shortly
168

MONTEVERDI IN HOUSEHOLD OF COURT

after his marriage, in 1595,

accompanied Duke Vincenzo on

Monteverdi was one of the musicians a campaign against the Turks.

169 who

No

such expedition could be undertaken without an impressive suite, and a good part of the ducal household went along with Vincenzo. In Hun 1593 the breakdown of peace negotiations between Turkey and
in his gary led to a sudden renewal of war, and in 1595 Rudolph II, an called army of together capacity as Emperor and King of Hungary, Sultan The III. Mohammed Sultan under allies cap against the infidels tured Erlan and defeated the army at Keresztes in 1596, but

Imperial

Mohammed's
to a
life

heart

was not

of leisure.

Thus

war and he left his troops to return the defeat did not lead to the serious conse
in the
is

quences it might easily

have had. Vincenzo

reported to have exhibited

in

the typical Gonzaga valor and

skill in battle

Hungary. The cam

a brilliant gathering of princes, and the extended paign brought about intervals between battles were pleasantly filled with entertainments.

Among the musicians who went on the adventurous journey were G. B.

Marinoni and Serafino Terzi, bass singers, Monteverdi, and Teodoro Bacchino, a "cantore castratto." Monteverdi makes no reference in but we know that he incurred debts for his letters to his
experiences,
his

a second soon to follow. campaign expenses on this journey, and on While Monteverdi was away -from Mantua, Claudia lived in Cremona

with

his father, Baldassare.

The
March

22, 1599,

second journey was a more peaceful affair. In a letter dated Vincenzo wrote his cousin, the Duke of Nevers, that

he was planning a trip to Flanders in order to visit the baths at Spa. It did not take long to complete the preparations, and early in June Vincenzo set out with his suite. The party passed through Trent on on June 7, proceeded to Innsbruck, where they arrived a week later, and northern the followed there From route, they July 2 they were in Basel. to where they stayed for a month. On August 1 1 of

by way

Nancy,

Spa,

on August 2 1 they were in Antwerp, they departed for Liege, and where Vincenzo took full advantage of the opportunities offered by the of many painters; he seems to have visited the studio of Otto
presence

van Veen, with whom Peter Paul Rubens studied. Either in Antwerp or in Brussels he met Rubens and apparently engaged him on the spot, of Francesco Marini in Brussels whether the later he for a
year
inquired
painter

has already left; if not, engaged there for my service * to him Mr. Marini should encourage depart as soon as possible." Vincenzo's party went to Brussels on August 26 and remained there
i

"whom I

See Baschet,

GBA, Vol.

20, p. 407.

170
for about four weeks.

RISE TO

FAME

On September 20 they began the journey home, and on October 15 arrived in Mantua. Monteverdi had been away for a little more than four months, and most of the time was spent in traveling. Only in Spa and Brussels was the and in both places a full program of festivities must stay prolonged, have kept everyone busy. The musician probably had little time for his own studies and explorations, but we can imagine that he might have visited some of the famous music printers in Antwerp and had other artistic Indeed, this has been affirmed, with particular
emphasis,
experiences. by his brother. Six years

had

been appointed at the famous Dichiaratione, a summary of Monteverdi's artistic In poser. to the 1607 edition of Claudio 's Scherzi musicali &
also

Cesare younger than Claudio, Giulio com and the Mantuan court as a musician

program, appended

tre voci, Giulio Cesare declared that his brother

brought home an

harvest from Spa in r 599. "Especially with regard artistically significant to the canto alia francese in this modern form which, now set to words of motets, now to those of madrigals, now to those of canzonette and

the printed publications of the last arias, one continually observes in three or four years, who had brought it back to Italy before he came from the baths of Spa in 1599? Who, before him, had begun to set it to
texts in Latin as well as in

our vernacular tongue? Did he not

now make

these scherzi?"

This passage has been the most controversial in the literature of

Monteverdi. Precisely what was it that Monteverdi brought home to a new artistic experience? It was once confirmed that the Italy as

French chanson

in the fashion of the sixteenth

century was the fruit

of his journey to Flanders, but this idea has been discarded, since it makes no sense historically. The French chanson was already well known in Italy, and no Italian in 1607 would have dared to present it
as a

novelty to

his

countrymen. Prunieres was the

first

to decry this

reference to the modern form of assumption, stressing Giulio Cesare's the canto alia francese as known only for a few years past, from 1601

or 1602 on. 3
2

The same

observation was

made by A. Heuss, who

also

Since the original: ticolare per il quattro anni in qua si va mirando, hor sotto a parole de motetti, hor de madregali, hor di canzonette, e d'arie, chi fu il primo di lui che lo riportasse in Italia di quando venne da li bagni di Spa, 1'anno 1599, e chi incommincio a porlo sotto ad orationi lattine e a vulgari nella nostra lingua, prima di lui? non fece questi scherzi all'hora?'" (Malipiero,
this
. .

passage has often been translated inaccurately or too freely, we quote . "haverebbe non pochi argomenti in suo favore, mio fratello, in parcanto alia francese in questo modo moderno che per le stampe da tre o

Monteverdi, pp.
3

Sif.)

Dichiaratione delta Lett era Stampata nel Qidnto Libro de suoi Madrigali was apparently written in 1605, but published in 1607; for Giulio Cesare begins his declara-

The

MONTEVERDI

IN

HOUSEHOLD OF COURT

the words "questo moderno modo," and found that the singled out folklike character of the scherzi, the use of the instrumental ritornelli, 4 and the instrumental style reflected French influence. Louis Schneider, to the Monteverdi biographer, scarcely went beyond a bare reference 5 correct at a arrive to serious more The the Dichiaratione. attempt 6 that of Prunieres. He went further than any other interpretation was music historian and maintained that Monteverdi discovered in Spa the h of Barf s Academy, whose composers created the musique mesuree Thibault Le Jeune, V Antique, in imitation of ancient meters. Claude de Courville, Jacques Mauduit, and Du Caurroy were among the chief of these composers. Since collections of their work had already been Prunieres suggested that the three volumes of published in Belgium, Du Caurroy were studied by Monteverdi and Le music

Jeune by while he was in Spa.

He believed that Monteverdi was

"doubtless

little

7 or in the theories of the interested in Baif's classical researches/' a French verse, but that he was certainly struck by the elegant rhythmic

formulae of certain chansonettes mesurees and was inspired by them Monte in his Scherzi musical^ On the other hand, Prunieres stated that
in verdi did not "attempt to compose airs to Italian poetry written it existed. In common with a of deal a good antique meters, although French musicians, he preferred to take rhymed stanzas large number of and to deduce from the general rhythm of the verse a metrical formula 8 in to which he adapted the melody." He supposed that Monteverdi elecultivated had musicali his compositions previous to the Scherzi
tion:

"A few months ago there appeared in print a letter of my brother Claudio Monte fifth book of madrigals verdi" This is, of course, the Lettera ai Studiosi, added to the in the passage, of 1605 as Monteverdi's reply to Artusi's attack. The reference, quoted be related to 1605, not 1607. to a period "three or four years past" must, therefore, mentions the pamphlet, now Since Giulio Cesare at the beginning of the Dichiaratione Monteverdi under the pseudonym Antonio lost, which Artusi published against must have been published in 1605, not Braccini da Todi," it is clear that this pamphlet These dates are not without bearing upon the as has been 1606 or
1607

suggested.

theory concerning the canto alia franc ese. ^ Alfred Heuss, "Die Instxumentalsuicke des Orfeo," in
I7

T ,,~ TXT SIMG, IV

(1902-1903),

'L. Schneider, Claudia Monteverdi

lation
is

(Paris, 1921), pp. 5 8ff. Schneider's

French

trans

frequently incorrect.

Henry 'Especially in his biography of Monteverdi, pp. 15^ 4^and "Monteverdi i "Monteverdi and French Music," in The Sackbut (London, 9 ), or The essays are more e la Musica Francese del suo tempo," in RaM, II (1929), 483^in Prunieres' book on Monteverdi. less literal translations of the chapter however, p. 47' "Monteverdi, who was T Prunieres, Claudio Monteverdi, p. 16; see,

See also

Prunieres,

who was at the time seeking most profoundly influenced by humanistic ideas, and the problems which he could not solve Plato and the Greek philosophers a solution to could not fail to be interested with the sole assistance of the theorists of musical art, in the French researches."
.,

pp. 481.

172

RISE TO

FAME

ments of melody and harmony but "had somewhat neglected rhythm," and that the French music in ancient meters awakened in him new extended the French influence still rhythmic intensities. Prunieres further and maintained that Monteverdi also studied the airs de cour

and vaudevilles in Flanders in order to adapt their qualities to Italian between the instrumental ritornello composition, and that the relation and the vocal part in the Scherzi musicdi, as well as their simple har monic structure without dissonances, is derived from French influence. that a special arrangement found in a few com Finally, he pointed out must have been carried over from France to Monteverdi of positions the Italian music. The nature of the arrangement was this: In soloistic
of the melodic phrase for performance, one voice brings the statement one line; the statement is repeated but harmonized by a full choir in tutti form; the next line has the new melodic phrase, first in solo, then
in full harmonization
alternating.

by the choir; and

so on, line

by line,
is

solo

and

tutti

From

all this, it

seems that Monteverdi learned various

their exact nature techniques, and the problem of

worth further

study.

We know that in the early days of the Academy in Paris around 1570,
under Bai'f and Courville, the methods and characteristics of measured music were among the most jealously guarded secrets. At performances

no one in the audience was allowed to make copies of the music, which was played from manuscripts which no one was permitted to touch. And so the first collections which made "measured" music accessible to had died. In 1 5 86 Jacques all appeared in the eighties after the Academy
Mauduit published his Chansonettes Mesurees; and eight years later Le Roy and Ballard brought out the Airs, mis en musique a 4 & $ by Claude Le Jeune. All the other works of Le Jeune in measured form

book appeared in the next century: Le Printemps in 1603, the second of the Airs in 1608, and the French psalms "en vers mesurez" in 1606. In Antwerp the printer Christopher Plantin published the Livre de Melanges de C. Le Jeune in 1585. Two years before Monteverdi's visit
Phalese in Antwerp had printed the anthology Le Rossignol Musical de$ Chansons de diverses et excellens autheurs de nostre temps (1597),

which contained, among compositions of Philippe de Monte, Sweelinck, Alfonso Ferrabosco and others, six works by Le Jeune and one by Du Caurroy. But none of the compositions in these collections, quoted

by Prunieres as Monteverdi's source, had anything to do with the prin

ciples of the at the

academic musique mesuree. Monteverdi may have called printing office of Phalese and have seen Le Livre de Melanges and

MONTEVERDI

IN

HOUSEHOLD OF COURT

173

Le Rossignol Musical; but even so, he could not have approached the measured music of the French Academy through them. To familiarize
the collec himself with that style of music, he would have had to study in or Brussels; there tions of the eighties. He may have seen them, in Spa
is

a against such hypothesis. moderno modo," was really the meas novelty of style, "questo ured music of the Academicians, would Giulio Cesare have said that the the novelty had made its way in the publications (per le stampe) of cannot make the dates agree, nor do last three or four years only? we believe that the music of the French Academy was such a novelty to

no evidence for or
If the

We

Monteverdi that he decided to bring

reasons for this conclusion. First:

it

to Italy.

There are two main

The measured music, composed in close accordance with the principles of the old Academy of 1570, was no longer a "modern" manner of composing when Giulio Cesare wrote the defense of his brother. Historically, it was on the way out by 1610
and had no international influence, because it was too artificial and too closely linked with French verse. The later reprints of French were called for, not because of the musique psalm compositions The French musique mesuree was but for mesuree, religious reasons. of importance only within the circle where it originated and had no 9 effect on the international musical situation.

The second reason is that the rhythmic order of Monteverdi's Scherzi

rmsicali

not derived from the text as are the rhythms of the French relation between long music, where the rigid schemes regulating the the and musical and short values are not primarily rhythm as a whole line the same in is text meter, by line, the musical is without a beat. If the the consistent composition. Monteverdi throughout rhythm is similarly his in of scherzi, but this consist a also maintains
is

consistency

rhythm

musical pattern organized by a regular ency comes from a rhythmic the basic beat. His patterns are outgrowths of the dance song; they are dance rhythms of Italian native songs and are close to the patterns of some of Gastoldi's Balletti and the rhythms Orazio Vecchi chose for
his native songs.

The of the qualities of the native song, carried out in his canzonette. the on based is following rhythmic pat scherzo Giovinetta Ritrosetta
tern:
et de musique," in See D P Walker, 'The Aims of Baifs Academic de poesie I (1946), piff. For the latest and most Journal of Renaissance and Baroque Music, see the magnificent work of FrancesA. comprehensive study of the French Academy the Sixteenth Century (University of London: The Yates^rfc* French Academies of

They are also related to

Monteverdi's previous studies

Warburg Institute,

1947).

RISE TO

FAME

These rhythms, deeply rooted

in the tradition of Italian

dance songs,
its

with their repetitions, regulate the beat motion, strengthens the forceful pattern.

and the

bass,

with

equalized

They are typical of the scherzi of the French musique those resemble not do and of Monteverdi, in mesuree. Exactly the same rhythmic order, with the same pattern
the upper duet and the same motion in the bass, occurs in Monteverdi's Amoroso, pupilletta, and a number of other scherzi. To support his thesis that the meters of the French chansonette mesuree and Monteverdi's rhythms in the scherzi are identical, Pru
nieres placed an example

from Claude Le Jeune's Le Printemps

tutta bella side

( 1

603

and Monteverdi's Damigella. the rhythms seem to be alike:

by

side.

10

At

first

glance

Ex.47
j&i -

ve-

-nir

Au frm-Unif*

U.noti- rtu-

se it

bel-

le

ww

Monteverdi

X,*o

Oi-tni

gel-la,

Tut-ta.

bel-

la.

Versa.

r-^el

btl

vln-

The resemblance is
totally different.

Le Jeune

the short and long syllables one of the favorite native dance patterns, in which the continual shift, Monteverdi's rhythm is to is measure measure, from typical.

are only superficial; in essence, the two examples arrives at the rhythm by strict adherence to of the text. Monteverdi, however, chooses

by

fundamentally musical, but the and quantities of the text, qualities

to the

French composer must follow the

if his

composition

is

to be acceptable

Academy.

11

An
10
11

musicali analysis of the Scherzi

shows clearly

that Monteverdi's

See Prunieres in RaM, II, 484, 488. See D. P. Walker, "The Influence of Musique mesuree a 1'antique, Particularly on the Airs de Cour of the Early Seventeenth Century," in Musica Discipline II (1948), in i48f. Walker rejects Prunieres' thesis. The characteristic rhythm of 6/8 and 3/4 the ritornello of Orfeo has correctly been explained by Peter Epstein, "Zur Rhythmisierung eines Ritornells von Monteverdi," in AfMW, VIII (1926-1927), 4i6rT.

MONTEVERDI

IN

HOUSEHOLD OF COURT

175
which

influenced by the principles rhythmic thinking was in no way the French composer of the Academy. It cannot have been the guided Giulio Cesare had in mind when he praised rhythmic organization that
his

brother for bringing the modern type of the canto

in

alia

francese to

Italy.

But what did he have

of the canto, not the
Italians,

mind? In the

first

place,
is

canzonet alia francese. It

Giulio Cesare speaks that the

significant

chanson as form or category, speaking of the French their language; the as canto word the used equivalent in rarely, if ever, Cesare may, therefore, Giulio canzona. the of they invariably spoke manner of singing, to a performance to a have been

when

special referring rather than to any particular musical category. Indeed, this becomes certain if we take another part of his statement into consideration. All

interpreters that the modern

of the passage have disregarded Giulio Cesare's remark form of the canto alia francese can be found in music

set to motets, madrigals, canzonette, arias.

This clearly rules out any the chanson and the chansonette mesuree. category whatever, including Canto alia francese, therefore, has reference to a manner of perform connected with ance, perhaps to a particular structural arrangement In the performance, but not to a specific category. referring to his later French of influence music, Monte he admitted the compositions, where chansonette or verdi never used the term canzona, chanson, canzonetta,
for he did not imply any category but a manner of per hence used the phrase cantare alia francese, or canto alia formance, and the term to religious compositions as he himself Since applied francese. the madrigal alike, there can no and the motet to to well as
alia francese,
12

13 about the implications of Giulio Cesare's remarks. longer be any doubt In the eighth book, the Madrigali Guerrieri et Amorosi, Monteverdi included two five-part madrigals, Dolcissimo uscignolo and Chi vol

profane,

of these has the explanatory remark that it is to be cantato a voce plena, alia francese, with the additional indication in the soprano part as solo and canto in tuono. This latter term means

haver

felice.

The

first

Norton, 12 Manfred F. Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era (New York: Monteverdi came in contact with the vers mesure "during his 1947) P- 39 states in Flanders; he passed through Lorraine only on stay in France." Monteverdi stayed to the Scherzi he did not his speedy trip from Basel to Spa. Monteverdi's "preface" in the does not contain the reference to French music; it appears only write

W. W.

canzonetta alia francese is Dichiaratione of his brother. Furthermore, the designation not to be found in Monteverdi's works at all. (Pans, June, 1924), 2745., is is In his review of Prunieres' book A. Pirro, in RM, in the interpretation of the passage in Giulio Cesare s considerably more reserved

any

Dichiaratione.

76

RISE TO
is,

FAME
late as

voice and singing with full

plena.

The

therefore, identical with cantor e a voce cantato a voce has second madrigal only the prescription

Both compositions, though published as pienx, alia francese. Monteverdi also presented a a considerably earlier date. 1638,
suggest

motet

the third version of Confitebor tibi Domine, a in the late collection Selva Morale of 1640. psalm paraphrase, published The title of this version is Confitebor terzo alia francese, and like the
alia francese. It is

with thorough bass. it is composed for five voices preceding versions The composition can be accompanied by a quartet of viole da braccio, which must be sung a voce sola. This is except for the first soprano, two is in the French manner, as in the necessary because the singing of material musical uses par This Confitebor surprisingly madrigals. took this ticular interest and is, at least in part, a parody. Monteverdi in the material from the madrigal Chi vol haver plice, as may be seen
solo passages of the beginning:

Ex. 48

vin, 280

Cki

vol

ha.

ft-

II-

ce

lie-te

i!

co-re,

TO*

st-flui

CTu4

a.-

w-

rt

SopriLtvoI

e-bff

it-

fci

Do-

-mi-

tie

i*

to-U

cor -

j-nnifj
con-iili-

n
jnsts-

m
jjre-

de

me

ram

et

COT-

$.-

tl

occur in the course of the motet, the use of Although some deviations the madrigal as a model remains clear. The deviations were necessary because the text of the psalm paraphrase was considerably longer than
that of the madrigal All three works have another feature in

common:

in each of

them

the musical material of a verse or text phrase is first presented solo in the highest part of the composition and then repeated in full chorus, retained in the upper part but harmonized by the other with the

phrase

voices.

The

and harmonized
principle

with alternations of solo statement composition proceeds not always in a fixed pattern. The repetition, though

of alternation, however, is common to all compositions alia treatment of two francese and may perhaps also be seen in Monteverdi's
lines in his grandiose psalm motet Dixit Dominus, for six voices and six are instruments, with ritornelli to be played ad libitum. The lines

MONTEVERDI
"Virgam
in
1

IN

HOUSEHOLD OF COURT

177

virtutis tuae,"

6 10, differs in

and "Juravit Dominus." The motet, published every other respect from works in the pure French

fashion.

Prunieres pointed to this arrangement as one that Monteverdi took over from the French composers and quoted an example from Pierre

Guedron, the "Superintendent of music" under the French kings Henry

IV and

Louis XIII. 14

Ex. 49

3E
t-J

FT
Cour for four and five parts appeared from

Pierre Guedron's Airs de

1602 on. Since Monteverdi transplanted the technique literally, he was doubtless familiar with this form of the air de cour, of which Guedron

by no means the only representative. These French airs were popular after Monteverdi's return from Flanders, and Duke Vincenzo himself
is

Paris

expressed an interest in them. I. B. de la Clyelle wrote the Duke from on November 25, 161 r, that at his request he had found and sent

en musique derniers imprimeez du Sr. Q. Guedon chambre de Roy." 15 This is, of course, Pierre Guedron. The specifically French form of alternating structure implies a repe tition of the solo melody, harmonized by the choir. Mere alternation of solo and tutti passages was known in Italy and widely practiced there, as in Monteverdi's first Confitebor, composed for three solo parts and
to
"les airs

Vincenzo

ministre de la

five choral voices, in ripieni. In his presentation of three stylistically

varying versions of the Confitebor, Monteverdi clearly indicated that only the third was alia francese. At this point a problem arises concerning the Scherzi musicali. In the original text, the connection between the canto alia francese and the scherzi is not as clear as has always been assumed. Giulio Cesare
14
15

Prunieres in
Bertolotti,

RaM,

II,

491.

Musici

alia

Cone

P- 93-

178

RISE TO

FAME
the rhetorical

praised his brother as an artist alia francese into Italian music.

question:

and cited the introduction of the canto

As further praise, he asked

"And did he not now compose these Scherzi?" This

does not

necessarily link the scherzo with the canto. Be this as it may, some of the scherzi have a feature that seems related to the special structural ar

rangement

we

have mentioned. All of the scherzi, written for three

voices, have instrumental ritornelli, to be played in the two upper parts by two "violini da braccio," in the bass part by a chitarrone or clavicem balo or "another similar instrument." At the beginning, the ritornello

twice, then the three voices sing the first stanza; the second stanza may be sung by a soprano solo and accompaniment (in the same manner as the Confitebor terzo alia francese with the soprano a voce sola, and the four viole da braccio accompanying) but the last stanza must again be sung by all three voices. After every stanza the instrumental ritornello is to be repeated. Quite apart from performing the scherzo solo and tutti, a few of these little compositions link the ritornello and the stanza closely together on the basis of common musi cal material. The closest link exists in the scherzi Dolci miei sospiri and Giovinetta ritrosetta. Other scherzi anticipate the material of the stanza only in the second section of the ritornello or in one of the instrumental parts; still others give the material of ritornello and stanza in free varia tion; and in a number of scherzi there is no relationship at all. Wherever the instrumental ritornello anticipates by quotation the music of the stanza, a French influence is possible. Moreover, the function of the ritornello before and between the stanzas may be taken as an influence of the airs de cour; but of this we are not at all sure.
,

must be played

CHAPTER TEN

The Mantuan Madrigals

THE THIRD BOOK

madrigals for publication. They appeared in Venice in that year, with a dedication to his patron, Vincenzo of Gonzaga, and without any
reference to his being a disciple of Ingegneri. In the dedication Monte verdi offered his services as a composer to the Duke, pointing out sig nificantly that though his viola playing had opened "the fortunate door
that composition
it was merely the flower of his musicianship, and was the true fruit. The madrigals of the third book, though more mature, more con centrated, and emotionally deeper, present no stylistic changes. A

BY

1592 Monteverdi,

as

we

have seen, had collected a

new

set of

to service" at Mantua,

change, however, is noticeable in the choice of texts: Giambattista Guarini begins to replace Torquato Tasso. No lyrical poems by Tasso appear, but another work of his now holds Monteverdi's interest: the

Gerusalemme

Hberata.

From

the sixteenth canto the composer chose

three stanzas (58, 59, and 63), which he grouped together in a succes sion of three madrigals; and from the twelfth canto he selected three
stanzas (77, 78, 79), for another group of three madrigals. The central subject of the twelfth canto is the ill-fated fight between Tancred and Clorinda that ends in Clorinda's tragic death. Left alone with his

Tancred

despair, bursts forth in lament over the wretchedness of his future life

pursued by the furies of his fate: "Vivro fra i miei tormenti e le mie cure, Mie giuste furie, forsennato, errante" (I shall live with my torments and toils, amidst my furies well deserved, a man maddened and unsettled).

The sixteenth

canto centers around a no

179

less

intense situation: the

passioned scene in which Rinaldo abandons Armida,

who

im him implores

l8o
to stay.

RISETOFAME
When
is

all

her pleading

fails,

in her wrath she utters a curse

(58, 59) and

left alone,

These passages present Here are no gentle tones of enchanting tragic emotions.

"deserto e muto," to pitiful despair (63). climactic scenes, embodying passionate and
lyricism,

but

dramatic pathos, expressed akin. is to this Tasso that Monteverdi feels himself ing. It From Guarini, Monteverdi selected eight poems, one of them, of the third act of his Pastor fido, primavera gioventu, from the opening a pastoral drama that had just been published in 1 590. Guarini's lyricism closer to seventeenthis more baroque than that of Tasso and therefore one respect Guarini followed than more in century poetry, although Tasso in his lyrics and especially in his Pastor fido, which can hardly be imagined without Tasso's Aminta. But after Tasso lyrical expres rhetorical sion becomes more artificial and indirect. Images, metaphors, the poet and the world. They increase in number between stand phrases, and are perhaps more resounding; they have an appearance of greater the refinement and are certainly more subtle; but they speak more of

in the language of tragedy and human suffer

world and

of the poet. In that sense, directness of poetical expres not sion has diminished. The greater refinement, however, is relative,
less

even redundant absolute, for the added subtleties are ornate, minute, a with elaborated are sinuosities. The images redundancy that is the
result of the poet's indulgence in fluency and sonority. His personal more detailed and less involved in his poems than his highly feelings are emotional verses might lead the reader to suppose. Masterly locutions,
situation, employed to describe a single object, feeling, sheer sound of the words, add to the musical character of the poetry. Guarini's poems offered most limitless opportunities to musicians, who

or

often for the

used them repeatedly. Another effect of the ever varied locutions was to place the emphasis
in man, in human feelings and human rela and fancies immaterial was exalted above re material in tions, things This stress on appearance in the conduct of life, as well as in ality.

on appearance. Appearance

was based on a code that regulated every action and Guarini once criticized the philosophy of courtly life, which expression. confounded appearance and reality. He said he had thought that
artistic expression,

the more they lived in abundance, since he princes were more humane believed humaneness to be the noble fruit of cultural wealth. But he

found the contrary to be true. In appearance, the nobility speak politely; in reality, their acts of politeness are rare. In appearance, they seem fierce. Things gentle and affable; in reality, they are haughty and

THE MANTUAN MADRIGALS

virtues usually considered

l8l

lov speaking the truth, acting righteously, inviolable faith, leading a ing sincerely, being truly pious, having blameless life all these they hold to be signs of a base mind and a mean
spirit.

others.

or law; they have no restraint and no respect for love or for life. To them, nothing is sacred or beyond the reach of their greed and lust.

They cheat, lie, steal, and enrich themselves at the expense They have no merit, no valor, and no reverence for age, rank,

of

They are people of appearance alone (Gente sol d'apparenza). Few men have taken to task the rulers of their time with so much
bitterness

and

severity,

masters

all his life.

He knew

but Guarini himself was a servant to such their thought and conduct, for he had

observed them at court after court in Italy and abroad. Experience had to be all subtle, sweet refinement, taught him that though they appeared in reality they were rotten to the core. Yet, did he himself behave so his musical and ornate verse itself an appearance differently? Was not surface of reality? Though Guarini might confined to the
glittering

condemn the shrill

discords of

life

less

poetry to the fascinating appearances addicted to the fine art of representation than were the princes whom he censured; and if he "humanized" poetry, if he sang of human
emotions in musical phrases, we do not test his sincerity against his in fact, he most skillfully veiled. Human emo personal feelings, which, as part of man's behavior toward the world, tions,
publicly displayed

own

in public and in private, he of the world.

He

added his was no

were the subjects that called forth made his poems serve appearance.
sions

his

resounding flow of words, that

This objective, yet highly emotional, presentation of human pas drew Monteverdi to Guarini and accelerated the composer's ap

In this respect, the third book of madrigals proach to the baroque age. the dramatic scenes of Tasso and the passion opened a new vista. Both his ate lyricism of Guarini guided him toward the future. Although tried to his use continued Monteverdi new aspects,

subjects presented and tested style, merely increasing the number of his devices. The allowed him a still further advance and a more

madrigalesque style

in expressing his new vision of certain characteristics masterly control of composing whose flexibility he had already manner a in in poetry

probed. In the

two collections, the initial madrigal indicated the stylistic we can discover no such indication in the first madrigal but program, in of the third book. The work is not even especially distinguished exof such some are there For in the collection. comparison with others
first

182

RISE TO

FAME

a mas cellence as to suggest (for the first time in Monteverdi's career) the limitations of his era. His settings of Guarini's transcends that tery volto or of Tasso's cycles give promise primavera and Perfidissimo of a greatness amounting to musical immortality. itself in a In these madrigals Monteverdi's greater artistry manifests for ex uses his to personal skillful adaptation of the canzonetta style obscures thus he a In text. sense, the to in relation pressive purposes the canzonetta the stylistic features that belong to the category, but it is of phrase and a his to brevity compositions precision style that imparts a contrapuntal for basis the becomes it that so transformed now totally of the style. The phrase now a technique which was not originally part func becomes a motif for a section of the madrigal in which the motif

tions as the basic material of the counterpoint.

At times, Monteverdi them according to the^rules uses two motifs simultaneously, handling in a few compositions used had he a of a double counterpoint, technique no more than are Some of the second book. supplied with
madrigals three or four such motifs of central significance. The contrapuntal function of the motif is asserted not only in the imitation by single
voices but also in an imitation

groups of voices, especially the duet form with a bass part, which has been previously described. When a group in the form of a trio appears successively in low, mid

by

full

in

madrigals accordance with a counterpoint that remained as free and unsystematic, as unpredictable and original, as before. This tech to knit together shorter passages as well as nique helped the composer
artistically in

and high ranges, there result from this peculiar "polyphony" color the second effects which have also been observed in some madrigals of more these out worked Monteverdi elaborately and book.
dle,

of the madrigal, larger sections

and

this

was no small

the gain, since

split

melodic cadences,
composition.
falling apart.
It
is

as

frequent

as ever,

have a tendency to

the skillful

counterpoint that keeps the sections

up the from

Monteverdi's preoccupation with the possibilities of the motif where he wanted brought out some idiosyncrasies. In compositions to stress the emotional element, the first motif is stated soloistically
in

without accompaniment by any other manner: atory

full,

part,

and in a declam

Ex. 50
Tenor*

in

A-Vt

TJ.

gio.ytn-li dc

IVn-

no

PrrH-dl

THE MANTUAN MADRIGALS

As though by
imitation, the motif
is

183

taken up immediately

by

whole group of voices, by a trio for instance, and in harmonization. the This procedure sets off the initial motif in such a way as to enhance attributes to it, not so much for the structural the
composer importance function he expects it to perform
for the emotional quality he intends the motif is invented iri it to convey. And when the special form of that is close relation to the text, the solo performance has a poignancy musical of Monteverdi's to become characteristic expression:
as

Ex. 51
Ca.nt
t

III

Tenon

co

me t t<jwi m w t

Vtt-

it-Tit

pw

cm-del

(la.

do-

The two Tasso examples show that, in keeping with the text, Monte
verdi

works out

in the motif a declamatory pathos

individual interval

which gives the feature that Another extraordinary expressiveness.

becomes more and more a mark of his personal style appears in motifs one that have a monotonous declamation of considerable length on text and the to relation a direct have motifs These tone always
only.

may be one of the fruits of Monteverdi's study They give the effect of simple recitation and
motifs with the most passionate exclamations:

of canzonetta melody. can be as poignant as

Ex.

52,1

in

Se

pr

- ttremo

irto- TC

tu-sr

rt

In a descending

line:

Poi

cW

ella (terza forte),

Tasso:

Ex. 52,2
^_
Alta

p.f

P
it-

irr-toewu-

to

414*
:

mi- TAT

f.

te

Ma dove

o lasso (seconda parte)

Ex. 52,3

tto

le

Ti-U-iMiedl cr.jp*

c*

Us

184
and Ex.
52,4

RISE TO

FAME

pr
We
I

ir
r

r l-ve
Ir- ri *

m
It
is

cui

Vow-

U-

ro* tut

|pn'-

wa

two Tasso

motifs occur in the noteworthy that most of these declamatory that these motifs are related to the we assume Can cycles.

dramatic character of the scenes? The composer has not yet fully clarified his intentions, but there is no doubt that the motifs have an and that in these madrigals Monteverdi was ahead expressive purpose of his time. Ma dove o lasso, with its haunting melancholy, reveals his dramatic gifts, and Stracciami pur il core by Guarini is perhaps the

most

artistic

and

skillful

1 collection. composition in the whole

In the third book of madrigals Monteverdi has equaled, and some times excelled, the best madrigalists; here he is the equal even of Luca Marenzio, whose genius, though with different aims and different ways
of expression, had set high artistic standards for the madrigal. Though the scanty material rewards he received show that the court of Mantua
in general

and Vincenzo in particular paid no immediate attention to the startling rise of the young genius, Monteverdi's work had begun to attract the attention of the artistic world. Besides the many editions of the third book which became necessary in the course of time, his

to appear in other countries as among the best compositions began the field of madrigalesque composition. The rich in Italian productions
autori, anthology, Fiori del Giardino the German printer Paul Kaufmann published in Nuremberg in 1597, offers an interesting survey. Monteverdi with seven works and Luca

di diversi eccelentissimi

which

Marenzio with the same number are the leaders in the repertory of such composers as Gastoldi, Benedetto fifty-eight compositions by Pallavicino, Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli, Claudio Merulo, Massaino, G. M. Nanini, Francesco Rovigo, Orazio Vecchi, and Giaches de Wert. In the estimation of foreign observers, Monteverdi now shares in the
others had enjoyed for some time. the third book were later chosen for apprecia tive discussion by Doni, who referred to them, particularly to Rincanti

fame which

Some madrigals from

in pace, in his Annotazioni sopra verdi's position also exposed

him

il compendia de* generi. Monte to attentions of an unfriendly nature.

1 In connection with Stracciami pur il core, Redlich, Claudio Monteverdi, pp. 69f., has quoted the technical analysis of this madrigal by P. Martini, Sagglo fondamentale (1775), II, iSoff. Redlich has justly called attention to Martini's extraordinary analyses of Monteverdi's madrigals.

THE MANTUAN MADRIGALS

Certain madrigals in the third
generation, music. It is significant that when, about 1600, Artusi

185

whose

ideals

book aroused the suspicion of the older were formed in accordance with the Northern

made

himself the

Monteverdi was the target, not spokesman of this critical faction, nor any other madrigalists, no da Gesualdo nor Venosa, Marenzio, out as the victim of Artusi's was he matter how radical.

Why

singled

vicious polemic?

The compositions under attack were not in themselves of far-reaching importance or profound interest. The attack is indirect

had set out to oppose the Northern school and proof that Monteverdi to make his madrigal the medium for undermining the music of the past. Monteverdi was indeed the pacemaker among musicians, and however narrow-minded Artusi might have been, he was still keen enough to
take him as a target

worthy of his

aim.

THE END OF THE CENTURY: THE FOURTH BOOK

works had been published in regular suc 1592, Monteverdi's a sudden halt. His next publica cession, but after the third book, there is five for voices, does not appear until tion, the fourth book of madrigals

Up to

know that Monteverdi was occupied eleven years later, in 1603. and these of with the composition madrigals for a good many years, in made Nevertheless, been have must some of them manuscript. public of his artistic career remains largely unaccount this gap the longest and able. At twenty-five Monteverdi was in the prime of his youth,
he was living at though not in a particularly distinguished position, one of the most musical courts in Italy. He had advanced logically, with undiminished energy, and clearly knew where he systematically, was going. Then came this sudden stop. Was he overburdened with he duties that took all his time and strength? In the inferior position leader of the and without responsibilities occupied for many years, this could hardly be true. Indeed, when he writes to the Duke in ship, the position as "maestro de la camera e de la chiesa," 1 60 1, applying for service but does not say that he has been over devoted he mentions his
burdened with work. This complaint, however, was to become frequent
in later years.

We

Vincenzo on the campaign against the Turks and was away from

have already mentioned three events of personal importance that occurred during this period. His marriage with Claudia Cattaneo took or shortly before. In that same year he accompanied place around 1595

We

Mantua until about the middle of 1 596. His second journey, to Flanders, Allasted from the beginning of June to the middle of October, 1599.

86

RISETOFAME
may
account for the
loss

together, his two journeys time.

of a full year of

productive In his aggressive pamphlet, published in 1600, Artusi quoted from three madrigals, two of which appear in the fourth book of 1603 and

book of 1605. This obviously implies that by 1599 Artusi knew Anma mm perdona and its second part, Che se tu se'il cor of the fifth book, mio, as well as Cruda Ammlti, the opening madrigal about on those worked have so that Monteverdi must madrigals by have must book third the of the madrigals 1598. On the other hand,
one in the
fifth

been completed late in 1591, since the printed dedication is dated June, seven years in which no composition 1592. This leaves a gap of six or be narrowed down to an interval can the is recorded. At best, gap
of five years. Monteverdi dedicated his fourth book to the Accademia 2 which was founded shortly after the death of degli Intrepidi, Duke Alfonso II d'Este. In this dedication Monteverdi says he origi the madrigals to Alfonso II, but that be nally planned to submit cause of the death of the Duke in 1 597 nothing came of it. He now dedi cates these madrigals to the academicians, saying that they are familiar

with

many

of them, but that

is

some have been newly composed. Duke

Vincenzo of Mantua Accademia for some

time. 3

been the "principal" of the reported to have The composition of some madrigals that
1597.

now stand in the fourth book can thus be dated back to

But what

ever his activity in composition, there was no effort on Monteverdi's these eleven years, and it would seem that he part to publish during must have had some reason to refrain from the publication of the works.

Did Monteverdi enter upon

new and

critical

the third development after his first real masterpiece,

artistic phase of his book of madrigals?

There are, as we shall see, certain stylistic novelties in the madrigals of the fourth book, but they are hardly radical enough to have required so much time and thought. One might be inclined to discard this rather
it not that Monteverdi's artistic vexing puzzle as purely academic, were actions were never the product of unreflective impulse or unaccount able accident. There are no new religious compositions to fill the gap,

for the earliest collection of sacred music after the youthful Cantiunculae comes as late as 1610, and there was no reason for Monteverdi to

compose
3

religious

works before 1 60 1.

It is

true that Monteverdi, in his

letter of application to Vincenzo, refers to his ability to write motets

Malipiero omitted the dedication of the fourth book. in VfMW, Vol. IH (1887),

*Emil Vogel, "Claudio Monteverdi,"

P-

339 n

3-

THE MANTUAN MADRIGALS

artistic interests

187

and Masses In the finest taste, but there cannot have been many of them. to the turn of the century Monteverdi's There is no doubt that

up were exclusively absorbed by madrigalesque, profane

seems

composition.

Taking everything into account, the only possible explanation to be that Monteverdi had changed his ideas about publication. Up to as soon as they were completed, his he
1592
naturally

compositions published making a careful selection, for

all

we

can be sure that he did

not publish

his compositions.

But

after 1592, a

new

self-criticism

born of his maturity must have suggested a different method, a fresh of the fourth book are an amazingly approach. The twenty madrigals small output for such a long period as eleven years, and he must have discarded many compositions that he did not regard as worthy of His practice of circulating his compositions before they
publication.

were printed apparently meant

previous

that he

wanted them to have a

critical

reactions of artists and connoisseurs. His hearing in order to gather the collections presumably contained the greater part of his out
put, and extensive
satisfy

those of the years 1582, 1583, 1584, 1587, 1590, 1592 offer an and even selection. Speedy publication was necessary to that he the ambition with which he strove for distinction.

Now

had become sure of himself and certain of acclaim he could afford to

wait, to discard, to emphasize quality rather than quantity. he discarded, of what sort, and for what reasons,

How many
we shall

compositions never know. But the self-criticism awakened in him during the period from 1592 to 1603 makes it clear that he has entered on another phase
of his career. This critical attitude will remain with him.
his

From now on

of composition will be slower and more concentrated, and process there will be intervals between his publications. these very years, events of sensational importance Meanwhile,

during

were taking place outside Mantua. As the end product of extensive, theoretical discussions and researches, the Florentine members of the Camerata produced the first music drama, Dafne, a pastoral drama by Rinuccini with music by Jacopo Peri. The first private performance was given in the house of Corsi, one of the leading spirits in the Cam came to life. 4 Ac erata, and it was perhaps in 1597 that the first opera
aroused "incredible pleasure cording to Rinuccini, the performance the few who heard the work." If Peri is correct in his report,

among
*

Dafne was repeatedly given

at the Carnivals of the

following years.

See for the discussion of the date A. Loewenberg, Annals of Opera (1943) , sub anno.

l88

RISE TO
lost

FAME
5

Rinucexcept for a few fragments, offers the and Peri both Caccini, of the music with cini's Euridice, a dramatic setting. first complete example of Florentine monody in The occasion of its performance was an extraordinary event the of France, with Maria de'Medici, marriage by proxy of Henry IV, King celebrated in Florence in 1 600. Once again, Duke Vincenzo represented the Gonzagas at the festivities, and again he doubtless took keen in and the terest in the elaborate pageants, the musical performances,

Sbce the music of the opera is

a purely artistic appreciation of would be of the Florentine style monody may doubted, but he probably "the called who with simple proof of have agreed Da-fne Rinuccini, what the song (canto) of our age was capable of" within the music drama. The festivities were so dazzling that Vincenzo, with his natural for impressive shows, must have been stirred to ambitious disposition have pointed the new medium of the music drama. competition by had he out that from the events of 1589 in Florence probably brought new ideas, and the events of 1600, when the music home a
brilliant artists.

That he was capable of

We

good many drama became a reality, must have excited him even more. It has been Vincenzo may have had Monteverdi in his suite in suggested that 6 himself never mentioned such a visit, nor did Monteverdi Florence.
his

name occur

in

any of the Florentine documents. Though

his pres

ence in Florence does not seem likely, it is certain that there was close communication between Mantua and Florence after the events of 1 600, and that even before 1600 Monteverdi had a fairly clear idea of Floren
the Camerata had been doing was Rasi had appeared in both Francesco no particular secret. The singer 7 contacts with Mantua. had close Caccini and cities, and both Rinuccini more likely to be were in Florence those as such Artistic developments as sensations than to be veiled in secrecy.
tine

monody. What

the

members of

publicized

that Monteverdi had all the infor Despite the necessary assumption mation he needed, despite the fact that fruitful contacts with Florence existed, Monteverdi did not react in any way to what happened in the

Florentine circles. This lack of response is rather surprising on the part of a musician who was regarded as one of the leaders of the modernists.

The explanation must be that the

6

Florentine style of
la

monody had little

See the facsimile in A. Wotquenne, Catalogue de

I (1901), p. 46.

Bibliotheque du Conservatoire

de Bruxelles, Annexe

For

a valuable discussion of the fragments see F.

Ghisi, Alia fonti delta monodia (Milan, 1940). 6 Prunieres, Claudio Monteverdi, p. 22. 7 Concerning Rasi and the great singers in Florence and Mantua, see the important work of A. Ademollo, La Bella Adriana (Citta di Castello, 1888), passim. The account of the sources makes fascinating reading.

THE MANTUAN MADRIGALS

to offer him. It

189
than

was not alone because he was immeasurably greater of the Florentine musicians, otherwise he would have been and excel the Florentines. His indifference inspired to compete with

any and

all

that of the Florentines.

saw his art as radically different from For Monteverdi, music, not theory, was the too had a definite philosophy which beginning and the end, though he to his art. He had come to see the need for direction and substance gave

would seem

to prove that he

new artistic standards transforming the musical heritage by establishing as high as those of the past. Such a transformation could be successful No protest, no only if carried out as an exclusively musical project.
step,

the older generation would advance the new art one polemics against and the violence with which the Florentines set themselves against

the techniques of counterpoint might result in the sacrifice of many artistic skills. When Monteverdi instructed his brother Giulio Cesare

in the Dichiaratione about the Florentines in support of his own new ideals. When he sought justification, he took it from the past. To him,

draw up the Dichiaratione as a manifesto of his own growth and ideals, he made it absolutely clear that he did not want to destroy, and never had destroyed, anything of essential value in the art of music. there was no word Except for mentioning Peri and Caccini in passing,
to
artistic

the question of composition never involved how easy that had shown The Florentines how to destroy counterpoint. Not until he was how to create a new was. The the problems of the
question

new

counterpoint.

had found an answer to this question did he turn to the style of pure monody, and when he did so he made use of the elaborate techniques he had worked out for the new style as a whole. In this light Monte verdi's silence concerning the Florentine Camerata becomes compre
hensible, as does his continued adherence to the madrigal.

When

the

madri century opened, Monteverdi was still composing five-part he could still contribute to the old medium. gals because

new

In the fourth book of madrigals Guarini still occupies the place of distinction, but Tasso's poetry is completely missing. Of the twenty

and again the pastoral drama madrigals in the book, nine are by Guarini, // Pastor fido holds Monteverdi's interest. The initial madrigal, Ah is from the third scene of the third act, and from the same dolce
partita,

monologue of Amarilli provides the poetical text for The perdona, with Che se tu se'il cor mio as the seconda pane.
act the

Anima mia
rest of

the Guarini poems are lyrics. Two great favorites with the sixteenthand Quel augelcentury madrigalists are included: lo ml son giovinetta Boccaccio. Monteverdi's selection of Ottavio lin che canta, both

by

190

RISETOFAME
interest because of the

Rinuccini's Sfogava con le stelle is of special link with Florence, and musical analysis reveals its even greater sig to dramatic nificance, for in this piece Monteverdi finds his answer

music.

The fourth book is impressive both for originality of form and variety The madrigals based on texts of Guarini are foremost in the realization of the new style, and the collection as a whole exhibits all
of style.
its

fundamental elements: dramatic narration; exclamatory motifs of the expressive grouping of melodies and harmonies, passion and pain;
of "soloistic" motifs and of "choral" passages; the new counterpoint; the concentration of the essentials of composition in two parts, melody and bass; the use of stereotyped figuration; the sequences, melodic and harmonic; the boldest harmonies or dissonances for the sake of expres

humanized quality; and, above all, the unification of the technical structure and expression. In the hands of great composers,, the madrigal of the sixteenth century had strength and expressiveness, but the means of expression were stylized and generalized to such an ex
sion; the intensive,

tent that a group of madrigals on a similar subject sounded very much alike. Monteverdi individualized the composition by providing new
stylistic

do

full

justice

elements for each work. This change of style was intended to to all the implications of the subject matter and was the

devised a flexible form that was respon sive to changing situations. Monteverdi himself clarified this aspect of his

work

of a born dramatist

who

statement made in the philosophy of art in a brief but profound

lieve
this

fifth

book and quoted again in the Dichiaratione by me, the modern composer builds upon the foundations of
Giulio Cesare:

"And be
truth;

my brother told me recently, because he knew that, by virtue of the

holds over music,

command the text

modern composition does not ob

serve and cannot observe, the rules of the First Practice."

The

artistic

form and the rules of composition stand on the basis of truth; truth dic tates new laws of art, different from the rules embodied in the so-called First Practice of the sixteenth century. The modern composer must be
subject matter, to the text, to the innermost connotations of the poetry, and, above all, to the truths of human nature. Monteverdi, with the gift of genius, heard and saw more than others in the poetry he
faithful to the

rendered musically, and

In
this

by penetrating to

the heart of his subject

mat

ter, became a discoverer of truth.

conception the subject prescribes the form. As the poem with its progresses changing emotions and situations, the form responds

new

THE MANTTJAN MADRIGALS

and
is

191

molded by the composer's genius into a complete unity. This of musical form is perhaps best illustrated in the madrigal flexibility le stelle of the fourth book. The poem, with its moving con Sfogava emotional directness, is the lament of a lover who in and simplicity
the middle of the night under the starry sky bewails the pains of his love. He implores the stars, the beautiful images of his idol,

unrequited
to

his beloved the ardor of his love as they show him her rare their golden glitter they should make her sympathetic, with beauty; as they have made him loving. In two lines the scene is set, and the direct speech of the lover begins. To distinguish by formal means be

show

tween the

initial

narration, of

which the lover

is

the subject, and his

emotional implorings, Monteverdi ingeniously invented a startling The madrigal begins with a novelty in madrigalesque composition. narration. All parts, in harmony of five voices, recite psalmodizing
le stelle," and the phrase ends in the canto with a figure cadences: of Monteverdi's typical

"Sf ogava con

Ex. 53

iv,

15

the form of religious psalmody; in recitation the many times as the text has syllables: repeated

Such

is

harmony

is

as

Ex. 54

iv,

Each phrase

is

followed

by harmonies
in the

in a loose,

but altogether

homophonic, rhythm, somewhat notturno" and "E dicea" are phrases "Sotto

manner of
set in

a recitative.

The

psalmodic

recitation.

The

section proceeds in deliberate, measured harmonies that seem to conform to the narrative outline of a scene. When the direct
initial

the style is suddenly changed. speech begins, with "0 imagini stelle," a The canto offers contrasting motif, rising and, in typical Monte-

!<j 2

RISE TO

FAME

in accentuated verdian manner, simply passing through the octave, is immediately imi motif The emotion. tense the rhythms that reflect voices repeat the phrase tated by quinto and alto, and then the upper

raised

by one tone:
iv,

Ex. 55

15

Against
the basso
is

this

diatonically through

downward motif the bass moves in countermotion motif of The values. tone the octave and in even
treated as the tenore imitates
it:

polyphonically
iv,

Ex. 56

15

Tenor*

-I

i
.

* *

HJ

J
,

Thus the three upper voices and the two lower

set against

parts

are contrapuntally

the each other. Short as this polyphonic passage is, it has It originates basic characteristics of Monteverdi's new counterpoint. as out of only two contrasted elements: the upper part that functions harmonic affords that the vehicle of the melody and the lower part these two fundamental elements against each other In
support.

placing

in artistic elaboration, each takes the

related to each other as "counterpoints," consisted of individual melodic lines. The complexities of terpoint had are the elements of the new polyphony. such

form of a complex group of voices whereas in the past the coun

of the implorings, the phrase "O imagini heighten the intensity belle" is once more repeated, but in the same harmonized recitation that

groups

To

was used for

effect of a

Here the psalmody has the dramatic it were is as perceptible as if prayer whose symbolic meaning
the narrative part.
lines of the

The new conveyed by the physical gesture of praying. new

lover's prayer to the stars are given motifs, each of them treated with a short, swift canzonetta motif; "Si individually: "De 1'idol mio"

"Mentre simple chords. From two melodic with a trio cosi splendete" on, the style of upper parts and one harmonic bass (soloistic duet with basso continuo) is con
com'a

me mostrate," in almost narrative,

sistently

maintained with a change in the groups:

THE MANTUAN MADRIGALS

Ex. 57
iv,

17

Co-

TO'A

me-

vno-

jtr*-

ti

4-f-fCo-

wo-

tr4-

a psalmodizing prayer, and is again recited in recitation three Monteverdi the order to heighten repeats the appeal, The harmonic harmonies. of the climactic a with times grouping To "Pietosa." on fall the of cadences convey the emotional phrases are continued in the and introduced are dissonances connotation, sharp whose me "come for amante," final motif contrapuntal treatment gat For the sake of dissonances. of accumulation the for is responsible carries through Monteverdi to the truthfulness relentlessly subject,

The

final appeal

in

his counterpoint.

Monteverdi did not again make as bold an attempt to dramatize the musical form, but he used other methods to convey the characteristics of the subject matter. Declamation more and more controls the melody, and a declamation that both conforms to the accentuation of the text
fulfills

an expressive function.
vita al

The declamatory
two

motif to

"Un

vivace

morire che da

dolore" combines

first madrigal declamation at the beginning of the phrase retards the meaning of the text appropriately: to

'Vivace" and "dolore," in the

inspirations of the collection.

drawn from

A lively
order

at the end, in

express

Ex. 58

iv,

rrr
The way
in

^
faultless

which the

declamation of the natural rhythm

of the words here coincides with the melodic expressiveness is charac In this respect the teristic of the melody throughout the fourth book. of most the of one vorrei morire is perfect examples madrigal Si cWio

194

RISE TO

AM E

melodic and harmonic declamation. Nearly every phrase reflects the form and expressive purpose. The masterly blending of declamatory declamation in full harmony, in which all five madrigal begins with a in the canto has a The melodic voices at once take
part.

phrase placed

form which is to become typical of Monteverdi and of the declamatory

style;

Ex. 59

iv,

78

Si

ck'to

r-

TC'I

wis

ri

duo

vor- rei

two-

rU

rt

The

expressive

declamation

again

shown

in the motif to

"Ahi

car' e

dolce lingua'';

Ex. 60

iv,

79
*Tei>ore

is used so frequently process that This Monteverdi's of as to become a feature declamatory phrase, style. which no longer lends itself to the strict procedure of the old melodic, linear imitation, is repeated in sequences: each time the phrase is raised is stated the whole octave, and each time the one tone by

With this phrase begins a structural

phrase of polyphony; in technique has all the appearances one mounting surge the participation of the various voices heightens the extraordinary dramatic effect.

through

another voice.

The

Ex. 61

rv,

79

At the height of the tension, on "di dolcess

Monteverdi, with
tions, turns
his

ever

growing sense for new

in questo sen m'estingua," structural propor

from the climax to begin a slow

of harmonies that give the structural symmetry a by contrast to the preceding declamatory rise:

descent, also in sequences, new expressive effect

THE MANTUAN MADRIGALS

Ex. 62
IV,

195

80

:Lm

di

dot-

en-

r'tn

que-

st

The

phrase "Ahi vita mia,"

Ex. 63

iv,

80

A hi

vi -

ta

mi -

whose declamation and expression are perfectly balanced, begins a new

section of the madrigal; the harmonic structure is fully indicated by the descant and the bass while the third part merely fills in. This phrase is
directly

worked

into the next,

with the same structure of harmony.

Then follows a new process

of sequential groups

which reveal Monte

verdi's genius for combining structural factors with expressive in tentions. The passage of the first sequence begins with "Deh stringe-

temi":

Ex. 64
Oeh
Date
Aito

iv,

striijr.

t-

i,fU.

r
Oeh
Urt*$<-

i'

r
i.

7
etc.

tc-

<n
r

I l

t-V V 11
r
I

full

These syncopated melodic lines are followed by a repetition of the harmonies on "A questo bianco seno." The symmetrical balance is

established

by

and ascending through an octave.

peated, this

now adding a new voice bianco" is once more re time in trio fashion. Canto and alto follow with the
a return to the sequential lines,

"A questo

196

RISE TO

FAME

to "Deh stringetemi," which they have given be descending sequences indicates the descent by its harmonic tones. fore, and the additional bass with In order that the musical form may complete itself, Monteverdi " Ahi text the takes up the suggestion of harmonically rising sequences the dire" and returns to beginning of bocca, ahi baci, ahi lingua, torn'a da capo. musical the madrigal Si cWio vorrei morire with a regular structuraUlements new that This madrigal showed for the first time of the could establish a full harmony between a purely musical evolution de new the All intention. form and the development of the expressive

of tension and release vices of proportions, of balanced contrasts, and This is not to be musical strict a in logic. have their strong foundation
little

for the significance of the text in the process of musical thinking, that he was his Artusi, critic, chief Monteverdi's argument against and considered the music alone. Artusi did not realize neglected the text could not be that the new musical logic, being highly individualistic, was un defined in the old terms of standard devices, and Monteverdi of standards able to make clear to him the flexibility and ever changing
his logic, except

by stressing the need for observing

the expressive de

mands of the text. For

tone painting, but always

Monteverdi never indulged in purely descriptive endeavored to find the proper harmony be

tween the descriptive passage and the superior principles of the form, which must be comprehensible in its own right. In Guarini's A un giro sol de beg? occhi, a most instructive example,
y

of the fourth book, every phrase is in though not the best madrigal vented in close relation to the text, and the musical motifs attached to a line or a word are usually descriptive. The motifs on "giro," "mar,"

and "vento,"
first

are "pictorially" rendered. suggestive of motion, a stereotyped figuration: motif has descriptive
all

The

Ex. 65

iv,

49
J
J
j

This conventionalized figuration seems invariably to call for a stereo with two upper voices typed structure as well: the trio arrangement moving along in chains of thirds or sixths together with a harmonic bass carries this structure consistently through the first part. Monteverdi which the upper parts the of madrigal. The form of the bass upon part
harmonically depend reveals that structural considerations are primary.

THE MANTUAN MADRIGALS

Ex. 66
iv,

197

49
-

Hi-

de

1'4-

Tia

a-rt-

for-

no

M-

de

U-

ria.

4'm-

tor-

d'lti-

tor- to

There is nothing "descriptive"

firmly in its harmonic grip.

in this bass,

which holds the upper parts

is

Such

a stereotyped motif as appeared

on "A un giro"

not neces

with the same word or with the same connotation. It occurs sarily used melismatic and syllabic forms. quote the syllabic frequently in both e tutta foco tutta ch' on "Alma the sangue" from the form,

We

phrase

madrigal Luci serene e chiare:

Ex. 67

iv,

37

Al-

\w.

U\'<

tl-

fo- c*e tut- to.

material as this has been taken to be "instrumental," figurative in character. All such motifs in actual if not in performance, at least like those in the quoted ex melodic and formulas, dotted

Such

to be instrumental because they seem to have a "me amples, are said chanical" make-up, more easily reproduced by an instrument than by com the voice. The "mechanical" aspect is indeed there; it is even the these aim, for he is operating with stereotyped material; yet
poser's

rhythms

motifs originated as vocal ornamentation, mostly improvised. Monte them verdi did not use them as ornamentation or improvisation but gave difficulties the of structural functions, yet vocal they remain, regardless we may find in singing them. Seventeenth-century instrumental music was to use material borrowed from the vocal medium at a time when

media. the baroque style was employing the same musical idiom in all fourth the of the was mia The madrigal Anima composition perdona if he had other choice His attack. for selected Artusi book which

book to choose from is understandable. The com madrigals of this Si cVio vorrei morire, since both aim boldly at with position belongs new structural conceptions and new laws of composition. Artusi, of of Monteverdi and course, had no eye for the far-reaching attempts did could not see in them the birth of a new musical structure. What he
see

was the treatment of dissonance in composition, and to

audacity

this

he could

of the old techniques. He should have been much apply the terminology in altering the formal basis of more alarmed at Monteverdi's

198
composition

RISE TO

FAME
violations of the old

a change that implied far graver had more serious consequences. That Artusi was nar and composition row and rancorous, irritated and malicious, may be regretted for the sake of the discussion as a whole, but it is quite true that Monteverdi

did present dissonances at the conclusion of both madrigals that a man of Artusi's type and background could not possibly bear. Artusi took the dissonances as absolute entities, judged them by themselves, and

neglected the

text.

Not understanding

Monteverdi's use of such

ma

maintained that it was terial, he identified it with total "imperfection," or his out and of "modern" music, pamphlet, Artusi,

brought typical on the Imperfections of Modern Music. The conception of form which Monteverdi
in the madrigal

Aroma

mm perdona was

that of harmonized

wanted to materialize declama

tion. In most of his compositions in the

fourth book he carefully avoided the composition into and harmonic the melodic, cadences, split letting the small groups, but in this work he did not want sweep of a compre elements other the all hensive structure that would together into a
unit.

pull to let the principle of recitation in harmonized the work. The recitation melody, of expressive declamation, govern was to proceed phrase by phrase, and each individual group was to be is The an directly related to the declamatory recitative;

Here he chose

entity.

grouping

indeed, the term "recitative" is applicable to some of the groups. The of the madrigal introduces a characteristic form of such har

beginning

monized recitative, in which the harmony is actually present, though it could have been expressed by a figured bass, functioning as a basso
continuo.

Ex. 68

rv,
.

i\i.THA.nla

per-

d- M,

No less characteristic of this new declamatory style is

set for

a motif like that

"Nei dettie nel sembiante Riggida tua nemica," which has a recitation on one tone over an extended period. Reciting phrases or motifs with exclamatory effects soon become formulas that appear in almost every madrigal. One such formula may be quoted from three
madrigals.

THE MANTUAN MADRIGALS

Ex. 69
iv

199

This formula becomes part of the idiom of the expressive recitative. The declamatory madrigals of the fourth book were Monteverdi's recitative style. first answer to the problems of dramatic composition in In contrast to the Florentine monody of modest artistic capacities, he different methods and with arrived at the stile recitativo

by

totally

were more enduring preliminary solutions the Florentines. In of sensational the than and more modern monody artistic material of the dramatic recitation the gradually building up within the madrigal form, in adding stone by stone to a construction foresaw, Monteverdi proved himself a more whose outlines he
original solutions.

Even

his

early

and a better artist. prudent architect The fourth book concludes with a composition, Piagne e sospira, which is remarkable for its startling structure. For the form of the madinitial theme, Monteverdi drew upon typically sixteenth-century of connotation the with associated the of form The theme,
rigalisms.

the text,

is

chromatic:
iv,

Ex. 70

96

In both

its

parts

theme is "descriptive," were many models. The

rangement suggests

the chromatic "weeping" and the "sigh" the and for both these illustrations of the text there

first statement of the chromatic theme by the the alto takes it up a fifth higher. This ar then tenor is unaccompanied; that the structure will be "f ugal" in the style of the

The suggestion is deceptive, sixteenth-century melodic polyphony. alto and because Monteverdi's polyphony has become harmonic. The and statement chromatic the canto, which enters first, complete the harmonic a into behavior procedure. turn the
supposedly polyphonic Ex. 71 iv, 96

So-

<lua.T>

200

RISE TO

FAME

The theme is not carried through all the voices. A harmonic accom alters the picture. Monteverdi paniment with a new motif in the tenor has his own harmonic "polyphony," which becomes the medium of the baroque age, and later of modern music. The invention of the
but the composition as a whole is a unoriginal and traditional, Monteverdi apparently attempted modern manifestation of the spirit. almost incompatible elements a unite to work in this extraordinary melodic theme that required a treatment as fugal subject, and the

theme

is

trio structure: principle of the

and furthermore the declamatory

Ex. 73
iv,

recitative:

97

i
Even
at the end.

dr

la.

Jua.

for- tu-

i\U gra-

Y'O|- tTauj-

fli

v*- til

ct

>i

the separate grouping

is

combined with the chordal

recitation

Monteverdi undoubtedly

set himself a difficult task,

and the

importance he attributed to the work is reflected in its place of distinc tion at the end of the collection. Whether he accomplished his task
an aesthetic point of view, altogether satisfac successfully and, from 8 is another matter. Whatever the definitive value of the composi
it

torily
tion,

has distinct importance in the formation of

modern music.

THE FIFTH BOOK

Prima e Seconda Prattica

The fifth book of madrigals, published in 1605, is at once an end and a beginning, "the parting line of the waters," as it has been called. 9 All
ment and
historians have recognized its significance in Monteverdi's develop in the evolution of the new style. It is an end because all
'Redlich, Claudia Monteverdi, p. 100, asserts that in not satisfactory.
g
its

entirety the composition

is

lbid.jp. loo.

THE MANTUAN MADRIGALS

2OI

voices are Monteverdi's contributions since his first madrigals for five book. fourth the conclusion along the lines of brought to a synoptical the which in are included, It is a beginning because new experiments the time first the is supremacy expanded and for range of the madrigal

of the five-voiced madrigal is threatened. With unswerving persistence to assure high Monteverdi had adhered to that form because it seemed to create effort his in succeeded had he that artistic standards, but now to ceased medium for one need the particular new musical structures,
exist.

had consistently endeavored to clarify the func madrigals Monteverdi of the work: it should impose a vertical structure the in bass the of tions and also organize and support the general struc conception of harmony out these functions and in establish ture. He had succeeded in

The chief novelty of the fifth book is in the harmony.

In his previous

working

between bass as the counteragent of the melody. Consequently, ing the of the functions the the pressures of the melody and the harmony, basso The continue, obligatory middle parts were completely modified. conclusion added to six madrigals of the fifth book, is merely the logical continuo basso the allowed He basic in of his previous studies harmony. 10 The collection. the of thirteen first the madrigals to be elective in of form the on direct no has continuo basso the of use bearing optional but the basso basso as of seguente, matter a is and the work performance function continuo of the last six madrigals ha^ a harmonic and structural works. The that Monteverdi had set out to achieve in his preliminary book is not an abrupt, introduction of the basso continuo in the fifth
but rather the revolutionary novelty,
last

step

toward this definite goal. curving path the continuo madrigals will is the beginning of another, for journey works. serve as models for future The fifth book is again dedicated to the Duke of Mantua, and this evidence that many of the madrigals as we have noted,
dedication,
gives

on a long and somewhat Here, too, the end of one

were were completed and circulated among musicians before they those who saw them was Giovanni Maria Artusi, one
printed.

Among

of the most bigoted spokesmen for the contrapuntal style.

The

first

the character of the basso seguente which followed 10 That was possible because of basso in the first thirteen madrigals. the vocal bass, and this was largely the case in a Monteverdi vogue, he edited sesuente was added by Phalese in Antwerp when, in 1615; the basso continuo was added the Northern edition of the madrigal books mentions only that the fourth to the third and fourth books. Bukofzer, op. cit.> p. 35, in 1613 and revised by book cot the additional basso continuo, that it was published book of 1613; and Monteverdi Monteverdi himself. There is no edition of the fourth to the fifth in any of the editions. did not add the basso continuo to the books previous

202

RISE TO

FAME
to him, especially irritating

work of the fifth book, Cruda Amarilli, was

and he attacked Monteverdi in his notorious treatise, Artusi, ovvero delle imperfettioni della moderna musica, Ragionamenti due, of 1600. His attack centered around the age-old problem of dissonance, with
Artusi maintaining the inviolability of the Netherlandish rules for its use. Monteverdi had already denied this in his work and had made it clear that his art belonged to a different world. Since each man spoke a language that was unintelligible to the other, their arguments could have no common ground, but the controversy undoubtedly caused a stir in the artistic world. Monteverdi's reply, which demonstrated his

noble nature, took the form of a letter addressed to the "Studiosi Lettori" of the fifth book. "Do not wonder that I gave these madrigals without first answering those attacks that Artusi has to the
printer

launched against a few little parts of the compositions. Being in the service of His Highness of Mantua, I do not have the time necessary for an elaborate argument. Nevertheless I have written a reply in order to make clear that I do not my works at random. As soon as the

compose

reply
title

is

completed

I shall publish it [literally 'rewritten'],

under the

Second Practice, or On the Perfection of Modern Music. Those who do not believe that there is any other practice than that taught by Zarlino will perhaps be amazed at such a title. But they may rest assured that with regard to consonances and dissonances there is still another consideration, different from the usual and established, which by rea son of its full agreement with sense and reason is the defense of the modern composition. This I wanted to tell you, lest the term Second
Practice be received abusively by others, and also in order that sagacious men may take into consideration other aspects of harmony and believe that the modern composer builds his work upon the foundation of

Truth." Here for the

first

time Monteverdi openly admitted that the

art of the sixteenth century

and modern composition had parted com

pany.

he published three more pam the composer's brief statement needed to be elucidated in order to justify his position in the eyes of his con

As Artusi's aggressiveness continued

phlets against Monteverdi

from engaging further

temporaries. Since the burden of his official duties kept Monteverdi in the discussion, his brother Giulio Cesare, the

editor of the Scherzi musicali of 1607, undertook to fill the gap. His Dichiaratione della Lettera Stampata nel Quinto Libro de suoi Madrigali, though in no way intended as a substitute for the treatise Monte

verdi planned to write, shed

new

light

on the

implications

of the Se-

THE MANTUAN MADRIGALS

conda
Prattica.

203

the fifth book sentence by Analyzing the preface of that may not have persuaded Cesare Giulio sentence, gave explanations to Artusi but were greatly desired by all those who were beginning his of characteristic chief think in terms of Monteverdi's music. The word and tone, indicated music was the relationship between

changed

motto of the Seconda Prattica: "1'oratione by the phrase that became the non serva" (the word, the text, with all its del armonia e sia
musical values and qualities, should be the master, not the servant, of the and "most the the text principal important comprises harmony). Since
it must also be the basis of criticism. This unequivocal part of music," formulation of the new law of the Seconda Prattica may be misleading Does it follow from this statement that the musical in one

padrona

respect.

elements must submit themselves to the text in slavish dependence? the composer not recognize that there is also a purely musical evolution of the of form and structure? His close attention to the significance
text

Does

and even to the connotations of individual words did not keep Monteverdi from working out superior musical structures. He was of text in search of ways to harmonize the demands
appropriate always and musical form, and though he neglected to
stress the

evolution of

musical form, the reference to the

new

cantilena

may

have included

such an idea. Monteverdi had

the Seconda Prattica by a passage from justified Cesare quoted as "non ipsa oratio RithGiulio which Plato's Republic,

mum et Harmoniam sequitur." Surely the theoreticians of the sixteenth

had said that the word should not yield prece century knew that Plato did not dence to the other two elements, rhythm and melody, but they he had believed it. He find in the passage the meaning Monteverdi gave meant. had Plato that his idea was what really a new
discovered
truth,

But

this discovery of

new meanings
n'est

in a

well-known source was

de mesme."
1X

like

that of Montaigne:
puis

"Ce

non

Platon que selon plus selon

moy,

On the basis of Plato's statement that had been misinterpreted or over

que luy

et

moy 1'entendons et voyons

Prattica from looked by others, Monteverdi distinguished his Seconda as a prin maintained was exact the wherein the Prima Prattica opposite controls the text: "cioe che considera I'armonia

ciplethat harmony non comandata, ma comandante,

To clarify
11

his brother's

e non serva ma signora del^oratione." Giulio Cesare gave a list of comof view, point
.

In the famous essay on the education of children (Essays, I, 25) than to mine, since both he and I understand and see according to Plato's opinion,
alike." (Translation

"And

it is

no more

by John

Florio.)

204
posers

RISE TO
who represented

FAME

the First Practice. All are Netherlanders, since Monteverdi identified the Prima Prattica with the Netherlandish style. order is mentioned, followed in nearly exact chronological

Ockeghem Mouton, Crecquillon, Gomby Josquin des Pres, Pierre de la Rue, Jean of the style was con last perfection bert, and Clemens non Papa. The

the field of artistic sidered to have been reached by Adrian Willaert in discussion. theoretical of field the in Zarlino activities, and by Gioseffo in the category of Cesare Giulio which The representatives grouped to Cipriano de the Seconda Prattica display less uniformity. In addition first rank, there appear is named as an innovator of the

Rore,

who

Caccini men with respect to whose works have no common denominator, not even how the relation between word and tone. In idea and characterization, Monteverdi and one from another, ever, the two camps are separated first school as old, and his own composition the clearly distinguished of Artusi, the calm as modern. In contrast with the excited language almost is He aloof, and cer is ness and certainty of Monteverdi striking. the both he means what clarifies he when practices, by

Giaches de Ingegneri, Marenzio,

Wert, Luzzasco,

Peri,

tainly objective,

old and the modern.

As Giulio Cesare

says,

"They were both honored

12 by my brother, revered, and praised." we hear no more about the Seconda Prattica; theo For

was put aside for activities of greater import. In fact, Monteverdi never did complete the treatise he set out to compose in ceased to occupy his mind. his earlier though it probably never
retical discussion

many years

years,

hearing ing the famous "lira Barberina," Doni's invention. When on October 22, Roman scholar, he again stated that he 1633, Monteverdi answered the
12

Monteverdi was sixty-six years old a learned ecclesiastic asked him about it. We do not know the name of this person, a resident of he wrote. Rome; neither do we have the three letters, which it seems 13 because Battista Giovanni was Doni, It has been suggested that he to see forward looked he Rome visited he Monteverdi said that when been have which noble "most his instrument," and may

When

Published in Malipiero, Claudio Monteverdi, pp. yif. thinks that Prunieres, Claudio Monteverdi, p. 198 and note 168, Prunieres in his capacity as secretary of the Holy College at the court of Pope Urban VIII, Doni "must have held some ecclesiastical office" that would explain the title "reverendissimo" which Monteverdi used in his reply. This is, however, not conclusive, and Malipiero, Claudio Monteverdi, p. 291, denied that Doni was an ecclesiastic. While Malipiero has Prunieres also mentions Paolo Giordano Orsini, Duke of Bracciano, no other
is

Henry

suggestion,

as the possible recipient of the letter. In previous years

respondence with the Duke. But

1634.

we

Monteverdi had some cor cannot find that Orsini was in Rome in 1633 or

THE MANTUAN MADRIGALS

was working
at the treatise

205

whose

first

nected with Artusi,

"un certo Theorico

its

design was at least in part con In di practica."

prima

addition to giving the story of

origin and the reasons

which

had kept him from carrying out his intentions, Monteverdi in formed his correspondent that his treatise, named Melodia, ovvero seconda pratica imisicale, would be 'divided into three books according to the three elements of melody; in the first book he would discuss the and the qualities of the word; in the second he oratione, the

would

significance deal with harmony; in the third he

would treat the problems of

musical world would appreciate rhythm. And he said he hoped that the
his discussion of

future composers problems whose solution might help

he wrote to escape a predicament he himself had experienced. the Lament o] Arianna, there was no book available to explain the natural method of imitation nor work, except Plato, that shed light
lighten the difficulties of imitation to principle his treatise for the to write musical composition, Monteverdi intended 14 musicians of the Second Practice.
It is

When

any on the proper functions of an imitator in art. of a composer who attempts to apply the

To

the
as a

man who was one

profound

treatise was not finished by certainly to be regretted that the of the most learned musicians of his age, as well thinker. An elaborate discussion of the two phenomena

in musical composition,

the theorists,

but for

all

melody and rhythm, generally neglected by would have been unique not only for Monteverdi's period time. But the creation of the work of art was his first con

interested in a problem for the sake of its theoretical nor even for the sake of the theory of music as a discipline in its own right. "It is my intention to show, through the medium of our what I was able to adopt from the spirit of the ancient philoso practice, 16 This was his explicit reply of the good art." phers to the advantage of Greek music characteristics the for search the to those who made

cern; he

was not

solution,

their

prime concern and

who by their attempts to

revive ancient music

would have abandoned the principles on which the music of the present has developed. Monteverdi's interest was focused on the completion and intensification of the new style of which he was the founder, and all his efforts were concentrated on the creation of the musical language of seventeenth-century Europe. No wonder that the reminder of Doni him as (or whoever may have written the letters in the thirties) struck a discord. For he had continually worked to explain the properties of

" Letter No.

Letter

No.

118; published in Malipiero, Monteverdi, pp. 2931*. 119, to the same person, dated Venice, February 2, 1634; ibid., pp. apjf.

206

RISE TO

FAME
his

the Second Practice directly through theoretical exposition which he once believed he

music and had renounced the would be able to

of the sixteenth century

accomplish.

Monteverdi
as

now looked back on the music

was the result something that belonged to the past. This knowledge of his own artistic achievements and not of theoretical observations, and
gave him a calm security that permeated
First Practice.

it

He

every mention of the never raised his voice to the piercing tones of the
his

pure

theorists.

The

passion aroused in

him by the

issue

had found an

outlet in his compositions. Because he had succeeded in formulating the language of the new style, he was justified in regarding the Northern Prattica was intended not polyphonic style as obsolete. The Seconda art of his day but also for the music of the the for contemporary only

future.

Through

his

as a historical

music Monteverdi established the meaning of "style" or stylus was known, of phenomenon. The term "style"

course, to writers
terials

on sixteenth-century

art,

who

applied

it

to the

ma

of composition, regardless of the epoch. Style meant the way in

principles

which the

of "arte, modulatione, diletto, tessitura, contra-

were handled, and time and punto, inventione, buona dispositione" circumstance were not taken into account as factors in the formation of a style. When Monteverdi made the Prima Prattica obsolete, Nether became a historical style, according to our ideas. landish
counterpoint

The composer could now avail himself of a historical idiom, if and when he saw fit. Monteverdi had defined the wusica antica as essentially
and characterized by an impersonal, slow, dignified gravity. This gravity was identified with religious expression in music and ap peared to be possible only within the medium of the Northerners. Since Monteverdi had shown that his new style was the outgrowth of an
religious

music was the essentially secular concept, the composer of religious victim of a conflict which continued throughout the baroque age. In
writing religious music, he had to fall back on a style of the past, at the risk of appearing obsolete, and imitate the Netherlander in full consciousness that he was using a historical style. Monteverdi composed

Gombert, a la Palestrina, and many others did the same. Thus the composer was at variance with his own time or if he composed in ac cordance with the Second Practice, his music lacked a religious quality.
a la

In the field of sacred composition the musician faced the alternative of being antiquated and religious or modern and profane.

Monteverdi's influence extended even into the

field

of the theory of

THE MANTUAN MADRIGALS

2OJ

music. As musicians came to be more style conscious, they became more detached from the past in their theoretical observations and multi the number of subtle stylistic distinctions. Monteverdi's ideas plied soon reached the North and Germany, where the art of the Netherlanders had been uncontested. Heinrich Schutz, the great intermediary between North and South, brought them to his country after his sec

ond stay in Venice with Monteverdi. One of the few German musicians who understood the depth and scope of the Second Practice, Schutz exhibited the new style at its most august and presumably formulated the new concepts of musical composition into a doctrine which he handed down to his numerous pupils. A version of the Schutz doctrine has been preserved by his disciple Christoph Bernhard, in which the
is manifest. Complete awareness of the essen heritage of Monteverdi tials of style led to clear-cut categories, and accordingly Bernhard

luxuriant, identical with the stylus antiquus

divided counterpoint into a contrapunctus gravis and a contrapunctus and modernus, or the Prima

motion,

and Seconda Prattica. The gravity of the old style is evident in its slow its strict observance of harmonic rules, and sparing use of
dissonance.

contrapunctus gravis consists of not-too-fast notes, of a limited number of dissonances, and is concerned with the harmony rather than with the text. Since it was used by the older composers, it
called stylus antiquus, and sometimes "a cappella Ecclesiasticus, rather than to any other place; also the it is befitting to the church to it in his Chapel and other churches.** In it, Pope gives preference "Harmonia Orationis Domina est." Monteverdi's phrase reappears here

The

was

since

The contrapunctus luxuriant, on the other hand, "consists of fairly fast notes with extraordinary skips appropriate to stir the affections; it has a greater variety of dissonances and more figurae the element it also possesses Melopoeticae, which others call Licentiae; of a of aria, and this fits the text better than the manner
in translation.

melody,

good

of the grave style." In it, "Oratio Harmoniae Domina absolutissima." To illustrate the gravity of the style Bernhard quotes examples mostly

ie

from the works of

Palestrina. In

conformity with the deeply religious

of the style, Schutz wrote Bernhard in his last years that implications should he compose a work in the old style of Palestrina to be sung at
his deathbed.

The fifth book, indeed, served as a dividing line between the ages of the First and Second Practices. Monteverdi now stood out as the great16 Kompositionslehre Heinrich Christoph Bernhard (Leipzig, 1926).

Dw

Schutzens

in

der Fassung

seines

Schulers

208
est musical genius of

RISE TO
artist

FAME

own or any other time. Europe, a genius rare in his the both Seldom has an complete transformation accomplished of the traditional music and the equally complete foundation of the new art. He made his contemporaries conscious of style and gave them

new resources of musical

expression

by

his

transformation of the three

main elements of musical composition harmony, melody, and rhythm. He was the true originator of modern music. of Though Artusi and his followers belittled the achievements
Monteverdi, most of the reactions to the new collection of madrigals were enthusiastic. The name of Monteverdi gained an international
reputation as
his earlier

works continued

countries. Besides the edition in

to be published in foreign Nuremberg, a Danish printer provided

a selection for his country in 1605, the year in which the fifth book of alone there were eight editions of the fifth madrigals appeared. In Italy

book by

1620, and Phalese in

Antwerp included
first

it

in his publica

tions of Monteverdi's works.

verdi's novelties

The

had naturally

enthusiastic response to Monte been inside Italy. The edition of

be sure in praise of 1605 included a poem of mediocre quality, to the composer, though such glorifications were quite customary in those
of fame. In this poem by Padre Cherudays and not necessarily a sign bino Ferrari, Monteverdi was greeted as a true musician of Paradise: "Quest' un Musico ver del Paradiso." More indicative of the com

growing importance was a series of publications brought out by Aquilino Coppini, from Milan. He published a selection of Monteverdi's
poser's

madrigals in 1607, not with the original profane poems but with new in Latin: Musica tolta da i Madrigali di Claudio Montereligious texts
A 6 voci,e fatta spiritude da Aquilino Copverde, et d'altri autori a f The dedication was to no less a figure than Cardinal Federico
St. Borromeo, a leader in the Counter Ref Under the influence of that movement it had become custom

&

pint.

Borromeo, the nephew of

ormation.

ary to "spiritualize" originally profane works, and the desire to acquaint religious institutions with the highest artistic achievements without
giving offense

may

have been one of the reasons for making

Monte

response by his further In he 1608 a second selection of Monteverdi's publications. published madrigals spiritualized, in 1609 a third anthology, and in 1611 a reprint

verdi's madrigals available in such a "spiritualized" form. is shown pini's selections met with a favorable

That Cop-

of the

first

book.
his

Coppini introduced

which has extraordinary words of

second book with an interesting preface, praise for Monteverdi: "The musica

THE MANTUAN MADRIGALS

movere

209

rappresentativa of the fifth book of madrigals of Claudio Monteverdi, ruled by the natural expression of the human voice in moving the affec
tions (net
gli affetti)

hearing and in so doing minds, The music is, therefore, well worthy of being sung and listened
to,

the produces the sweetest effects upon human of becomes the most pleasant tyrant

17 country and among shepherds, but during the receptions of the most noble ones, and at royal courts; and this music can also serve for many as an infallible norm and model (infalli-

and not

just in rustic

bile

norma

& idea)

to

compose madrigals and canzone harmonically

18

in

accordance with the best laws."

Thus

for the

first

time Monteverdi's

music was declared the norm of composition

was style that

statement
is

still

in the

rare approval for a new interest in Coppini's brief Of particular making.

it

the effect he attributed to Monteverdi's music:

becomes

the tyrant over

human
its

power moving movere gli affetti was by no means a new term, for sixteenth-century theorists had extensively discussed the phenomenon. The music of the
//

This was due to

minds (de gli animi piacevolissima tiranna). the human passions, or affections. of

the moving of the baroque age, however, was to proclaim

as the

listener's

composer's goal. passions the two most important characteristics of the new art the norm of the structure and the purpose are singled out makes Coppini's preface
a remarkable document.

The

fact that in this brief appraisal

third statement that catches the reader's

the madrigals of the fifth book musica rapeye is of rise the Florentine music drama, this term had presentativa. Since the been reserved for music performed dramatically on the stage. Cop-

where Coppini

calls

an interesting question. Did he suggest that the dramatic simply by "moving the affections?" madrigals were made That they had any direct relation to the theatrical stage is difficult to
pini's

use of

it

raises

believe, although
set for stage

Monteverdi himself
as

later designated

any composition

production

(in genere rappresentcttivo) ,

belonging to the "representative" species even if the work was not a music drama

in all likelihood, was thinking of the dramatic effects proper. Coppini, effects that Monteverdi had rendered the in inherent compositions, the In that sense, into affections so
his

gestures. convincingly by translating music might well be called "representational."

is

17 It

has in
i fi

mind the etymological derivation of madrigale from mandriali, mtmdra. Document No, 4 in the appendix to Vogel's essay; see VfMVV, III, 428.

refer to the cattle herds, le interesting to see Coppini

mandre; he obviously

210

RISE TO
The Compositions

FAME
Booh
in this
is

of the Fifth

A well-conceived plan of composition

tains,

more evident

book

than in any previous collection, for Monteverdi devoted it almost ex of the nineteen madrigals which the book con clusively to one poet; Guarini. This time it was the sixteen are based on

poems by

dramatic Pastor fido that most attracted Monteverdi; no fewer than eleven of the madrigals were taken from it, and Cruda Amarilli, from the second scene of the first act, was placed at the beginning of the

book to

indicate

its

Monteverdi programmatic tenor.

also

grouped

more extensively than before; thus, a group of large cycles together five madrigals is foHowed immediately by another of three. The first consists of passages from the fourth act of the Pastor fido; the second from the third act. This pastoral drama also furnished gives a selection
three separate madrigals. In his setting of these selections, Monteverdi proved himself a dramatist of great sensitivity and once at random. The fact that these more showed that he never did

poems for

anything

produced book as a whole vmsica rappresentativa. In Coppini called the to assume that these passages were actually have should we that case, the drama was produced. But in view of the when the on stage sung fact that there is no consecutive order and that only selected passages even in the cycles, such use on the stage is difficult to imagine. are
actually

the fifth book offer large sections from a drama that had cycles of in theatrical form may have been the reason been

why

given,

After the appearance of the Pastor fido the composition of settings for material of the drama became fashionable, but the use of the
}

poetical

dramatic texts does not imply that the music was given a stage produc tion. It was dramatic only in a rather general sense, and presumably

had that connotation. 18 Cruda AmaCoppini's musica rappresentativa the style of the book, both textually and musically, has rilli, which set been ever since the days of Artusi's criticism the most widely renowned
composition of Monteverdi. Monteverdi's artistic plan, or program, did not change from the fourth book to the fifth. The many-voiced declamation, either in all
parts or in a selected

group of

parts,

and the new polyphony are

still

the outstanding problems to be solved, not by new techniques based on new principles but by old techniques worked out with greater and in the counterpoint of subtlety and logic. In matters of harmony
18 Rudolf Schwartz, Festschrift, p. 148, seems to suggest a contact between the actual musica rappresentatha and the dramatic text of the Pastor fido.

THE MANTUAN MADRIGALS

211

harmonic groups, the logic of Monteverdi is stricter than ever. The structural functions of the bass seem strengthened. Despite occasional in which all voices take part, complex structures, a simple declamation note against note, is astonishingly frequent. In this connection, we must the narration that sets the stage for the action and distinguish between the dialogue between the dramatis personae, usually lovers. For this declamation is used more and more the latter form of
speech
frequently.

An

reciting excellent example

is

found

in

Che dar piu

vi poss'io.

much appreciation in modern madrigal has not met with Although literature of Monteverdi, it has historical significance as an illustration
this

of the phase of the composer's development which ended in dramatic 20 in monody. It presents the declamation in various forms, chiefly in which the upper voice functions harmonization, many-voiced simple At the beginning this declama melodically as expressive declamation. tion is in the canto, which actually governs the procedure; it is melodic because its balanced organization groups two phrases together as a mannerisms that Monteverdi worked out and it contains
unit,

typical for his dramatic declamation.

Ex. 74
i
J
.1

v, 51

Ir
a
pi

J'Jh
vips- s'io

Che dir

Ca-

TO

U-

TO

mio ben

}n

-de

tf

later,

This declamatory melody is accompanied by simple harmonies; Monteverdi changes the procedure and places the declamatory motif in the soloistic tenor. This motif, though simple, has the effect of
a physical gesture and lends
itself

to the use of sequences.

Ex, 75

v,

51

fc-

co-

vi

II

co-

rt

followed by a choral response on "prenthen predominate up to the prominent phrase dete"; rising sequences of his loyalty and love. in which the lover offers his heart as a pledge mio del e fede amore," is given in mia della This phrase, "cor pegno one measure only. for chord one on declamation as free

The

soloistic statement

is

"psalmody"

aoLeichtentritt,
tion,

S1MG,

while Redlich, op. the stile nuovo.

cit.,

value to the composi XI, 288, does not attribute artistic finds that it contains many budding stones of pp. ufa
'

212
Throughout the
tion,

RISE TO
rest of the

FAME

a soloistic recita madrigal there alternate:

un as this give clear evidence that Monteverdi, artistic solu own his found had Florentine theorists, influenced by the to the drama it tion for the dramatic recitation long before he turned in the two large most the for same part, self. Exactly the style appears, favor the Pastor fido, which also have not met with great cycles of 21 that the bound been It has Monteverdi. of suggested among students and that since the madri aries of the madrigal have here been crossed, dramatic elements of and the is a epic category,
Compositions such
gal
specifically lyrical

of voices; a duet, as counterpoint; and accompanied by a group four or all five voices participate. in which a simple harmonic recitation the "recitative." whole the This arrangement centers madrigal around

the text interfere with

its

natural character. But

we must

not forget

that it was the intention of the that

when

they implied uUy and the composition as a whole. He attempted to bring out the epic once again dramatic character in the forms of his recitation, using declamation in full harmonies, in which the two leading elements are the
dramatic action,
canto as the declamatory part and the bass as the harmonic voice. In such passages, the basso continue as figured bass is fully realized, so that the composition might well have been written as a monody with

the madrigal, and composer to transform he chose the texts for the narrative part that unfolds the in relation to aware of what he was f

canto and bass are structurally coupled, the form of imitation: one of the two parts will begin frequently in the other, while the middle voices do not with a motif to be imitated
figured
bass. In other respects

by

in the imitation of the motif. In this relation be necessarily take part the bass obtains from the canto as and lower tween the

upper

parts,

much in mobility bass. The heart of

the canto gains in harmonic firmness from the the matter is that Monteverdi worked out the stile
as

recitative within the madrigal

form

in

such a

way

as to retain a

high

in the individual parts. The Florentine composers who artistic quality tried to write monody on theoretical principles without any inter

locking,

so that it appeared mediary phase, could not set the bass in motion, as a bare skeleton made up of a few harmonies, and, lacking any inter structural relationship to the canto, was stiff and monotonous.
recitative.

Monteverdi completely avoided this fault in his mental and comprehensive was the relation between canto and bass in his madrigals can be illustrated by innumerable examples. may

How fuilda-

We

21

Leichtentritt, op. cit^ p. 288.

THE MANTUAN MADRIGALS

take a phrase
cycle:

213

from Dorinda, ah

dir6, the

term parte

in the first Guarini

Ex. 76

v,

24

two parts from All the essentials of the passage are contained in these which the three middle voices are harmonically derived. Had Monte
differ from verdi used a figured bass, the harmonization would scarcely is not declamation the written form as it stands. The fully harmonized small in is also given the only type of dramatic "recitative," which The chords. in of voices, instead of being arranged compact

groupings

recitative

or in slow, emphatic the choice the depending on motion with prolonged rhythmic values, emotional connotations of the text.

may appear in rapid syllabic declamation

Ex. 77

v; 24, 25

and these madrigals is marked by definite cadences phrasing in in found those to similar faUs into a succession of separate groups felt that Monteverdi book. the fourth presumably compositions of

The

214
there

RISE TO

FAME
this

was an inner connection between recitation. phrases and the declamatory

His

grouping

of separate

with repe also includes the use of a motif style of declamation characteristic example rather than variations. titions and

sequences la p^etd. the Guarini cycle, in Ma se con is found in the second part of mi "Non lines the of negar a In full harmonization there is a recitation to re continues tenor the While 1'ultimo sospiro un tuo solo sospir." two the harmonic upper basis, the form which now peat the lines, above it, the new motif of "beata morte." voices
give,

Ex. 78

v,

the short, exclamatory motif sequential rise, the work. The tenor continues with for morte" provides the material the two upper voices sing a new while solo the line "Un tuo sospir,"

After the

of "beata

first

line,

"Se

1'adolcissi tu."

The

three

low

voices, as a

harmonic back

ground,

while the then repeat once more the line "Non mi negar," "beata morte," each contributes a short declamation of soprano alone in suc voices three over time in sequential rise. This motif is extended the state voices five all until with climactic finality cessive
responses,

motif in chordal fashion. This

is

the

method Monteverdi most

fre

tive,

working quently employs with the lines dramatic conclusion to this madrigal, which ends the last lines to music The mia." anima "Voce cortese e pia Va in pace the motif, voices low three the present reflects the dying out of sound; the that so two the five-part which is then repeated by upper parts, voices. two Motif, with manner unusual most the only madrigal ends in linked are volume tone and tone together dramatic expression, color,
to

when

with a motif.

He gives a

highly effec

form a unity. Monteverdi excels

in discovering

new means

of expression, suited to

the simplest, almost commonplace, mode may be as in the beginning of Guarini's Era F'anima mia. given haunting effects, The tone color in itself has a dramatic effect, although the recitation,

the narrative.

Even

the in keeping with the narrative character of the poem, is carried by last the to "Close three low voices for four measures on one chord only.

THE MANTUAN MADRIGALS

hour was

215

my heart, exhausted, like the dying soul that wastes away" thus begins the poem, and to keep the music faithful to the text, Monte verdi chooses the simplest recitation, which with the dark tone color of poignancy. The simpler Monteverdi's art becomes, the gives an effect
more it gains in convincing
that have been
directness,

even when he draws upon forms

He has structurally perfected low and high ranges to provide in voices of the possibilities grouping dramatic and for tone color purposes. expressive The desire to endow the recitative with expressive power led to
used a thousand times.
as many of the typical formulas, The show. Mirtillo, opening of

famous madrigals in the fifth book which for harmonic reasons enraged

Artusi,

who called it "impertinentia d'un prinzipio," is in stile recitativo,

the qualities of emotional intensity that the text suggests. It has with the exclamation in Arianna's Lamento: been

with

all

rightly

compared

The

rest of the canto has so

many features

melodic line typical of a

the dra in modern declamation that it could have occurred in any of counter is and its of a motion own, matic recitatives. This line has a life,

balanced only by the bass:

Ex. 80

The

last

sk madrigals

achievements.

It is only compositions 22 continue the constituent elements are entirely on their own.

are the culmination of Monteverdi's various that through a basso in these last

Melody

The

basso

contmuo

is

for the most part

still

a basso seguente.

2l6

RISETOFAME

and harmony, which are assigned one to the bass, the other to the upper now have all the freedom they had been seeking in the unaccom parts, now becomes a functional ac madrigal. The harmonization
panied

To heighten the contrast companiment subordinated to the melody. of functions, the accompanying harmony, as basso continue*, becomes while the melody is rendered vocally. Four of principally instrumental, the continue madrigals have five vocal parts in addition to the thorough for nine, divided in a double bass, one is set for six voices, and the last
chorus.

The first of these madrigals, Ahi come a un vago

sol,

is

a magnificent

testimonial to Monteverdi's ingenuity and originality. The basic struc ture he invented around 1600 anticipated a form which came into
half a century later. The madrigal is constructed as general use about a rondo cantata, following the principle of the trio or trio sonata, which we have already discussed, and structural alternation is used to differentiate between soli and tutti. The structure of the work is worthy

of a detailed description. Monteverdi treated the line "Ah che piaga d'amor non sana mai" as an organizing refrain. He inserted the refrain four times, each time presenting a textual variation, and rising to a the refrain gives first the whole climax. Thus at the third
line,

then repeats the

first

repetition half three times,

and

closes

with the whole

line.

These

insertions are in the

manner of the rondo

refrain, in

which

passages, its pure, chordal setting. simplicity of

the musical material remains the same. In contrast to the intervening the material of the refrain is characterized by the soloistic

The complex

harmonies, note

choral responses, if against note and syllable against syllable, suggest not in actual performance at least in the structural conception, which conforms to the alternation of soli and tutti. The first time the refrain

the first part of the line: "Ah che piaga appears, Monteverdi repeats non sana mai." The second time, the line is not repeated, but d'amor
:
1
1

Monteverdi achieves an increase of tension by transposing the har monies by a fifth. The third time, the refrain is sung in three parts, and then the repetition of the line employs all five parts for the first time. At the conclusion of the work, when the refrain appears for the last time, it is sung twice, both times by all five voices. Thus Monteverdi
builds
ture.

up

The
it

since

climax at the end, merely by altering its struc three-part version of the refrain is also of stylistic interest, embodies the type of trio (trio sonata) that Monteverdi had
his material to a

used consistently in his previous madrigals: grouping an upper duet, of two sopranos with a harmonic bass. This trio also has the accompani-

THE MANTUAN MADRIGALS

ment of a
bass.

217

basso continue* but

,

accompanying bass

is

with the solo passages the identical with the vocal merely a basso seguente,
in contrast

The refrain in the first version follows:

v,

Ex. 8 1

65

Ah

w
trio are

r
51r\a.

Such forms of the

innumerable.

They

are the predecessors

of the soloistic duet with instrumental accompaniment, the genuine form of the trio cantata and sonata. This soloistic type of trio is con
to the passages between the refrains, and the "reto the refrain. Throughout the composition, the solo sponsorial" type take part in the refrains, istic duet consists of two tenors which do not in five voices. The solo groups are also in sharp except for the phrases contrast to the tutti refrains, being highly ornamental and
sistently applied

based on a virtuoso technique of singing which as concertato will more and more become the new vocal style. Sometimes the duet is linked the whole form of the trio by a parallelism in thirds which permeates are voices two the sometimes contrapuntally combined in^a sonata; of short motifs, a method that will also be characteristic imitation rapid of the trio form:

stylistic

Ex. 82

v,

62

embodiment of the contrast between virtuoso singing and in this is an example of the fully developed strumental
In
its

accompaniment,

stile

concertato.
is

A further increase in virtuosity

a perfect
first

shown

in

as in example of the stile concertato, In both six voices and thorough-bass accompaniment. for madrigal the of exuberance the richly melismatic lines and madrigals the long are inspired by the connotations of individual words; decorated

Troppo ben pud, again cosi a poco a poco, the

melody

2l8

RISE TO

FAME

of these motifs, the musical structure is the yet in the development factor. Amor se giusto sei and the strikingly beautiful Tamo
controlling
vita

mm

have fascinating and unusual arrangements, combining solo declamation with the accompaniment of the basso continuo. The solo declamation is successively given to canto, basso, and tenore in Amor bass a long se giusto sei, each voice presenting alone with the thorough elaborate in or declamation in noble, emphatic virtuosity. Not
passage until the line "non sostener

Amor"

does the simultaneous co-operation

his skill

of

all

five parts begin.

Tamo ma vita surpassed almost everything that

direct expression of love, "T'amo mia to the canto alone. The narrative

Monteverdi had written and was a magnificent example of

as a dramatist.

He singles out the

tells

vita," for the soloistic recitation,

given

parts,

low

to the three sweetly," are assigned voices in the style of choral recitation found in Era Vanima mia, drama Indeed, the situation is so vividly depicted that the imagination

"My

dear love

me most

with the choir in the role of the unemotional in the foreground bursts forth with the pas actor the while narrator, sionate exclamations "T'amo mia vita," until, toward the end, alj share in the exclamation. This is drama on a small scale but of a profundity
tizes the composition,

no previous composer had expressed. Monteverdi has turned what was still called a "madrigal" into a short dramatic scene. This little with Monteverdi's most grandiose composition can stand comparison works, such as the Amore of his latest years. Artistically it was far more the Florentines had developed on a more am dramatic than
that

anything
closes

bitious scale.

with the madrigal Questi vaghi for nine voices and two instrumental sinfonie, a noble conclusion to a distinguished one for collection. It is striking not only because the double chorus
four breaks through the limitations of the but also because of the new use of the orchestra, the sinfonie madrigal, sinfonie use the being written for five unnamed instruments. The two same musical material, the sinfonia seconda being an abbreviation of
five voices, the other for

The fifth book

the sinfonia prima. 2 *

The grouping

of the voices in

two antiphonal

from the madrigalesque dialogues of the six teenth century which came into favor especially through Andrea Gabrieli. The dialogues had gone through a long development by the time Monteverdi took up the form. In this madrigal he used responses between the first and second choir but refined the technique so that it
choirs derives directly
23

This observation has been made by Redlich, op.

cit. }

p.

HI.

THE MANTUAN MADRIGALS

was more than the simple echo
there
is

219
of the lines

structure.

At the beginning
initial

imitation of the usually an immediate

chords, and for

the most part the two choirs are closely worked further novelty is the introduction of soloistic passages with thorough Wherever the poem takes on bass, separated from the choral section.
a

into each other.

more personal and emotional

tone, or

where the poet speaks subjec

Monteverdi turns toward the soloistic form, especially after tively, the second sinfonia and the outburst "Deh, deh" in full chorus, in the
anch'io." Double chorus, solo voices, basso continue, phrase "se potessi and an orchestra with instrumental compositions that intervene in the

course of the vocal

work

these are the vast resources

which can be
the full use

drawn upon
of these
latest

to shape the

truth." It will be
artistic

poem musically "upon many years before Monteverdi returns to

the foundations of

means, but the foundations of truth have justified his transformation of the madrigal and will justify the novelties of

the future.

THE SCHERZI MUSICALI

In Monteverdi's progress toward transforming the madrigal and one step followed the other, discovering a new basis of composition,

each seeming to issue logically from the preceding situation with ex the fifth book of madrigals this continuity traordinary continuity. Up to was never disturbed. Then the Scherzi Musicali for three voices ap

from a fresh contact with Italian native song, which once before had found artistic expression in the canzonetta when Monteverdi was searching for musical forces opposed to the elements of the Netherlandish style. The canzonetta was an
peared in 1607.

The

scherzi resulted

effective

medium

to that end,

and once

it

had been reached

we might

native song had served Monteverdi's purpose. What suppose that the could the composer expect from it, except a repetition? The phase of the five books of madrigals does not necessarily lead to the scherzi,

which come somewhat

ment.

as a surprise

and must be taken

as

an

artistic

from the logic of the composer's develop phenomenon that stands apart

The Scherzi presented a new poet, Gabriello Chiabrera (1552-1638). With the exception of two poems by Ansaldo Ceba, Deh chi face and
and one by Sannazaro, La Pastorella mm spietata, most of the texts were
had at one time been in touch with by him. Highly esteemed, Chiabrera
to music Dispiegate guance, both set

by Giulio Cesare Monteverdi,

220

RISE TO

FAME

tokens the Mantuan court, and Duke Vincenzo had accorded him many 24 An of respect, which he was quick to record in his autobiography. all of essence poetry, he ardent admirer of Greek poetry, to him the the Pleiade, especially in his seems to have followed Ronsard and 25 resulted only in a certain odes But his genuine love for Pindar's odes. of seven novelties, for typical startling formalism, while his craving Marino. of true the rather him contemporary teenth-century art, made Chiabrera's scherzi were written with musical

Light and spirited verses,

have often been regarded composition in mind and

as his best

and most

original writings. Infractions of the rules of artistic composition are perhaps

more

fre

systematic The the native song, as do certain rhythmic and melodic qualities. the while a and bass, vocal parts of the scherzi are for two sopranos violini two of combination instrumental ritornelli have a corresponding da braccio and a bass instrument which also functions as basso continue.

than in the canzonette. The parallelism quent in the scherzi and octaves, derisively used in such forms as the villanella, and the use of the combination of three parts have their roots in

in fifths

Monteverdi suggested that the bass part be played by a chitarrone, a the harmonies of the clavicembalo, or any other instrument on which
basso continue can be realized.
ritornelli, there seems to be

With the

instrumental exception of the

adaptation of the native song, yet the canzonette.

no advance beyond Monteverdi's previous the scherzi differ considerably from

In the first place, the trio combination is now strengthened as a result of Monteverdi's experiments with the five-part madrigals. The upper the bass are separated from each other, and the two sopranos, parts and or the

two

violins,

form an inseparable entity

as a duet,

have their

own

parallel usually progress there deviations from this procedure.

motion, and completely the two upper parts is so close that neither can be taken by itself. They in thirds, and only in or near the cadences are

absorb the melodic elements.

The

relation of

The voice-leading thus was

of so

that one cannot properly use the term, since it implies great a simplicity a certain contrapuntal independence of the parts, however slight. This
thirds is the product of harmonic coupling of two voices in parallel in which the melody is not invented as a horizontal line, but

is

thinking, the direct result of the predominant verticalism of

harmony. The

24 See Achille Neri, "Gabriello Chiabrera e la Corte di Mantova," in Giornale storico delta letteratura itdiana, Vol. VII (1886). 25 See Ferdinando Neri, // Cbiabrera e la Pleiade Francese (Turin, 1920), passim.

THE MANTUAN MADRIGALS

221

second soprano underlines the verticalism, for the parallel motion in thirds links it with the first soprano and at the same time produces the constituent tones of the chords. The duet is given a high range and the bass so that the organic unity of the two keeps its distance from had used such combinations upper voices is strengthened. The madrigals a whole, but never before as over the composition skillfully distributed had they occurred so consistently. In the second place, the bass has been given a field of action all its
never attempts to enter the sphere of the duet by swinging motion of the upper parts or sharing their motifs, but melodic the into absorbed in its harmonic functions. In previous works, es is

own and

pecially

entirely in the canzonette, the bass

would occasionally take part

in the

melodic motion of the upper voices, even though its predominant func tion was harmonic, and here and there motifs would also appear in the the bass ap is -complete. If bass; but now the fundamental separation to be "melodious," such melodic parts, however brief, are formed pears are a matter of its basic motion and have nothing to independently or do with the motifs of the duet. But, in general, the bass does not strive from one root of and its tones either to form melodic
phrases,

skip

the chord to the other or are diatonic passages through the scale. What ever melodiousness may result, its phrases never fulfill the functions of ever have the power of a motif. The bass is, how nor do a

melody

they

same length as those of the upper duet lines. verse the follows and Though consisting of nothing but chordal of bass the a tones, phrase may be repeated in transposition, or a down ward motion may be followed by a phrase in the opposite direction, or vice versa. These phrases are so shaped as to be "impersonal" and not This unexpressive behavior of the bass is characteristic in
ever, divided into phrases of the

expression. related to Monteverdi's aspiration to work out a number of stereotyped that can be used over and over again, and their similarity re patterns sults from a tendency toward objective forms, from the limited range of chordal varieties, and from a relationship to dance basses, such as 26 which we have previ antico and moderno, those of the

passamezzo

ously noticed. The impersonal

character of the bass

is

sometimes height

ened by an unchanging rhythmic motion which makes the contrast between the bass and the duet more striking, especially when the two
brief melismata, or groups of tones upper voices have
set to a syllable.

The bass maintains the basic rhythm in scherzi whose upper duet
26

devi-

See the excellent essay of O. Gombosi,

(1934), 14.

"Italia: Patria del

Basso Ostinato," in

RaM,

VH

222
ates

RISE TO
from the strictly syllabic form.

FAME

instrumental ritorSimilarly, in the

nelli,

the bass ordinarily has a simpler, slower motion than the duet of
violins.

the

two

In the third place, the systematically uniform rhythmic organization of the scherzi differs markedly from that of previous works, including
the canzonette, and is primarily musical, as opposed to rhythms that are merely derived from the text. To be sure; the musical rhythm is by but many of the from the verse no means

wholly separate scherzi are not syllabic, and their musical

rhythm,

rhythm obviously follows

its

own drive. In compositions whose organization is syllabic, the situation the music may coincide, is less clear; the rhythms of the verse and of
and in works where great care has been taken with the accentuation a clear-cut decision is hardly possible. Yet the shift, for instance, from a triple to a duple rhythm, from 3/4 to 6/8, sometimes adopted for the whole composition and characteristic of a great many scherzi, is an Such a shift is not necessarily produced eminently musical procedure. a comparable order, for it has a long has verse if the by the verse, even With composers such as Monte texts. all of musical independent
past,

verdi,

whose sensitivity reacted to the most

subtle accentuations of the

the verse, a clear-cut decision is often impossible. Strangely enough, Scherzi actually fail to show Monteverdi's sensitivity at its best, for the

musical accents are not always in full harmony with the textual accents. This may furnish a clue as to the priority of musical or textual rhythms.

At

all

events, only the syllabic compositions pose the question,

and

in

Monteverdi's scherzi show that purely musical rhythm was general factor. This is proved by the handling of the usually the determining section which is of the same length as the each where order,

rhythmic

verse line and is provided with a musical cadence tends to be repeated, so that the composition as a whole has a fixed pattern. Finally, the dance character of the scherzi is ultimate proof of the priority of

musical rhythm.

The scherzi produced some new

effects taken

from the native song;

these included the consistency of the dance rhythms, the sharp contrast between bass and upper duet, the rendering of the bass as basso continuOy and the peculiarity of the trio combination with its special style for the duet, not to mention the instrumental ritornello. In most of the scherzi Monteverdi drew together the material for both the instrumen
tal

and the vocal

sections.

The material used

for the ritornello

and the

melody, in rhythm, or merely in phrasing, had to be the ritornello was to be played twice and then since correlated, repeated
stanza, similar in

THE MANTtJAN MADRIGALS

after

223

each stanza and too strong a contrast in the material would destroy the unity of a composition. The Scherzi Musicali constituted a trans formation of the native song into the trio "cantata*" a to

companion

the instrumental trio sonata. (The book concludes with two scherzi by Monteverdi's brother, Giulio Cesare, and a balletto in praise of beauty, De la Bellezza le dovute lodi. This last composition has been the subject of frequent discussion, because Monteverdi's authorship is by no means certain; indeed, stylistic evidence points to Giulio Cesare as the composer. 27 )

Hugo Riemann, "Eine siebensatzige Tanzstfite von Monteverdi," in S1MG, Riemann observes a debatable relationship between the seven sections of the which he thinks have been worked out with the technique of variation. "With good reason, Redlich, op. cit,, p. 132, doubts that there is such a technique in the work.
XIV,
26.

27

See

balletto

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The Mantuan Music Drama

ORFEO

THE

YEAR
His

verdi.-

first

carnival time. It

1607 brought great fame to Mantua and to Monte opera, the Orfeo, was produced in the spring at was also the first opera produced for the Mantuans,

and though it was staged before the small group of members of the Accademia degP Invaghiti, it was to be performed repeatedly at court. The libretto was by Alessandro Striggio, son of the famous madrigalist, a Mantuan nobleman and a court official. The book of the Orfeo was promptly issued by the printer of the Duke, La Favola d'Orfeo rappresentata in musica il carnevale dell anno MDCVII neW accademia
degV Invaghiti di Mantova, in order "that every one of the spectators might be able to read the story while it was sung." Two years later the score of the Orfeo appeared in Venice, and it was reissued in 1615, a rare occurrence for an opera. Both Caccini's and Peri's versions of Euridice were published, but neither was reprinted. During the ba
roque age musical compositions, especially operas and cantatas, were
occasions for which they were composed. inseparably This explains the incredible productivity of composers of operas and cantatas and is the reason why the medium of musical communication
linked to the

was the manuscript rather than the printed book. A baroque opera in print was very much the exception, and a reprint of an opera several years after its first performance was unheard of. But the Orfeo was in every respect a unique work, so far above anything that had been produced in the early days of opera that the genius of Monteverdi, "Musico ver del Paradiso," must have been apparent even to those who had previously shown reluctance to honor him. The Mantuans wel224

THE MANTUAN MUSIC DRAMA

as

225
Carlo

corned the Orfeo with great excitement, since they knew, 1 to witness a unique event. Magni recorded, that they were privileged that in interest keenest Vincenzo, who for many years had taken the form in which "all actors shall speak musically" (Carlo Magni), could

now give orders to recite (fa recitare) a music drama composed in his own city. The legend of Orfeo was most appropriate for a performance at
the

Mantuan court. In one of the glorious frescoes of Andrea Manthe Camera degli Sposi, completed in 1474, there can be seen, tegna, behind Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga, two men, one of whom is sup Leon Battista Albert! and the other, Angelo Poliziano. posed to be
Poliziano likewise

was produced
Francesco in

may have reminded the Manruans that his Orfeo Mantua for the first time upon the return of Cardinal Italian Renaissance 1472. Even this early drama of the
in

was performed in the manner, ^the report goes, of a musical "recita the part of Orfeo, "sang" his tion," and Baccio Ugolino, wno played
role to the

accompaniment of the viol This

music
itself

is

only a matter of

his

torical record, for the

has not

come down to us. The legend

of Orfeo had also been used in the early music dramas at Florence, and the collaboration of Striggio and Monteverdi may have been an
artistic rivalry,

undertaken in a desire to outdo the Florentines. was under the auspices of the Duke, but production of Orfeo his son and heir, Francesco, the recipient of the dedication, took the keenest interest in the work. The few reports we have of the perform

The

ance are by Francesco,

who

the production. He was full Giovanni Gualberto, the singer of the title role, who had been "loaned" to Mantua for the occasion by the Grand Duke of Florence. In a letter to his brother, Francesco says that his father not only attended the elite of connoisseurs but also "numerous rehears premiere before the for the "ladies of ordered another and
als,"

seems to have followed every phase of of enthusiasm, especially over the feats of

the city." Monteverdi captivated the Mantuans with his new dramatic which he gave the star singers many opportunities to composition in But it was the dramatic, emotional quality of the work skill. their show

immediately

performance

noisseurs.
i

and the unity of text and music that gained the praise of all true con Cherubino Ferrari, the theologian and poet from Milan, who
in Rome, dated Feb Magni to his brother, the Mantuan ambassador the first performance at the court theater. See P. Canal, before day ruary "Notme Delia musica in Mantova (Venice, 1881), p. 101; see also Stefano Davari, R. Acdel distinto maestro di musica Uaudio Monteverdi,'* in Atti dell*

Letter of Carlo
23, 1607, a

biografiche

cademia Virgiliana, p.

85;

and Vogel, op.

cit.,

p. 343.

226

RISE TO

FAME

had added an encomiastic poem to Monteverdi's fifth book of madri remarked of the Orfeo that "poet and composer have presented gals, in such an extraordinary manner that nothing remains affections the
to be criticized.
still

The poetry is
its

beautiful in the invention of the material,

more
it is,

sion;
as

disposition, in short, as excellent as might

beautiful in

Signor Striggio.
it is

confess that

in

no

And finally, way inferior to

it

and most beautiful in its expres be expected from a genius such with regard to the music, one must

poetry so
tion."

fittingly

that

the poetry; the music serves the cannot be replaced by any better composi

and music, which Ferrari observed is, unity between drama of the Orfeo. At the dawn of distinction historic indeed, the great the music drama was created by Monteverdi alone,

The

operatic history,

without any

real precursor.

For the Florentine music drama, even

in

the version of the gifted Peri, was artistically inferior to the Orfeo; it never attained the musical or dramatic quality of Monteverdi's work,

and remained within the theoretical limitations established by the men around Bardi. Peri maintained that reason should be the principle and though he had a more musical every human action,
governing

and greater spontaneity than his rival Caccini, the exclu disposition fatal to the Florentine music drama. sively intellectual approach proved

Monteverdi was comparatively free from the burden of such theoreti cal considerations. He was, of course, an "intellectual" composer to

an extraordinary degree, but in him the intellectual and the elemental musical powers were miraculously blended.
foundations for

Monteverdi had transformed the musical vocabulary and laid the new stylistic idioms before he proceeded to the music methodical work was an important factor in giving this and drama,
its

the Orfeo

superiority
is first,"

came last and

as

it

and lasting success. "Claudio Monteverdi was once said. 2 Monteverdi was also a born

pressive preparations drama in history.

dramatist; whatever the medium, he brought to all his compositions a dramatic understanding of musical form. Technical, stylistic, and ex combined to make the Orfeo the first music

Can

it

the music drama?

superficial

be said that Monteverdi was a disciple of the Florentines in Only if the stile recitatho is understood in a very

way, and only in the sense that Monteverdi realized what

il

1 "Claudio Monteverdi arriva ultimo ed e Monteverdi nell'opera in musica," in Musica,

essay

is

primo." See Guido Pannain, "Claudio (Sansoni-Florence, 1943), 36. Pannain's a fine contribution to the study of Monteverdi's work.
II

THE MANTUAN MUSIC DRAMA

22J

the Florentines may have dreamed of but did not achieve. The dramatic
of the stile recitative in the Orfeo is pre-eminently musical, perfection and the relationship between word and tone is Monteverdi's own. the canto* It is a transfiguration, "Truly every word is animated in of the life to within pure sound, from speaking melody, a re-creation and the in enclosed is word, which the sentiment of the word through
is

not limited by verbal sonority and practical significance but reveals of going beyond the physical and reaching the roots of the
possibility
spiritual

its

essence."
sia

"L'oratione
cal

padrona

del

Monteverdi adhered to the supreme law: armonia e non serva." He derived his musi
essence of the word,
his

form from the

spiritual

than the affetto Monteverdi and

which is nothing other mind when contemporaries had in

the inner meaning of text and music. This responsiveness speaking of to the affetto results in the unique, tense, dramatic effect which gives

the

Orfeo

its

superior quality.

demonstrated Monteverdi's concep not This tion of musical form. only implied a general expressiveness not as something fixed drama realize to meant but was also literally, element an as but and stable, continually progressing and changing,

On a grandiose scale, the Orf eo

variety. responding flexibility form as an unalterable preconceived scheme or pattern as did the later the da capo aria prevailed as a more or less fixed form. opera, where Such a conception of form occurs in very mature, even overripe, a of historical development, and is the one usually adopted by phases the where occurs classic artist. The other and opposite conception creates a new form artist is not bound to an established scheme but and conditions to the by interpreting those each time, according special have taken form to dramatists born are who musicians conditions. All

a cor so that the musical form, in order to be dramatic, must exhibit Monteverdi did not treat musical and

be something

flexible

or Wagner may musical history to compose according to this totally new conception. This explains the great variety of forms in his music drama. The Orfeo followed the traditional division of the drama into five of music, as befits the acts. The prologue is sung by a personification man and beast, moves charms whose powerful song legendary Orfeo, which are the powers her of rock and tree. "La Musica" sings powers, concluded and introduced by an instru of Orfeo, in a strophic song drama. The the of course the in which mental ritornello reappears

and responsive to the action of the drama. Gluck be mentioned here, but Monteverdi was the first in

228

RISE TO

FAME
stability,

form: the same material is used for all prologue thus has an established bass which, except for its rhythm, re on a is and stanzas the composed

mains the same throughout. Despite the

Monteverdi varied

the line of the recitation in the individual stanzas according to the af fection of the words and thus created a climactic centralization and which the a formal song does not in itself possess.

He

strophic of expressive and formal concentration climax double the places at the center of the song, in the third stanza. Music announces herself, "lo la musica son" (second stanza), and relates her power over man

symmetry

while singing to the accompaniment of a golden lyre (third stanza), "lo su cetera d'or cantando soglio." The recitation here deviates furthest from the melodic pattern of the stanza. Thus Monteverdi
achieves a clear outline for the strophic song by creating a rise toward, and a decline from, the climax. The strophic song can only vary the from stanza to stanza and has no formal limits other than the

melody number of

or climax is an poem, so that any symmetry addition quite outside the nature of the form. Monteverdi nearly al thanks to his powers ways gives the strophic song this additional form, of organization and adaptation. The Orfeo begins with exuberant rejoicing over the wedding of Orfeo and Euridice. All have the same desire that the glorious day of may never end, that it may be the first of countless such days to
stanzas in the

forever. The chorus sends its prayers its happiness may last to the gods that no misfortune may befall the lovers. (First act.) The festival joy is at its height, and Orfeo sings one of the powerful songs with which he charms the universe, at the end of which the Pastore

joy come, that

exclaims that nature

itself

has
its

become more

beautiful.

At

the

moment

climax and the Pastore utters once again his exclamation over the happy day, the Messaggiera suddenly breaks the news of the tragedy. Euridice, bitten by an envious serpent, has died: "La tua diletta sposa e morta." In keeping with the Greek thought

when the rejoicing reaches

the

that the gods envy men and strike because of jealousy, the chorus in first act had prayed that the gods might not becloud the radiant the chorus recognizes the bitter fate, sinister deed. day by any

Now

the "caso acerbo," and draws the moral that mortal man should never trust the gods. (Second act.) In defiance of the gods, Orfeo is deter mined to break the law of mortality, to win his beloved Euridice back

from the realm of Pluto. He approaches Hades, although immortal words should warn him: "Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch'entrate." Here to hold Orfeo this warning of Dante's Inferno appears. Caronte tries

THE MANTUAN MUSIC DRAMA

229

back from his blasphemous audacity. But now, once more, Orfeo must test the powers of his song, for it must charm Caronte into guiding him to Hades; and the power of his enchanting music achieves what
never before has taken place
a mortal enters the realm of the dead.
act.) Pluto's wife, Proserpina, is the mediatrix for Euridice, to who is be permitted to return to the world of light. Pluto, a rather mortal daptive of the beauties of his wife, yields to Proserpina's inter Amid the exultation over Orfeo is cession. The

(Third

overjoyed. triumphant he wonders whether Euridice is following him as had been He gives in to his doubt and does what, according to Pluto's promised. he is forbidden to do: he turns around to look for Euridice.
his victory,

stipulation, loses his

wife forever; Euridice must now return to Hades. is of no avail; there is no remedy for his fate; to him, the light of day is now forever odious, "Podiosa luce." (Fourth act.) of Thrace, Orfeo gives himself to lamenta over the

He

Orfeo's lament

Wandering

plains

with a broken heart, who is the great singer him in pity. The god with mourn to and rocks, begs nature, trees, will be translated to his from descends son, Heaven; Orfeo, Apollo divine immortality; risen to Heaven, he will enjoy the sight of Euri dice in the stars: "Nel sole e nelle stelle vaghezzerai le sue sembianze
tion without hope.

He

belle."

So Apollo and Orfeo rise to the stars, while the chorus joyfully the happy Orfeo is to enjoy celestial honor: "Vanne f elice a that sings a goder celeste honore." In comformity with the idea of the pieno, dance of the spheres, the music drama concludes with a moresca, a
dance of the heavenly ballet. (Fifth act.) This conclusion, the transla tion of Orfeo to the stars, brought about in all suddenness by Apollo and therefore always decried as an unsatisfactory deus ex machina, may not agree with our conceptions of a dramatic solution. Yet it has its not the deus ex machina, but the act of historical
peculiar
significance;

transfiguration tance.*

itself,

symbolized in the dance,

is

the factor of impor

The dramatic turning points in the work exhibit the highest con centration of Monteverdi's artistic energy: Orfeo's praise of Amor, of and exuberant love, which he sings at the invitation of undefiled
joy
the Pastore and in

which he is joined by Euridice; the first display of Orfeo's singing powers, which is interrupted by the messenger's news of the catastrophe; Orfeo's song testing the power of his music, over

* A. shed a new light upon the relation of the ballet Warburg's brilliant studies have costumi teatrali per gli inter to the dance of the spheres. See especially his essay "I Vol. I, in mezzi del 1589," now in A. Warburg, Gesammelte Schriften (Leipzig), III. Veroffentlichungen der Bibliothek Warburg,

230

RISE TO

FAME

the Caronte; Orfeo's breach of promise and his final loss of Euridice; musi of are scenes all ascent of Apollo and Orf eo to Heaven superior cal distinction. Only in the fifth act may we doubt whether the greater scene of Orfeo's lament in the fields artistic skill is shown in the

moving

of Thrace, rendered with great simplicity, or in the scene of Orfeo's with brilliant display. Each of the principal glorification, presented centers of gravity, is surrounded by dramatic and musical the scenes,

pressive display, though of dramatic necessarily evidence

antecedent and consequent, so to speak. The scene of greatest im the one that employs the greatest profusion portance is not necessarily of musical resources. The beginning and end of an act make a more all available means, and therefore the more im comprehensive use of this concentration of musical resources is not
its

and musical intensity. By strengthen of each act, and by building up an end and the ing the beginning the dramatic core of a scene, to surround antecedent and a consequent

Monteverdi achieves a symmetrical organization, which gives balance to the musical energies and a certain similarity to the acts. The climax of an act comes in the scene which has the greatest, dramatic concen
tration,

though the act

may

brilliance.

Only

the fifth act

proceed to a conclusion of far greater fails to center on a dramatic core and

advances in one direction toward the end of the work. This straight forward movement is surely most appropriate for the ending of the

work, and makes

it impossible to decide whether the greater artistic concentration occurs in Orfeo's pitiful lament or his ascent with

of the material as a whole, Monteverdi mani Apollo. In his disposition architectural of fests his thinking and his profound feeling for

powers

dramatic presentation.

which the musical and dramatic intensities form at its best. In them, the based on of tone and word, comes relation of structure, flexibility into its own. When Orfeo sings his first song of joy, posing the chal

The

central scenes, in

coincide, exhibit the individualism of his

melody

lenging question whether there is anyone as happy as himself, the is an organic mixture of recitation and arioso, with no clear

the other. Certainly, an arioso seems to separation of one from require a melody, in contrast to the narration, and Caccini has described the
stile

recitatwo as something

midway between

spoken recitation and

pro duces the arioso by a distinctive and sensitive reaction to the affection of the word. Striking intervals, accidentals, or modulations alter

a full-fledged aria. Yet Monteverdi not only increases the melodious ness when embodying the arioso within the recitation, but often

may

THE MANTUAN MUSIC DRAMA

often,

231

the course of the recitation and give it a melodious character, though introduced for the sake of melody, but in order to do they are not standards other than those of and to the text. More
to mere melodiousness, the arioso develops a structure appropriate^ an as recitative the which penetrates organizing songlike melodies, of its own. factor. The recitation, of course, has no formal structure From the very beginning of the stile recitative* this was its most crucial and one which the Florentines all too frequently tried to problem, of course, solve by providing the end of each line with a cadence. This, had the effect of making each line a unit. But when such units occur times as the text has lines, there is still no formal organization. as
justice

by

many

It is

only

fair to

solutions.

add that the Florentines occasionally discovered better Monteverdi begins the search for formal limits to the un

limited recitation

the basso continue according to a moduwith a strength and logic of its own in order to keep the latory scheme that cadences from coming to full rests. He also makes use of the fact certain a have often recitation correspond the phrases of the melodic ence with each other that closely approaches balance and symmetry of a song. Orfeo's were constituent and thus act as

by shaping

parts though they Rosa del del, and Euridice's brief response lo non diro, which follows,

are examples of

this.

The most

comes with the appearance of the grandiose scene

mes

and here Monteverdi draws upon all his re senger in the second act, maintains a sources. The structure is such that the dramatic music
continuous flow.

ritornello in the

form of

a trio

arrangement for

two

chitarroni and a and the thorough-bass instruments, the of chorus shepherds, written cembalo, opens the scene, in which the the charm of his with the fill to for five parts, requests Orfeo country
flutes

two

new ritornello, played by five viole da braccio, a contrabasso, song. two cembali, and three chitarroni, leads to Orfeo's song. The ritornello of the last returns after each of the four stanzas with the exception a structure, controlled is The Euridice." te bella rigid by "Sol
song per without change in any of the stanzas.

The melody,

free

from the

ele

ment of recitation, has the quality of a simple aria, yet also the dignity which the chorus expected from Orfeo's song. The melody of Orfeo
is

at

power

once taken up by the Pastore, who with utter joy finds that Orfeo's of has taken effect and that nature is beautified. This outburst

the character admiration and rejoicing is expressed by strengthening in the motion a dancelike of an aria in the melody and by realizing the on renewed its with last At the emphasis
triple

rhythm.

very

line,

232

RISE TO

FAME

the news "Ahi caso acerbo." "happy day," the Messaggiera brings With the same suddenness with which the tragedy occurs, the charac
ter of the

the catastrophe. In this melody changes to a pathos befitting achieves scene Monteverdi attains an unmatched greatness, and what he

He revived something of the unique in the history of opera. extreme joy and serene hap to which Greek tragic sense, according to have the right, are a chal seem immortals to which only the piness, utter unawareness of is This accompanied by that lenge to Fate. a terrifying effect. has Greek in tragedy, always catastrophe which, bitter tragedy in read the have the others is Orfeo alone unapprehensive;
here
is

the face of the messenger, "in vista dolorosa," while Orf eo, ignorant of the question "D'onde vieni?" which Monteverdi pain or harm, poses was inspired to use as indicative of his terrible unawareness:

Ex. 83

x,

58

O'on-de

vit-Tu?

o- v*

v*i ?

Nin- fa the

Jor- li ?

'To thee I come, Orfeo, an unhappy messenger of a and more grievous accident; thy beautiful Euridice
.

still
.

unhappier

."; it is

only

that after this sentence, rendered in highly dramatic declamation,

Orfeo awakens to the threat of tragedy and interrupts the message with the exclamation "Ohime che odo?" The Messaggiera concludes her mournful tidings with "Thy beloved wife is dead." Orfeo has but one exclamation: "Ohime." The climax of the tragedy is thus antici

and then begins the lengthy report of the details of the accident. pated, .The recitation responds to the emotional quality of every word in a in which Monteverdi a is not simply narrative, with melody style that nor to a recita an arioso to neither that characteristics realizes
belong
in a situation of the highest dramatic yet wfucfT he always employs tried out in various madrigals. The Messaggiera's sijitensity, previously
tive,

Euridice's death ends thus: report about

ri fri

ptttt krtctit

rd

i*

Ti-tML-

li

fum

H cor

i>

}n-U-d

<t&-

wn-t

THE MANTUAN MUSIC DRAMA

233
react

Orfeo is silent throughout the report; it is the Pastori who first to the "amara novella." This holding Orfeo back from any spontaneous reaction to the story makes the sudden shock convincing; he was
totally

unaware and is now stunned. It is as though he had not even heard what the Messaggiera recited at great length. For after the report has been sung and the two Pastori have expressed their reactions, Orfeo continues from the last words he heard, "La tua diletta sposa e morta," and begins with "Tu se' morta, se' morta rnia vita," his final song of the act, in which he bids farewell to earth, sky, and sun, to join Euridice in death. This farewell song has the same melodic pathos as the Messagof the awful tidings. The act concludes with an first
giera's

uttering elaborate concentration of chorus,

soli,

and orchestra,

all

in

contempla

tion of the mournful event.

acerbo, five-part chorus, in the manner of a refrain, pondering always inserting itsjmpersonal is set in contrast to the two tenors, two Pastori, who sing
to the

The

Ahi caso

and a chitarrone as thorough-bass accompaniment of the regal trio combination is in style and of the instruments. The upper duet This Arrange in function theconcertmc^ opposition t&thfiiuH .chorus. to the dramatic sensitiveness Monteverdi's shows ment once again of the text. The soli are an individual expression of pity implications for the sufferings of Euridice and Orfeo, one bitten by the serpent, the other pierced by grief: "Euridice e Orfeo, Tuna punta da Fangue, Taltro dal duol trafitto"; while the impersonal chorus merely warns

men not

to trust the gods in

view of

this tragedy.

Thus Monteverdi

to the style of the concertino, of soli and imparts a dramatic significance tutti. But the climax is not shifted to the end of the contrasting
act,

which

is

center remains in the contemplative, and the dramatic

scene of the Messaggiera.

The third

act displays a

new

dramatic concentration, and beginning

with th7scenTwhere "Orfeo attempts by singing to persuade Caronte to grant access to Hades we again have a form of composition which itself as it advances the drama. It is essentially a grows and completes rise to freeform, uniquely adapted to the dramatic situation that gives Jtrin tfiiTact the whole new art of^soloistic singing is displayed. Orf eo's bold attempt at what might well be impossible for mortals, the would be a challenge to any com as a test of his
,

singer, gifts supreme After the scene between Orfeo and Hope (Speranza) a dramatic poser. recitative which culminates with the warning from Dante's Commedia, md sinfonia, Orfeo embarks on his aria Possente

an^Soductory

tpirto,

the most elaborate virtuoso aria of the opera.

Its

form

is

organ-

.234
ized

RISE TO

FAME
the same in
all

of

by the bass, which remains essentially the five stanzas. The continuity of the

but the fourth

bass pattern

for the stanzas

solo part in the stanzas, but the deviations are so numerous as to make to decide which of the melodies of the stanzas is to be re it

does not apply to the rhythm, whose variation affords the solo voice a particular freedom. The frame of the melody is also retained for the
impossible as the basic form subject to variations. The fourth stanza, with of the stanza its own bass, has its own melodic order: from the middle to the end of the aria the alternative version of the solo part is broken

garded

In the earlier stanzas Monteverdi gave two versions of the melody: one a simple, unadorned form, the other provided with virtuoso orna mentation of dazzling brilliance. This presentation of a simple, form and an ornate alternative which reflects the high standards of the art
off.

of solo singing in Monteverdi's period,

operatic literature.

is unique in seventeenth-century have equal artistic value, Apparently both versions

accompaniment of the other. Did he or one Orfeo the regal and a chitarrone, might sing real star singers no where for version intend the performances
since Monteverdi indicated in the score that, to the

simple

were

available?

For

it

would take

a first-rate singer to render the

ornate version adequately, and the simple form is suitable for singers of no particular training. Nevertheless, it is hard to believe that Monte of a music drama apart a verdi could even have

imagined

production

from the cultivated entertainments

ary to hire great singers.
the ornate

at courts for

which

it

was custom

From an aesthetic and dramatic point of view, version may be preferred. The fact that the ornamentation

not far from the end of the aria has, in all likeli stops at a certain place hood, a dramatic reason, and the degree of its virtuosity varies with the
stanzas. Elaborate in the first stanza, the

ornamentation

is

reduced in

the second, greatly increased in the third, and after an elaborate be ginning in the fourth, gradually decreases and stops at "O de le luci mie." The virtuosity seems to correspond to the intensity with which

Orfeo makes

his

request of Caronte.

When

Orfeo

first tries

the effect

Monteverdi employs different instruments for the various stanzas and the ritornelli that separate the stanzas in order
of his brilliant
skill,

to

heighten the effect.

The accompanying

instruments

are

two

violins (first stanza) ,

two

cornetti (second stanza) ,

two harps

(third

stanza),

two

violins

and basso da braccio (fourth stanza), three viole

the vocal (fifth stanza). parts of the stanzas are characterized by virtuosity, the instrumental accompaniment and the ritornelli are equally brilliant, and as the virtu-

da braccio and a contrabasso da viola

When

THE MANTUAN MUSIC DRAMA

end
so does osity of the vocal parts decreases, in simplicity, since the more intense

235

that of the instruments. All

Orfeo becomes, the more

the moving "Sol tu nobile approach. After he has sung Dio" (fifth stanza) in an unembellished, bare form, Caronte confesses that he has been enchanted by Orfeo's song but still does not want to
direct
is

his

surrender to pity. Orfeo then presents his request in, simple, recitation with no instrumental accompaniment other than the thorough bassJ The lines of the recitative are lowered by one tone through the scale,

then followed, in chromatic rise, by the repeated, imploring phrase: "Rendete mi il mio ben, Tartarei Numi." Monteverdi uses such a structure in his later music dramas to produce the greatest intensity.
of the structural elements, the whole scene Despite the rigidity of some a free evolution of form. In the aria the free variations of
presents the same bass, attain an independent expres strophic orderjbuilt upon sion of great passion over a new form of the bass with a chromatic descent at the end of the fourth stanza. The simplicity of Orfeo's im
is intensified in the stile recitative*, which is main ploring (fifth stanza) of Orfeo's part in the act. tained for the rest with a w jsajrigalesc[ue chorus_qf the "Spirits," concludes act The

an organo di legno, five tromboni, two bassi accompanied by a regal, da gamba, and a contrabasso de viola, while a sinf onia for seven parts 5 encloses the chorus. Monteverdi has imparted new dramatic signifi cance to the musical form by combining flexibility with a strictly
disciplined structure.

The Orfeo

for the
all

first

time offers a musical,

5

dramatic form that stands apart from

the traditional structures.

THE EVENTS OF l6o8

In the year in which the Orfeo was produced, Monteverdi suffered the greatest personal loss in the death of his young wife Claudia at Cremona. He remained there for a time in the house of his father, who him advice and consolation in his grief. But it was not apparently gave he received an urgent letter from F. Follino, the chronicler before long of Mantuan court life under Vincenzo. In the letter, dated September

sympathy of the Duke and the court, but conveyed new and heavy demands on the creative work of the were in the making in Mantua. The composer, for great preparations with Margareta di Savoia was heir the apparent, wedding of Francesco,
6

24, i6o7,

Follino expressed the

A. In two excellent studies the orchestra of Monteverdi has been discussed by J. the Orchestra," in AfeWC, XXI (1940), isoff. and by Paul and "Monteverdi Westrup, II (1943), 86ff. Collaer, "L'orchestra di Claudio Monteverdi," in Musica,
6 6

Sec Davari, of.

cit.,

p.

88.

236
surpass any chief events

RISE TO

FAME

of 1608, and the attendant festivities were to planned for the spring that the court at Mantua had ever undertaken. One of the

composer to

been recognized splendid remarked that now was the moment for Monteverdi to reach the sum mit of fame that man can have on earth: "questo e il punto d'acquistarsi un huomo in terra." Monteverdi il sommo di quanta fama puo avere the summons to Mantua. quickly obeyed In consequence of the close communications he had maintained with the musical circles of the Florentine court, the Duke engaged Rinuccini to write the dramatic texts for the musical productions.

was to be a new music drama, and Follino summoned the Mantua to begin his work. Dramatic music had alreadymedium for royal display, and Follino as a

In addition

to the

the spring carnival, wedding festivities, Mantua was to celebrate and to provide the carnival music Marco da Gagliano was called from Florence to Mantua in the fall of 1607 to produce the music to Rinuccini's Dafne, which was performed early in 1608. The elaborate Marco wrote to his Dafne, an important source both preface which 7 for the nuptial festivities at Mantua and for Monteverdi's work, is worth "Among the numerous admirable feasts that were

quoting:

the superb occasion of the wedding of Serenissimo Principe, his son, and Serenissima Infanta di Savoia, was the plan to represent a 'favola in musica.' This favola was Arianna, whom the composed for the occasion by Signor Ottavio Rinuccini, that for Mantua to had summoned Duke purpose. Signor Claudio

ordered

by His Highness upon

Monteverdi, the most famous musician, head of the music at the court of His Highness, composed the arias in so exquisite a manner that we can affirm in all truth that the power of ancient music has been restored
(che
si

moved

rinovasse il pregio dell' antica musica) because they visibly the whole audience to tears."
is

Monteverdi
celebratissimo)
activities

by

here praised as a most famous composer (musico a man who in connection with his Florentine

Dafne
praise

was deeply involved in dramatic music, who contributed his Mantua and witnessed the performance of Arianna. His was no empty compliment but a token of the reputation Monte
to

was

verdi meanwhile had acquired among Italian musicians. Apparently it also the first time that an outsider had compared Monteverdi's

music to the music of ancient Greece. This reference was not to any
had the privilege to study the full score of Marco's Dccfne in the copy of Dr. Alfred which I wish to express my gratitude. As is known, Eitner's publication of the Dafne is incomplete.
71

Einstein, for

THE MANTUAN MUSIC DRAMA

specific

237
Greek

form or type of Greek music exercised upon man and the esteem in which music was held by the Greeks. It was the pregio (the value or the effect) of ancient music as is that had been restored, not any particular form of Greek music,
sometimes mistakenly thought. The composition of the Arianna was only one of the obligations the Mantuan wedding imposed on Monteverdi. Even at the time of the

music, but rather to the effect

him by the court were extremelyOrfeo, the demands made upon strenuous. In the Dichiaratione Giulio Cesare apologized for his brother's neglect of the dispute, saying that he was a very busy man who carried "not alone the burden of the church and court music, but
in duty to the Duke also other extraordinary services, for the most part such as tournaments, balletti, comedies, various concerti, and lastly, the of the viola." Had Monteverdi composed music to "balletti, playing of tournaments, dramas," previous to the Orfeo and the festivities

of Giulio Cesare suggests such compositions. know from a letter of Monteverdi's to Vincenzo from Cremona in December, 1604, that he had been occupied with the composition of music for a ballet based on the story of Endymion. Monteverdi ac

1608?

The remark

We

the Duke demanded that he knowledged receipt of a letter in which "should compose two entrate, one for the Stars that follow the Moon, the other for the Shepherds who follow Endymion; and also [that] he should compose two ballets, one for the Stars alone, the other for the Stars and the Shepherds together." Monteverdi suggested that for the the in first ballet he would compose an "aria allegra et corta" for all would "aria" a different that all the Stars; struments, to be danced to by to danced and braccio da viole five by two follow, to be played by so the and be would aria first the continued; Stars only, whereupon whole the until further be arias would group first and second repeated, of Stars, two by two, had performed the solo dance. Monteverdi added that he would await further instructions concerning the number of dancers which he needed in order to carry out the scheme of the ballet.

Meanwhile he submitted to the Duke the second. ballet for the Stars and the Shepherds, which he had already finished. There is no descrip 8 tion of that part of the ballet, and its music is lost. For what occasion such music may but the composition was intended we do not know, Cesare in Giulio of remark the as have been demanded as frequently
dicates.

At all events, music for intermezzi and balletti made up the additional
See letter No.
3; ed.

Malipiero, Claudia Monteverdi, pp. 131!.

238

RISE TO

FAME

commissions for the wedding of 1608. After the festivities were over, Monteverdi wrote that he had been requested to set fifteen hundred 9 for verses to music in short order. The strain must have been taxing,

with horror of the occasion and twenty years later he could think only said that the speed with which he was expected to deliver large compo 10 Monteverdi also mentioned sitions had driven him almost to death.
that he needed time for compo something about his ways of working "I know one can he sition, to think through what planned to compose. well not do and fast together." The long go good compose fast, but needed he that indeed, is, recognizable in his works, process of thought which are notable for their discipline and logic, and their mastery of can only detail. He adds that hasty composition and performance recitar de versi, un mal concerto d'istromenti, et un "un mal produce mal portamento di armonie." The performance requires as much study and thoroughness as the composition; the Arianna "required five " Monteverdi felt that the months of rehearsals in intensive work." the composer and refused work of art

placed great responsibilities

upon

commissions that did not allow him to do justice to those responsibili com ties. The artistic rewards, though not the material ones, were

mensurate with

his efforts.

Lamento and a few very brief and unreBattista Doni in his treatise on Giovanni vealing excerpts given by scenic music, the Arianna is lost. The reports we have concerning its and effect are, therefore, of particular impor origin, performance, tance. We know that Monteverdi worked closely with Rinuccini and that intrigues against the Arianna were started by the Florentine poet Cini and supported to some extent by Ferdinand of Gonzaga. Cini was the Arianna by his Tetide, with music by Peri. anxious to

With

the exception of the

replace

Nothing came of this intrigue, because Duke Vincenzo was determined to have Monteverdi's Arianna as the main drama. Another misfortune
occurred during the period of preparation. In January, 1608, when his Dafne, the star singer was the cele brated Caterina Martinelli, a pupil of Monteverdi, who had already few weeks later this brilliant been chosen for the role of Arianna.

Marco da Gagliano performed

died at the age of eighteen, and was commemorated by Monte verdi in a special composition. In her place, a singer from the famous troupe of artists, the Andreini, was engaged. Virginia, known as "La
artist
10

Letter No. 6, dated Cremona, Letter No. 89, dated Venice,

37,

December

May

i,

2, 1608; ibid., p. 138. 1627; recipient uncertain, possibly Alessandro

Striggio-, ibid., p. 250. 11 Letter No. dated

Venice, January

9, 1620; ibid. t p. 186.

THE MANTUAN MUSIC DRAMA

listeners.

239

Florinda," took over the part and performed to the admiration of the
1608, after their official wedding in Turin, the princely Mantua and the festivities began. On May 28, 1608, entered couple the Arianna was put on the stage. The luxury and brilliance of the

In

May,

present. spectacular production that attended the performance must have been enormous, for Follino a debatable figure six thousand persons were in the theater says that that perhaps includes all the visitors. The Mantuans that is, the of Mantua had to forego attendance at the theater in favor

were so

as to

amaze

all

The crowd

nobility of the out-of-town guests. Follino reported that the captain of the ducal archers could hardly hold back the throng and keep the entrance

free for the illustrious guests, anxious to display their wealth and alone and of the actors that took "On account of the

poetry luxury. that opera the Arianna could well be classified as a beautiful part, work; but the opera became the subject of the greatest admiration in

of Claudio Monteverdi, a man whose great conjunction with the music are sufficiently known all over the world, but who on this
capacities

occasion has surpassed his own faculty. The instruments, placed behind the scene, continually used for the accompaniment, were varied with to change in the character of the vocal music and were adapted

any

the brilliant voices of the singers, men and women. The lament of Arianna, abandoned by Theseus, was sung with so much warmth and so moving a manner that all the listeners feeling and represented in stirred and none of the ladies remained without were most
tears."

profoundly (This Lamento has been preserved.) The performance of the whole opera took about two and a half hours. In its musical-technical
apparatus,

as richly orchestrated and, with as the Orfeo. constructed soloists and chorus, as elaborately of the Arianna, on June 2, few days after the first performance various other Mantuan With his Guarini presented comedy Idropica. called upon to contribute to this produc was Monteverdi composers, tion. According to custom, intermezzi were to be inserted between the acts of the comedy: a prologue, four intermezzi, and a licenza were needed. Gabrielo Chiabrera provided the poetry for all. The music of the prologue was composed by Monteverdi; Salomone Rossi composed the first intermezzo; Giovanni Giacomo Gastoldi, the second; a "messer

the

work was obviously

Monteverdi, the fourth; and Paolo well as that of the other Biat, the licenza. Monteverdi's music, as this to say: "After musicians, is lost. About the production Follino had

Monco," the

third; Giulio Cesare

240

RISE TO

FAME

the cardinals, princes, ambassadors and invited ladies had taken their from inside the stage seats, the customary signal of trumpets sounded di dentro del palco II solito segno del suono delle diede doll*
(si

pane

the signal was given for the third time, the great an eye, disappeared. Three curtain, very quickly, in the twinkling of to seem natural. Be so made be thick clouds could seen, skillfully as and thither, out of hither waves were there low the clouds, turning which there came gradually the head of a woman. This was Manto, the founder of Mantua. In well-measured movements she slowly rose

trombe) and

when

to full sight, and by the time the trumpets ceased, she had reached the shores of a small island. There, standing amidst the reeds, she sang so of various instruments placed behind delicately to the accompaniment the scene that she enchanted all listeners." of Monteverdi attracted later, on 4, another work

June days the guests of the court. mascherata, or balletto, was performed, the Balh delF Ingrate, composed in genere rappresentativo. Rinuccini and Monteverdi again worked together on this composition. Follino spares no praise, and, in pointing out the success of the ballo, he not only mentions its superior artistic quality, but stresses its effect on the audience. Monteverdi's music moved the listeners to tears, touched their hearts, and created a highly emotional state in the audience, as

Two

was his aim. The description of the emotional state into which his music becomes more and more frequent. Coppini, transported audiences whom we have already mentioned as the editor of Monteverdi's festivities in Mantua and madrigals, also attended the
"spiritualized"

witnessed the emotional reactions of the audience. "Claudio Monte verdi's music is of such excellence that those effects of music we read

about to our great amazement in ancient sources should no longer ap other compositions, pear strange. Of this, the Arianna, among many himself "capable of force gave clear evidence." Monteverdi showed thousands and thousands of fully making the famous audience weep
tears." Indeed, the human element, as the basis of the affections, was the secret of Monteverdi's music and its spontaneous success. The

theme was man, his passions and his experiences, and the artistic compo sition gave the theme universal validity. The Lamento d'Arianna had an immediate success in Italy and was The composition was a frequently imitated by Italian musicians.
favorite of Monteverdi's.

He made

an arrangement for

five voices as

a madrigal divided into four sections, which is included in the sixth and at the end of his life, in the Selva Morale e book of

madrigals,

THE MANTUAN MUSIC DRAMA

24!
version

he presented a "spiritualized" Spiritual (Venice, 1640-41), the Pianto delta with the religious text "Jam moriar mi Filli." Entitled under Madonna, it was the final work in the last collection published is the version of The full operatic Lamento^ his
original supervision. Its in in (among other sources) a Florentine manuscript. preserved a to due was perform clusion in this anthology of monodies probably in Florence in 1614. Several other perform ance of the Arianna

composition as Monteverdi's creative share in the festival productions, although maestro di cappella he was responsible for all musical performances, the festivities whether or not they included his own works. By June 10 clear we get the of the wedding came to an end. From FoUino's report activities artistic all of that Monteverdi was at the center impression that this was an at the wedding. When Follino wrote the composer can man a earn, he was right. to acquire the greatest fame opportunity

given one which Monte ances of the music drama are recorded, including in Venice in his of end the 1640. life, verdi saw at of the Eallo delV Ingrate apparently completed The

For

after the events of 1608,

Monteverdi became a European figure

his contemporaries, of such importance that he overshadowed not only the of but also the great composers past. made of it and its strong Judging from the various arrangements d> Arianna seems to Lamento the the of music the time, on influence Lasciate mi morire have been the chief composition in the music drama. 12 monodic composition with basso continue. It ^is not a is a purely are maintained, the caesurae of the stanzas for

though strophic song, stanza. The form re the composition presents new material in every has the greatest news itself with every fresh subject, and consequently The difficulty situation. dramatic itself to each individuality and adapts mind Monteverdi's many years^ later when such a form imposes was in while hard labor to had he composing the Lain 1633 he wrote that him had no any aid. No book, model, given mento d'Arianna. in art. What is imitation of the with He was struggling problem be imitated? These questions, always in his imitation, and what should the very existence mind and ever present in his composition, involved as a principle imitation that of music as an art. For Monteverdi believed of the certain artistic work. Although absolutely gives birth to any of school Greek the thought, and he had taken from
principle,

which

Cf. Perer Epstein, "Dichtung und Musik in isSeeMalipiero, Open, XI, 161-167. X (i9*i9*>, 6ff- See ako in d'Arianna,'" \amento Monteverdis ZJMW, MR, I (1940), 144=- U. d'Arianna,' 'Lamento "Monteverdi's J A. Westrup, in RM, III (1921), 23*de Monteverdi," "L'Ariane de Courville, Xavier

242
specifically

RISE TO
from
Plato,

FAME

he was always searching for the object to be imitated in music. He had no doubt about it in general the object was its indispensable foundation in human invariably the affection with The text established the affection, and Monte existence and
experience. verdi always placed the human implications first and foremost. The was to apply the general principle to the specific case. Was difficulty affection which the text as a whole indicated that should it the general be imitated? If so, the text must be such that all the emotional qualities

could be reduced to one predominant affection. At one time Monteverdi did say that this was the object of musical imitation. sentence in the Or, were the affections, as they appeared sentence by imitation? At another time Monteverdi for the proper subjects poem, indicated that this was so. Or should the affection of a single word be

of the

poem

imitated?
his

At one time Monteverdi objected to such a procedure, but

find

in

more than once that the individual affection of a is imitated. Each work involved him anew in the same prob word single lems and the same struggles; the musical form of each composition de It is clear that Monteverdi was pended on his decision in this matter. technical with the concerned problem of imitation, not as a constantly
works we
device, but as the basic conception of artistic form. The melody of the Lamento d'Arianna is built upon an understanding

of the affections
tence,

as

they are formulated, line

stanza.

by

line,

sentence

by

sen

Moreover, at certain places in the text, at the imploring exclamation "Ah Teseo rnio," for instance, or at the words "Invan piangendo, invan gridando aita la misera Arianna," the melodic line responds to the affection of even a single word. Such a form is so

and stanza by

master that only a genius can handle it successfully. The the melodic pieces may never make a musical whole. that danger But there are two devices that help to make an entity out of the in
difficult to
is

dividual melodic lines: first, the recurrence of predominant intervals used in conjunction with the general human situation of the Lamento; and second, the running of the melodic lines into one another in such a

manner that each seems to result from the preceding one or to prepare

With regard to the first device, the expressive intervals that are to prevail in the composition as a whole are presented in the first section of the Lamento. Monteverdi's use of poignant intervals here
for the next.
gives the basic affection of the Lamento^ and the intervals recur throughout the composition where they maintain a more or less stable

connotation.
tration:

The second

device

may best be

demonstrated

by an

illus

THE MANTUAN MUSIC DRAMA

Ex. 85
xi,

243

165

tion

to grow out of another. The exclama Teseo!" contains one of the prevailing intervals of the first section as does the phrase "lascerai tu morire," although it logically continues the exclamation. Even the chromatic rise, imitative of weep comes naturally, without forcing; ing and crying (piangere, gridare), interval in fact, one almost expects the chromaticism after the chromatic the the to highest point, on "morire." After being driven chromatically

Here each melodic line seems

"Ah

melody drops down by way of

a dissonant interval, directly expressive

of the misery of Arianna, and the two concluding phrases are a logical in the continuation of the melody. Though responsive to every detail the that so own its to pro logic, text, the melody proceeds according on musical grounds. cedure is comprehensible
entirely

of Monteverdi's music defy abstract definition. that the purpose of writing tones of such said himself Monteverdi to arouse sympathy with the suffering of a noble was poignancy woman. His was an art of seeing, of knowing man and human nature, accents with of setting music not so much to words as to the human work expressive of which the world resounds, of creating an artistic com a on sympathetic human experience. Monteverdi's music is based the of force human composi munication between the listener and the

The human qualities

tion.

The Ballo delF Ingrate, published thirty years later in the eighth book
of madrigals,
is

equally

a contribution to dramatic music.

Monteverdi

244

RISE TO

FAME

as a composition in genere rappresentativo, the designated the work term for theatrical music. Amor, Venus, Pluto, four Shadows of Hades, and eight Ungrateful Souls are named as the "Interlocutori," and the the entrance to the Inferno. There is scenery is described as showing some resemblance between the Balh and the Hades scene in Orfeo, if

In both works, Pluto is merely on the basis of the characteristic subject. Balh dell' Ingrctte the In implored to grant extraordinary requests. to allow the Un Pluto to Venus mother his beseeches Amor persuade from their abode of suffering and punish Souls to come
grateful

up

ment.

The Ungrateful Souls are those

of

earthly lives foolishly

desire to see

refused the favors of

women and girls who in thenAmor. Amor feels a nasty

how

for their insults to him.

are being punished they fared in Hell, where they The Balk begins with the scene in which Amor

take on the role of an intermediary. Venus agrees, begs his mother to and with her all-powerful charm is successful in winning over Pluto. The Ungrateful Souls are permitted to come to the light of day. Clad in ashen gowns, with tears over their faces and clothes, and with mourn ful gestures, they step forth from the cave that leads to the Inferno, This sight moves even Amor. Their joy and the actual dance
begins.
at seeing the light of

day

is

short-lived. Pluto asks the ladies of the

audience to take the deplorable fate of these Ungrateful Souls to their

hearts and give Amor what is Amor's long they Souls must return into darkness. The scene of their return to the In

due

as

as

live.

The

ferno

is

most moving;

its

human

qualities

rise far

above the somewhat

of the story. One of the Ungrateful Souls sings her flippant character farewell to light and air: "Aer sereno e puro Addio per sempre," and

group of four admonish the

ladies:

"Apprendete pieta Donne

Dona

zelle."

The

text

is

far inferior to Rinuccini's Arianna.

Though based on

dramatic theme, much of the poetry Rinuccini wrote for the Eallo has a narrative and descriptive character that does not lend itself too readily
to Monteverdi's dramatic style, though the music raises the work be yond the quality of the poetry. The narrative caesurae, however, could

not always be avoided, and the

lines

of the recitative follow rather

closely the lines of the text. For the most part, Monteverdi must apply the style of the recitative to the narrative text, but as often as possible

he approaches the arioso within the recitation. The sensitive reactions of the melodic line to all the emotional qualities of the text interrupt the simple recitation, and there are many passages for the solo voices that
follow an independent melodic evolution.

The

part of Pluto often

THE MANTUAN MUSIC DRAMA

breaks

245
and the

away from the recitation into a freely developed arioso; when she pleads with Pluto in favor of long monologue of Venus, based directly on Amor, also displays the subtleties of a melody

when, the connotations of the words. This is most strikingly apparent d'honor, in move campo in imitation of the text, "invan gentil guerriero
the

melody proceeds to a warlike

theme in strict triple rhythm. Melodic

passages
also

such as those set to "fido

of the

show the growth

versar lagrime e sangue" the affections. of out melody

Amante

instrumental compositions have special significance viole da of the Ballo. Monteverdi prescribed five up the largest part instru of the number braccio with harpsichord and chitarrone, and Three hall. of a larger ments could be doubled if necessary on account the entrata, are used: the sinfonia, of instrumental

The

and make

forms

composition
sinfonia,

and the ritorneUo. The

in fully inserted

his request to first dialogue, in which Amor presents pears between the in behalt intercedes who Venus, and the dialogue of Pluto and Venus, first time the for ballet proper, played of her son. The entrata is the and repeated towhen the Ungrateful Souls appear from the Inferno, While return after Pluto condemns them. the end when

an independent composition, is skill it ap order to give the illusion of a change of scene;

ward

dance music is used as an the Ingrate are taking their positions, the for the dance entratamtht proper meaning of the word, andthenserves material is same of a middle section, the itself. With the exception and the figures steps used for the entire ballo, but the basic rhythms, The ritorneUo, true to its of the dance, change from section to section. after each stanza of Pluto s great name, is a brief passage inserted which comes directly after the recitative aria, Dal tenebroso orror,
dance.
Ballo dell' Ingrate. It
.

they

true that Rinuccini was considerably he worked at the French court, with by the French ballet de cour when of the intermarriage of the which he was connected as a natural result the French Medici. That the Italian had absorbed royal house with the ot ms the and when editing poetry art of the courtly ballet is obvious, French to his indebtedness father, Rinuccini's son acknowledged felt the Ballo dell' Ingrate makes itself on influence French The models. but the of text, outline the structural in the general character and can be detected, even in the Monteverdi's music no such influence the same tonal mate
is

A strong case has been made for the French characteristics influenced

of the

entrata.
rial

The

section

technique of rhythmically altering been practiced in Italian instrumental by section had

246

RISETOFAME

dances since the beginning of the sixteenth century, and the style of the instrumental forms and of all the vocal parts was very much
18 Monteverdi's own.

With the festivities of

came to an end, and
his

in dramatic music 608, Monteverdi's activities

its

Mantuan period drew to

close.

Immediately

after the performances of the dramatic compositions that had brought him so much success and honor, Monteverdi found himself in the throes

Of a

and fame, despite recognition that Despite honors verdi was the rising star among all the Italian musicians, the Duke was
crisis.

Monte

reluctant to express his gratitude in material form. He gave generous re munerations to others, to outsiders such as Marco da Gagliano, who had contributed to the festivities of the marriage; but he did nothing in

recognition of the

work that had been

artistically

the most prominent.

left Mantua, determined not to Completely exhausted, Monteverdi received an order to take return, and went to his father in Cremona. He counselor of the Duke. the up new work, through Annibal Chieppio, On December 8, 1608, Monteverdi, in a lengthy document, gave the reasons for his absence, for his irritation, and for his bitterness. But once

put
18

exerted a beneficial influence and persuaded again his father 14 conditions at Mantua. with up
Pmnieres, ieres, Claudio Monteverdi, pp. 83
,
.

him to

IX

(Florence, 1936), 70, had the note "che nella Biblioteca

Comunale

di

manuscript at the Biblioteca Rime diverse. Although the manuscript is an important collection of texts of Intermedii with some interesting and detailed directions, it is not an autograph of Monteverdi; nor does it contain the texts of his works. Fausto Torrefranca, "II Lamento di Erminia di Claudio Monteverdi," in Inedito,

Quaderno Musicale, II (Rome, 1944), 31-41 (the composition, ibid., r-8), has suggested that this Lamento, based on a passage from Tasso's Gerusalemme Hberata (Canto XIX, found the composition in a seventeenthstanzas 105-108) is a work of Monteverdi.

He

this Lamento appears century collection of arias. The section of the manuscript where has signed compositions of Ippolito Macchiavelli, Giuseppino (Giuseppe Cenci), Cesare Marotti, and, with the name of its author, the Lamento di Arianna by Monte

The Lamento di Erminia, "cantato dalla Saponara in casa Savelli" anonymous, and its attribution to Monteverdi is purely hypothetical. Un fortunately, Torrefranca does not mention where he found the manuscript; nor does he refer to its present owner. The bibliographical evidence in support of Monteverdi's
verdi (No. 20).

(No.

14),

is

unconvincing; the arguments brought up in favor of 1610 (the year when in Rome), as the date of composition, and of 1611, as the date of per formance, are very strained; and the method of the stylistic discussion is not historical. Unless more solid evidence turns up, the attribution to Monteverdi appears un
authorship
is

Monteverdi was

acceptable.

CHAPTER

TWELVE

Sacred Music in

Mantua

Monteverdi sent Duke Vincenzo a formal letter of application for the that he be allowed to conduct the musical affairs of both post, asking court and church. 1 The answer was favorable, and from 1602 on, Monteverdi seems to have been responsible for all the musical activities at the Mantuan court. That same year he and his family acquired Mantuan citizenship, granted as a favor by the Duke. The position of maestro di cappella at the court church of Santa Barbara imposed new duties on Monteverdi. In this capacity he had to music for the services or for special supervise and also to provide the occasions of a religious character. It must have been the ambition of an artist that made him so anxious to re-establish the personal union of the two positions, maestro di cappella della camera and maestro di had existed under Giaches de Wert. It is cappella deUa chiesa, which to devote himself to religious hardly conceivable that he felt an impulse not he did music, for compose any religious music until it was demanded the position he occupied in Mantua, and it was twenty-eight of him
decided to publish any new sacred compositions. In years before he of religious works under the title: Sane1 6 10 he published a selection Ad Ecclesiarum Chores Ac Vesper e vocibus tissimae Virgini Missa senis nonnullis sacris concentibus. For nearly a cum decantandae pluribus

WHEN

the position of maestro di cappella, Pallavicino had occupied, became vacant in

which Benedetto November, 1601,

by

decade Monteverdi had composed religious works whenever called feel it necessary to publish these upon to do so, but he obviously did not
a-See letter

No.

r,

dated

November

28,

1601; ed. Malipiero, Claudia Monteverdi,

pp. izyf.

248

RISE TO

FAME

in sharp contrast with his attitude toward his compositions. This is collections of madrigals appeared regularly, as his secular music, for to make each artistic phase known in its turn. anxious though he were music, his reasons made a selection of his he But when
finally

religious

for doing so had no concern with any artistic program, but were purely

Monteverdi did not enjoy the economic security to which his fame, the volume of his work, and his leading position in Mantua entitled him. Financial pressure, which did not cease until he left Mantua for Venice, made the care of his family difficult, and he frequently alluded in his letters to the poverty of his two sons. In order to improve his financial he decided to enter Francesco, his oldest son, in the Roman
situation,

personal.

of securing a grant for him, he planned a seminary, and in the hope to Rome. Furnished with powerful letters of recom special journey since mendation, he had good reason to anticipate success, especially

he could count on the good services of Cardinal Ferdinand Gonzaga. The Cardinals Montalto and Borghese had the final word in the matter, and Monteverdi's letters of recommendation were addressed to both. So in the fall of 1610 he made the trip to Rome, and on his way south Caccini in Florence. In a letter he mentioned that he had called

upon

heard the daughter of Caccini, a singer of great fame, and although he found that she sang well and played well on the lute (chitarcmato) and
of Mantua, who sang, harpsichord, he preferred Signora Adriana, 2 all in the best manner. Both in Florence and Rome, and spoke, played, he was eager to meet new singers, who might be available for engage

ments

at

Mantua.

Before setting out on the journey to Rome, Monteverdi prepared himself artistically, hoping that his work might further the purpose of
his trip. In the spring of

which he intended

to submit and dedicate to

sought to establish the ideals of the Counter Borghese family. Paul Reformation as set forth by the Council of Trent, and passionately in
sisted

1610 he had begun the composition of a Mass Pope Paul V, of the

powers over worldly

upon the privileges of the papacy, thinking to invest rulers. It was during his pontificate

it

with

new

that the fa

mous struggle about the prerogatives of church and state broke out be
tween Venice and Rome.

was not without

2

The relation of Paul's policy to the ideals of the Counter Reformation its influence on Monteverdi. In order that his work
Letter

No.

10; ibid., p. 146.

SACRED MUSIC IN MANTUA

249

he composed the Mass in the conservative might be favorably received, to have accepted the which Northern style, Papal Chapel was known of for liturgical music. It would be a complete misunderstanding Monteverdi and of the principles of his work, were we to regard this
choice as opportunism or expediency.

The

style

of the past

was to him

an exclusively artistic problem and a very complicated one, fraught with difficulties both technical and religious. He knew from the Prima Prattica that religious intensity could be given only by Netherlandish and selected from the vast output of the Northerners not polyphony, what was nearest to him in time but what he thought to be the most
genuine
manifestation of the style. His choice is evidence both of his the discrimination and of his considerable knowledge. He selected

motet In illo tempers by Gombert as the model for his Mass for six raised to seven for the last Agnus voices, with the number of voices Dei. Such a choice was no accident. According to the DiMaratione, Monteverdi traced the derivation of the Prima Prattica properly from

Ockeghem, at a time when this was forgotten, and here again his stylistic insight led him to a composi tion of Gombert. Monteverdi's Mass has, in its published form, an additional basso
ancestor of
all

Netherlandish musicians

merely

continue to be used for the organ accompaniment, the continue being It has, therefore, neither the function nor the a basso
seguente.
characteristics of the

more modern thorough

bass

and could well be

pub discarded. Monteverdi apparently yielded in accordance lisher that he present the work nominally, if not factually, that time, with modern tendencies. Such demands were frequent at the vocal of a and composers met them by merely adding duplication is a choir for the Mass That Monteverdi only indicated
bass.

to the demands of his

composed

in the

work
trip

itself.

Monteverdi began to compose the Mass half a year before he went in to Rome, since he was no longer accustomed to writing on the
and needed extensive studies in order to render Cantiunthe composition appropriately. When he composed his Sacrae but the Northern with variance style, he had found himself at
the

manner of the

past

culae,

now
him

that his technical skill had

to have mastered
it.

We

should expect grown immensely, we

find,

however, that

his nature

was

still

and he was not at ease when writing in a manner opposed to the style we have a letter that he himself had made obsolete. As evidence of this,
written

by Bernardo

Casola

on July

16, 1610,

commenting on Monte-

250
verdi's labors, in

RISE TO
which he
calls this

FAME
Mass for
six voices a

composition
8

of study and great toil: "una missa a sei voci, di studio e f atica grande."

His extensive

studies

and general

artistic

able Monteverdi to write a faultless composition

maturity did, however, en in the old idiom and

to imitate the past with an uncommonly pure feeling for the style. Many musicians wrote in the polyphonic style of the other

contemporary

sixteenth century; the

Roman

school especially was full of such

com

Lodovico da Vittoria, the Spaniard, to posers: Giovanelli, Nanini, name only a few. But their work was a direct outgrowth of the style of there had been no break in their development and no lack
Palestrina;

of uniformity in their work. To them, choral polyphony was still a which they believed in as long as they composed. Monte living style verdi was the first to make use of the style as one who knew he was
a historical subject. dealing with

During the seventeenth and part of

the eighteenth centuries, composers consciously imitated Palestrina's as Monteverdi imitated Gornbert, but none of them, not even style, like Alessandro Scarlatti, could keep the style of his day the most
gifted,

from leaving its traces in the Masses a la

Palestrina;

none of them could

we find in Monteverdi's Gombert Mass. produce the purity of style com the all used Monteverdi complicated devices the Netherlandish
in treating a structure based on a cantus firtnus. posers had developed and diminution of the cantus firtms play a role in his

Augmentation

work

vices are as faithfully handled as in the compositions of Gombert, who was a master of canonic structures. In his treatment of the extensive

role in the Northern style. Canonic and fugal de equal to their

melismata and by his avoidance of caesurae and cadences, Monteverdi that he had full control over the very essentials of the Nether

proved

landish style.
lier

A retrospective evaluation, therefore, shows that the ear

six

Sacrae Cantiuncuke were much farther removed from Northern art than was the Mass of 1610. When Monteverdi composed his Mass, time

had considerably widened the gap that separated him from the
spirit

to force himself into the teenth-century musicians, so that his effort total renunciation of of their style was all the more laborious.

unquestionably the purest imitation of the sixteenth-century style; yet there are brief passages in which the of melodic sequences betray the grouping of rhythms and the handling fact that Monteverdi was a composer of the seventeenth century.
his musical nature, the
is

Mass

the Mass.
8

The rest of the works in the publication of 1610 differ widely from The letter of Casola suggests that not only the Mass but also
See Davari, op.
cit. }

p. 99.

SACRED MUSIC IN MANTUA

from

251

summer of the compositions for the vespers were the work of the early selected compositions 1 6 10, but it is possible that Monteverdi merely
which must have grown previous output of religious music, in the course of a decade. The title of the collection of impressively to the Mass, which is said 1 6 10 is astonishing enough, not with regard church use of the choirs, but with regard to to have been written for which are desig sacred additional the vespers and some compositions, or the in use for written been nated as palaces (literally: chapels
his

having accom"rooms") of the princes: "Ad Sacella sive Principum Cubicula a character, had these If modata." only general religious compositions and were not committed to a specific liturgy, we could understand their
in use in church and palace alike. But the compositions are liturgical could the strictest sense and definitely related to specific services which never take place in profane surroundings. If the reference to a perform ance in the palace has any meaning at all, it must mean that the composi
tions

were subject to a purely artistic and aesthetic understanding. This would be comprehensible only if the principles of art were given over those of the liturgy, a supposition which is confirmed
precedence
to

some extent by the style of the compositions. In view of Monteverdi's artistic style, his treatment of the liturgy was more conservative than one might expect. It has generally been over the looked that Monteverdi selected his compositions for one and
the

vespers It was the fourteen works can be assigned their proper liturgical place. ecclesiastical hour that Monteverdi intended to repre proprium of the that disturbs sent. Were it not for Duo Seraphim, the only composition
as making the order of the specific liturgy, all the works could be taken 4 also Casola these of In speaking compositions, up one liturgical entity. of the service one were for vespers. indicates that

same liturgy, and was following the order required by the officium of "In Festis Beatae Mariae Virginis." All but two of the first

they

only

The order Monteverdi gave to his compositions is that of the liturgy. The group begins with Domine ad adiuvandum, the initial part of the
is related to the venera * While Audi Coelum, though not prescribed liturgically, disturbs the liturgical unity. tion of St. Mary, the composition Duo Seraphim seriously dant does not belong For Duo Seraphim, with the verse "Tres sunt qui testimonium chant and, in accordance with ail reto the liturgy of the vespers. It is a responsorial is in the third nocturn of the matin, sponsories, follows a lesson. Its liturgical place in the period from the third Sunday to be sung after the eighth lesson on Sundays Feast of St. Mary falls on a Sunday after Pentecost to Advent. Hence only when a in the third nocturn of the within that period, will Duo Seraphim be the responsory united Duo Seraphim and matin. It never can be part of the vespers. Yet Monteverdi under the aspect of a common style. the three other soloistic

compositions

252

RISE TO

FAME

not "an Introit based on the Doxordinary of the ecclesiastical hours, " 5 Psalm 69, Deus in adiutorium, is ad adiuvandum.' 'Domine ology used only for the antiphon of the Introit of the Mass on the twelfth has an antiphonal style that re Sunday after Pentecost, but no Introit sembles the cmtus firmus of Monteverdi's work. At the beginning of the "in principio omnium horarum" any of the ecclesiastical hours in adiutorium to Deus and be to are Maria and Ave said, Pater noster

be chanted, to which Domine ad adiuvandum is, of course, the response, to be followed immediately by the doxology Gloria Patri. Monteverdi the tonus of the recitation in the cantus, but disregarded the
placed
flexions at the

end of the verse lines:

123

Ex. 86

xiv,

Do-Ttu-Tie

ad

4d-

ju-

van- dam

ski-

na.

Glo-ri-4.

Pa- trt

i'\~

U-

-ri-

In-

SAW- to

Si-

cut

e- rat

in

jjrivci-

f t rvanc

eUem-

tr

ct

sae-c*-

I*.

tat-cu-

lo-

rum

A-

wen

I-

I*-

lu-

i.

(The repetitions of the Alleluja which follow have not the quotation of
the chant.)

The second composition, Dixit Dominus Domino Meo, opens the Commune per annum, the specific liturgy of the vespers "In Festis B. Mariae Virginis." The liturgy requires the singing of five psalms with their antiphons, a hymn, and the Magnificat with its antiphon. The
i. Antiphon required antiphons and psalms are the following: esset rex with Psalm 109, Dixit Dominus; 2. Antiphon Laeva ejus with

Dum

Antiphon Nigra sum with Psalm 121, Jam hiems transiit with Psalm 126, Nisi Dominus; 5. Antiphon Speciosa facta es with Psalm 147, Lauda Jeru salem. The hymn of the day is Ave marls Stella, and the Magnificat has the antiphon Sancta Maria succurre miseris, juva pusillanimes, refove
Psalm
112,

Laudate pueri;

3.

Laetatus sum; 4. Antiphon

flebiles:
5

ora pro populo.

See Hans F. Redlich, "Monteverdi's Religious Music," in

M&L, XXVII

(London,

1946), 209. This essay is a review of Malipiero's volumes of Monteverdi's religious music a, review in which Redlich shows his comprehensive knowledge of Monte
verdi's work. As competent as his musical interpretation is, his attributions of the compositions to the liturgical services are somewhat too generous.

SACRED MUSIC IN MANTUA

Monteverdi
the order, faithfully followed

253

and the

five psalms are

those prescribed for the feast. Artistically, these psalm compositions are uniform in style, being written for large groups of instruments and form. Monteverdi has in the stile concertato or in
voices,
initial

polychoral four psalms, 112, 121, 126, compositions that precede the last and Audi Pulchra es, Duo Seraphim, and 147; they are: Nigra sum, all are have Coelum. Like the psalm compositions they stylistic unity with solo one to three from for voices, accompaniment of

the basso continue.

Whereas all the psalm compositions are based on in various ways, the four is which the psalm tone, artistically rendered cantus die have do not initial compositions firmus. Are they all anti-

composed

third psalm. In addition to mea is based on a text of the

liturgical antiphons.

sum sed formosa is the proper antiphon for the phons? Only Nigra Nigra sum, Monteverdi's Pulchra es, arnica Song of Solomon, as are all five of the proper Pulchra es, et decora is the antiphon of the fifth
the lauds of the Feast of Assumption of St. Mary (August psalm in Monteverdi intended the four compositions to function in That 15). the place of the proper antiphons we have no doubt, for the liturgy of is the is observed in the rest of the collection. Included hymn the

day

Ave

marts

Stella, set

hymn prescribed the uppermost part. The collection concludes with two com placed in of the Magnificat, both using the customary psalm tone. The positions has been omitted, and no composition has antiphon to the Magnificat unable to give any reason for the inclusion are its in been put place. of two renderings of the Magnificat, one more elaborate than the other; but both are written in the same "mode." If a strict adherence to the

for a double choir of eight voices, which is the for the liturgy. The cantus firmus of the hymn is

We

mode can be

vails. Finally,

claimed for these works, the first mode undoubtedly pre there is the Sonata sopra Sancta Maria ora fro nobis, which Monteverdi placed between the fifth psalm and the hymn. The "Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis" there is but one formula of the
litany,

exclamation repeated eleven times in the composition is not prescribed for the officium of the vespers and seems to be an artistic addition made

by Monteverdi on

a proper liturgical fits the connotation be assigned work, religious place cannot not does it even that so the of collection, liturgically general content
his
initiative.

own

Although

to this

its

disturb the unity as much as, for instance, Duo Seraphim. Despite minor the collection as a whole observes the liturgical order.

changes,
tains the

Attention

may be called to the text of the antiphon of the Magnificat which con ora pro populo" : words: "Sancta, Maria succurre miseris,
. . .

254

RISE TO

FAME
The only con

which w sistent liturgical procedure seems to be the cantus firmus, as in well as the Magnificat, maintained in the psalm compositions and the of use The complete the hymn and the sonata upon the litany. of the doxology rite prescribes, and the regular inclusion the as psalm, to the at the end of the psalm may also reflect a faithfulness liturgy^but is of their artistic the made vespers the overpowering impression by have assumed that the a serious contradiction?
this not quality. Is Mass has a liturgical, religious character, though there can be no deny that in the that it also embodies artistic principles. But it is clear

How far do the works preserve a liturgical quality?

We

ing

has made a bold advance toward a modern style vespers Monteverdi so in religious music. Something of an artistic radicalism, generally breaks through. He is moving religious foreign to Monteverdi's temper, music away from its sixteenth-century basis and for the first time mak to modernize sacred music by giving ^secular ing a determined attempt and sacred forms the common denominator of a unified style. It is a sys because he submits all the works of the collection, except tematic

the Mass, to a radical modernization; it is a comprehensive plan, because he uses all shades and varieties of the modern, secular style; it is a radical

plan,

he adopts plan, because

all

precedent but only iso comprehensive, and radical procedure, lated examples, which may themselves be the result of Monteverdi's and the Mass bring out the ir the advance. Taken
this systematic,

and without

hesitation.

There

the elements of the style without exception in musical literature for is no

vespers together, reconcilable conflict in religious music,

which has already been

dis

itself, cussed. The appearance of this conflict not merely in a theoretical dispute, shows the extent of the cleavage. Monteverdi had gained such mastery of profane forms that the expan sion of their idiom into all other forms became a necessity. The tend

in the artistic

work

and

ency to expand
the artistic

is

inherent in

any style

that has

on

its

side the strength,

of the time. Such expansions program, and the aspirations

new

occur repeatedly in musical history, especially at turning points where When he carried over the profane styles have their beginning.

its vocabulary into sacred music, Monteverdi was only recognizing The religious compositions have now lost their artistic the stylistic order independence and originality and take second place in

inherent force.

of music.
varieties of the stile concertato,

In accordance with this modernization, the vespers exhibit nearly all though the use of the monodic stile
is

recitativo

limited.

The

the concertato are principles of

worked out

SACRED MUSIC IN MANTUA

255

contrasts of various media, opposed to each other and vying chiefly as one with another. The contrast between solo voice and instrumental direct manifestation. accompaniment is, of course, the simplest and most
as a duet or trio Similarly the soloistic voices can be grouped together the in opposition to the accompaniment. In both cases, accompaniment the instrument which has the part of the basso conis

performed by

tinuo,

which in the vespers is the organ. This is the arrangement of the concertato in Nigra su?n, Pulchra es, Duo Seraphim, and Audi Coelum, solo voice can and in sections of the two Magnificat compositions. also be set over against a large body of instrumental accompaniment, as

the case in sections of the Magnificat I and, on a large scale, through out the Sonata sopra Sancta Maria ora pro nobis, whose accompaniment the organ, a large orchestra consisting of two violini da requires, besides
is

braccio,

(or one trombone and one viola da braccio), one viola da braccio (or a duet, in case one trombone is

two

cornetti,

two tromboni

one trombone doppio. replaced by another viola) and In regard to the choral combinations, the principles of the concerted allowed numerous variations. There can be a pure contrast of two
,

style

choral groups accompanied by the organ, illustrated in the psalm com Nisi Do?ninus for ten voices divided in two equal choirs, or a position orchestra in a simul choral group may be contrasted with a large large taneous accompaniment of contrasting nature, as in Domne ad adiuvandum. The concerted style may also be presented by voices in the style of soli contrasting with a large chorus, as in the psalm Laudate puerL There may also be the free alternation of soloistic and choral passages that is to be seen in various other compositions. Again, the concertato

may

be expressed by setting formal vocal and instrumental sections as in the orchestral ritornello, which occurs in the against each other, Ave maris Stella or in the psalm Dixit Dominus. Thus the com

hymn
poser

stile concertato in ever changing combinations. so that the each Monteverdi gave composition its own special medium, and treatment one not does collection represents a compre repeat any

may

use the

hensive cross section of the f ascinating changes of the style. In contrast to the antiphons of the liturgy, Nigra sum and Pulchra

es,

Monteverdi's compositions use a more extended text. His selection from

the Canticum Canticorum has, for instance, these lines: "Nigra sum sed f ormosa filiae Jerusalem, Ideo dilexit me rex et introduxit me cubiet dixit mihi: surge, arnica mea et veni iam hiems transiit umber abiit et recessit flores apparuerunt in terra nostra tempus putationis

culum

advenit."

The

third antiphon of the liturgy has only the first part of

256

RISE TO

FAME

andNigra sum, and the text Jam hiems is used for a fourth, separate them in one work. combines Monteverdi but phon,
in the contrast of the solo voice

only and the basso continue. The melodic elements of a recitative, like that which Monteverdi style is marked by had used in parts of his last madrigals and especially in his dramatic character of Nigra sum comes closest to the work. The
its

Nigra sum reveals

relation to the principle of the concertato

declamatory

style of

some of the

preconceived pattern

solo parts in the Orfeo. The freedom from any results in that improvisation which becomes more

and more

characteristic of Monteverdi's

declamatory melodies. Monte

verdi conveys a feeling of freedom and spontaneity, despite the fact that he organizes and balances the phrases with care and uses repeti tion of phrases, literal or varied, as an organizing factor. That improvi formlessness can be seen in the over-all structure sation does not

imply of Nigra sum: the whole second part, Surge arnica mea, is literally and the fashion of an aria structure. completely repeated in This declamatory recitative, taken over from madrigalesque and
recurs with stylistic purity only once in the rest operatic surroundings, of the vespers, in the first section of Audi Coelum, which is written for

a solo voice, while the second section, Omnes hanc ergo sequamur, con tinues in choral style for six voices. The operatic origin of the recitative
is

here emphatically brought out.

The

endings of the melodic phrases

are often provided with elaborate coloraturas, such as the in greater abundance; and these endings are repeated in the

Orfeo had

manner of

an echo, actually prescribed: "gaudio, adio; benedicam, dicam" and so forth. The Florentine composers were especially fond of such echo
effects in their dramatic compositions.

With

the inclusion of

Omnes

chorus structurally joined to the first section, the whole Audi Coelum, solo and chorus, has the makings of an composition, In its combination of operatic scene, so far as structure is concerned.

hanc ergo

as a

two

different media, each

worked out in its own style, and in

its artistic

a complete cantata in the seventeenth-century entity, as such, one of the first of its kind. The and appearance of baroque style a sacred text is merely accidental and is certainly not reflected in the
is

Audi Coelum

style of the music.

The two
trast

between

other soloistic compositions of the group, with their con solo and accompaniment, treat the stile concertato in a

more

exhaustive manner.

They embody

the style, not only as to the

medium, but in all their structural elements, and predominantly in their melody. Pulchra es once again lengthens the text, as Monteverdi uses

SACRED MUSIC IN MANTUA

the

257

tion written for

in full. This composi combination with the soloistic duet and the basso continue, and to a certain extent Duo Sera phim also maintains the combination at least for its first section; when, in the second half, the text proceeds to "Tres sunt qui testimonium dant," a third voice is added to the previous duet a characteristic realism in which the word "three" is taken literally. The typical features of the trio, however, are best shown in the handling of the vocal

two

verses of the

Canticum

(n,

i,

6;

and 4)
trio

two soprani works out the

special duet. In sharp contrast to the "improvised" melody of the recitative, the melodic motion of the concerted style is regulated schematically. The as concise in motif as in rhythm, which are used phrases are patterns, to create uniform analogies and correspondence. Repetition and the use of stereotyped materials predominate. It is astonishing how far melodic formulas of a typical Monteverdi has advanced in

character.

The combination

parallelism of voices, largely

trio style;

constructing of the solo duet, furthermore, produces a in thirds, which is a basic texture of the

even when the voices enter successively and suggest a contra

links them harmonically. In addition to puntal imitation, the parallelism mannerisms themselves have acquired the of an effect stylistic purity, almost the smoothness of a routine. Duo Seraphim, in many passages the more artistically valuable work of the two, experiments with a fantastically elaborate ornamentation of the solo voices. The melody is studded with ornaments, arranged in imitation of successive parts or in parallelism of thirds. This arrange used to express the jubilation redoubles the ment

practically

virtuosity

omnis terra gloria est" and "Sanctus, sanctus, intended to convey sanctus, Deus Sabaoth," as even the simple form is
of the text "Plena
est

The words "et hi tres unum sunt" symbolically what the text implies. word "unum" the three voice* the on and are given in simple triads, unison: sing in
Ex. 87
xiv, 194

tret

K-

treatment of the concerted style and their Despite their interesting art of use of secular idioms, the soloistic compositions do not equal the their profane models. The psalm compositions, however, the sonata, and the Magnificat not fully realized in previous secular forms. convey artistic impressions

258

RISE TO

FAME

The

use of the concertato to provide a contrast of profuse media and been attempted by Monteverdi large sonorities had only occasionally which in his madrigals. The fifth book contained E cosl a poco a poco, to six voices, but only the final composition concerted the style applied of the book, Questi vaghi, with its double chorus and orchestra for the of tone color and sinfonia, anticipated the magnificent exploitation volume that the psalm compositions systematically exhibit. of colorful a Although Monteverdi had given the madrigal variety in achievements exploring effects and could have pointed to his own

powerful sonorities, his psalm compositions undoubtedly originated der the direct influence of both Giaches de Wcrt, his predecessor in had made a Mantua, and Giovanni Gabrieli, whose polychoral work festival occa On musicians. on many contemporary deep impression even the Mass with solemn sonorities sions Giaches de Wert

un

presented of large choral and instrumental groups. He probably was influenced by the older members of the Venetian school, such as Andrea Gabrieli. In out his Sacrae Symphoniae, a col Giovanni Gabrieli had
1597, lection of motets

brought which became one of the most influential publications in Italy and south Germany, and for more than forty years the Vene tian school had devoted itself to exploiting the ever changing possibilities
of polychoral composition, especially in relation to the psalms for the ecclesiastical hours. Thanks to the achievements of the vespers of the a tradition to employ several choirs for composi become school, it had

more

be sung during the vespers. Andrea Gabrieli, whose work was and who was, in the esti is now generally assumed original than mation of the sixteenth century, of a higher rank than composers now
tions to

more praised, extended the use of a combination of vocal and unjustly instrumental groups which rivaled or supplemented each other in pro an extraordinary display of colorful sonorities. His nephew
ducing
Giovanni, a devoted pupil of Andrea, went a step further along the

same path without making essential changes. Monteverdi started from the last phase of the Venetian polychoral Aside from the use of the cantus firtnus, in the treatment of which style. he displayed an ingenuity all his own, the psalms Nisi Dominus and Laudd Jerusalem are closest to the Venetian model; but he adopted the
of individual general arrangement rather than the stylistic organization the and In such as elements, astoundingly beautiful rhythm. melody Nisi Dominus he set long contrapuntal lines against the psalm tone, which stands out remarkably with its emphatic, prolonged values, sung
in unison

by

the

two tenors

in each of the

two

choirs.

The

contra-

SACRED MUSIC IN MANTUA

puntal lines,

259

brisk in motion, sharply set off in phrasing caesurae, rapidly have almost the swinging effect of a repeated by sequential techniques, the syncopa dance; their motion becomes immensely intricate through
tions in various parts:

Ex. 88
..

xiv,

198

Otntu*-.

Pn

Such counterpoints are in sharp contrast to the psalmodizing cantus values all the more perceptible. firmus and make its long-drawn-out The doxology uses the music of the first verse of Nisi Dominus. In the while retaining rest of the verses Monteverdi alternates the choirs, and
the psalm tone as cantus firmus in the tenor he imitates the other parts.
its

monotony in

Ex.

xiv, 203

rli

ci-

vi-U.-tn.

monotonous recitation of Jerusalem he uses the same even, which carries the cantus voice the the psalm tone in all the parts except
firmus.

of Monteverdi's inventions for the cantus astonishing variety rest of the polychoral works, where the the In firmus is outstanding. music is largely confined to the^orchesVenetian of influence stylistic in choirs of instruments and voices, the of the tration and parts grouping and treatment of the cantus firmus changes with every composition, much tones do not vary section of a work. The with

The

even

psalm every and and with the exception of typical formulas for beginning, middle, or tenor called en d_have the characteristic recitation on one tone,
tuba.

of the extended is not a melody and, because psalm tone cantus a to firmus treat of one tone, does not lend itself easily repetition

The

ment, so that

it is

difficult to

produce any variety

at

all.

Whatever

260

RISE TO

FAME

variety exists is structural and orchestration or grouping. To

not simply the result of a change of show Monteverdi's ingenuity, a few

examples may be given. In Domine ad adiuvandum, based on the recitation of the psalm tone,
vocal parts are pulled together; they recite the whole text on one chord (D) in the manner of the psalmodic "f aburden," and only at the end does the "Alleluja" break the monotony of the repeated chord. But while the voices have immovable material, the groups of
all six

in various sizes, instruments, composing an orchestra of cornetti, viols has fast, precise material Their contrast. a and tromboni, present sharp and schematic motifs which are not varied much because they

rhythms, have to fit the one harmony of D. attack of the rhythms.

The

contrast, therefore,

comes in the

The psalm Dixit Dominus has a variety of structural interpretations of the psalm tone as cantus firmus. It is composed for six voices and an with ritornelli that can be played ad equal number of instruments,
libitum. At first Monteverdi handles the psalm tone as though it were a melodic cantus firmus: he takes it as a fugal subject, introduced by successive imitation in the various voices and with a counterpoint set

against

it.

Then he

presents
as

with the chord repeated

the psalmodic recitation as a faburden, many times as the text has syllables: "Done

ponam

inimicos"

"scabellum
is

pedum"

"Tecum

principium in die"

"In splendoribus." This

Monteverdi had previously that have pure psalmodic recitation in faburden end in elaborate pas to which, on the last word or even only on the last syllables, an sages,
added, containing material which, profane in origin, anticipates the following ritornello. Since the vocal conclusion already contains the material of the instrumental ritor

the type of harmonic recitation which used in some of his madrigals. The verses

extended conclusion in concerted style

is

nelli,

An

they could be omitted without substantial loss. treatment of the psalm tone extraordinarily ingenious
a trio structure, in

as

cantus

firmus is carried out by means of duet is based on independent melodic material linked together in typical fashion. Since the psalm tone has the repetition of the reciting tone, it

which the vocal

can better be used

as a

harmonic
place:

basis

than

This

is

exactly what takes

The monotonous
It
is

the bass for the free vocal duet above.

virtutis tuae."

melodic interpretation. cantus firmus forms occurs in the verse "Virgam

as a

Later the cantus firmus

presented in a liberal interpre

tation of the faburden, in

which three voices are combined in a simple

SACRED MUSIC IN MANTUA

and
rigid

261

recitation in chords, while the rest of the voices are given a as in the verse "Judicabit in nationibus." lively rhythmic figuration,

Finally,

firmus^ in

the doxology has its own climactic rendering of the cantus which the chanting begins in the tenor with "Gloria Patri," without any accompaniment except the basso continuo, and proceeds in the bass on "Sicut erat," while the whole chorus sets its contrapuntal

arrangement against it. In the last part of the doxology, saeculorum Amen," the chanting is doubled: singing in octaves, bass and soprano make the chant most prominent while the previous contra structure is continued in the four middle parts. This one work
puntal
presents

in "et in saecula

an amazing variety in the structural use of the oantus firmus,

which reaches far beyond the scope of sixteenth-century music, includ where the exclusive interpretation of the caning the Venetian school, tus firmus as melodic subject undoubtedly prevailed. It may be said that
Monteverdi has dramatized the use of the psalmodic cantus firmus. The most striking use of the cantus firmus, however, appears in the famous sonata for eight instruments, against which one voice, a soprano, in solemn tones "Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis" on the formula of
sings

the chant.
tition,

The rhythmic form of this orison changes with every repe and there are eleven such repetitions without any alteration in

tonal pattern. This unchanging repetition suggests the monotony of a whose nature implies an increase of intensity at every chanting litany, of the orison. Monteverdi could not have rendered the character of a
litany in a ner.

more

artistically

convincing or dramatically

eif ective

man

to the effect of monotony, the

Since the repeated prayers represent the stable element contributing accompaniment of the colorful orchestra

offer greater variety, but Monteverdi stresses the might be expected to of a litany even in the accompaniment. At first there nature repetitive chant and the ma is a sharp contrast between the solemn motif of the terial of the orchestra, and thereafter the same or similar material is

maintained in the instrumental accompaniment, though rhythmic varia tions are offered with every prayer. The sonata as a whole is organized
in three structural sections, the last being a repetition of the
first.

The

section has its own larger middle mic variations as the prayers proceed.

material which is submitted to rhyth All the motifs are shaped with a

view to

their repetition, in which the sequential technique is the main device. Manifold as are the rhythmic variations, there is little change

in melody, motif, or tonal material

The whole structure grows

out of

262

RISE TO

FAME

the repetition which, though perhaps stimulated by the repetitive ele ment of the litany, is nonetheless the general structural force of the

modern baroque
It

style.

has often been said that this sonata shows Venetian influence, and in the orchestration and the grouping of the instruments the influence is obvious. The whole structure, however, the form of the motifs, the

stereotyped figuration, the repetitive, nonmelodic bass with harmonic tones or passages through the scale, and the full exploitation of the organizing element of persistent repetition all these show Monteverdi as the creator of seventeenth-century idioms. The leading of the bass

and the figurative motifs of the upper parts, in particular, will recur throughout the baroque age and recur in exactly the same form in Bach and in Handel. The sonata is proof that in religious compositions also Monteverdi followed the rule that the word and its connotations must govern the
concept of composition.

The Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis is, indeed, conceived. Intent dramatically upon the meaning of the prayer, the derives the form from the artistic possibilities of the element composer
The
chant retains

method of making the

its objective religious quality, but his structure expressive of the text is an artistic ap proach of secular origin, an individualistic interpretation of the tra ditional values inherent in the chants. The cantus firmi are no longer

of repetition.

verdi's

taken to be the objective elements of an artistic structure, as in Monte Mass on the motet of Gombert, but are now tested with regard

to the textual connotations. Despite the maintenance of the chants, despite the observation of the liturgical order, the vespers are a highly individualistic reinterpretation of a religious heritage, an expression of

personal devotion and piety. The vespers of Monteverdi, therefore, have a double significance: they testify to the secularization and to the
individualization of sacred music.

PART FOUR

The Years

of Fulfillment

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Venice

T "\ 7HEN Monteverdi arrived in Rome near the end of 1610, he V y was received by the Cardinals Montalto and Borghese, the
latter writing that he had become attached to the composer because of his extraordinary gifts. Monteverdi submitted his religious compositions

Pope Paul V, but was not successful and returned to Mantua to pursue his
to

in obtaining a grant for his

official duties at

son

the court and

in the chapel. Vincenzo's tireless efforts to engage Adriana Basile as his star singer had finally been crowned with success. She made her

appearance at the regular evenings on Friday in the Sala degli Speech! and captivated her audiences. Monteverdi considered her voice and technique as unsurpassed examples of vocal art, and many of his works must have been sung by her. Though Monteverdi's fame had risen to great heights, he was ap parently still subjected to hostile criticism, and in his dedication to he had expressed a hope that these evil tongues might be silenced. Paul The Mantuans were well aware of his unique capacities, but the treat

ment Monteverdi received from the Duke was exasperating in its shabbiness. Vincenzo continued to slight the composer and to hold back monetary rewards that were long overdue. This behavior was all the more painful to Monteverdi, since Vincenzo constantly overpaid his favorite artists. singers and other Mantua, meanwhile, was moving with alarming rapidity closer to
its final

decline.

Two events occurred, disastrous in their consequences

his "lascivious dissipations."
265

for the illustrious house of Gonzaga, the glories of the court, and the welfare of the city itself. Early in 1612 Vincenzo died, the vic

tim perhaps of

His wife, Eleonora de*

266

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

a curse were Medici, had died a few months previously, and as though the infant son of Francesco, struck death the over family, hanging Vincenzo's son and heir, and later that year Duke Francesco himself.

house of Gonzaga was dying out, and the duchy of Mantua and Monferrato was soon to become the object of diplomatic intrigues on

The
a

Nevers, European scale involving Spain, France, of Savoy, to say nothing of the Duke and Carlo Emmanuele, Emperor, other branches of the Gonzaga family. The Mantuan ruling house was to pay a heavy price for having become involved, by intermarriage, in the politics of powerful princes. The end was to be the war of the Mantuan succession and the sack of Mantua, which shocked even those

the

Due

de

the

who were responsible for the

It

war.

that long before the final disasters a decline in the artistic life of the court should set in. It began, in fact, immediately after

was natural

the deaths of Vincenzo and Francesco. The brilliance of Mantua's musical culture at the beginning of the seventeenth century was never
to return. Monteverdi only anticipated the course of the decline when he submitted his resignation after Vincenzo's death. Although Fran cesco inherited an interest in the new music from his father, he accepted

the resignation, apparently with bad grace and bad manners. Some years of his work at Mantua was still ex later, in 1 6 1 5 the thought of the end
,

gracefully
after

"I departed from that court so dis 7 ceedingly painful to Monteverdi. me no more than twenty-five scudi with took I that, Jove,

by

The bitter twenty-one years," he wrote to Alessandro Striggio. ness of Monteverdi's feelings after years of devoted service is compre hensible, and there may have been court intrigues to influence the
administration against him.

An experience Monteverdi had in Milan seems to prove the existence of some hostility toward him. After his resignation he went to Cre mona, and later in the year traveled to Milan. The purpose of this trip
is not known though he may have planned to seek a position there. The unpleasant incident started in Mantua, for as soon as he appeared

some unnamed people at the Mantuan court spread the rumor "that Sigr. Claudio Monteverdi for some days had been in Milan intent upon getting the position of the Maestro di Cappella at the cathedral,
in Milan,

and that one morning when practicing in that capacity, the performance of the music became so disorganized that he was incapable of restoring order, and consequently he returned to Cremona with very little honor." The Duke, suspicious that the rumor might have been started by persons with no good will toward Monteverdi, requested Francesco

VENICE
Campagnolo

267

to write Alessandro Striggio, at that time the Mantuan 1 in ambassador Milan, to investigate the matter. On October 10, 1612, "Far from the truth is the rumor that Monteverdi had Striggio replied:

with little to his credit; on the contrary, he departed from this city had been greatly honored, well liked, and courted by noblemen and artists as well. His works are sung here with great applause at the most notable gatherings. It is not true that he took it upon himself to conduct the music in the capacity of a Maestro di Cappella in this cathedral, which position Monteverdi did not desire, or to do harm to the person 2 No more is known about the affair, but it may shed it." who
occupies
light

some

on the conditions under which Monteverdi worked in to get at the truth this In Mantua. case, the Duke obviously was quick of the matter, but we can imagine that in the past both he and his father
Fortunately
it

may have given ear to malicious intrigues.

was not long before Monteverdi received a post that was worthy of his great merits. On August 19, 1613, Federico ContaZuanne Cornaro, and Antonio Landi, the Vene rini, Nicolo Sagredo, tian procurators, named Monteverdi maestro di cappella of St. Mark's. is of interest, for it shows the thor of the The
appointment description their search and the completeness of their satisfaction. "In of oughness the election of a Maestro di Cappella at the cathedral of St. tent

upon

Mark

in place of the late

Most in Most Serene Republic, written to the Most Illustrious Ambassador as well Firma as Rome, also to all the charges d'affaires of the Terra ob to Mantua those resident in the Most Serene Signoria in Milan and
tain information
service.

Illustrious Procurators have, in

Rev. Padre Giulio Cesare Marrinengo, the accordance with the rules of the

verdi, previous

on persons qualified, in this profession, for the said of Sig. Claudio Monte They received answer that the person Serene Duke Vincenzo Most the of Maestro di
Cappella

and Duke Francesco of Mantua, is most eminently recommended. and character their opinion has most thor Concerning his faculty view of his compositions that are published, in oughly been confirmed, which today, in the cathedral of St. Mark, works in view also of those of the Cappella, the Most Illustrious Promusicians the performed by
curatia has heard to
its fullest

satisfaction: therefore the

Most Illustrious

Claudio Monte Procurators unanimously voted by ballot that said Sig. of St. Mark verdi be elected the Maestro di Cappella at the cathedral the normal with with an annual salary of three hundred ducats, and
iVogel,
2

VfMW, III,
cit. }

document No.

9, p.

43-

Davari, op.

p.

28.

268

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

and customary regalia; he shall have, in the Canonry, an apartment which will be properly accommodated, with all necessary refitting
shall be given an additional as soon as possible; he, furthermore, the expenses of his journey and the time spent reimburse to ducats fifty 8 in this City upon request of the Most Serene Republic." its interna for Thus Monteverdi was appointed to a position that of tional renown must have been the ultimate ambition every famous

done

musician. If the size of his salary

is

any

indication,

Monteverdi was

esteemed above

his

predecessors

at St.

appointment the yearly stipend three hundred, and three years later was again raised to four hundred. overseers of St. Mark's, had always been the The four
procurators,

was

Mark's, for at the time of his raised from two hundred ducats to

lay

most careful in selecting the maestro di cappella to survey all possible of the candidates, and thanks to the widely ramified political channels when a candidate was presented on the recommendation of republic, could feel assured that they had the the Venetian
agents,

procurators

made the proper choke. Venice opened new vistas and wider
to a city that had
Its

grown enormously

in size

horizons, for Monteverdi came and in its taste for luxury.

had been, from ancient times, the magnificent public spectacles business of all the republic. In contrast, life at the court of Mantua had a certain narrowness for those who, by birth and occupation, were ex
cluded from participation in
service.
affairs

except

by way of

professional

Monteverdi had friends among the noblemen and high officials of the Mantuan court, but his social position was merely that of an work for artist. As an employee of the court he was not allowed to

other people or on occasions unrelated to the courtly interests. prince who hired artists, singers, and musicians seldom permitted them to ap
as a loan, with plenty pear at a court other than his own, and then only of stipulations and often for the sake of a special favor in political busi

ness.

No such limitations

existed in Venice,

and Monteverdi was free

for any of the Venetian nobilities. He was even permitted to from outside Venice, so that many of his activities commissions accept in dramatic music were for patrons in Mantua and Parma. His social

to

work

rank also was higher. In classifying the governmental representatives Francesco Sansovino, the sixteenth-century Venetian historian, lists the maestro di cappella directly after the procurator! di San Marco, and
is shown in pictures of solemn processions that included the doge and the whole government of the republic. If salary is an in-

the same rank

Vogel, op.

cit.)

document No. n, pp. 43 if.

VENICE

269

dication of the social importance of his position, Monteverdi's post ranked indeed, for even the counselor of state received less than

high the composer. In sharp contrast to the custom at some courts, where were paid to artists as "stars," the maestro di cappella of high salaries St. Mark's received his large remuneration because of the social distinc
tion connected with his office. In general, officials of the Venetian state were well paid, for the government wisely realized that low pay opened

the

way to bribery and corruption. Venice thus gave Monteverdi new social distinction and artistic in But what probably counted most was the extraordinary dependence. its visitors of station high Venice granted its citizens and liberty that in the were as as and low, prudent enough not to mingle they long business of the republic. Venetian liberty or liberalism had political u To say "We are in Venice," meant We are in a become
proverbial.

place

some

whom solence and are frequently wanting in respect for those to Venice resounds is due, even if they are not Venetian nobles." respect "it is on the lips of everyone from the last of with this word
"liberty";

of liberty"; this Siamo A Venezia often to a charge of dishonesty, and of others

"is

who

the sole response of are taxed with in

the people to the first of the Senators." This liberty was not the result of the elimination of class hierarchy or the abolishment of authority, but it was rather an indefinable "laissez faire" in the conduct of life. "I would be embarrassed were I asked to define the liberty of Venice," when he was in Venice at the Alexandre Toussaint de
said

Limojon,

time

when Count d'Avaux was French

"all the subjects

ambassador.

He found that this

of the Republic and especially the people liberty gave with impunity, all that contrib to freedom the of Venice pursue, uted to their pleasures, as long as the public interest was not involved; from all the also included a total same the

but

very

liberty

exemption

deference the inferiors is not offended; thus

owe to their superiors,

I

as

find that the liberty of Venice

long as the government is, properly

a political, free and easy manner (libertinage), advantageous speaking, to the people." to the Republic, suitable to the Nobility, and agreeable of manner "a living"; it gives This liberty is, more than anything else, own his to live can ways" (unassurance that "everyone according

chacun peut s'y conduire H sa mode). Venice had often given refuge and protection to those
*

who

suffered

de la Ville Alexandre Toussaint de Limojon, Sieur de Saint Disdier, Description Toussaint was in Venise 35<>- (Alexandre de (Amsterdam, 1697), p. Republique Venice in 1672.)
et la

270

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

Monteverdi from a lack of tolerance and freedom elsewhere. When the contest republic came to Venice, the city still echoed with the sharp to limit its had gallantly and successfully fought against an attempt and Paul V, freedom. Venice had come to grips with the papal court, of 1610, works his religious the Pope to whom Monteverdi dedicated the and stubbornness, Driven had become its bitterest foe. by passion The war. of cost the at even decision a force Pope was determined to out when Venice insisted on the right of conflict, which had broken over lay and clergy alike, grew in im matters criminal in jurisdiction in fact a struggle between church and state. For became and portance Venice was excommunicated, though this was without any a
time,

the clergy effect or practical consequences. The state protected lasting continued to discharge their the excommunication, of defiance in who, in enlisting duties in the churches of Venice. The republic succeeded

Venetian cause: the spokesman of the but under the cir brilliant and learned Fra Paolo SarpL Almost alone, war against the he of the state, literary fought cumspect protection mental incredible of man A gifts, the papal lawyers and theologians. and incorrupti frail in body but strong in mind, insensitive to luxuries ble by any material benefit, hated by Rome and loved by Venice, he became the foremost defender of political independence. All Europe listened to him with more than theoretical interest. As theological ad viser of the republic and later as sole counselor of state, his political

one of

its

greatest patriots

as

influence extended to the channels of international diplomacy all over he wrote, his letters show the acuteness As much as

Europe. of his mind,

interests,

anything

his admirable learning, the vast ramifications of his political love of freedom, and his upright character. his never

ceasing

His enemies made several attempts on

his life,

one of which was almost

successful. In its anxiety for the life of the state's most beloved son, the Council of Ten increased his protection and offered him a haven in the continued to lead a simple canonry of St. Mark's; but Sarpi refused and his brethren, the friars of the order of the Servites. life

among

When

he died in 1623, with

his lips,

on prayer for Venice, "Esto perpetua," the republic lost its greatest patriot and the most ardent
his last
its

defender of

independence.

There

is

dependence.
licity

a touch of irony about this brilliant championship of in Though Venice was successful in the immediate contest

the papal court revoked the interdict without the customary pub was steadily on the decline. While its actual political power
its

Venice was fighting

most vigorous battle for independence, declin-

VENICE

271

and the gradual loss of its political and military strength ing wealth were making the republic more and more dependent on powerful At a moment when the republic's resources were neighboring states. drained and its vital energies sapped, and when dependence on
being
others

was becoming

inevitable,

Venice arose

as a

champion of inde

pendence.
surface of things in seventeenth-century Venice was indeed the licentiousness, the pomp, the free and easy deceptive. The luxuries, all as ever colorful the gave manners, displays that were as dazzling an impression of power, wealth, and brilliance, but the impression was The Council of Ten, responsible for the fortunes of the state, illusory. an increase in extravagant festivities, and licentious even

The

encouraged

ness

in inverse proportion to the decline of power. The council conducted the -affairs of the state in the utmost secrecy. Complete free

grew

dom in the conduct of daily life was granted the Venetians on condition that they should never meddle in political matters, and those who in
terfered paid promptly and dearly for their audacity. Thus the sub of Venice were even prodded by the state to indulge in diversions jects unaware of the actual of all lands and lived entertainments and

wholly

called rather for Spartan simplicities restrictions than for license and diversion.

conditions,

which

and

ascetic

Monteverdi entered Venice in time to witness the struggle for in ten years he was able to watch the work of Fra dependence, and for Paolo Sarpi. He may never have met the secretive counselor of state
personally,
-interests in experimental scien though they had common of Sarpi's tific studies, and the composer must surely have read some numerous pamphlets in defense of the Venetian liberty, just as he also of luxurious entertainments. Cer witnessed the unbounded

display

because of tainly,

its

social character, the art of

music must have

benefited from this passion for distractions and amusements. It is that such arts as painting and sculpture, which lack the significant social potentialities of music, were already declining from the height Venice. The rise of Venetian they had reached in sixteenth-century in part to the increase in social enter due was music certainly baroque tainments that placed new demands upon Venetian musicianship. While music benefited from the luxurious pastimes of the festivals, the morals and energies of the people, especially of the nobility, were
in unnerving undoubtedly undermined by indulgence
luxuries. If

we

read accounts of the

the carnival, written

festivities,

by

particularly the Venetians themselves or

those held in the season of

by the princely

272
visitors

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

visitors

who flocked to the city at that season to enjoy liberties granted nowhere else, we see that no one respected any limitations. The
were among the first to cast away restraint and cus where they could'enjoy an endless sequence of tomarily rented palaces
princely
feasts, balls, intimate dances,

musical performances, comedies, inter

dissipations

mezzi, banquets, and games.

zaga,

The

of

Duke Vincenzo Gon-

which prudent men looked upon with

in Venice,

dismay, were commonplace

and eyes of reproach and forgetting the dignity and

to

rank of a sovereign prince, he (incognito) indulged recklessly in the Dukes amusements. The greatest spendthrifts may well have been the whole of Brunswick, who made a regular appearance in Venice for are said winter season. Within fifteen or sixteen carnival seasons they and courtesans, and twelve million thaler on have
spent

operas

when reduced

to the

bottom of

their fortunes, they sold their

own

The council of the republic probably subjects as military conscripts. the visitors, for they helped to stop the favored such expenditures by drain on the treasury, so sadly depleted by the decline of Venetian
political

The noble families

and commercial power. of Venice had their

own share in the luxuries and

Alexandre Toussaint de Limojon held the peculiar educa dissipations. tion of the young nobility responsible for the decadence of Venice. He found that they lived for amusement and were brought up to think that they were superior to any prince. Their insolence at times ap those noblemen who had traveled retained peared unbearable, and only This judgment may be the hasty and distorted sense of

any

generalization

proportion, of an outsider. Yet,

when we

read Venetian chronicles,

whose authors describe not only the political history but the customs and intimate life of the city, we have the impression that amusement,
love, gambling, and attending performances of music, com were the chief occupations of these noblemen. and edies, operas The rage for entertainments, whether enjoyed in the privacy of the in public with the participation of all, gave an abun palace salon or dance of opportunities for musical activities. The splendid gatherings of the individual families at least had a certain refinement in the

making

Such soirees, arranged not for the celebration of any but largely for the sake of musical performances, occasion special for musical composition with its most artistic setting. It was provided

and

palaces culture.

such gatherings that most of the madrigals and cantatas by Monteverdi and the other musicians of his time were composed. The Contarini, Grimani, Foscarini, Giustiniani, and Mocenighi were among those who

VENICE
tions in

273

at various times and in varying degrees opened their palaces to musical culture. Whenever the elite were together by special celebra

share in
tive
is,

brought one or other of the families, madrigals and cantatas had their the festivities, and there were also works of a more representa
festival nature,

and

such

as the ballo in

in actual production as a ballet

on the

genere rappresentativo, that cantatas of a stage. Scenic

dramatic character were also dedicated to such purposes, and Monte verdi contributed to various occasions of that kind. Until Venice had its own public theaters, dramatic performances were restricted to the of the nobility in the city, or their summer residences along palaces the Brenta. characteristic of the exorbitant freedom of Venice was

special

the entertainment offered in the convents or nunneries.

The

chronicles

record stories of sheer license and outrageous depravity, many of which must be taken with a grain of salt. The relatively frequent pictures of of the convents are similar to those of in the social
parlors gatherings the salons of the noble families, totally profane, to be sure, but nevertheless in the fashionable style of refined entertainment. Most
life in

overlook the shockingly worldly behavior whose profane conduct we have pictorial and verbal records did not come under the strict rules of monastic life. There were more than thirty convents in seventeenth-century Venice, and only half of them were bound to observe strict monastic rules. The other half were permitted to maintain relations with the world outside the convent, and the nunneries, in particular, enjoyed About half a dozen were reserved for noble extraordinary privileges. ladies exclusively, and the ladies obviously took more than their share. There can be no doubt that in the open convents there was a laxity of
historians

who

speak of

this

fact that those convents of

morals that did

receptions were

away with any excuse

for their existence. Regular

held in them, concerts given, singers introduced,

comedies produced, masquerades held, buffooneries presented; and, in the carnival season, attending the masquerades in the particularly
madrigals,

convents was a favorite pastime of the Venetians. Many of the cantatas, at recep balletti, and mascherate were certainly performed
tions in the convents given over to musical entertainment. of Balls were arranged for innumerable occasions, most frequently

course during the carnival. They were private and exclusive occasions for the nobility, and orchestras of good size were engaged for such dances. On a much simpler scale, the so-called "little balls" at carnival

time gave the lower classes frequent opportunities to have their

own

274

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

A manager was in charge of these affairs, a violinist and

amusements.

a harpsichordist were engaged, and the people danced the dances of their class and sometimes imitated the dances of the nobility. Such was

the people's "Festina," of which there were many in the season, and often the noblemen used them as hunting grounds. All these balls were musical entertainments, but Monteverdi con part of the picturesque to tributed nothing them, since at no time in his artistic career did he music. The ballo, based on in interest an take purely instrumental interested him for its higher artistic implications. and plot, poetry The great Venetian feast was, of course, the Marriage of Venice to celebrated on the Feast of Ascension. The doge, the procura the
Sea,

and the whole government, went out to sea on the Bucintoro, the which was surrounded by an innumerable doge's large and stately boat, flock of gondolas, large and small. The whole city was afloat, and visitors came from far and wide to watch the unique spectacle. When the doge's party reached the open sea, motets were sung to celebrate the occasion. Motets had been composed and performed for the great feasts of the Venetian state early in the fifteenth century, and motets
tors,

were

still

Although Venetian period can be associated with the Feast of the posed in his as maestro di cappella of St. Mark's he Marriage of Venice to the Sea, must have performed this honorable duty. As a matter of fact, he once mentioned in a letter that he had to provide the composition for the
occasion. "According to order I shall have to compose a certain cantata in praise of the Doge (unacerta cantata in lode di sua Serenitti) which whole Signoria goes out is every year on the Bucintoro while the

Venetian

feast.

in use during the seventeenth century at this specifically none of the motets which Monteverdi com

sung

on the day of Ascension." 5 Unfortu dedicated to this feast are lost. Yet it is in nately, his compositions French philosopher Rene Descartes, when that the to imagine triguing he admired the famous ceremony in Venice on Ascension Day, May
to the

Wedding with

the Sea

1 6, 1624, might have heard a festival composition of Monteverdi. The musicians, instrumentalists and vocalists, were placed at the bow of the Bucintoro , where they performed their music. The climax of

the ceremony was the recitation of the ancient formula: Desponsamus te mare nostrum in signum veri perpetuique domini. To conclude the wedding, an abundance of flowers was thrown upon the water. In the evening a gala banquet was given by the Doge in his palace, with musical entertainments, which included the performance of madrigals
& Letter

No.

30,

dated April

21, 1618; ed.

Malipiero, Claudio Monteverdi, p. 177.

VENICE
or
arias

275

sung by the best singers

available.

official celebrations in

the doge's palace

visits of important dignitaries or princes, the doge and the procurators arranged entertainments to honor the guests of the state. In 1628, when the Grand Duke Ferdi-

dear to the Venetians, as St. Stephen, St. Naturally, on the occasion of special

Equally festive were the on the feasts of such saints, Vido, and above all, St. Mark.

nando of Tuscany and

his

brother Carlo de' Medici visited Venice,

the republic gave a feast, "Real Convito," in the arsenal. For that occa sion Monteverdi produced a cycle of madrigals to / cinque Fratelli, sonnets by Giulio Strozzi; however the music is lost. feasts of favorite churches in If we take into account the
special

Venice, especially the Chiesa di Salute, whither people flocked to hear amazing performances of music that became more and more secular and profane, we can picture Venetian musical culture in the richest a never ceasing imaginable colors. The vast scope of entertainment was
the musical life challenge to the composer who made his art part of me in esteem hold not would who a "There not nobleman is in the city. and honor, and whenever I music, either profane or
sacred, I can assure

you

that the

perform my whole city flocks together;

7

il

servitio

poi e dolcissimo (the service is the sweetest) ': thusiastic, Monteverdi could write in 1620 of his
Letter

thus, for once work in Venice.

13,

en

No.

46, to

Alessandro Striggio, dated Venice,

March

1620; ibid., p. 199.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The New Art

of Madrigals

MONTEVERDI
his

a selection of presented to the public but 1605, though preoccupied with the his first dramatic works and religious music, he had of composition continued to compose madrigals that exhibited new achievements in he had completed the craftsmanship and in expressive power. In 1609 five voices with ad for a donna Una fra I'altre, composition madrigal ditional basso contlnuo, set as "Concertato nel Clavicembalo." The

had

last

madrigals in

work was

circulated

among

his

loyal admirer, Aquilino Coppini,

latest compositions,

fellow musicians and friends, and a who persistently sought out his
it

obtained a copy and published

//

in his third selec

tion of Monteverdi's works,

terzo libro della musica di Claudio

Monteverdi. Coppini provided, as before, a new Latin text, Una es, and this spiritualized version appeared five years before Monteverdi
published the original text.
for enthusiastically received that demands most famous song, the Lament, or for the whole were urgently ex pressed. In 1613, after the composer had left Mantua, Francesco de' Medici wrote the Duke of Mantua an imploring letter: "Since I have the most ardent desire to possess Claudio Monteverdi's music to Ottavio Rinuccini's Arianna, I beg you most urgently to do me the favor of sending me the score." x In response to the demands of his admirers Giovanni Battista Doni in his Trattato della Musica Scenica tells us that the request was made by a Venetian Monteverdi recomposed the Lamento d? Arianna as a madrigal for five voices. As can be seen from its place in a cyclic composition, there were other artistic reasons that
its
1

The Arianna had been so

See the letter in Davari, op.

cit. }

p. 47.

276

THE NEW ART OF MADRIGALS

decided to
1

277

after the feasts impelled him to recast the Lamento. It was not long of 1608, when the Arianna was produced as a musical drama, that he

rearrangement. Monteverdi was working at it in from a letter from Casola to Cardinal Gonzaga in July of that year, which says that he was occupied with the composi tion of a group of madrigals for five voices, consisting of three laments: "He also is preparing a set of madrigals for five voices which will consist of three Lamenti or Pianti: that of Arianna with the wellknown text; the Lamento of Leandro and Hereo by Marini; the third, is that of the Pastore on the death of his given him by His Highness, son the whose text, by Ninfa, [Scipione] of Signer Conte Lepido 2 is on the death of Signora Romanina." It was in memory of Agnelli, Caterina Martinelli, called "Romanina," that Monteverdi in 1610 dell'Amata. composed the Sestina, the Lagrime cFAmante al Sepoloro Both the Lament of Arianna and the Sestina were published in 1614, but we do not know about the other lament in the group, on the text
this

make

6 10, as

we

learn

of Marini. Since Casola the works,

vespers,
all

is

accurate in his information about the rest of

it is

of which were completed including the Mass and the Leandro and Hereo was probable that the Lamento of
lost.

completed but

The

professional

world of musicians did not wholly approve of the

transformation of the monodic Lamento into a polyphonic madrigal. Giovanni Battista Doni, generally a sincere admirer of Monteverdi, criticized the work, though thought most highly of Arianna as a drama

and called it "cosi bella composizione." He praises the lament as a model of dramatic music in monodic style, which has the singing quality and the beautifully handled motion of an aria, but finds that these qualities
are lost in the process of transferring the composition to another

medium. "In the concerto for several voices, however [he calls the one very often feels that certain passages have madrigal a "concerto"], in relation to the text, as the passage at and little appropriateness grace the beginning of the bass shows," and he quotes the initial phrase of the bass part to Lasciate mi morire. Doni even tried to apologize for Monte verdi: it was not his fault that the lament was transformed into a madri
he had done it "in order to please others rather than himself, as gal; he himself admitted in one of his letters." But this seems unlikely, since he would hardly have composed a whole set of Lamenti in the same medium or selected this composition for publication, had he not been convinced of the artistic value of the madrigal. In still another passage
2

Vogel, op.

ctt.}

document No.

8,

p. 430.

278
of his

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

treatise, in the

Doni referred for the chapter "On Choral Music," the initial the third time to madrigalesque Lamento, again criticizing the bass and suggesting that, instead of asking for a vocal of phrase version of five voices, the Venetian nobleman would have done better
to request the composition of four instrumental parts to be used as an of the most beautiful monodic aria.

accompaniment Immediately upon assuming

his new position in Venice, his sixth book of madrigals, which appeared for publication prepared in 1614 and represented a survey of some five or six years' work in believe that these publications are, madrigalesque composition. Monteverdi regarded as worthy of what of selections more and

Monteverdi

We

more,

do not necessarily comprise all that he composed. publication and The sixth book contains eighteen madrigals, ten of which belong to the two cyclic laments. The reappearance of Petrarch with two poems, riwena and Ohime il bel viso, repeats the Zefiro torna e'l bel tempo have met before, which seems to have ex we anachronism surprising tended to the compositions themselves. In the sixth book a new poet, Giambattista Marino, comes to the fore. More than any other poet,

Marino

set the tone for

verdi's choice of poems, or rather his interpretation of the

Monte poetry in the seventeenth century. chosen

made on human grounds, but first he searched for poems, was always the rhythmic intricacies, the subtly tonal motion of design, observed the verse, and strove to discern what we would call the musical con
As his artistic sense became keener with advancing in poetry, and it he responded to the inherent musical qualities age, was on this basis that he made new discoveries in Marino.
stituent of poetry.

"E del poeta il fin la meraviglia" Marino thus defined the goal of the poet as the marvelous, the startling effect. This goal Marino reached by the use of precious artistry, fanciful sophistication, and a lascivious
sensuality that

was obscene but hidden. Marino's

artistic

naturalistic: it proclaims the apotheosis of the senses. Ye.t

philosophy is nature is no

riches where man can find longer an inexhaustible mine of unspoiled the laws of his vitality, and the senses are no longer the unpolluted

man's physical nature. Sensuality becomes a voluptuous must be veiled and skillfully contrived to please an age whose morals have been perverted. For pleasure dictates that art must be con quered by nature; and Marino meant to place the surfeited senses in command. He considered Caravaggio his equal and companion, and thought him greater as a creator than as a painter (Mentre che Creator
faculties of

ness that

piii

de Pittore), because he made "the

lie

more

beautiful than truth"

THE NEW ART OF MADRIGALS

,

279

e la memogna) for the beauty of art is above (Per cui del ver piti bella or even more that of nature. Perhaps Caravaggio's Venus and Adonis, Both are Adone. his lascivious Bacchus, is next of kin to Marino's

with sensuality repulsive in glutted fectious fascination that emanates

its

both have an in implications; yet

from brilliant intellectuality^ from an abundance of refined designs and disguises, from uncanny facilities. The enormous success of Marino's poetry is doubtless based on this effect of an intellectuality that is used to veil sensuality. This opalescent that was mixture produced the style of ornate and figurative profusion had at he that felt followers Marino's the so much admired by age. the of ideal the that was florid true the epoch. They tained elegance
where he carefully elaborates accessories that distract from the main detail and action and harm the unity of an epic. For only the minutest
the precious elaboration of particulars afford the sensual experience that results from making "pleasure" the end of poetry. Grandiloquence of style. It may of ornamentation goes hand in hand with perspicuity as an end, but the lead to redundancy, to exaggeration, to grotesque the the than less extravagant, even that is part of the ideal. Nothing verse Marino's excess of artistry, can excite astonishment. Therefore, the which lose contact with the

appreciated

the exquisite clarity of Marino's descriptive details, even

abounds with repetitions

imagery

its prolixity. further they are drawn out; it is deprived of substance by rhetorical such indeed, in often verse; Intense emotion is present of the antithesis, and the presentation inversion,

repetition,

figurative

same verbiage

in artfully

the fluctuations of emotion

in conveying changed phrases often succeed and can be called realistic, because they

reflect the vacillating nature of emotion.

Wherever
greatest:

there Marino's

uncertainties of feeling torment man's soul and body, and antitheses is of success with his

orgy

parallels

Ardo,

lassa,

o non ardo! ahi qual

io sento

Stranio nel cor

E f orse

non conosciuto affetto! ardore? ardor non e, che spento

L'avrei col pianto; e ben d'ardo sospetto! e tormento. Sospetto no, piuttosto egli Come tormento fia, se da diletto?
It

was the nature and structure of

this verse that attracted

its

Monte

con sensuality and frivolous verdi to Marino's poetry. It know. not do we on fascination him, exercised an equal ceptions

Whether

280
is

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

to imagine

Monteverdi becoming involved in riotous was always upset when anything interfered with his artistic work. Outside his compositions, he always expressed him self in an unvarnished manner, as plain as it was earnest, and, especially of his life, he lived in stern and almost monastic seclu in the latter
difficult
frivolities, since he

part

sion. If

at all permissible, the of troubled gravity of Monteverdi's face speaks tragedy and grief, of pur the of rather than of frivolity; it speaks implacable seriousness

any interpretation of

man's features

is

one of pose that marked every

his artistic efforts.

There

is

not one

that can be read as the artistic product of passage in his compositions frivolous voluptuousness, though there is strong sensuousness in his tonal world. As many of his letters show, Monteverdi, like most of his

was troubled by the relation between nature contemporaries in art, and art. To him, nature did not mean an apotheosis of the senses, but rather a well of resources which provided the original, elemental
and harmony, and gave vitality and balance powers of rhythm, melody, to the powers of intellect. Monteverdi's art is by no means identical with Marino's sensuality. It was the verse technique and, above all, the artistic devices in that fascinated Monteverdi. For he, too, was con Marino's
poetry cerned with constructing new figurative rhetorics in music. What could be more suggestive than the poetic devices of antithesis, inversion,

and repetition? Such structures lent themselves at once to musical in Monteverdi was already on his way toward new musical terpretation. rhetorics before he adopted the poetry of Marino, and his artistic
process was probably accelerated verse to music.

by

the stimulus of setting Marino's

madrigals based on Marino's poems are the most modern in the them are designated as compositions in the concerted of them can well be placed at the side of compositions some and style, in the seventh and eighth books. Since one of the madrigals, Una donna

The

collection. All of

fra Taltre, described as a "Concerto nel Clavicembalo," dates back to 1609, that is evidently the time at which Monteverdi became more and more confident that the concertato was the modern idiom of the

madrigal.

At first sight, the two large cycles of lamento character, and espe cially Petrarch's Zefiro torna, seem to grow out of the older forms of
madrigalesque composition. The larger part of that composition is in a triple rhythm whose dancelike character was perhaps prompted by such phrases as "Ridono i prati e'l ciel si rasserena" or "E cantar augel-

THE NEW ART OF MADRIGALS

letti."

281

At

all

events, the declamatory unit has a relatively large value:

the half note (minim). In older madrigals the half, or quarter, note was indeed the smallest unit used for the declamation, which had a cor

and for that matter all com respondingly slow tempo. Monteverdi, of the seventeenth century, retained the large most throughout posers value for all sections written in triple rhythm and even used the old
forms of sixteenth-century notation. However, the tempo in the sec tions with triple rhythm is actually faster than in those with duple the eighth note and rhythm, where the declamatory unit is ordinarily modern. is notation the usually Other features are equally suggestive of older stylistic manners
for example, the imitative entrances of the voices at the beginning of

however, do not fulfill their prom an elaborate ise; they begin counterpoint were to follow, yet though or third entrance of a theme The second the sort of happens. nothing controlled parallelism of voices in thirds or a harmonically brings a device Monteverdi had used in previous madrigals to produce sixths a new form of polyphony. The result is that a predominant duet and a harmonic bass still are the main constituents of the composition. loosens the solid body of the voices but is not allowed
the verses. These
as
initial imitations,

"Polyphony"

to disrupt the control exercised

by those elements, so that the counter behaves torna of Zefiro according to the modern manner. The point structure as a whole is influenced by the dance song; the rhythmic of the order, whose steady triple pattern is the unmistakable product of sections are both derived from dance, and the
repetitive

arrangement

various types of songs. The music of the initial section is repeated like the couplets of the villanella. The elaborate, slower middle section
(in

C), however, shows no influence of the dance;

its

independent

material has a strongly contrasting character, which provides the ele ment of conflict within the structure as a whole. The contrasting to characteristic changes in the text. The first section, section

responds

in narrative style, is the objective part of the poem. The second section direct speech and expresses the personal feeling of the lover in

presents the scene:

me lasso tornano i piu gravi sospiri." change to the subjective brings a difference in atmosphere: nature is gay, but the lover is unhappy. The last section returns to the of the lover, "sono un deserto," and again the music personal utterance in less sharp contrast than This last reflects the
"Ma
per

The

from the objective

part, though change. the middle section, is set off by its own rhythmic differentiation (in to the C). The structure of the composition as a whole is responsive

282
Such

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

differentiation
is,

succession of scenic description and personal expression in the poem.

of course, not entirely new. What is new, how the groups in an over-all pkn ever, and ingenious is the arrangement of different Two of repetitive song structure. conceptions of musical to be a achieves form meet here, and Monteverdi unity of what appear form dramatic a flexible t;o a irreconcilable elements by subordinating details in some is torna While stylistic Zefiro preconceived structure. not the most modern work of the collection, its form is the outgrowth The madrigal is dramatized. The of Monteverdi's modern
principles.

sections of the

music for its

form are not musically independent, they are not own sake; even where the sections follow a pre-established
fulfilling

song structure, they are

a dramatic function.

The two cyclic laments also combine dramatic content and musical form. The dramatic aspect had, of course, been anticipated in the monodic version of the Lamento d'Arianna, and even the Sestina ap monodic prototype so closely that the recon proaches an imaginary version would be easy. Casola reported of the a monodic of struction
laments that Monteverdi composed "una muta di Madrigali a Cinque V0 ci" a group of madrigals for five voices in succession. Since the monody of Arianna's Lament existed first, its style was imposed on

The transference of an actual monodic model into the involved more than just a harmonization of the medium madrigalesque solo part by means of the basso continue of the original, and what
the whole group.
transcription. evident in the Sestina, for

Monteverdi accomplished was a transformation rather than a mere This fusion of madrigalesque style with monody is also

which there

is

no monodic predecessor, but

which is guided by monodic principles in large sections of the extensive 3 of voices in both the Lamento cycle. Although the various groupings cFArianna and the Sestina at times obscure the leading position of the "monodic" voice, there is an unmistakable concentration on an upper part that has the lead and a lower part that provides the support. This
arrangement, frequently encountered in previous madrigals, results

more directly from the typical trio combination than from the monodic Lamento of the opera. Groups of trios in various forms are used throughout the two cycles and demonstrate again their organizing functions. The monodic conception helped to clarify the distribution
9 In view of this inherent monodic element, Prunie'res suggested that the tenor might well represent the soloistic vocal part, while the rest can be played on instruments; cf. his Claudio Monteverdi, pp. i45f.

THE NEW ART OF MADRIGALS

actually produce
it.

283

but did not of the leading forces over the uppermost and lowest parts,

Monteverdi accepts the dramatic idea of musical form more reso these two cycles than in Zeftro torna, and a still more subtle lutely in the connotations of the text makes the musical form sensitivity to affections. Repetitive arrangements and develop from the changing or sections are frequent, and nearly of individual the
as well as a formal, function. The dramatic in details as well as in the comprehensive revealed often are intentions interval plays an important role: The structure. expressiveness of the

stressing

phrases

always have an expressive,

sive potentialities

dissonances and chromatic progressions had long proved their expres and are now used with masterly assurance, especially

in the

dissonance

Arianna cycle, to bring out the hmento character. Though is that is still used for an isolated word of grief, the effect
is

which transmits a more general confined to an individual word. not affection, an atmosphere, and unre in Monteverdi has thus succeeded making the listener recognize in overtones as ever-present mitting tragedy and poignant melancholy far dissonance of use his raises effect This whole. a as the composition above a madrigalesque mannerism. Other intervals also acquire con sixths are notations of plaintive anguish and tribulation; fourths and harmonic com associated with the expression of melancholy, and the bination of these intervals, affecting the harmonies of the f auxbourdon, more or less extended is identified with ideas of sorrow and lament.
of a broader, dissonant "situation,"

of succession of descending chords in the fauxbourdon combination the of the chiome for, quanta forte fourths and sixths is found in

Sestina:

Ex. 90

vi,

64

Monteverdi te raccoglie, the quarta fane of the Sestina, in brief passage of such chords with the most subtle artistry a develops
In

Ma

z84

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

On the text, "e su la tomba order to present a poignant melancholy. first a simple succession of cantano i pregi de 1'amato seno," there is
chords:

Ex. 91

vi,

59

Then the descending line is used as the bass, above which a duet sings
the motif to "Cantano
i

pregi

de 1'amato seno":

presented seno." This is an entirely new polyphony. pregi de 1'amato as the devices undoubtedly are, they are only in Strikingly ingenious strumental and subsidiary to the primary task of expression. The artistic device organizes the sequence of tones and is itself humanized. similar stroke of genius is found in Darti la notte il sol, the terza parte

and that of In the repetitions that follow, both the motif of the bass the counterpoint of the the duet are kept together as though one were of voices; combination other. First the phrase is repeated in a diiferent the frame to imitations then the motif of the bass is used for successive in are duet the and bass the of duet in the middle; then two motifs voices the all and in successive imitation; finally verted and
"cantano
i

of the Sestina, at the words "prima che Glauco di bacciar," where an almost identical polyphonic device is used with the utmost subtlety

and emotional profundity.

of the concertato madrigals, almost all based on texts of Marino, advance farthest in style. The stile concertato applies not only to the contrast between the group of voices that are shaped mostly in

The group

a soloistic style and the instrumental accompaniment of the basso continuo, but also to the contrasting sections of the individual compo-

THE NEW ART OF MADRIGALS

sition, so that
all five

285

the madrigal has an entirely new aspect. In previous voices were not occupied throughout the composi madrigals combinations of voices, but these used tion and smaller

varying groups in the organic development of the groups continually co-operated the case in the conceruto madrigal, is no This longer composition.
off as a given a section of its own set the voices. Thus structural entity against the group of all five greater of the madrigal may be carried by one voice only, so that passages

where the individual voice

is

part Dio for all five parts produce the effect of subsidiary responses. text The an such of an is Florida bella presents organization. example a farewell scene of two lovers. With his unmatched ability to derive

the formal organization from the dramatic realities of the text Monte verdi renders this madrigal as a dramatic dialogue. For the text of the the style of the soloistic lament between two lovers who must
part,

monody
chorus
is

contemplative passage employed; for the text of a the five-part in the middle and at the end with the farewell "A Dio"
is

more

used. Floro, the lover, first utters his plaintive monody, which that of Florida. After these two extensive monodies, the followed
is

by

which ends musically madrigalesque chorus inserts its narration, the lovers a second were it As with a complete cadence. part, though a simultaneous in this duet, time, however, again present their dialogue, the with the concludes chorus the and composition madrigalesque Dio Florida." mutual farewell, "A Dio Floro is found in the conceruto , Misero Alceo. The similar
full

organization
is

"Ecco Lidia long monologue

ti

lascio" has the appropriate

form of the

monody, which
"actors," in
all

the individual persons, or clearly identified with these concertato madrigals. The chorus is reserved for

the narrative, contemplative, or generally descriptive parts, whereas the solo represents the active element that displays human individu contrasts become the as and Thus
ality.

elementary activity passivity dramatic constituents of the musical form. Not every poem clearly an actual monologue or dialogue, but wherever suggests monody by the the poet peoples scene, wherever the human factor enters, the is there an attempt to interlace the form musical responds. No longer sections at the points of juncture; the madrigal ceases to be one uniform a sectional composition. Yet the repetition of organism, and becomes of sections for the sake of organization may still reveal the presence

an over-all conception. Qui risi Tirsi, whose solo sections have a each being a variation of the florid melody, virtuosity of figuration,
introduces contrastingly simple choral material three times in the

286

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

course of the composition. This material recurs unaltered in text and music and functions as a structural refrain, so that the form of this of the baroque refrain cantata, created by madrigal is actually that Monteverdi long before Lodovico Rossi or Carissimi. Cantata-like also un fiume tranquillo, is the last composition of the collection, Presso with a text Marino, the only work for seven voices. Monteverdi

by

a dialogo concertato^ although its structural organization, based on the alternations of the dialogue, is not much different from that of the other concertato madrigals. In quiet, unpretentious chords, sung
calls
it

a chorus of five parts, the madrigal first sets the scene: "Presso un fiume tranquillo Disse a Filena Eurillo." The speech of Eurillo follows The narration continues, "Filena with all her love responds as

by

monody.

choral version, whereas the actual is presented in a as a solo melody. Thus, soli and chorus follow Filena of appears reply each other, until at the end all seven voices are combined on the
to Eurillo/' and

equally the rhythms of the "guerra" motif that are to play the most distinguished role in the Madrigali Guerrieri. The starting for this novelty is even here the five-part madrigal, but in this point additional voices, while in the dialogo the soloists join the chorus as soloists are taken from the five-part chorus. the preceding madrigals Even in its concertato version it is still the five-part madrigal that ex
parts,

of which Monteverdi gives two versions: one for the "guerra" motif, two soloists, highly figurative, in sharp rhythms; the other for the in rapid syllabic in choral sharp accentuation, but
declamation. It
is

plains

hering

the transformations of structure. Monteverdi's tenacity in ad to this medium for more than twenty-five years is proof of the
1

to importance the composer attributed

it.

He

needed these years of

and systematic logical concentration

work

to free the style

from the

to a new medium. given category and to wed it of the sixth book, despite their superior rigals

The

concertato
quality,

mad
show

artistic

no longer make full and harmonious use of the elements of the medium, for throughout large sections decisive forces lie idle. Eloquent as the structures and new formal conceptions
that the composer can
all

are, the five-part madrigal is no longer an artistic necessity. The ideas of form inherent in the concertato madrigals reach forward into the

sphere within which the compositions of the seventh book originate. balance between category, medium, and style is restored in the works of the new collection, which characteristically carries the new

The

programmatic

title

Concerto.
1619, Monteverdi signed the dedication of his

On

December

13,

THE NEW ART OF MADRIGALS

287

Duchess of seventh book of madrigals to Catarina Medici-Gonzaga, Mantuan the to a letter he dispatched Mantua, and on the same day in intimate his friend, become had who secretary, Alessandro Striggio, In a letter of he mentioned that the book was off the

which

press.

February

in order to 1620, he indicated his plan to go to Mantua on 8, few Duchess. the to later, work the February submit days the favor of present do him to Alessandro he Striggio 1620, requested the book to the Duchess in his name, as he was prevented by neces
i,

ing

so himself. In the dedication he expressed his sary duties from doing to the house of Gonzaga. "These my compositions, whatever loyalty devoted of else they are, will be a public and authentic testimonial with served have I which of affection for the august house Gonzaga,

my

a decade." According to these letters, Monteverdi loyalty for many had been promised him upon a pension which hoped to receive had never obtained. If so, he he which but from Mantua, departure of the overdue pension, he instead been have for, must disappointed;
all

received a golden necklace. In his choice of texts, Monteverdi had reached a final stage. Marino had marked the last phase and, together with Guarini and Chiabrera, he reappeared in the seventh book. From the poetry of these men whose work he had distinguished with his music he selected those with their emotional intensities, poems that stirred his imagination

and especially with such formal arrangements as passionate scenes, dramatic structures in musical composition. Monteverdi had

suggested and reached the phase of assurance which comes with full maturity all the works of a are The lifetime. of a the achievement compositions and with the finality of master, without any trace of experiment, a in style, technique, and expression. They formulated perfection musical language which would be used for more than a century. The seventh book presents an extraordinary variety of media. Since of medium is the five-part madrigal has been superseded, the choice interest artistic of or because either in relation to the text freely made, used Monteverdi voices. combination of
in

some

two soprani, two binations of solo voices; duets are most frequent, for a sextet, in are there trios, quartets, even tenors, bass and tenor; but an instrumental have All voice. solo the for addition to compositions form of the basso continue, or the
either in

specific

many^com-

simple accompaniment, with an additional small orchestra of two violins and two flutes, as^in of three in the sextet A quest' olmo, or even with a large orchestra indeed, give strumental choirs, as in Con che soavhd. These varieties,

288

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

freedom the composer had gained. The style is proof of the complete no longer depends on a special medium; and and factor the governing the form has been stabilized in relation to style and text. The first madrigal of the volume is again intended to reveal the Even the text, Tempro Id cetra, ingeniously chosen stylistic program. from Marino, is a prelude that alludes to the content of the whole work. It introduces the singer-poet as though he were the composer of the heroism of Mars, but "it to himself who seizes the
lyre sing

seems impossible to him that the lyre will resound with anything but texts of love." Love is the theme throughout, and, in contrast to the frame his of characteristic so the note, his

tragic previous madrigals, of mind, is less frequent. There are tones of sweet melancholy, espe in Guarini's texts, but for the most part the madrigals are free cially come sei gentile, envious from poignant grief, even if the poet, in of the bird that lives while singing, dies: "vivi cantando et io cantando moro." The tones of gaiety in love are more frequent, as are those of in Marino's erotic lyrics. One loses track sultry sensuality, particularly of all the "bad" that are liberally given and taken. Marino's rather violent Eccoml pronto, ai bad makes a strange appearance in the tonal which Monteverdi covers violence with grace.

disguise

by

is completely novel, there is a new systematic had previously accomplished in build Monteverdi that All uniformity. and vocabularies of modern musical expression, the structures ing up all that he had worked out before, in detail or in isolation, is here

book have scarcely one Although the madrigals of the seventh

element that

stylistic

effect. In so far as the stylistic ex brought together with a climactic of the past are unmistakably modern and appropriate to the pressions new style, they are employed as models, to be expanded, or simply re

peated

if

their

former rendition seemed adequate.

a model that Thus, the madrigal, Tempro la cetra, recalls Monteverdi had used twelve years earlier with great effect Orfeo's bravura aria, Possente spirto. The strophic structure is used in both
first

works, the

new composition adding

clarity to the organization. In

Monteverdi drew further consequences from the Tempro on a fixed bass: he carried the principle of variation structure strophic into the melody; and though the melodies of the solo voice in the four the idea of varying a melodic substance strophes are never the same, exists. Indications of this principle are found in Orfeo's aria; but the
la cetra

madrigal further

clarifies

reappears in the madrigal

Except for the elaborate coloratura that (though to a considerably lesser degree than
it.

6 Cantoria of St. Mark's

Chapter-House of

St.

Mark's

THE NEW ART OF MADRIGALS

in Orfeo's Possente spirto), the

289
from

melody

departs

much

further

the dramatic and expressive stile recitative. The elements of arioso and it is recitative have been so completely worked into each other that hard to determine where one begins and the other ends. Yet in Tempro the rhythmic order of la cetra the arioso, which has also
simplified

the melody, prevails over the recitative. The instrumental ritornello, the strophes, is as much of an organizing element as played between it had been in Orfeo. Part of the introductory sinfonia incorporates and the end of the which also serves as the the
ritornello,

beginning

final sinfonia.

embodies contrasts of madrigal, which basis of an unal the firm on of medium contrasts structure through to sectional a to be composition similar tered, unifying element, proves

Hence, the

new

the cantata.

The seventh book contains only three more works for the solo voice: Con che soavitd, with orchestral accompaniment and unique in most of its aspects, and the two Lettere amorose, in monodic form with
Se i languidi sguardi is the simple continue accompaniment. Se pur destina, though Lettera amorosa most frequently referred to; also called Lettera amorosa in the edition of 1623, is better known

mm

under the

Partenza amorosa of the original edition. Both letters and are to be sung senza battuta belong to the genere rappresentativo Monteverdi's own in (without strict rhythmic beat), according to struction. Doni discussed these compositions, both of which he referred to as Lettere amorose. He criticized Monteverdi's composing them fox a soprano, when the text required a man's at least Se i languidi criticism. Doni remarks that the works voice; but that is an irrelevant admits that are on the whole more "capricious" than "reasonable," but recitativo stile the of all in all they can be prescribed "as models stile the from recitativo rappresen differentiates the stile proper." He
title

defines examine this differentiation. interesting to a includes it recitative melody sung the various types of the style. First, text can be com the that manner a such in voice a solo
tativo,

and

it is

He

gracefully

in compositions for the theater or prehended; this type may appear of a the church, in the oratorio, or for private use. Then there is type the in which melody music, soloistic with instrumental accompaniment, is very effective. Figurative material, but approaches ordinary speech, are usually added to this style of runs, and elaborate ornamentation of these extraneous ornamentations; he melody. Not that Doni approves and believes that thinks them void of any capacity to express affections,

by

in to please people of they were brought

little

understanding and taste

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

and were used by singers to display their expertness and technical skill. In keeping with the peculiarities of the Italian language, the style allows a great many repetitions, though not as many as are customary in madri and motets. Doni defines the stile rappresentativo as any kind of
gals

melody

melody midway

that is, any music composed for to be sung with scenery dramatic action. 4 Doni, therefore, understands the stile recitativo as a between spoken declamation and formal song, which
also

The ornamentation of this reciting appear in scenic music. out written be either by the composer or inserted by the melody may an of the form in improvisation. singer

may

These
verdi's

characteristics

hold true in almost every detail for

lettere.

Monte

These compositions have a melodic motion that approaches the characteristic declamation; they also have the element of repetition in certain phrases, though they do not have the elaborate ornamentation which Doni thinks typical of the

two

extensive

monodic

style,

unless
is

we

count the

final,

somewhat

florid,

passage of the Par-

tenza. It

and quite in keeping with the vocal customs of the possible, would add ornamental actual in that time, performance the singer coloraturas, in which case Doni's requirement would be met. Monte
verdi

was always

careful to indicate

wherever he desired the

florid

vocal art, and since he made no such indications, it is safe to style of the assume that he did not regard the coloratura as appropriate to his
lettere, irrespective

of

what the

singer might do. Despite

some

dis

it seems obvious that Doni ab crepancy in regard to ornamentation, stracted his ideas of the stile recitativo from the lettere, all the more so

as

he referred to them in his definitions.

The rhythmic freedom

(senza

to avoid rigidity in the manner of singing, increased the effect of recitation, and was essential to convey which is so characteristic of his reci of the
battuta),

which Monteverdi prescribed

"improvisation"

impression

Monteverdi ordinarily used genere rappresentativo to refer to music that was actually presented on the stage, as did Doni, but the two lettere amorose are not scenic compositions. Hence, Monteverdi for
tation.

once must have understood genere rappresentativo to be identical with

Doni's later definition of the
stile recitativo.

Although these works have often been the subject of scholarly dis cussion, their full meaning remains to be explained. Were they really

composed
4

as late as their

publication in the seventh

Opera,
II, z8ff.

book

suggests?
stile

G.

B. Doni,

De Musica scenica,

(Chapter: "In che differisca lo

Recitativo dal Rappresentativo.")

THE NEW ART OF MADRIGALS

There
are various features that

291

do not

fit

easily

into the picture of

Monteverdi's logical development.

We find stylistic elements that are

the academic to the type of monody produced by astonishingly close Florentines at the turn of the century a type that was already twenty
years

old and rather generally disapproved of by composers. Moreover, Monteverdi had intentionally by-passed the somewhat sterile Floren tine monody in his earlier dramatic works. The monodic Lamento the d'Arianna, for instance, had little in common with the style of

Florentine Camerata, and only a limited similarity to the

two

lettere.

These compositions scarcely belong in their stylistic environment; they are definitely obsolete by 1 6 1 9 and have no forerunners in Monteverdi's own work. It has been suggested that he wanted for once to realize the of those famous prefaces and very principles and "radical prescriptions treatises with which Caccini, Peri, Bardi, and V. Galilei shocked and

Such a before." artistic world a quarter of a century delighted the deliberate imitation is not impossible in Monteverdi's work, as has been shown in other cases. If he imitated, he certainly improved upon the as a model Florentines, and Doni was correct in citing the compositions
of the style.

Another madrigal of the seventh book that has also been related to monodic style of the Florentines is the duet for two tenors, Interrotte speranze* Such an attribution is not justified, however, and it
the

would be hard
tines.

to find

any comparable composition among the Floren

lines for Only the use of sharp caesurae, which set off the melodic both voices simultaneously line by line, resembles the phrasing of monodic music; but it is not necessarily derived from monody, since takes the setting of caesurae with full cadences ordinarily Monteverdi from the native song. With the voices tightly locked together, Monte one one, upward to a dra verdi carries the

by declamatory phrases, matic climax, over the unaltered "organ point" of the bass, and then reverses the procedure, leading the phrases downward, and concludes the composition with rising phrases built with the precision of song which start with a canonic imitation. There is nothing of Floren
motifs,
tine

monody in this ingenious structure,

but

much of what Monteverdi

had previously exploited in dramatizing the musical form.

He

often
lines,

his late madrigals according to the verse arranged the phrasing of

Redlich, Claudio Monteverdi, p. 167. E. Schmitz, "Zur Geschichte des italienischen Continuo-Madrigals in hundert," in SIMG, XI (1910), 513.
8

17.

Jahr-

292

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

This procedure is all parts. followed chiefly in melodies that unmistakably follow the outlines of the canzonetta. Eccomi pronta is so organized. Most of the madrigals have a combination of two voices either of for Monteverdi cultivated the solo duet with equal or different timbre, care and provided for it the first truly classical solution, in particular which the harmonic counterpoint adds a flexibility and variety unex

with unconcealed caesurae and cadences in

restricted medium. The long and repeated series of pected in such a of voice leading, and have voices are, however, his favorite form parallel

a strikingly sensuous sonority. They embody a realism that is the basis of all baroque artistic forms, no matter how much ornamentation and

rhetoric may embroider and veil the realistic core of sensuality. In addi
tion to their profound intellectual and human qualities, these tonal effects exercise a powerful impact upon the senses. In this alluring Monteverdi speaks the language 6f his time; but with him, it sensuality which the work is built and not an end in itself. It is not is the basis

upon

but only the amount of sensuality,

its

use as an end or as a means that

among baroque musicians. There separates are forms in Monteverdi's compositions in which sensuousness is the feature as for example, the long sequence of parallel voices prevailing
the chaff from the wheat

with

its

remarkable harmonic
in the

effects.

monic conceptions

new

not the prevalence of har counterpoint also an indication of the

Was

new importance of

sensuous impression in his approach to the artistic

work? In the duet combination of the madrigals Monteverdi skillfully used contrapuntal devices, many of which produce harmonic effects,
and the form of the melodic motifs points altogether in that direction.

The devices employed in the treatment of motifs vary from madrigal to

madrigal; a particularly effective one is the dramatic or expressive ren dering of contrapuntal imitation of motifs, as in S'el vostro cor Ma donna, for tenor and bass. First, the motif is presented by each voice
alone, in successive imitation,

and each time the motif

is

raised in the

manner by which Monteverdi

so often gave the simplest device an ex pressiveness of great intensity. The motif rises in imitation until the voices unite, whereupon an imitative procedure locks the motifs more

tightly together. The procedure works with hints and allusions, as it were, rather than with a systematic directness. This type of contrapun tal device has decidedly the character of improvisation, and spontaneity seems to be its main force; but in the end the composition has unfolded itself as a series of well considered and even calculated. This steps,

THE NEW ART OF MADRIGALS

293

the col is found in all the duets and trios of technique of imitation and each lection. The type of the motif, however, changes melodically, the manner has its own stylistic background. First, there is the motif in Monte of recitation, mostly very simple, sometimes even monotonous. of intense melancholy; but it is least in verdi uses this
largely

passages

these madrigals. It has its origin in those monotonous recita frequent in the tions of madrigalesque works in which Monteverdi approached of motif, character of a litany or of psalmodic reciting. The second form the in almost every madrigal, and used either throughout represented a has It or in parts of it, is derived from the canzonetta. composition line the declamation and a parlando effect if declamatory rapid syllabic is extended:

Ex. 93

vn, 59

Che

This canzonetta type, reduced to a brief motif, has a remarkable pre

cision:

E.C-

CO. mi

jfrwi-

or a the basis for either an arioso (in duple rhythm) songs and forms

The type branches out to include general characteristics of the native

(in triple

dance melody
Ex. 95
tjflb~: 6

rhythm)

vii

IJ

tf

"J

''I'M
t\

fe'ttiiiMl tn-fii

vottrl

ro'g* ml-

$.-

r4.ntu>

tnfirl

va-itr el

r.-^o ml- o

There

is

also a third

often profuse figuration stereotyped in previous madrigals: developed

and form of the motif, with melismatic groups been nature, a form that had of a

294

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

VII

Ex. 96

Tu.

cetn

It is this style
stile

of melody

which Monteverdi worked out within the

concertato, and he uses it chiefly in connection with suggestive serves the purpose of expressing ex words. special form of this type its characteristics are an unusually wide citement and

stirring passion;

range and large

intervals, in addition to

the figuration:

Ex. 97

vn

And

there

is

finally that extraordinary motif, specifically

is

Monte-

dramatic not only in direct expressiveness, but also in origin, since Monteverdi used it in his dramatic music. It is, therefore, related to the monodic recitation, but also has the wide range and the
verdian,

which

exclamatory

intervals:

Ex. 98

vii

^
Tfr
Ah,
.h t

m
4h,
cHeiwnsi

con-vif-ne rom-^r

Id

ft-

de&dd

It

fe

m
ne
c!

wn

si

^uillo

J.

slcf.j*

lon-Un

quell'

i-

itej-

Ion-

Un

dd.

voi

THE NEW ART OF MADRIGALS

All thee forms of motifs, which, of course, have their bearing
his

295
upon

conceptions

of

melody
that

in general, are stylistically differentiated,

artistic subtlety

completely

clarified,

and used with an

and assurance of
last

purpose

which show

Monteverdi has reached the

phase

of his

maturity.

book also clarify the structure of the madrigals of the seventh have seen in previous madrigals that Monteverdi, bent upon bass. for the composition, frequently worked discovering a uniform structure with stereotyped basses, which were for the most part basses of dances or their derivatives. In the seventh book this principle reached a new

The

We

maturity.

The most famous example is the Romaneses

parts,

for

two

soprani,

which is, with its four sections, the most extended cantata of the volume. the bass, which has the Romanesca melody, remains the In all four
same.
7

While Monteverdi had previously endeavored

its

to formulate the

basso ostinato or

likeness,

even

as early as in the first

book of

his

here that full mastery of that structure is achieved. For madrigals, it is that remains the same throughout the sections along with a bass melody of variation in the soloistic duet. Also in the upper parts the goes the art substance of the material remains the same; the technique of variation structural ingenuity. As a is an outstanding example of Monteverdi's matter of fact, the "Ohime" motif, for which he had invented some and formulas, determines the course of the whole prima parte,
typical since the three following sections vary the material of the prima pane, the whole cantata. the "Ohime" motif

governs

Next

to the Romanesca, the madrigal

Con che

soaviti, for solo

orchestral accompaniment, represents his highest artistic soprano with to achievement. Here Monteverdi combines many styles of melody

make

melodiousness is a simple, haunting entity: There the symmetry of a song; there are vivid motifs of the with beginning of tonal conoertato style and an intensive declamation with little variety in which orchestra an with in used are and all these conjunction
a

new

at

the

range; the three continuo groups is divided according to the tone color of a similar 1610 has of imposing instrument. The sonata on the litahy a pro in its formal idea, but Guarini's Con che soavitti has
largeness

fundity which puts

time.
T

it

beyond

its

own

age and makes

it

valid for

all

relation to dances, see 0. Gombosi in RaM, VII Concerning such basses and their

(1934), 148.

CHAPTER
FIFTEEN

The Art

Scenic of Representation: Ballo,

Cantata,

Drama

TIRSI E CLORI
'

'HE

JL

madrigals of the seventh book are the classic formulation of Monteverdi's madrigalesque art and set the standards of the musi

Monteverdi brought to Venice. They were the music which the aristocratic circles and the connoisseurs learned the through nature and artistic greatness of the new style, which had now attained a form that endured through the century. Monteverdi's art became the guide for musicians near and far, as his madrigals spread throughout Italy and into foreign countries. In Padua, Bologna, Florence, Milan,
cal culture that

Rome, Mantua,
time.

his

madrigals took

first

place in the repertory of the

previous madrigals and other compositions were apparently still performed on the regular concert evenings in the ducal palace. Communications be

Many of his works went immediately to Mantua, where his

tween Monteverdi and the Mantuans remained

earlier years of his

Venetian period,

lively. Especially in the his letters to Mantua that is, to his

were numerous; five and for the year 1620 every year, we have no less than twenty-three. It is from these letters that we know many of the artistic plans considered by Monteverdi and learn of works now lost. In them Monteverdi often discussed basic ideas of his art and secrets principles of composition, and these discussions reveal
important
at St.

friend, the ducal counselor Alessandro Striggio or six letters went to Mantua almost

of his music.

Although Monteverdi was bound by

296

his

engagement

Mark's

THE ART OF REPRESENTATION

and had to secure permission for outside of the cathedral, he apparently had no
activities

297
it.

from the procurators

in obtaining

difficulty

The

Mantuan

after court continued to call for his works, even immediately

was com he accepted the position in Venice. At the end of 1615 he at for performance missioned to write the music for a ballo scheduled
the

anxious to preserve the magnifi Vincenzo's of time, still needed the cence of the artistic court life the occasion for What di contribution of his former maestro

Mantuan

court.

Duke Ferdinand,

cappella.

the ballo was,

for a

we do not know; possibly it was to be part of the festivities

He had cast his eyes upon a of honor, the beautiful Camilla Faa di Bruni, who, though maid young rank. noble and the daughter of Count Ardizzino, was yet of inferior of the scandal view in but her married have to seems Ferdinand secretly, and his family's indignation he soon afterward annulled the marriage
1 wedding which Ferdinand planned.

the and disposed of the unhappy girl by putting her into a nunnery for and be also It may rest of her life, separated from her son Giacinto. that the ballo was performed on the more this is

probable perhaps occasion of Ferdinand's coronation on January 5,1616. Whatever the occasion, Monteverdi responded promptly and dis
Tirsi e

Clori, patched the work, included the ballo in the publication of his seventh book of madrigals four years later as Ballo Concertato con vod et instrument! ti ;. In his dated November 21, 1615, he gave inter letter to Alessandro

to

Mantua

in

November,

1615.

He

Striggio, for the performance. He suggested that the per esting instructions corner formers stand in a half circle, like a half-moon, and that at each a chitarrone and a clavicembalo of the half circle there should be

placed

as

contmuo instruments in the orchestral groups, one for Clori, the other

in their for Tirsi. Clori and Tirsi themselves should have chitarroni contmuo orchestral the two hands, and play and sing together with could have a harp instead instruments; or it might be still better if Clori in the ballo, for would of a chitarrone. After the dialogue they join a spinet, and a da contrabasso, viole braccio, which an orchestra of eight be danced in should the ballo and two small lutes was recommended, 2 arias. the of nature the to the measure appropriate The dialogue between Tirsi and Clori is composed in sections suitable in structure to a cantata. Tirsi has a dance song, in triple rhythm, and in duple an arioso follows Clori's while style, the like balletto, part but free from any dance pattern, melodic or rhythmic. The

rhythm,
*

iThisis suggested by Domenicd

Letter

de' Paoli,

Claudia Monteverdi (Milan, 1945), p. 203.

No.

19; ed.

x6iff. Malipiero, Claudia Monteverdi, pp.

298

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

dance song of Tirsi is used for the first and third strophes, the arioso of Clori for the second and fourth, each with slight variation. For the fifth however, which ends with the request to dance, "Ballistrophe,

amo," Tirsi and Clori unite in a duet that has the same material as Tirsi's dance song. The ballo itself, sung by a chorus of five parts and accom which is specified in the letter but not in the panied by an orchestra, the sections are all repeated and have the is score,
sectionally arranged; structure of dance songs. While the
first

half of the ballo

is

governed

by

the triple rhythm, the second half varies the dance patterns in three

JJJIJJJH^L O JIJ;//;JI jjmill In comparison with the Ballo dell' Ingrate, Tirsi e Clori has no dra matic implications and concentrates on the pure characteristics of the
groups:

formal dance.
IL

COMBATTIMENTO

DI

TANCREDI E CLORINDA

of 1615 was composed for the Mantuan court, but it must be assumed that this work was also used for festival purposes in the

The Ballo

circles of the

Venetian nobility, where Monteverdi soon acquired

many

among

and admirers. The inclusion of the Ballo in the seventh book of madrigals would seem to indicate this. Among the Venetians who were devoted to Monteverdi's art was Girolamo Mocenigo, a member of one of the oldest families, who also had a genuine interest in the dramatic implications of the new music. He was apparently the first the Venetians to recognize the representational nature of music
friends

and he made every provision for the theatrical stage, of dramatic music. Early in the twenties the music drama performance was already a part of the festival representations in the palaces of the
produced on the
led to stage pro of an operatic to the foundation ductions in the palaces and perhaps Venice in befell for a that disaster theater, except 1630. In a little over
this

Venetian aristocracy, and

would probably have

a year, forty-six thousand Venetians were reported to have died the plague, and the city of pleasure became a city of death. The first dramatic composition of Monteverdi that is related to ice

from

Ven

was produced in the palace of Girolamo Mocenigo and originated a style which Monteverdi called the stile concitato. When he intro duced it in 1624, he explained it as a novelty, although we have seen that it had long been in preparation in his work.' In his elaborate preface to the eighth book of madrigals, the Madrigali Guerrieri et Amorosi of 1638, he gives an account of the origin and character of the stile con
citato.

THE ART OF REPRESENTATION

del

299

"I have recognized that among our passions or affections (affettioni ammo) there are three principal ones: wrath (Ira), temperance

or (Temperanza), and humility or prayer (Humiltd

supplicatione)

our best philosophers affirm and even the very nature of our voice with and low range verifies; and the art of music substanti its high, middle, in the terms concitato, the excited, molle, the soft, and ates them as
well,

works of composers of the past I temperato, the temperate. In all the of the soft and excited the of could not find an example genre, though this type in described has Plato Yet there were the temperate, many. that Take words: these in the of book harmony third the Republic which in tone and accent imitates those men who bravely go to battle.'
that it is contrasts more than anything else that the end of all good music is to affect the soul, as that and souls, be Boethius afErmed when he said that music, naturally inborn in our little no study ennobles man or depraves his morals, therefore with ing, and endeavor I set about the rediscovery of this music. I took into con

Since

was aware

move

our

the fast sideration that, according to all the best philosophers, it was the while and excited dances, meter that was used for bellicose

pyrrhic

slow spondaic meter served for the opposite expression; consequently its full value corre I began to see that one semibreve (full note) in the semibreve divided one however, spondaic beat, that, sponded to beaten one after semicromes notes), successive (sixteenth into sixteen
the other, and connected with a text that contained wrath and indigna the affection of which I was in search, al tion, could well resemble able to follow the fast tempo of the instru though the text might not be the ments. In order to give a major example, I took the divine Tasso, in his all the passions he sets out to describe poetry, poet who expresses combat with all propriety and naturalness. I found his description of the to between Tancred and Clorinda; for I had here contrasting passions the in In death. even 1624, presence be set to music: war, prayer, and the house of the of the Venetian nobility, I had the music performed in
Illustrious

and Most Excellent Gerolamo Mozzenigo, princely

cavalier,

and a leading governmental dignitary of the Most Serene Republic, my and protector. The music was received with great ap particular patron After I had once made a successful beginning of the and praise. plause further through imitation of wrath, I continued to investigate the style works for church and court; and more studies and

composed sundry
appreciated

this style

was

so

much

by composers

that they not only

but also wrote imitations, much to my pleasure and praised it orally, that I am the honor. Yet it seems to me appropriate to make known

300

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

first investigation and of the first proof of this style so without which music can reasonably be called im in music, necessary the temperate. At it had since only two styles, the soft and perfect, to play the basso continuo, first, musicians, especially those who had of a note sixteen times to the measure was more the

author of the

thought

playing

ridiculous than praiseworthy; hence they played the tone only once to reduced the pyrrhic meter to the spondaic; the measure and

thereby to the excited text. Hence I they abolished any resemblance its with continuo recommend that the basso accompaniment be played
thus,

form as written. In this style we likewise find that exactly in manner and must be observed as in other compositions of elements other all the
other styles; for in music there are three such elements: text, harmony, and rhythm. The style of warlike expression which I discovered made me write some madrigals to which I gave the title Madrigali Guerrieri. Since the music of great princes
their delight therefore, in
in the theater, in the court hall,

my present work Guerriera, Amorosa, and Rappresentativa [Music a]. 1 know that the work is imperfect, for my capacities are generally limited, especially in
this

used at their courts in three ways to and for balls I have, alluded to the three kinds in the titles
is

new style

of martial expression. Since

'all

beginning is feeble,
to take

omne

pleasure at least in good intention; I shall expect greater perfection in the na ture of this style to come from his pen; for 'it is easy to add to the dis

principium

est debilej I

beg the benevolent reader

my

covery, Inventis
of

est adder e] and viva felice" 8 -facile Each composition was for Monteverdi another attack on the

total

art, and he gave eloquent evidence that his stylistic achieve problem ments resulted from thorough investigations which he thought indis

pensable to the purpose of his music

the expression of

human passions.

Monteverdi frankly admitted that he was searching for an adequate musical expression of extreme passion and excitement. If music is to
reflect the

human

passions, all the passions

embodied in the

artist's

work. Music which

is

must be conquered and limited by dealing with

a few selected passions is but a torso of art and a fragment of life. Monteverdi explored the capacities of music and, through antiquity, became the discoverer of the stile concitato as the medium for extreme
passions.

The Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda is based on the text of Torquato Tasso's Gemsalemne liberata, from which Monteverdi
'Preface in Malipiero,
pp.
Sgfi.

Op ere,

VIII; reprinted in Malipiero,

Ckudio Monteverdi,

THE ART OF REPRESENTATION

301

. chose sixteen stanzas of the twelfth canto (52-68; stanza 63 is omitted) in in Monteverdi's words, a work genere It is a theatrical composition

that it rappresentativoand has the makings of scenic music, except was is limited in size. Even the season at which it was first produced that score the in for dramatic music. Monteverdi reported appropriate the Combattimento was performed in the carnival season as an enter di veglia." He also added other tainment at a soiree:

"per passatempo

valuable information. If the

work

is

performed

as a stage

production,

after various other madrigals have been sung it has its greatest effect These madrigals "with theatrical senm gesto (without presentation).

out gesture"
in the sixth

those that

were published

in previous books, especially

and seventh books were evidently in the repertory of the Venetian soirees. Monteverdi gave further scenic instructions. From that side of the hall where the musicians are placed, suddenly (alia armed but on foot, while Tancred, sprovista) Clorinda shall appear fully also armed, shall appear on a horse. The Testo (narrator) immediately
the actors express the meaning of the text in steps begins his part. All and gestures, in strict observance of tempo, beat, and step (tempi, colpi, between the parts passi) and the instrumentalists accurately distinguish recites rhyth Testo The and that are concitati et molli (excited soft) 4 are that all three acting parts manner a in such and mically (a tempo} is the Testo and her turn when Clorinda comes, one. in united speaks as is Tancred. The orchestra consists of four viole de braccio
;
.

silent,

soprano, alto, tenore, with the clavicembalo.

passioni del? oratione)

and basso

The
The

instrumentalists

and a contrabasso da gamba that goes must play their parts in

imitation of the affections inherent in the text (ad imitatione delle

from the

Testo, in a position somewhat removed his part with clear, firm voice and good order to make the text comprehensible. He must not pronunciation in insert coloraturas and trills, except in the song for the stanza that begins with "Notte" (54). For the rest, his pronunciation should observe the in the text (similitudine delle passioni delForaimitation of the
.

orchestra,

must sing

passions

tione)

What
moved

type of composition

is

all listeners "to the affection

the Combattimento, this work that and to tears, that of

compassion"

was praised because nothing

like

Monteverdi not only presented

*

had ever been seen or heard? For a new style, he created a completely new
it

tioni

"che le creainstructions are reprinted in Opere, VIII, 1321". MaKpiero has: in una imitatione unita." This, of course, does not make incontrarsi ad venghino sense. The original has correctly: "che le txe ationi," etc.

These

302

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

defined on the basis of Monteverdi's category which can be clearly own reasoning. If the previous madrigals were senza gesto, this is a can best be defined as a madrigal con gesto, and the Combattimento scenic madrigal or, in harmony with baroque conceptions, a scenic

Monteverdi had worked for years to find a structural organiza tion that would differentiate between the narrative section and the
cantata.

direct speech or dialogue, so that, in every respect except that of actual the composition became a dramatic madrigal Carry stage production, a step further toward the reality of stage pro differentiation the ing and assigned to actors. could the duction, easily be personified dialogue of the poem, however, posed some difficulties. The narrative

portion

Monteverdi had two possible

solutions.

He

could give the narrative

in choral form, in contrast to the acting parts.

But

this solution

too closely resemble the dramatic madrigal senza gesto, often given the individual, spoken parts to solo voices and assigned the narrative or contemplative sections to the chorus. The other solution, which Monteverdi actually chose, was to personify the narration in the poem; thus it is that the narrator, or testo, enters the madrigal. the narrative characteristics of retains in its The testo
part

would where he had

melody

its

origin.

For large sections the range

is

rather narrow, in order to

maintain the monotony of the reciting character. Yet this effect is counterbalanced by a strict rhythmic regulation that proceeds in pre of the testo are of cise rhythms. Extensive portions
patterns
passionate

or in alternation, by the orchestra, in the accompanied, simultaneously form known as the recitativo accompagmto. In all these sections, the
testo has a

melodic expressiveness

the accompaniment; the rhythmic regularity derived from a narrow is that of a simple recitation within

even the exploitation of pictorial effects, is Where the testo part, however, has merely continuo of the the accompaniment instrument, the melody becomes in expression; it approaches more dramatic and in wider freer, range, the style of monody Monteverdi had previously used for dramatic sub
range. All expressiveness, given to the accompaniment.

This style is used for parts of Tancred and Clorinda, regardless of the accompaniment. It seems that Monteverdi did not intend to exploit and harmony. To express extreme pas fully the resources of melody sions, he apparently concentrated on the powers of rhythmic motifs, in
jects.

other words, on the stile conchato. There are moving melodic phrases, boldly expressive harmonies; there are techniques which unite separate sections by the strength of a stereotyped harmonic bass. Nevertheless, the rhythm, for once, appears to be the most powerful element. It is

JTHE
presented

ART OF REPRESENTATION

303

even in abstract patterns, as it were; the hammering of the in other patterns than the rapid repe rhythm on one tone also occurs ac tition of sixteenth notes. Simultaneously, rhythm and orchestral

Monteverdi thought necessary companiment serve the realism which

for rendering

human

discovery, he may never again presented the style in such a radical fashion.

In his zeal to exploit his passions convincingly. at least, he this have overworked powerful realism;

THE MUSIC DRAMA: PLANS AND COMMISSIONS

The ballo

Tirsi e Clori

showed

that the

Monteverdi's contributions to its festival of the dis nand, under the pressure of his family, had cleared himself nobler a find to were made spouse, grace of his secret marriage, plans
his

Mantuan court still relied on occasions. Soon after Ferdi

Medici was officially announced, and engagement to Catarina de' the wedding was set for February, 1617. The event called for elaborate and careful preparations, and the Mantuans again turned to Monteverdi
for the festival music drama.

They submitted a text, La

Favola di feleo

e di Teti, by Count Scipione Agnelli, and in a letter of December 9, the commission and of 1616, Monteverdi acknowledged the receipt of
8 the libretto.

This

letter

is

an

artistic

document of the

first

which importance, in

Monteverdi sets forth the principles of his approach to a text. The Favola had impressed the Mantuans apparently a reading had tested and they had great hopes for it; but Monteverdi was its effectiveness not at all impressed, and rejected the composition. His reasons are those of a modern dramatist. Monteverdi assured the Mantuans most politely al that he had no desire but to serve the Duke of Mantua, that he was with His of every respect Highness ways ready "to obey the orders and promptness." He did not know the poet of the libretto, and, as he was not his profession; but he had serious reservations to said,

poetry which the make, as a musician, in view of the maritime subject upon first of all that remarked he with words, libretto was based. Playing over the not and 'air' the over be mistress to "wants exclusively music
in water." This means "in my language, that the concerti described extraordi the text are altogether too base and terrestrial." He noted an to employ beautiful harmonies. He referred nary lack of opportunities

No. 22, to Alessandro Striggio; ed. Malipiero, Claudia Monteverdi, pp. Monteverdi was not asked Prunieres, Claudia Monteverdi, p. 132, states that was set for 1617; and to contribute to the marriage, which he dates 1616. The marriage which he was requested in the above letter Monteverdi expressly refers to the service to render "nelle futture nozze di S.A.S."
Letter
i<5 5 fF.

304

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT.

to the prescribed noisy wind machines on the stage that would make not for musical reasons, necessary the doubling of the instrumentation,

but merely to stand up against the noise. Three chitarroni would be instead of one; and even then the instead of one, three
harps necessary voice of the singer would have to be forced. Furthermore, in order to of the text properly (la imitatione propria del carry out the imitation more wind instruments than delicate parlare), he would have to use set for the Tritons and the harmonies the in his opinion, strings. For, other marine creatures ought to have trombones and cornets, and not The whole action takes place out of or the
cetra, clavicembalo, harp. debere esse in civitate, et doors; and did not Plato teach that "cithara tibia in Thus, if the harmonies are delicate, they will be in

agris"?

are appropriate, they will not be delicate. Then, if appropriate, and they in looking through the list of actors, one finds that they are all winds, "Amoretti, Zeffiretti, et Sirene"; they all require the range of soprani, "How, dear sir, shall I be able to and these Zeffiri and Boreali must
sing.

imitate the speaking of winds that do not speak; and how shall I be able to move the affections by such means? Arianna was moving, because

she was a woman, and likewise Orfeo was moving, because he was a The harmonies imitate human beings, not man, and not a wind,
. . .

the noise of winds, the bleating of sheep, the neighing of horses." The imitation of the speech of winds is utterly impossible. The text as a

whole appears to him full of ignorance; there is not a scene (ponto) that would move the composer, or only with great difficulty, if he wanted to be moved; also, the ending did not affect him. Again he returned
to the

human

aspect

that

is

all-important. "Arianna
this

moves me to a

real lament,

know

and Orfeo to a genuine prayer, but whither it carries me," wrote Monteverdi.

story I do not "And I should com

a text?" he asked his friend Striggio. pose such Apparently strong pressure was brought to bear on Monteverdi, for in his next letter three weeks later he seems to have given in to the strict

duties

"command" of the Duke. He made sure, however, to refer to his heavy and wrote that he would do what he could. He does not appear to

have started actual composition at once. Meanwhile, Striggio tried to change the Duke's mind. In a letter to the Duke, he mentioned that Count Agnelli was working on another text, La Congiunta d'Alceste et
to Monteverdi.

d'Admeto, which when completed should immediately be dispatched On the other side, he tried to assure the composer that
di feleo e Tetide

LeNozze

was not

really a

music drama, such

as

Ari-

THE ART OF REPRESENTATION

305

anna or Orfeo; the work was intended to be performed in single scenes

or acts as intermezzi to the "great comedy." Under these circumstances, which eliminated the dramatic and human problems, Monteverdi ac and proceeded with the composition. cepted, There must have been a good deal of confusion in the preparation of the Mantuan festivities, which were to be on a large scale. No less than Nozze di five music dramas or similar scores were in the making. The Feleo e Tetide of Monteverdi was planned as a group of intermezzi. The who had already informed Alceste had been Striggio,

suggested

by

Monteverdi to prepare himself for its composition. The comedy Galatea another watery affair by Chiabrera was in the hands of Sante Orlandi, the successor of Monteverdi at the Mantuan court. La Favola di Ati e Cibele had as its composer Francesco Rasi, the famous role in the operatic annals of Mantua. a who
singer

played

leading

La Favola di Endimiowe, written by the Duke himself, was also planned to get in as a music drama. All these simultaneous projects were bound each other's way. The first work that was dropped by order of the

Duke was Le Nozze

alone

di Feleo e Tetide!

And

in the

end the Galatea

9

was performed a poor result after such profuse preparations. Monteverdi, whose work on the Nozze was called off, was naturally and indignant, since he had completed all the monologues.
disappointed

the Moreover, he had been invited by Ottavio Rinuccini to attend in with Catarina de' Medici Florence, wedding of Duke Ferdinand

where

all

the nobility and the

Grand Duke

himself

were anxious

to

see him, and had rejected this invitation to keep himself free for the of the Alceste, the order for which he was waiting in

composition

vain.

In spite of this shabby treatment, Monteverdi continued to give his a art to the Mantuan court. That same year he composed his share of the La the "Sacra Rappresentazione" Maddalena, co-operative work, text being written by the famous leader of the troupe of comedians,

Monteverdi had an acquaint this sacred play were Muzio of ance of long standing. The composers Rossi. Monteverdi wrote Saloinone Efrem, Alessandro Giuvizzani, and
Giovanni
Battista Andreini,

with

whom

the instrumental ritornello for five parts and the prologue sung by "Favor divino." Both compositions are very short and artistically in All the music to La Maddalena was published by Andreini
significant.

in 1617:

Musiche de alcuni

eccellentissimi musici

composte per

la

See Achille Neri, in Giornale Storico della letteratura italiana, VII, 327.

306
tine*

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

Eattista

Maddalena, Sacra Rappresentazione di Gio.

Andreini Floren

Monteverdi was even encouraged to write dramatic works for Mantua, and always answered promptly with a disarming willingness to serve the house of Gonzaga. In 1618 a request came from Vincenzo, the brother of Ferdinand and the heir apparent, who wanted to have a set to music. Monteverdi accepted and libretto of Ercole
Marigliani

was his heart really in may have started composition immediately. But a commission from a it was because the work, or did he merely accept Monteverdi fre time. a took work long Gonzaga? At all events, the he was reminded of his delay by Alessandro when quently apologized,
to the burdensome demands upon him whenever Striggio, referring feasts called for special compositions. Nevertheless, he great religious
at the

kept on working

of the composition.

By

score and inquired about one or another aspect the spring of 1619 he does not seem to have

and at the end of the year, when further complaints were accompanied by a sudden demand that the work be completed for the carnival in 1620, he was quite upset and wished Marigliani to be
accomplished much,

informed that he could not possibly compose at such speed. Even if he could finish the music, there would be no time for the rehearsals, which he considered essential. Monteverdi was asked to come to Mantua to take charge of the performance, but he declined, and the work was undoubtedly never completed. Whatever the reason, in this case the Gonzagas can hardly be blamed for the failure.

From the

correspondence with Striggio on Marigliani's Andromeda,

we learn that Monteverdi had composed a ballo

and a text by Striggio,

an "egloga," as he called the Apollo, apparently in the nature of a scenic cantata, con gesto. This piece was produced several times in Venice at the house of a certain Signer Benbi for an audience of noble ladies and

had a great effect, for the gentlemen. The Lamento d 'Apollo, especially, 8 audience was pleased with the plot, the verses, and the music as well. In view of its success, Monteverdi thought the Apollo might well be

performed

in

came of
the

it.

Since the music

Mantua, perhaps in place of the Andromeda, but nothing is lost, the suggestion that it may belong to

new category of scenic cantatas is, of course, hypothetical. The year 1620, in which there was a lively correspondence between
First,

Monteverdi and Mantua, brought the composer face to face with an

important decision.
7

Duke

Ferdinand, a

man

of impulsive action,
p. 188.

See the two compositions of Monteverdi in Malipiero, Opere, XI, lyof. 8 Letter No. 39, dated February i, 1620; ed. Malipiero, Claudio Monteverdi,

THE ART OF REPRESENTATION

off

307

made an urgent request that Monteverdi's Arianna be performed again in the Mantuan theater. The composer quickly responded by sending inserted on the spur and his score with some
changes

improvements

The performance was canceled as suddenly as Ferdi now created a nand had conceived the idea. The death of Sante Orlandi in Mantua. di Through a of maestro cappella vacancy in the office Monteverdi to the offered letter the Duke position agent and by
of the moment.
special continued loyalty to the in consideration of his previous service and communications, their especially of in view uninterrupted
^

in regard to dramatic

work, and, naturally, because of the unrivaled of the composer. In a long reply, dated March 13, 1620, reputation he begins by Monteverdi rejected the offer. As politeness dictated, that the his gratitude for the great honor and by remarking expressing
years

Gonzagas,

an indelible impression on his to explain Monteverdi's heart. That was undoubtedly true and helps at St. Mark's against his But he measures
of his youth in

Mantua had

left

position astonishing loyalty. that the offer. He speaks of his present authority, of the general respect the which with the of procurators has been shown him, generosity him and of enthusiasm of honors to his

work, have responded granted it is the "sweetest over his music; all Venice flocks to hear it. Indeed, service. Then all the in sweetness no had service." Mantua, however, the years breaks the bitterness and anger that had accumulated over He had not been treated with due respect; minor talents had

through. was always received greater favor than he; and humiliating treatment suffer not "I did any greater accorded him when he begged for his due. wait in the ante mental humiliation than at those times when I had to and to obtain what was due to me." It was a frank letter,

chamber that re Monteverdi apologized for its frankness. It was a document of because and, court the administration, on flected no particular honor
it,

the court did not pursue negotiations further. who was In connection with the education of his son Francesco, 1620. Among Monteverdi went to that city in studying law at Bologna, Adriano friends and ardent admirers, there was the composer
his

many

Banchieri,

whose works occupy

of music. Banchieri had previously expressed

a distinguished place in the history his adherence to the new

he who prepared a festival music of Monteverdi, and apparently it was Accademia Florida, called together the that took place at a meeting of in Bosco on June 13, Michele St. of for the occasion in the monastery
1620.
9

of Bologna Girolamo Giacobbi and others of the best musicians

Letter

No.

46; ibid., pp. i98ff.

308

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

in

were present; speeches were given and concert! played

eminent guest.
10

honor of the

of dramatic music continued to challenge Requests for compositions Monteverdi's creative powers. He accepted the commissions readily, because the genere rappresentativo was his chief interest; in fact, he now
tasks.

distracted him from his true thought that any other form of music Most of the dramatic compositions were still connected with the Mantuan court. In the spring of 1621, Ercole Marigliani, the secretary of the ill-fated Andromeda, commissioned of the Duke and the

poet

Monteverdi to compose the music for three "Intermedii," apparently by was mentioned as the occasion Marigliani himself. No specific festivity Monteverdi more than half took for these intermezzi. The composition Duchess that the inter the wrote he a year, and in November, 1621, mezzi had been sent to Marigliani. There is no record of any perform
ance and no trace of the music.

The Mantuans were not the only ones who were anxious to obtain dramatic compositions from the famous composer. Many Venetian noble families were eager to introduce the music drama into their and Monteverdi must have been asked to write, if not elaborate
palaces,

dramas, at least such scenic cantatas as he presented with his Combattimento. Giustiniano, a member of one of the twelve families of the the Mocenighi were one of the thirty highest Venetian aristocracy families next in rank was apparently among those who favored the

composer with such theatrical plans. At one time, he even sought the good services of Monteverdi to persuade the Duke of Mantua to permit the famous troupe of the Andreini to "come to Venice to recite come dies." Monteverdi sent off his letter of intervention in behalf of "Gius
tiniano

Gentilhomo
also

Other princes

molta autorita in questa Ser.ma Republica." 11 approached Monteverdi to produce dramatic com
di

a letter dated positions: in

March

15,

625, he mentions that

he has been

very busy with compositions "in chiesa et alia camera," for "quest' Altezza di Pollonia." 12 This commission has been taken to indicate the

more

vast range of Monteverdi's fame, extending even to Poland, but it is likely that this Highness was one of the numerous princes who

came to Venice to seek pleasure incognito, who rented a and held court as custom prescribed. They not only had soirees palace
regularly
t 14, pp. 43 jf. Vogel, op. Letter No. 69, to Alessandro Striggio; ed. Malipiero, Claudia Monteverdi, p. 226. 12 Letter No. to Ercole 79, Marigliani; ibid., p. 239. Monteverdi mentions the "prencipe di Pollonia" as his patron once more in letter No. 102, September 10, 1627; ibid.,

10

cit.

document No.

11

p. 269.

THE ART OF REPRESENTATION

not so
sions

309

with elaborate musical entertainments, but also made arrangements for church services, often with stupendous musical performances, special

much

the opportunity

meeting Monteverdi received from the Prince of Poland

to atone for their all-too-worldly pleasures as to enjoy the ladies in church. Among the commis of

may

well have

been one or more compositions of a dramatic nature. In 1626 Duke Ferdinand died without an heir, and was succeeded Vincenzo had always had a by his brother, Vincenzo II, a sick man. for Monteverdi and attempted to call the composer admiration great back to Mantua with the same result as before and the same excuses
for rejecting the offer being given. Possibly in connection with Vin hear cenzo 's coronation, an important operatic work originated. about it for the first time in a letter of 1627 (from that year no less than On May i Monteverdi wrote: "I twenty-five letters are preserved). have composed many stanzas of Tasso, beginning with Armida's 'O the whole lament and burst of wrath, and followed tu che

We

porte/

by

of Ruggiero [read: Rinaldo] which will together with the replies but Monte This composition is not preserved, probably not displease." treated third the of in book, verdi had once before, parts of madrigals Combattithe have "I continued: he Then scene. Armida this composed

mento
over a

di Tancredi
little

con Clorinda, and have

now

thoroughly thought

beautiful and (operina) of Giulio Strozzi, a very curious one; it comprises about 400 verses and has the title Lie on finta are a thousand ridiculous ideas, ending pazza inamorata d'Aminta; there

work

with the marriage, done with a beautiful art of intrigue, very appropri ate for episodes." Monteverdi thinks of contrasts and complications 13 He succeeded in that would lend themselves to his style of music.
later he sent the libretto whetting Striggio's appetite; for a few days not text was the yet set to music, neither upon request and added that the author had on or been had it ever stage, for performed printed as soon as it was finished. him to the libretto directly brought Never before had Monteverdi shown such enthusiasm; he went on
if to praise the qualities of the text for which he would compose music the Duke gave an order: The libretto has highly emotional parts

the beauty of its (amoratissimi componimenti) and is distinguished by "It is true the well verse and by the invention and the development as a singer who to is very varied and must be given only part of Licori with as woman, lively gestures would be able to act now as man, now
,

and extreme passions; for the imitation of feigned madness must always
18

Letter

No.

89, ibid n p. 250.

310

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

involve a momentary situation only, not one in the past or in the future. The imitation must rest upon the single word, not upon the meaning of
the whole sentence; if the text mentions 'war,' it must be imitated; if the imitation must be applied to it; if 'death,' it has to be imitated 'peace,' and since the transformations and imitations follow one and so
forth;

another with great rapidity and have the main share in arousing the comic effect and sympathy, it will be necessary for the singer to omit imitation other than the momentary one which the word suggests.

any
I

I believe that

know for

certain that the

with greater

will be most excellent. But Signorina Margherita [Basile] work will cost me great pains to bring out effect my inner feelings (per mostrar di piu effetto del mio
libretto

interno afietto) ."

Monteverdi goes on to speak of a

by

Rinuccini, the Narciso,

had sent to Striggio to get his friend's opinion on it. still he was when alive, received the libretto from Rinuccini himself,

which he has

He

and the poet had been very anxious to see his Narciso composed by Monteverdi. Yet he has been thinking about it, and, in his opinion, the Narciso does not have the power which he could wish. There are also
too
the nymphs and too many tenors for the shep soprani for be too little variety, and the end is too tragic would there that so herds, and gloomy. 14 Here again Monteverdi demonstrates the keen judgment with which he considers texts. It may be added that the Narciso was

many

not composed.

The enthusiastic judgment on La finta pazza Licori, on the other hand, caused Monteverdi to make a remarkable statement, which reveals his depth of feeling. He speaks of the inner affection that enters into
his

musical composition.

The human

passions, the affections

which he

characterizes in his work, are always those of all men. In his work he measures the depth and essence of these passions, of his own human
capacities,

to respond to the nature of

of his experience and affection; these capacities enable him human passions where others hear nothing

He speaks of the thorough mental preparation mente) that precedes composition and involves the of imitation, whereby he sounds out both the ob object and method and in order to discover the appropriate form himself, jective passion
or remain insensitive.
(assai digesto in

with which to respond to the object. Monteverdi's mind was occupied for a long time with

this

mental

exploration of the material of La finta pazza Licori. All the letters of May, June, and July discussed the subject from various angles, and he
14

Letter

No.

90, ibid.) pp,

252^

THE ART OF REPRESENTATION

which he thought necessary.

311

was always concerned with the problems of imitation. He got the certain changes author, Strozzi, to come to Venice to go over with him
an arrangement of five acts instead of the original three, and he was very pleased with Strozzi's in following all his ideas. At last he was able to send the graciousness out that in first act to Striggio in Mantua on July 10, 1627, pointing the from different each a other, and that every act there would be ballo, 15 he On bizarre. finally dispatched September 10, 1627, they would be the remainder of the score to Mantua. And that is the end of the story! hear nothing of a performance, and the music is lost. Many of Monteverdi's dramatic works were lost, but this is the most to be re

He requested

We

for La finta pazza Licori was his only comic opera and the gretted, first in the history of music. he wrote Striggio that the score of La finta pazza Licori was

When
its

on

way

to Mantua, Monteverdi mentioned that he

in dramatic music.

Bentivoglio compositions him to compose the music for the festivities at the wedding of Odoardo Farnese of Parma and Margherita de' Medici, which was arranged for 1628. Monteverdi agreed, and Bentivoglio enthusiastically reported to the Duchess of Parma that his delight at the commission was inde and the for Monteverdi was "the most affable
scribable;

The Marchese

had started new had asked

gentleman
16

we now have." Luigi Inghirami, in his profession greatest artist on these to festivities, praised Monteverdi in equal who was report in Italy." was he that terms, saying "today the greatest musician The commission involved full responsibility for all the musical per

whom

formances

the as well as the composition of various large works. One of di intermezzi that Monteverdi composed for the occasion, Gli Amori un mentioned in a letter dated is Diana et

cTEndhmone,

specifically

mistakably September

10, 1617.

Because of the date,

this intermezzo,

which was described

contacts Monteverdi

as

is supposed the date of the letter was changed to 1627 by Malipiero, But marriage. 17 According to Monte and undoubtedly the emendation is correct. di Diana e di EndiAmori Gli of the verdi's own

divided into four scenes, has been related to to have made with Parma before the

description

subject

mione was the wrath and discord between Venus and Diana, the
18
i

re-

Letter

No.

97, ibid., p. 263.

.

... , , T Vogel, op. cit., p. 3 8 5> n 4TT in i? See Frank Walker, "Verdi & Francesco Florimo: Some Unpublished Letters, as authentic.) date the 1617 Vol. 26 (1945), pp. aoiff. (Walker here accepts con Walker now agrees with Malipiero on 1627; see F. Walker, "Correspondence in M&L, Vol. 29 (1948), p. 433. Monteverdi Letter," a cerning

M&L

I2

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

the by Pluton, and

establishment of order and calm

love affair

Diana and Endimione. Monteverdi was interested

between the subject be

involved five inter cause of the contrasts of affections. The composition Amnta of Ascanio Pii, the "comedy" being the mezzi on texts

by

Torquato Tasso.

to Parma to begin the composi In October, 1627, Monteverdi went the wedding was not celebrated tion and study of the works, though have only two description of the October. until the re one by Marcello Buttigli and one an unofficial wedding late as as 18 were The intermezzi performed port by Luigi Inghirami. and scenes the described subjects December 13, 1628, and Inghirami that the compositions were but had little more to say of the music than voices and instruments, "marvelous," "divine," and "of heavenly and soul of the whole." the was music "the spirit though he adds that from Piacenza instrumentalists the to came wedding: Many musicians the celebrated was whom and Rome Modena, from among and singers Loreto Vittori. A second major work by Monteverdi was performed a week later the torneo, Mer curio e Mane, in the beautiful Teatro Farnese. This was work of more than a thousand verses. Achillini, a
festivities,
'

Mowing

We

lengthy by Claudio The torneo gave Monteverdi trouble,

as

was always the case where a

affections. The text of text did not present contrasting, well-defined no "variations of the had it from music," the torneo was "far removed the music and some variety into affections"; so Monteverdi brought 19 Settimia as Caccini, of The Aurora, for the best. sung by

hoped

part

aroused great enthusiasm in the audience. In a letter of December, 1627, and again in one of February, 1628, It Monteverdi mentions his Armda as a work that has been completed. was urgently requested by Duke Vincenzo II, who might have heard it to his liking. Monteverdi or before, since the composition was much dered the work to be copied and then apparently forgot about it, for when he was in Parma, he had to write Striggio that the Armida was
in the hands of in

Count Mocenigo.
refer to

What Armida

did Monteverdi have

mind? Does he

the composition on

Tasso's lines,

"O
la

tu che
prima, e

See Marcello Buttigli, Descrittione dell'apparato fatto per honor&re

Margherita Naziowle, VII (Florence, 1885; issues February, April, May). 19 Letter No. ed. Malipiero, Claudio Monte114, dated Parma, February 4, i6z8;
<

verdt, p. 287.

THE ART OF REPRESENTATION

We
his letter.

313

porte," that he composed in 1627 at the time he started La finta pazza are convinced it is this scene to which Monteverdi refers in Licori?
Ill fate attended these dramatic works of Monteverdi. All are lost, and nothing remains from all these festivities except some scanty re ports. There is one more severe loss to record. In 1630 the two families whose special friendship and admiration he enjoyed, the Mocemghi and Giustiniani, intermarried. The wedding of Giustiniana Mocenigo and Lorenzo Giustiniani took place in the palace of Count Girolamo Mocenigo, where six years before the Combattimento had been pro

duced.

The

author of La finta pazza Licori, Giulio Strozzi, -was invited

entitled Proserpina Rapita, Anatopismo del honorato di musica dal Sig. Claudio Monteverde. The performance of this music drama equaled in splendor those of the reigning princes for whom Monteverdi had worked. The ballet master was Girolamo Scolari, and the chief engineer, the "ingegnoso signore Giuseppe Schioppi." The Venetian nobility presented the music drama in its entirety long before the first public opera house was opened, but Monteverdi's share in this achievement can only be gleaned from
Sig. Giulio Strozzi,

to write the text

which was

fragmentary records.

CHAPTER
SIXTEEN

The Composer

at St.

Mark's

AS MAESTRO di cappelh of St. Mark's, Monteverdi was in a ./^position of absolute musical authority over about thirty singers and twenty instrumentalists, and though they were occasionally un ruly, and the maestro had to intervene as a peacemaker, the relations between the musicians and Monteverdi were generally of the best. They admired him as a great artist, and a good many of them became his disciples. Since the rehearsals and technical preparations of the performances were duties of the vice maestro, the chief function of the maestro was to compose music for the services. Monteverdi pub lished a selection of these sacred compositions in his Selva Morale e Spirituale, with a dedication to "Sacra Cesarea Maesta dell'Imperatrice Eleonora Gonzaga," dated May i, 1641. After the composer's death, Alessandro Vincenti made a selection which he published in 1650 under the title Messa a quattro Voci et Salmi, and some twenty addi
tional religious compositions appeared in anthologies for which Monte verdi was not responsible. In the Selva Morale, there are twenty-nine compositions, besides the parody Pianto della Madonna, a complete

substitute compositions, and a Gloria. In the collection of 1650 there are fourteen compositions and a complete Mass. Alto gether, two complete Masses and a Gloria, and sixty-four compositions 'of varied religious character represent Monteverdi's creative contribu

Mass with three

tions to the music of the service.

this

output

many

Spread over a period of thirty years, not voluminous, though we must take it for granted that works are lost. Of the loss of at least three major cycles, we have
is

definite

knowledge, in addition to the

loss of all the

motets or cantatas

that were written for the religious

ceremony of the Wedding of Venice

THE COMPOSER AT
to the Sea

ST.

MARK

'

315

on the Feast of Ascension.

When we

consider that the

music was an inescapable obligation on which composition of sacred the composer's position depended, we must find the volume of his sacred work relatively small He was not required, of course, to provide
original compositions

for

all

the liturgies of the year for

which music

was used. As was the custom, he augmented the musical repertory with works of other composers. Especially in the less solemn liturgies, the church was beginning to use works of the sixteenth century; and Venetian musicians who held secondary positions at St. Mark's also
contributed music for the services.

Even

so, it

is

surprising that
is

Monte

verdi did not produce far preserved. liturgical For the high feasts of the year, special solemnities were prescribed, and the demands on the composer were particularly great. Christmas, Week, Easter, the Feast of St. Mark, Pentecost, the Feasts of the

more

music than

Holy Holy Cross and

the Ascension all were occasions on which the maestro di cappella was expected to devote himself to the services. feasts of saints favored by the Venetians were celebrated in Special their favorite churches, and these also called for occasional contribu
tions

know of at so great that his compositions were much in demand. than St. other churches in music to least two contributions he made of S. nuns the for other the in Salvatore 1620, Mark's: one to San
was not necessarily a liturgical composition, al to it as "certa musica ecclesiastica." The referred though Monteverdi he offered to the Mantuan court, one for the
Lorenzo.

by Monteverdi. These were not obligatory,

but his reputation was

We

The

latter

religious compositions

Duchess and one for the Duke, were in all likelihood works that had been composed for Venetian services. In 1621 Monteverdi offered a and in 1627 he Mass, which he was sure would delight the Duchess; and vespers. Mass a whether the Duke would like to have inquired in been Venice, and These works probably had already performed them. of use further Monteverdi wanted to make Monteverdi's attitude toward his sacred music was rather peculiar.
References to religious music are not infrequent in his

letters, espe the on was duties his of when th^pressure great feasts of heavy cially the year, but while in discussions of his profane compositions he is often expansive, interested in details of form and expression, and at hand, his religious music is men wholly absorbed by the project to indicate the business (the affari) that went with his tioned

only

position:

"We

have
is

busy"; "Easter

had Holy Week, and I have been terribly and that means much business"; "Durapproaching,
just

316

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

and so on. Not

ing the Christmas holy days I am wholly occupied," character of a work or to his once is there a reference to the stylistic an expression of interest in a composition. artistic intentions, nor even is almost entirely His letter of April 21, 1618, to Alessandro Striggio, because of Andromeda to an apology for not having sent the music santi" (Holy Week) his duties: firstthere were the "giorni ^Easter; when the Most was Cross the of approaching, Feast the then Holy a Mass it will be my duty to prepare Holy Blood will be displayed and Most the all since whole day long day, oonceruto and motets for the bt. Mark s. of middle the in altar an on Holy Blood will be shown will be a Mass in the stile conThis time Monteverdi mentions that it interest in the display than in more shows certato but his description for the solemn Mass and ves the music; he adds that he has to arrange 1
pers

that day in St. Mark s. on the Day of Ascension, always sung on in his attitude, as Monteverdi is sometimes even more outspoken his profane music if he where he says he would proceed faster with

or applies the phrase serdid not have to compose ecclesiastic music, that it was merely a vitio de la musica" to religious music, implying Mark's St. at (1620). In January, burden (162 7), or refers to his labors removed me some has service ecclesiastical writes that
in a similar mood he what from the species of theatrical music," and distracted him, of me" distracted has Mark's St. "The service at says, leaves no doubt Monteverdi music. dramatic profane course, from his as a duty and a burden. taken be to "servitio" literally that he means of the This is the more surprising, since he is genuinely appreciative be totally and honors he received for his "servitio." It would

1620, he

"my

advantages to religion or, erroneous were we to conclude that he was indifferent So far as we all. at his religion indeed, to conclude anything about

and this conflict be know, he was unquestionably a religious man, but ex a not was religious problem, tween profane and sacred music was artist an as mission his task an artistic one. His true

clusively outside that in the sphere of profane and dramatic music, and anything was a dis art his serve not did Whatever profane was an interference.
it with dismay. His church traction, an obstacle, and he looked upon his secular official his of duties the fulfill to written position; music was

music was an inner,

1

artistic necessity.

No. 30; ed. Malipiero, Claudia Monteverdi, p. 177. ^ in his This aspect of Monteverdi's religious music and of the related passages detailed investigation of Bettina Lupo letters has been entirely overlooked. Even the in Mwica, does not discuss the matter; see her essay "Sacre monodie monteverdiane,"
Letter
2

II

(Florence, 1943), 5 iff.

THE COMPOSER AT
Monteverdi's religious

ST.

MARK

'

317

work

at

Venice includes the ordinary of the

Mass and,

in the

Magnificat, of these works belong to a certain part of the officium, to a limited section of the services. His musical activities were severely restricted
in the liturgy.

few

form of motets, mostly psalm compositions, the set of hymns. Most antiphons, a litany, and a small

Only on prominent feast

days,

when the church calendar

employment not result from any opposition to the use of art in the liturgy, but rather from a certain neglect or indifference. Monteverdi had singled out the Mass and vespers for his province, even during his Mantuan
choice remained the same in Venice. In his letters period, and his Monteverdi mentions his work in sacred music only in connection

could elaborate artistic prescribed solemnity for the Mass and vespers, the full compositions be justified. The Mass on Sundays did not admit of his artistic resources. This long-established practice did

with the high feasts, never in relation to the regular Sunday services. Obviously he was not expected to provide new compositions for them; had this been the case, he would have had reason to complain of his
"servitio"

more frequently! The music

for the

Sunday

services

was of

a simple character, without full instrumental apparatus, a purely choral, a cappella performance. For the a cappella form, the composer natu chose a choral polyphony in harmony with the sixteenth-century
rally
style; in
tal

polyphony

such works, the otherwise abandoned, antiquated contrapun made its reappearance. Even the inclusion of instruments

in a religious composition did not necessarily imply the use of all the available apparatus. The combination of a few instruments with a few
soloistic voices
as

was thought to be

we know from
feasts.

sufficiently expressive of solemnity, of musical performances at the services descriptions

soloistic singers

of special
in the

Monteverdi occasionally mentioned

Mark's.

whom he tested for St.

They would

be used in works written

modern idiom, and thus, the modern style was also associated some with degree of liturgical solemnity. Monteverdi's religious work was in three distinct styles: the a cap

monody pella composition with the organ as basso continue, characteristics of the stile recitativo, and the stile concertato in all

the

with
its

numerous varieties. The monody in stile recitativo was not favored, and was hardly ever presented in its pure form. The Pianto della

Madonna
St.

is

the best example of a dramatic

is

but the Pianto

parody. Through

its

monody in religious music; new Latin text, dedicated to

a religious connotation, but there is no place in the liturgies of the St. Mary feasts to which one would dare assign it.

Mary,

it

takes

on

318
There
is

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

monody,

one other composition in which Monteverdi approached the a Salve regina a voce soh, composed in 1620, recitation of the
or shortly thereafter, since it made its first and only appearance in the 3 which Simonetti published in i625. As anthology of religious music an antiphon, its place is in the liturgy of the compline, and it must have been used in that service. Stylistically, it does not present monody in arioso with a typical its pure form. Its beginning is clearly that of an When the actual prayers start "Ad te clamamus" melodic
phrasing.

with increased emotional

ing with the dramatic, passionate

stile recitative* is used, in keep intensity, the connotations of that style. The ex

clamamus" is derived from a passage of clamatory phrase at "Ad te chant melody which Hermannus Contractus composed; there are a few additional melodic lines that sound as if Monteverdi had the chant free himself from it. Also characteristic in mind and could not
entirely

of the dramatic
cal devices.

monody is the

For the

"Ad te suspiramus, gementes uses a chromatically descending bass, which draws Monteverdi valle," the voice into its descent. This had been his way of expressing dramatic whose content was one of sorrow, pain, and lamentation, and
journey,

emotional exploitation of certain techni words of man's misery on his earthly plaintive et flentes in hac lacrimarum

the musical device had thereby obtained a distinct affection. The coloratura is also used in association with the affection: the trill ex
pressive

passages

of the sighs of lament, "suspiramus," and the imploration,

4

"O

Regina."

two complete Masses, both composed in the old a Morale e Spirituale of 1640one cappella style, published in the Seha the in other the collection, Messa a quattro voci et 41, posthumously 5 at which The time of i650. Salmi, they were composed cannot be
There
are but
established, since this style

two Masses

is no longer chronologically fixed. Are these the works Monteverdi mentioned in his letters? Three

times he referred to definite Mass compositions, two of them appar third a composition that was still to be ently completed works, the written for a definite occasion, the Feast of the Holy Cross, in 1618.

Since Monteverdi speaks of the "coming Thursday" the letter dated April 2 1 it must be the Feast of the Inventio S. Crucis, May
Malipiero, Opere,
*

is

3.

XVI, 4755. Monteverdi uses "O Regina" in place of "exsules, filii Hevae." With the exception of repetitions and a different position of "Ostende," there is no further change of the
text.

Malipiero, Opere, XV, 59*?. and XVI, introduction by Charles van den Borren.
8

iff.;

the latter also edited with an excellent

THE COMPOSER AT

ST.

MARK'S

319

but these According to him, the feast required a "messa concertata," messa "una as He concertato. stile in the not are two Masses designated
solenne in musica" a Mass composition that he offered in 1621 to the Duchess of Mantua. If the a cappella Mass was indeed exclusively used for services without any particular liturgical solemnity, the solemn Mass of 162 1 must have been in the modern concerted style. And when
to Alessandro Striggio) to in writing in 1627 to Mantua (probably the Duke had any need for the vespers and a Mass, whether quire Monteverdi expressly pointed out that he had compositions in the taste of the Duke, without naming the style. But we can surmise that the Duke was closer to the modern style than to the old "gusto" of the Thus, none of the Masses Monteverdi mentions in his

letters

polyphony. can actually be linked to the two works that exist. There are other unanswerable problems of general interest in this connection. If the a cappella Mass was used for ordinary Sundays, why did Monteverdi select this work for publication in full and choose the selection of 1650 he is, only a fragment of the solemn Mass? For of course, not responsible; yet the choice is surprising when we con
sider that the Venetians

were

enthusiastic over

works that were written

for solemn occasions in the profuse, luxurious modern style. Were the two Masses used for solemn occasions? That is possible, but not con
shall point to a unique feature in the Mass of 1641 in its of "solemnity." support In a totally different style is the Gloria & 7 voci concertata con due violini et quattro viole da brazzo overo 4 Tromboni, in which, accord the trombones can be left out if circumstances do ing to instructions, not allow their use. 6 The dating of this work involves difficulties of a this Gloria can be part of any of the different kind. In the first

clusive,

and we

place,

Masses Monteverdi speaks about in 1618, 1621, and 1627. But there is another occasion for which an extraordinary solemnity of the Mass is recorded. In 1630 Venice was afflicted by the plague, whose horrors
till late in 1631. Since the epidemic wrought great havoc among the Venetians, it is understandable that the Doge, Francesco Erizzo, ordered a general thanksgiving in St. Mark's when it was over, and on November 28, 1631, this service took place. It has been described by

lasted

Antonius de Episcopis, who also wrote some laudatory poems in dedi cation to Monteverdi: "There was sung the most solemn Mass, com the Maestro di Cappella, the glory of posed by Claudio Monteverdi, in Gloria and Credo the voices were joined by trombones our
century;
6

Selva Morale,

ibid,,

XV,

117.

320

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

exquisite

which produced an

T and marvelous harmony." This descrip tion exactly fits the Gloria which Monteverdi selected for his Selva of stylistic technique Morale, and since it has the beauty and maturity

that distinguish the late compositions of Monteverdi, we may believe that it belongs to the Mass he composed for the thanksgiving of 163 1. that stirred its hearers there is only a record, Of a similar

composition
calls

but

its

importance

Cosimo

II de' Medici, the

for a discussion. In 1621, on the death of Grand Duke of Tuscany, the colony of

Florentines residing in Venice, desirous of an appropriate and most Monteverdi to write a Requiem. It solemn commemoration,

charged

was sung in SS. Giovanni e Paolo on May 25, 162 1, and its performance was vividly reported by Giulio Strozzi, with whom Monteverdi col 8 laborated. "The music of the Mass and the responsories [apparently
the responsory Libera ?ne, to be sung after the Mass] have been com for the occasion by Claudio Monteverdi, whose and

performed posed famous name makes the quality of the work best understandable; in these compositions he has devotedly expressed a particular affection, which carrying away our princes with enthusiasm made them honor The ceremonies began with a plaintive instrumental him for his
genius.

which moved the listeners to tears; it imitated the ancient discovered. After the sinfonia, Don mixolydian mode which Sappho Francesco Monteverdi, son of Claudio, sang most delicately these words of sorrow: 'O vos omnes attendite et videte dolorem nostrum Introit [Requiem aeterncm dona eis], Requiem aeternam.' The was most attentively listened to the sinfonia, interrupted by
sinfonia
. .

frequently by the assembly,

...

it

Kyrie was composed by

a deep impression upon them. The Gio. Battista Grille, the organist at St. Mark's,

made

while the Gradual and Tractus were by D. Francesco Usper. The Dies irae and the delicate De profundis were again compositions by
Claudio; the
a dialogue between souls in purgatory were profoundly admired for their novelty visiting angels; they Domne Jesu, the offertory, was composed by exquisiteness." the Mass were by Monteverdi. whereas the Grillo, responsories after The loss of the extraordinary music of this Requiem Mass is deeply
latter, as it

were,

and and

regrettable.

We can imagine how Monteverdi,

all,

the greac dramatist in

music,

would have responded to such stirring

the Dies

subjects as

De profundis,

Libera me, Domine, and above

i

irae.

Vogel, VfMW, m, p. 393, n. 3. mo D. Cosimo 77. Quarto Esequie fatte in Venetia dalla Natione Fiorentina al Ser. Gran Duca di Tocana, il di 25 di Maggio 1621 (Venice, 1621). Vogel, op. cit., pp. 376^

10

The Tomb

of Monteverdi, Santa Maria dei Frari, Venice

THE COMPOSER AT

ST.

MARK

'

32!

The a cappella style in the two Masses testifies to Monteverdi's with his thorough knowledge of the old art of polyphony. Compared with is this art other works, however, nothing of the impersonal, individualistic expression which Monteverdi made the basis powerful as a contrapuntist of of his modern music. That he handled the
style a sign of personal mastery, and the complete change from one style to the other, with full perfection in each, is a startling achievement. The Mass of 1641 presents a unique arrangement of the

the

first

order

is

sitions in a

Credo. For three of the verses Monteverdi provided substitute compo etiam pro wholly different style; the verses are "Crucifixus

"Et resurrexit tertia die," and "Et iterum venturus est." These the verses, and the verse "Homo factus est," had in the past challenged wrote and out skill of many musicians. Monteverdi singled them
nobis,"
in stile concertato to replace the versions in a capspecial compositions is employed to give the verses fresh pella style. The modern idiom their distinction and express meaning in a new individualistic form.

"Crucifixus," for four solo voices,

is

based on a motif in chromatic

descent that Monteverdi used as a symbolic expression of pain; resurrexit," for two soprani and two violins with basso continue,

"Et
is

in

the typical style of a trio cantata; "Et iterum" for two contralti and bass is in the highly figurative concerted style, with an accompaniment of four trombones, or viole da braccio, surely to indicate the instru 9 ments that shall sound on the day of the Last Judgment.

Although Monteverdi designated

cappella, they are not
in
all

in the old style.

several other compositions as a Nearest to it is the Magnificat

10 and Psalm 115, Credidi propter genere da Cappella, for four voices, chorus. 11 The latter has quod locutus sum, for eight voices in double recitation of the unit a purely chordal structure, being the half note. from the sixteenthremoved far too not are Its structure and style

The psalm composition belongs liturgically to the ves the feria secunda, doubtless written for a feast that fell on a of pers is Memento Monday. Also for the vespers (feria quarta, Wednesday) 12 Domine David, with a double chorus of eight voices. Although it has voices, the unit of recitation is here the a chordal faburden for
century form.

many

note. This acceleration brings the style closer to the concertato, used in some which, with its typical figurative material, is actually

quarter
9

Malipiero, Opere,

XV,

178, 182, 187.

10 11

/W., XV,
Ibid.,
Ibid.,

703.
,

12

XV, 544. XV, 567. The

verse of the psalm in the edition of Malipiero should be

corrected.

322
verses.

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

Two more vespers

be grouped in the a capcompositions may ne in furore (Psalm 6), sung in the compline fella section: Domine of which there are only three verses in the publication (feria secunda), Laudate of motets which Bianchi brought out in 1620; and Psalm 1 12,
pueri, for the Sunday vespers. Bianchi's selections pose an interesting question. They are Christe 13 The first is the for five, and Adoramus, for six voices. adoramus
te,

te Christe which is sung in the sext of responsorium breve Adoramus Crucis. Monteverdi's Adoramus has Sanctae Inventione the Feast in

the same text as the responsory, except that "Quia per sanguinem tuum stands in place of "Quia per Sanctam pretiosum redemisti mundum" Crucem tuam redemisti mundum." Monteverdi wrote in the letter he from which we have that, besides the "messa concertata,"

quoted had to compose motets for the whole day of the feast "Santa Croce" on the "coming Thursday when the Most Holy Blood was displayed." Since ordinarily he did not compose for any liturgies other than those of the vespers, since he made the responsory of the sext a motet, and since he said he had to have compositions for the whole day, it seems certain that both Christe adoramus te and Adoramus were composed
in

further interesting thesis worthy on "per Sanctam Crucem," the Christe in a motif rising chromaticism adoramus te is in style and form comparable to the substitute Crucifixus.
1

6 1 8.

is

at least

of mention.

With

is correct, the Crucifixus in concerted style would also and that date could then hold for the whole Mass. The to 1618, belong concertato in Crucifixus would therefore have a particular link to the

If this thesis

Holy Cross; because of the solemnity of the feast the two other substitute sections were offered, and the whole still be the "messa concertata" mentioned in the letter. Mass
Feast of the Invention of the

might

In the sacred works Monteverdi composed for Venice the stile con certato prevailed; in fact, all the remaining compositions are examples of it. The forms are truly comprehensive, as if Monteverdi tried to sacred music. It is nearly show variety of the style in

every possible different lights, for always the same subject that appears in so many Monteverdi chose the same set of psalms of the vespers. There are the Psalm 109, Lixit Dominus, Psalm no, Confitebor tibi, Psalm in, Beatus vir, Psalm 112, Laudate pueri, all for the vespers on Sunday; furthermore Psalm 121, Laetatus sum, Psalm 126, Nisi Dominus, Psalm
97, Cantate

Domino, Psalm
is

16,

Laudate Dominum, Psalm 147, Lauda

antiphon of the compline Salve

Jerusalem; and there

Ibid.,

the St.

Mary

XVI,

428, 439.

THE COMPOSER AT
O

ST.

MARK

'

323

the texts that recur continually in two or more regina. Those are in stile concertato. In addition, there are a few single each renderings,

quam pulchra, Ego dormio, compositions, such as Ego flos campl, beatae viae, a motet based on passages of the Song of Solomon, and for St. Rochus, a favorite saint of the Venetians, in whose honor a there is only one version of church had been built.

special

Although

these motets, each

large
tral

organized according to the stile results from the varied make-up of the medium. There is a variety with or without orches with soloistic choral
is

concertato. Great

participation, group and accompaniment, yet always provided with the basso continuo There and rhythm. always with the concerted conception of melody or for are, furthermore, the pure solo compositions, for one voice only
as

many

as six; all are soloistic,

and

all

of

them maintain the concertato

the leading voice and the accompaniment, for principle by contrasting which the basso continuo and an orchestral group are used.
in 1610, Compared with the religious works Monteverdi published the Venetian compositions show a more determined trend toward he no longer recognized any secularizing sacred music. Actually, limitations other than those of pure art. He treated religious texts
his profane music; in both spheres exactly as he treated the texts for

he was the same ardent interpreter of the affections conveyed by the text. In 1 6 10 he was still working with the objectivity of liturgical
music, and used such fixed factors as the cantus firmus or the psalm tone as a counterweight to prevent the artistic imagination from stray but the new sacred works in the stile ing into complete individualism, balance and avoid the conflict be a with such concertato dispense tradition in music. The cantus tween individualism and
liturgical

for the a cappella firmus has disappeared from the compositions except the artistic proce to influence allowed chant is still the where Masses; the dure, it occurs only as a vague impression upon the melody. Also tone has lost out to the passion of artistic interpretation, though

psalm

it

such

has not been entirely discarded. There are some psalm compositions, 14 or Psalm 147, as Psalm 109, Dixit Dominus (the second),

which give a place to the psalm tone in some of Lauda Jerusalem the verses. But an enormous change has taken place, which must cer the most important stylistic aspect of the com tainly be regarded as the first place, no more is left of the psalm tone than the In positions. maintenance of the reciting tone for a phrase or two. While Monte.,

XV,2 4

324

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

is

verdi in the works of 1610 faithfully adhered to the psalm tone as of the recitation though it were a cantus firmus, the monotony typical

tone to a line. nothing but a rapid repetition of one More important, however, is a discovery that psalmody lends itself He applied to psalm composition the perfectly to the stile concitato. in his madrigals and employed in the Combatstyle he had developed a timento in programmatic manner. The recitation was based on the unit of the eighth note, sometimes even of the sixteenth note.
of psalms

now

rhythmic

result was an extraordinary rapidity of declamation, which con forms to certain qualities of the stile concitato. Even in phrases where there is a recitation on one tone, the impression is never one of recita monotony, but of agitation. This is no longer an unemotional the "ex which is it tion; possesses declamatory language,

The

passionate,

citement" of the

stile

concitato.

When,

for instance, Monteverdi in

the doxology of his second Laudate Dominum omnes gentes presents vehement rhythms in the declamation of "Gloria, gloria, gloria, gloria,
gloria Patri, gloria Patri,"

form. 16 In the

first

he gives the stile concitato in its purest version of the same psalm, when he suddenly in

excited declamation in order to conform to terrupts the rapid, with a slowly descending chromatic line, he is eius" "misericordia

ever before. The dramatizing the psalmody to a greater degree than vir (Psalm in), especially in its first version, Beatus of composition unmistakably shows that Monteverdi has turned the psalmodic recita
tion into the motifs of the
also for the
stile

concitato.

The

Gloria concertata

is

most part governed by the

excited, forceful

rhythms and

melodies of the stile concitato; here again, the agitation is interrupted to give the meaning of "Pax," and once more to express thanksgiving, "Gratias agimus tibi." In this work Monteverdi truly exhausted every
to achieve an appropriate, but highly individualistic interpretation of the text. In it he presented the drama of affections through contrasts and ever changing tone colors, and most ingeniously
stylistic possibility

held together the fluctuating variations by a firm bass that has the persistency of a basso ostinato. It is probably the greatest composition
of the kind that the seventeenth century produced. Monteverdi also radically applied to sacred music structural tech

niques developed in secular music. The stereotyped basses occur in variably, often in a repetitive manner, so that the numerous varieties of textual interpretations in the extensive psalm compositions are
unified

by

the stability of the bass.

Types of

the basso ostinato are

THE COMPOSER AT

ST.

MARK

325

therefore not infrequent; but none is as rigid and powerful as the basso ostinato of the tones G-g-c-d used, with a deviation in a small pas ' 1 1 sage, throughout the lengthy psalm composition Laetatus sum.' This

comparable to the rigid basso ostinato structure which is used a hundred measures in the Zefiro torna of the Scherzi Musicali. In every respect, Monteverdi secularized religious composi tion: he applied repetitive structures of sectional songs even to the psalm; he took the "echo" aria from the drama for use in his Audi 18 he simplified the concerted style through songlike char Coelum; acteristics in the solo duet, as in another Salve regina; 19 he even used
bass
is

for

more than

for the

the secular material of his madrigal Chiome d'oro, published in 1619, first version of the psalm Eeatus vir. highly interesting secularization can be seen in the small group of hymns. Monteverdi

changed the strophic hymn to a strophic song of secular origin. He drops the chant melody here, too, and writes a simple aria with an ac companiment of two violins, which also play their ritornelli between the strophes. He assigns all the other hymns in the same meter to the same model. In addition, he gives the solo duet form with ritornelli as the most modern aspect of such an adaptation. The influence of the Scherzi musicali (1607) suggests itself 20
.

music by way of a profane style, this unlimited individualism, the end of religious music? In terms of the
Is this

secularization of sacred

undoubtedly the case. On the other hand, time in modern history made an individual interpretation of religious texts possible; in other words, he established the exegesis of the traditional texts as an individual experience in terms of art. Schiitz and Bach were Monteverdi's heirs. Through the func tions of interpretation, the musical form can have incomparable pro fundities of religious expression. But Monteverdi, who was first and last an artist, started thereby a new struggle between art and liturgy.
liturgical tradition,

such

is

Monteverdi

for the

first

<*.,

XVI,

23 iff.
7 2 4ff.

is
*9

ibid.,
Ibid.,

20

Ibid.,

XV, XV, XV,

7 3 6ff.

6228,

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Fulfillment of Madrigalesque Composition

madrigalesque work of Monteverdi's old age is chiefly conrained in three collections: the Scherzi, and the eighth and the posthumous ninth books of madrigals. The Scherzi Musicali Cioe Arie,

& Madrigali in
edited

stile recitative,

by Bartholomeo Magni and

con una Ciaccona A /. e 2. voci were published in Venice in 1632. Just

he had entrusted the previous collection of scherzi to his brother Giulio Cesare, so Monteverdi took no part in the editing of this new volume. On the title page he is called "Reverendo," indicating that he
as

and had probably been ordained at new collection. It has been sug gested that there was a connection between the events of the plague and Monteverdi's decision to take orders. 1 Whatever the significance of this decision, it had no apparent influence on his art. In 1638 he pub lished his eighth book of madrigals, the Madrigali Guerrieri, Et Amorosi Con alcuni opuscoli in genere rappresentativo, che saranno
ecclesiastic

must have become an

the time

when Magni

published the

per brevi Episodii frd

i canti senza gesto. The last work that Monte verdi edited was the Selva Morale e Spirituale of 1640-41, the first part of which contained "spiritualized" madrigals, which may be included

among his madrigalesque work. After Monteverdi's death Alessandro Vincenti published the ninth book in 1 65 1, the Madrigali e Canzonette
a due, e tre, voci. This is not the first time that

He

Magni appears in Monteverdi's career. was a great admirer of the composer and spoke for many in his

was fortunate
i

dedicatory letter to the Scherzi, when he exclaimed that the century to have been so favored by Heaven as to be able to
Vogel,

VfMW,

III,

393.

326

M ADRIGALESQUE COMPOSITION

327

of such a man. Magni's selection gives the impression enjoy the genius of a rather disorderly gathering of works that were to be published of the famous composer. In view merely because they bore the name of the methodical way in which Monteverdi arranged his own publi for cations, we can take for granted that he was in no way responsible
there are only two strophic anthology. Of actual scherzi and a straightforward continue a basso songs, with simple melodies, of 1607, except that these two, the scherzi to organization, comparable Maledetto sia Vaspetto and Eri gia tutta mm? have no instrumental
this little

ritornelli.

remnants from songs are surely odd an influence on had exercised the scherzi 1607 on, an espe was Claudio whom Saracini, musicians, among contemporary close follower, who dedicated a lament Udite lagri?nose spirtito

These two

little

an

earlier period.

From

cially

Monteverdi. 8 Stylistically these two scherzi have nothing to do with

the problems of composition

which Monteverdi was trying to solve around 1630. Equally disorganized in its combination of various styles and phases of composition, the posthumous collection of 165 1 also con
tains

some remainders from the scherzi period, such as the canzonetta Quando dentro al tuo seno* There must have been quite a few such musicians little dance songs of native character which circulated among

but which Monteverdi did not regard as worthy of special publication. This seems to be proved by the inclusion of La mid Turca, or Si dolce e'
il

5 tormento, in Milanuzzi's anthology of i624Another type of composition in the Scherzi is the strophic song, which uses the same bass in all the strophes but with a varied melody

above. Quel sguardo sdegnosetto best represents this type, which, in Monteverdi's work, goes back to the first decade of the century. He it in Orfeo, and often used the structure with artistic license. presented or using fresh in the the of The

varying principle material for each, allowed the

fections of the text;

and we

strophes, to respond to the changing af have seen that Monteverdi always preferred

melody melody

renewal of musical material in relation to the text. Thus he transformed the melodies for the second and
a structure that permitted a continual

third strophes of Quel sguardo according to the needs of the text. It is, variation as one in which therefore, not so much a technique of melodic

the affections produce a variety of melodies. In Quel sguardo

2 s

Monte.

. Malipiero, Opere, X, 76, 80. GeSee also his Lamento delta Madonna. Cf. A. W, Ambros-H. Leichtentntt, schichte der Musik, IV (Leipzig, 1909), 8i6ff. Redlich, Claudio Monteverdi, p. 193.

*Opere, IX,
*/#<*., IX,

56.

328

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

melody for each strophe on the
basis,

verdi created the

and the phrases establish correspondences among melodic style had long before been achieved by him, and melodically the composition might be dated around 1620. There is, however, a more modern aspect to the rhythm, for which Monteverdi used the meter alia breve, making the half note the metrical unit; yet by triple itself this is not a safe criterion for dating the piece.

themselves.

of symmetry, Such a

Ecco di dolci raggi is also a strophic which Malipiero reproduced in song,

song. Magni's
his

version of the
6

edition,

is

incomplete,

another sign that the Scherzi are a haphazard collection. Ecco di dolci the fifth of which, lo che armato sin raggi actually has five strophes,
a hor, Magni-Malipiero give as separate composition.
7

G.

B. Camarella,
this
first

Venetian musician who worked under Monteverdi, published work in its proper form about 1633, in his Madrigali et Arie. The
a

four strophes are based on the same material, while the final strophe, lo che armato, has fresh material of its own. Such an arrangement is not extraordinary in a composition derived from the native song, which often responds to the text by presenting fresh material in one or more

not unusual, Mbnteverdi gave it an which shows the degree to which his mind was interesting variation, intent on artistic problems even in forms of minor importance. Ecco di dolci raggi is one of the best examples of a composition in which Monteverdi combined two entirely different types of declamation.
strophes.

Though

the structure

is

Both types are rapid and syllabic, the declamatory unit being the one type is derived from the canzonetta and incorporates eighth note; a songlike melody; the other comes from the stile recitativo. The first have the canzonetta declamation and end with an arioso four
strophes

melody; the
tivo,

first

part

which swings
is

of the last strophe, however, has the stile recitawith the directly into the canzonetta style, ending

refrain that

common to all the strophes. This

that

composition also has no

stylistic peculiarities

would

necessarily date the

work around

1630.

verOj
is

There is one strophic composition, however, Et e pur dunque which has the structural maturity of compositions of 1630. It

an extensive work that carries the strophic structure to cantata-like contrasts of instrument and voice. 8 proportions, employing

Ibid.,

X, 9 if. X, 8zff.

It

has seven strophes, not six as Prunieres, Claudia Monteverdi, p.

154, maintains.

MADRIGALESQUE COMPOSITION
The most important works
in this

329

somewhat confused collection are with il cor, both for two tenors Zefiro torna (Rinuccini) and Armato which basso continue* Armato il cor reappears in the eighth book,
ninth Monteverdi himself prepared, and Vincenti, the editor of the

on the other hand, book, also chose it for his collection. Zefiro torna, was never published by Monteverdi himself, though it reappears after
his

death in the ninth book. Apparently these two works had special two great musical minds of success; at all events, it is in them that the both the century Monteverdi and Schiitz met. Schiitz imitated in the Scherzi, sent works, but it is not known whether he found them while he to him after his return to Dresden, or saw them in manuscript was in Venice in 1628, in which case, they must have been completed

by that
so

date.
artistic ideas as

Heinrich Schiitz shared the same

much

because the younger

cause the
twenties,

German two came from the same spiritual stock. From the early Schiitz grew more and more restless in his position in Dresden.
and had

Monteverdi, not imitated the older Italian as be

He had already been in Venice to study under Giovanni Gabrieli, now he learned that since his departure decisive musical events

one he taken place there and that it was a different Venice from the to his prince had known the Venice of Monteverdi. He implored for hear and see he release him from his duties in Dresden, that might the novelties with which the musical world resounded, and he
himself

commissioned agents, ambassadors, and merchants who went to Italy he got his to bring back examples of the new music. At last, in 1628, that no unfortunate is It leave and went to Venice to see Monteverdi. extraor most two the of the meeting document survives to

picture of the century. Both had the same cast of mind, the musicians dinary as same power of understanding all matter of music, the same passion a had both and pro of the word in their compositions; interpreters do not know those who respond to their works. awes that fundity aware of Monte that the two actually met, but Heinrich Schiitz was

We

mind. Schiitz have heard must and studied Monteverdi's compositions thoroughly, the palaces in and Mark's St. at both of them in 1628 and 1629,
verdi's ingenuity, his sagacity, his

keenly penetrating

many

have learned of Monte of the Venetian patricians. At that time he may he chose Chiome d'oro which from of verdi's seventh book madrigals, return after the publihis on or then either it was for adaptation; and
*

6pere t IX,

9, 27.

330

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

Armato
il

cation of the Scherzi, that he chose Zefiro torna and

similar adaptations.

cor for

Based on Rinuccini's poem, not on Petrarch's which Monteverdi had

torna has fascinated historians as it attracted previously used, Zefiro Monteverdi's contemporaries. It is a brilliant work, less deep and mov the compositions of Monteverdi's last years, largely ing than most of because the poem, for the most part, has a light, charming lyricism in and expressed in scenic images. At the beginning of spired by nature and affection change, the or the poet's, lover's, speech, however, tone It was its brilliant -and form musical the them with and expression.
bass motif, musical structure that gained the work so much praise. two measures in length, is repeated fifty-six times in succession, and and is five more times toward the end. Zefiro torna is thus a ciacona,

so designated on the

title

and sweeping, persistent

is

melody

the passage, "fa danzar al the melodic motifs are suggested by the motifs of the text, yet the moves in free evolution over the steadily repeated bass, for

The over-all rhythm, page of the Scherzi governed by a dance pattern inspired by bel suon." In the composition as a whole,

Monteverdi develops the individual phrases so that one seems to grow out of the other with the continuity of a logical process. organically of the melody between two tenors stresses this con distribution The material is exchanged a technique in which the melodic tinuity by achievement The most is, however, the astonishing phrase by phrase. of a comprehensive musical logic with the in combination ingenious of the text. Throughout the composition, and almost
terpretation

word by word,
text. "L'aer,"

Tonde," "mormorando,"

procedure The logic is melody, and preclude any logical musical development. be can musical and there, however, explained without phrase every to the text. At his maturest and best, Monteverdi was always
regard
able to achieve this enigmatic unity. The sectional grouping of the ciacona
is

"ime e profonde," "raddoppian those words are the most realistic imaginable. One might expect that would seriously disturb the formal unity of the such a

the melodic phrases reflect the connotations of the "notte," "da monti e da valle," I'armonia" the melodic motifs for all

also influenced

by

the text.

With the

selve abbandonate expression of personal emotion, "Sol io per e sole" (I alone in the lonesome desert), Monteverdi breaks off the

to basso ostinato and, with a sudden harmonic shift (from major) , a new section in stile recitativo, most appropriate to the per begins sonal effusion of the lover. Here, in response to the affection of suffer-

G E

MADRIGALESQUE COMPOSITION
weeping.
his

331

the effect the expressiveness of the dissonance is exploited to give ing, With these dissonances Monteverdi startled of the lover's

through
radical

were sometimes criticized, contemporaries, and though they them that he revealed the depth of his humanity.
and
relentless,

it

was

On the surface, his use

of dissonances for expressive purposes seems

at times,
it is.

This technique owes some the marvelous and extraor with desire to startle thing to the baroque to weep with est" vis me flere, plorandum (If you wish me dinary. "Si

and

must lament) this verse of Horace was of central impor you, you a new interpre tance in the theories of baroque art, and had obtained the the stir not extraordinary do listener, means tation: if ordinary
and

The way in which verdi's dissonances are, they follow a musical logic. it is a deliberate that and is dissonances remarkable; he introduces same technique. of the occurrence the is method frequent proved by it The dissonance appears so often with the effect of surprise that if seems wanting in preparation; and preparation is, indeed, lacking, we are thinking in terms of harmony or chords. In many cases, Monte dissonance as the result of harmonic develop verdi does not
or otherwise dissonant "chord" is ments; a seventh, ninth, diminished, in its effect not the result of a succession of preceding "chords." Only melodic The lines, melodic. is cause is the dissonance harmonic; its
a way that at a certain often running close together, are led in such a form must dissonance, sometimes of juncture they anticipated point and since the in several succession; other at times, only one dissonance, all the more harsh or sounds dissonance the lines are so close together, takes two or three is this: the
startling.

startling

must be employed. But no matter

how

startling

Monte

produce

The procedure composer to melodic phrases, each of which is regarded as a complete entity; melodic a each phrase is provided with convey this completeness, toward the cadence the phrase follows advance its in that so cadence,
its

own

the cadences. the phrases must produce the dissonance within logic, not Monte is it of this procedure; Zefiro torna offers a good example The its for instructive clarity. verdi's boldest or harshest, but it is

logic.

Combined simultaneously according

to their inherent

melodic phrase
in

phrase,

is first brought other with the the follows tenor one the two voices, successively by one phrase where and each with which is raised repetition,

"Come vuol mia ventura hor piango"

ends and the other begins, a dissonant juncture appears. the melodic cadence the tenors sing the phrase simultaneously, and in
voices

Then

the

two

meet

in a dissonance:

332

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

IX,

Ex. 99

19

This technique is an example of the kind of unity that Monteverdi between a purely musical, but technical, device and the ex For it is always in conjunction with tension, passion, pressive purpose. and death that this poignant dissonance is used. suffering, melancholy
established

Armato tt cor, also for two tenors, is a brilliant example of the stile whose gradual and systematic development Monteverdi be While this style is associated with all the the in early twenties. gan it is most used with martial expressions in the war of arms
concitato
passions, and of love.

Monteverdi used

it

during the twenties with various af

of excitement.
directions:

fections, all

of which had in

common the highest degree

and toward

In the

stile

concitato he

was working in two

toward formu
the

the motif as adequately as possible, exploiting lating structural elements to express passionate excitement. In formulating with only chordal tones in the motif, Monteverdi used melodic

types

a fanfare-like arrangement; the motifs are all short and precise, and that accompany them. the the effect is

The

exploitation

plicated. Again in the musical structure,

strengthened by sharp rhythms of the structural function of the style was more com and again Monteverdi showed that a technical device

though

it

must serve
il

expressive purposes. cor by extensive exploitation of the devices of sequence and imita tion. After having stated the melodic motifs of martial character

He

has a purely musical nature, can and achieves such an effect in Armato

"armato" and "militar"

realm of love

the composition turns to the warrior in the

battle
la sorte,

who will struggle with Heaven and with Fate and

pugnero con la morte." Through a whole section of the work, the theme of the text* distributed between the two voices and provided with excited, sharp motifs, is repeated and imitated in the succession of the voices and in
with Death: "Contrastero col Ciel e con
the rising and falling of sequences; as a third constituent, the basso contmuo takes part in imitation and sequences. The result is a direct transmission of the excitement suggested by such struggles: 10

M ADRIGALESQUE COMPOSITION
Ex. 100
ix,

333

28

BC.
it*.

r5

tol

C(*t

This arrangement succeeds in arousing tension and excitement by the use of accumulative devices. Such an accumulative expedient as imitation is not used merely for the sake of polyphonic structure, but
in

order that the structure of the

stile

concitato

may

serve the text.

This passage from Armato il cor also contains material that is to be come part of the standard vocabulary of the baroque musician; it can be heard in countless compositions, including some by Handel and
Bach.
dates are combined.

In the posthumous ninth book, too, compositions of various styles and Armato il cor reappears in it, showing that the

collection includes compositions that are previous to the eighth book. 1 Se vittorie si belle, a companion piece of Armato il cor* must have at the same time, that is, before 163 2. The style of these been

composed works goes back to the early twenties, to the time of the seventh book, O come in which we find some anticipations of it. Such a work as

with basso continuo, already published in 1624 vaghi, for two tenors resembles compositions of the ninth book, of collection the Anselmi, in in the expressive exploitation of accumulative devices. Even especially and its stylistic so mature a composition as the wonderful duet, Ardo, sia tranquillo il mare, are explainable as works that companion piece,

/#<*., IX, 2 iff.

334

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

is

Whereas the "modern" compositions of^the originated around 1630. a disturbing factor in the ninth a thirties form recognizable group, book

after such dance songs the incorporation of works patterned canzonetta. All of them have the as the balletto and also after the some of their prototypes, and all are strophic songs, simple structures them. for dates They difficult to establish definite

with

refrains. It

is

the elaborate canzonetta could be very early compositions, although at which occurred during the period structure of Si Si cVio tfamo never An in native with songs. Monteverdi occupied himself systematically stile conciuto the where in bent, teresting experiment appears the form of the native song. In its second is used in conjunction with that style, and, the words "non guerra d'amore" suggest

O mo

section,

pm

we have the rapidly hammering repeti indeed, in the basso continue described in the style of the Monteverdi which tone tions of one can it is doubtful whether the experiment
Combattimento. However, and significant techbe reo-arded as a success. To impose the weighty on the small and unpretentious song struc niqueW the stile concitato of carrying such a weight. is to overload a vehicle
ture

incapable

THE EIGHTH BOOK AND THE SELVA MORALE

of Monteverdi is crowned by the madrigalesque composition which was published in 1638 as Madrigali Guemeri et eighth book Ferdinand III, himself a musician dedicated to

The

married to lection to the emperor's father, Ferdinand II, in died II February, 1637, the Eleonora Gonzaga. Since Ferdinand in been have of madrigals must ready for publication eighth book a for, volume distinction; this special 1636. Monteverdi's preface gives of the musical com as has been mentioned, it sets forth his doctrine imitation: on founded art of every artistic work is as a work position but as a principle that a not as achieved by imitation, special technique, was the birth to art. Throughout Monteverdi's creative life this gives that created the complexities of his style. In a productive principle he letter of October 22, 1633, to an unknown Roman, possibly Doni,
says his imitation to be.
particular
is

Amorosi and Emperor and composer. Monteverdi had previously offered

to dedicate the col

who was

work

is

form
all

a lifelong demonstration of what he has understood He declares that the nature of music must justify any of imitation, that the imitation of a certain affection

as

much
of

artistic as it is

human, but that

since

human

affection

is

the

subject

musical composition, the imitation of the nature of music

.

" Ibid.,

IX, 95ff

MADRIGALESQUE COMPOSITION
must conform to
is

335

the fulfillment,

the imitation of human passions. The eighth book the final answer to the constant search which gave

meaning to
sitions,

his artistic life.

When he chose the texts for his last compo

the poet, his personal characteristics and his poetical form, no longer counted. The poems of Rinuccini, Guarini, Marino, were and his con chosen, not because they were favorites of Monteverdi As a embodied. human of the but because passions they temporaries, of humanization of the an and of human passions example presentation his all lost have art. Monteverdi's book sums music, the eighth up music dramas except the first and the last, but the madrigals that embrace the whole of the Venetian period make up a human drama in their own Whatever the music dramas may have presented in the way of right. human passions, they cannot have differed greatly from the human tones of the madrigalesque drama. From 1619 to 1638 Monteverdi's it has an unbroken line of and in is uniform in

We

style, purpose language achievement in its clarity and directness. At the side of the madrigals of the eighth book stand the five moral the Selva Morale e Spiritual. This last collection madrigals which open was dedicated to Eleonora Gonzaga, the wife of the late Emperor Ferdinand II. Thus even the dedications reinforce the idea that the

eighth

book and the Selva Morale

are

companion collections

one sum

the other presenting marizing the aspects of Monteverdi's profane art, secular are The music. his sacred preceded by five religious compositions works of a moral character, which set a tone that seems to sound through
the last years of Monteverdi the tone of melancholy resignation. of men They sing of the futility of life and human endeavor; they sing their hope in who are blinded by wealth, power, and treasure, and put of errors the youth, of the mortal affairs (O ciechi ciechi) ; they sing of
all

the pains, sighs, and hopes of love were thought to be all that mattered: "You have listened to rhymes that resounded with in my first juvenile error heart nourished with which I those

days

when
sighs

my my

when I was

now "I hope to find piety" life that is brief as a flash of of (Voi cWascoltate by Petrarch) ; they sing lost" is dead, the future not born, and the present "The past lightning: and not does that last, of un vita beauty lampo) ; they sing (E questa
another

man than I am now"

warn that none is

safe

of love: sing of the futility

from Heaven's wrath (Spontava il di) and they now "Today we laugh, tomorrow we weep;
;

we

are light,

now

shadow; today
is

life,

tomorrow death" (Chi vol che

vfinnamori). There
these five

in the selection of undeniably a personal note

The placing of these works poems for the moral madrigals.

336

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

personal

ahead of the other compositions would seem to give them the character have no letters from the last decade of "confession." of a

We

reveal is dated 1634; life; only the compositions the composer's mind at the close of his life. After the plague in Venice, the increasing melancholy gravity of his nature seems to have made a retreat into contemplation appear to be the most desirable way of coping with the hazards of life. Monteverdi became a priest and made a vow to go on a pilgrimage to Loreto as a thanksgiving for surviving the or deals of the plague. He also occupied himself as early as the twenties

Monteverdi's

the latest

with studies in natural science, with odd experiments in alchemy, that were not entirely out of keeping with the prevalent interest in experi mental science. One of the obituary poems was to praise him as a
learned man, a "professor" of science, and something of this preoccupa tion with the nature of truth manifests itself artistically in the moral
madrigals.

The

the eighth book with comprehensiveness of

in a sort of

its

great variety of

media presents,

summary, the development of the madrigal.

using a large chorus
in

One set of madrigals realizes voluminous sonorities,

number, accompanied by combined with a group of soloists, varying an orchestra and a basso continuo. The orchestra, usually small, may consist of only two violin parts, and at its greatest expansion comprises
four viole da braccio and two
canti
violins, as in

the

initial

composition, Altri

d'Amor. This large medium, vocal and instrumental, is used in seven works of the eighth book and in two of the Selva Morale, if we
include the "second parts" of all madrigals as separate compositions. But the madrigals for soloistic voices in the stile concertato are still in
the majority. Though many solo duet of two tenors is again the

combinations of the voices are present, the

medium for which Monteverdi shows

a special liking. Tenors and bass; alto, tenor, and bass; or one solo voice are other groupings, and the solo trio is employed in the moral mad
rigals.

The

old favorite, the five-part madrigal recurs in

questa vita

un lampo. The technically mature form of the basso continuo and the structure as a whole suggest that this work may have been composed
same time as the madrigals of the eighth book. Two other five-part madrigals that make their first appearance in this collection have been discussed previously: Dolcissimo uscignolo and Chi vol haver felice y to
at the

be sung

alia francese.

order that the book

They are earlier compositions and appear here in may present a "summary" of artistic efforts. That

believe,

they were patterned "on the model of the airs de cour" is impossible to and it is only because the manner of performance was French

MADRIGALESQUE COMPOSITION
that this impossible thesis has been advanced: self so completely persuaded of the decrepitude
gal]
1S

337

"Monteverdi was him of a genre [the madri

from which he had extracted everything it could give that he to France for ideals through which to rejuvenate it." There again turned the category, and they is nothing in these two madrigals to rejuvenate had solved Monteverdi that artistic were chosen to illustrate
problems
in the past, as
earlier periods.

were

number of other compositions which belong

to

peror

The collection is divided into two sections: the first contains the "canti guerrieri" and opens with a composition dedicated to the Ferdinand; the second contains the "canti amorosi" and opens

Em

Aim canti di Marte, in which the theme is: "I sing of love" (lo canto amor). Each section concludes with compositions that are ex of some special style, or of the solution to a par amples of a category, ticular artistic problem. In the first section, after the latest madrigals, comes the Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, a prototype of the warlike stile concitato, followed by a ballo, apparently a late composi which must have been written for the accession of Ferdinand III
with
tion,

in 1637.

The introduction welcomes

"il

Re novo

del

and expresses the hope that under his reign "a century of peace" dawn; and the ballo ends with an apotheosis of Ferdinand.

Romano Impero," may

its concluding group of alia francese and two mod two with madrigals begins compositions. ern compositions, the first of which is important for its artistic quality and because it belongs to the genere rappresentativo. Monteverdi calls in other words, it is a madrigal con gesto, it a "canto rappresentativo"; Laa scenic cantata in three sections, the long middle part being the o fen Perchi Fillide, fuggi mento della Ninfa. The modem madrigal

The second

section has a greater variety in

It

which combines

may

songs

recitation with contrasting, dancelike arioso sections, dance a type of the late twenties. simple strophic represent Ballo delF Ingrate, which the with ends the book and follow;

Two

Monteverdi had composed in 1608. As careful organization. eighth book shows

survey of the madrigal, the

The opening composition, Aim canti d'Amor, draws upon a large orchestra and a chorus of six parts and solo voice to produce the brilliant instrumental effects expected in a piece dedicated to an emperor. An basso with braccio continuo, sinf onia, for two violins and one viola da
serves as prelude to the composition. The short stereotyped, repetitive a bass anticipates the structural behavior of the bass in the vocal part
"Prunieres, Claudio Monteverdi,
p. 158.

338

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

the limitations of
its

with Monteverdi. The organization of the vocal frequent procedure lifts the madri dictated in work sections, by the contrasts of affections,
of gal out a cantata.
the composition into category and turns

war,

contrast naturally is between the god of love, sharpest archer" "tender the (tenero arciero), and the fierce god of Amor, in the dancelike The first e Mars

The

part, (Marte furibondo fiero). has a soft and elastic melody carried along amorous the of section, style dance character is stressed by the by the consistent dance rhythms. The a descending motif that is re has forceful bass, which

structurally to the basso ostinato. Only the vocal trio is peated in an approach section breaks in suddenly. The motif for the martial used for it. The

furibondo e fiero" has the rapid declamation, which phrase "Di Marte Monteverdi used in the Combattimento as the musical equivalent of the excited pyrrhic meter, and exploits the same hammering on one tone, with the sixteenth note as the unit and with the basso continuo sharing
in the explosive repetitions. The rest of the section, always responsive to the connotations of the text, is wholly given over to stark realism. the motifs run Thus, at the phrase "hard encounters and bold battles," the and in guns firing, a noisy motion; with sabers flashing

contrary tumult of whizzing runs and cracking motifs portray the battle; yet the work is in fact very well organized despite this seeming turmoil, of strict contrapuntal form. means by of Ferdinand makes up the second major section, The
apotheosis

which is organized
bass renders

as

a bass solo with chorus.

the full chorus carries to a climax

The bass anticipates what by repeating the same material. The

homage

comparable

to the solo in

to Ferdinand with a degree of melodic intensity sixCon che soavitd of the seventh book.

and a harpsichord accompany the bass solo, and the string instruments are advised to play with the bow in "long and suave" tones. Here, too, the motifs are derived from the text: "war"
orchestra part string

figurative are polyphonically

has a fanfare-like theme, "proud chorus" a dancelike stride, "singing" a coloratura. After the solo has introduced these motifs, they
a climactic conclusion.

worked out by the full chorus and orchestra in Such relentless realism may now be regarded as

It

a deficiency, but it is presented with taste, skill, and musical integrity. has rightly been said that Monteverdi introduced forms of an illus

trative power that are still valid, and that it is only because some of them have been worn out by all-too-frequent handling in later periods that work of their creator. Cer they now appear as trivialities, even in the

the baroque age the musical vocabulary to tainly Monteverdi gave

MADRIGALESQUE COMPOSITION
express martial excitement

339

musical values aside

and passion. And from its descriptive relation

the lucid structure retains

to the text.

The opening composition of the second part with the "canti amorosi"
follows the style and concept of the martial madrigal.

That

it

appears

may artistically superior, value of the text, Altri canti di Marte, by poetical The work is distinguished by the transparency of Monteverdi's new, The repetitive motifs, the free, unsystematic counterpoint.
less realistic

though no

be due to the greater Giambattista Marino.

completely

and the steadfast motion of the bass sequences, the descending lines, The repetitive nature of the elements. structural are the most powerful is shown in the second part as basso the ostinato, bass motif
approaches more of this madrigal, Due belli occhi, where, as the upper parts grow two These steadier. becomes bass the madrigals and excited disjointed,

resemble the two

initial

moral madrigals,

ciechi ciechi

and Vri

similarities cWascoltate; the latter especially has striking The subtlety with which the volume of sound is increased di Marte. a master. or reduced in careful gradations reveals the maturity of e la Terra del cVel Hor But of all the madrigals in a large medium, the most are Mara artistically and its second part, Cosi sol d'una fonte^ most 15 the been has ingenious The sonnet of Petrarch given perfect. into music. Monteverdi seized upon the contrasting

with Altri canti

translation possible

and it offered him not only a imagery for its expressive potentialities, to create a correspond also the but definite formal outline, inspiration
musical imagery. The first part gives three affections ingly forceful and suffer which Monteverdi exploited structurally: calm, restlessness his love in of war. The poet is kept awake by the torments ing, and and heaven deathlike silence lies upon the'midst of the calm night. bird and beast not stir; sleep holds in silence earth; even the ocean does but "I am awake, I think, burn, weep" (Vegghio [sic], penso,

alike;'

ardo, piango)

"War,

that

is

my state, full of ire and pain"

(Guerra

'/

alone brings mio state d'ira e di duol piena) ; the thought of the beloved to themselves lend lines a few within contrasts peace. These sharp in dark, is silence of The portrayed

Monteverdi's

style.

image

deadly

of deep chords: there is a harmonic declamation midnight colors then present low chord. In abrupt contrast, the chorus and the orchestra

on one

with a truly the ecstatic outcries: "veglio [sic], penso, ardo, piango"; in Monteverdi has the two tenors continue the verse inspired device, the intervals at while the rest of the chorus interjects rapid declamation
i*

Opere,

XV,

iff.,

15^.

/#<*., VIII, 39^-

340

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

( of the poet. War" (guerra) provides the motif for painful outbursts the new section, which is wholly in the stile concitato, and the violent increase the excitement. But this martial style is balanced by

repetitions

the musical motif set to "peace," which is rendered in slow, quiet, full chords of bold, striking harmonies. Once more the contrast of war and peace is given in the repetition and expansion of the martial idea. This is no longer realism, a merely pictorial presentation of the subj ect. Thanks to the power of a dramatist to make actions felt and feelings
audible, the musical

form becomes a drama whose concreteness and Monteverdi was first to dis seem beyond the nature of music. energy cover these potentialities, without which we are now unable to imagine
that artistic music could exist.

soloists

In contrast to these rich and voluminous madrigals are several for with basso continue accompaniment, of which three may be

Mentre vaga Angioletta, the cycle Ogni Amante singled out: Guarini's e Guerrier, and the Lamento della Ninfa. Guarini's poem is in praise of
the characteristics of music, and

we give a translation:
soul rejoice,

16

While the angelic voice singing makes every gentle

my heart throbs
at the

sound of her melodious song.

Choosing only notes

resonant and pure, the Music-Genius feigns

and fashions novelty of fluent and skillful harmony;

tempers the shrillness of the flexible voice, and bends it or constrains
so with the windings, twists and broken accents that now it slows to a poise,

now hastens,
in

terminating

low and
and

flights

lively tones. rests and

Then

alternating

peaceful moments,
sound.

he holds it now in balance, now up, now down, now uttering no

Here
there

it

darts off and vibrates,

it

whirls around,

one moment trembling, another rebounding,

then strongly resounding.
16

The

translation

was provided by the

late

Professor Angelo Lipari (Yale

Uni

versity) for the concert given at Yale University in commemoration of the three hundredth anniversary of the death of audio Monteverdi, in 1943.

M ADRIGALESQUE COMPOSITION
Thus singing, and repeating, by Love transforms the heart
his art

341

into a nightingale, which takes its flight, not to remain in sadness.

It is

understandable that a musician should be attracted

its

by such
call

poem, although

numerous suggestive images might

progress

easily

forth

of a composition full of pictorial realisms likely to impair the unity next the from one word to by structure and form. At best, the
pictorial presentation

form, and composition, continue ," does not entirely escape this danger. Only by a strong grasp of style and by emphasis on a stable element unaffected by the constant The concerted style em a changes does Monteverdi achieve synthesis.
bodies the contrast between the solo voice and accompaniment, giving each distinct features, and the bass has a stabilizing function. With one

increases the difficulty of finding an over-all written for two tenors and basso Monteverdi's

where it is led in a chromatic exception, in the passage "pieghevol voce," descent through a full octave, the bass holds its own against the solo because of the stereotyped, "imper the duet
throughout
composition
sonal" character of the motifs,
literally

which

or in variation. While

are continually repeated, either the bass proceeds with regularity, in

and in halfs, the duet builds up its own peculiarities through quarters the contrasts of the concertato. Since the text enumerates all the virtues of music, they are reflected in the melody. Both the principle of the concertato and the imitation of the meaning of the words lead to the of vocal virtuosities which are, indeed, not far from the graces
unfolding of a nightingale.

An equally brilliant example of the stile concertato is the

amante
e guerrier, in four parts

cycle

Ogni

Each part being the fourth part.

bass solo, tenor solo,

Riedi, though published separately, has a different medium: two tenors,

"Therefore, mendacious tongues, re and sloth; love frain henceforth from calling love mere wantonness "martial The heart." verse, breathing is the impulse of the warrior's shown that love soft love, with clash of arms resounding, clearly has The and warlike spirit alike are but one impulse of the hero's heart." of has special significance because of the frequent changes composition affection. of to the in order the changes response
affection, love

program

The cycle offers a nature of their the of the musical content of the volume; in
and
all
18 three voices in Riedi.

and war are

alike.

rhythmic
Ibid.,

VHI, 2465. vin, 88ff.

342

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

A
melody
triple

All these changes of rhythm produce special forms of melody, so that the melodic forms that Monteverdi had explored appear in this is used for an arioso or aria in dancelike
cycle.

rhythm

with balanced and proportionate phrases; recitative is extensively used, in the two sections for bass and tenor; rapid declamation, especially one tone, but also with thrusts of passionate exclamation, on mostly the stile concitato; a melody, melismatic and

richly figurative represents in concise, stereotyped groups and patterns, used for realistic expres sions such as "cantare" or "riedi," is typical of the stile concertato. Still another form that occurs in this cycle of madrigals is marked by great
its motion, not organized by any of %. The but almost always in metrical groups repetitive pattern, the phrasing avoids complica and drawn has lines, sensuously melody and tions in order to achieve Always very melodious

simplicity.

A clear rhythm controls

clarity
this

simplicity.

and effective as an arioso,

type seems to be the

final result

of

Monte

verdi's occupation with the native songs. It has none of the stylistic marks of the canzonetta or the villanella or any other specific native

and often serves to express feel a song, but has acquired personal style a sestina Gira The and intimacy. large cycle ings of great intensity 19 in sections it occurs and here form this has there; ttnemico insidioso
of the soloistic works and sporadically in the large madrigals of the and it appears prominently in the moral madrigals. eighth book; Scenic music is extensively represented in the eighth book; we have

we

the works of that category. The Combattimento, which already listed take to be a scenic cantata, and the two balli clearly reveal their
association with the genere rappresentativo in form, style, and general but the Lamento delta Ninfa and its two surrounding composi

make-up,

tions are not so easy to classify. Had Monteverdi not specifically indi cated that the work belonged to the genere rappresentativo, we would

what way and setting the composition is and there is no description of the "representative" is never clarified, the in which scene or surroundings singers are to appear. Monteverdi's is short: "The way to produce the following introductory explanation which are before the Lament of the Nymph three The parts sung song:
have no idea that
it

did. In

are separated [that is, printed in part books], because they are to be sung in the tempo of the beat (al tempo de la. mano) ; the other three

which sing with soft voice in pity over the Nymph, are they can follow the Lament, which must be sung in the tempo of the affection (a tempo deiraffetto del animo) and not
parts, however, set in score so that

MADRIG ALE SQUE COMPOSITION

" 20

343

The short composi in tempo of the beat (non a quella de la mano) tion after the lament is also in separate parts for the three male voices, are, there two tenors and a bass. Both the initial and final
compositions
fore, in the strict, regular

rhythm

that the beat of the

hand

indicates,

while the Lamento takes its rhythmic motion from the affection of the Nymph, and it is to this affection that the three accompanying voices must submit themselves. This implies liberties and irregularities
in singing of a kind not customary in ordinary rhythmic performance. constant It is noteworthy that the Lamento has more of an irresistible,

on dance rhythm, than the two composi rhythmic motion, patterned 21 Nevertheless, Monteverdi apparently allowed tions that surround it.

some
ately,

flexibility

in the singing in order to present the affection appropri

out any particular passage where he although he did not single deTaffetto del animo." The initial Non haveo Febo expected the "tempo ancora is in a simple structure and contains some features characteristic of the melodies of Monteverdi's late style: they are simple, direct,
declamation. The melody balanced, in quiet motion, and have a careful seems to be placed in the middle part (second), and also in the brief in twelve measures conclusion, Si tra sdegnosi, which unpretentiously, end. to an the of narration, brings cycle

The Lamento, famous

for

its

structure of a strict basso ostinato with

of the descending motif through a fourth, has the unusual arrangement as an ac voices male three of a over the solo a group voice, Nymph, her lover, the Nymph sings her melodious Abandoned

by companiment. lament in pitiful, appealing tones, while the three other parts, singly or of sympathy and pity, "miserella, their
expressions together, interject ah piu no no." The bass repeats its four descending tones throughout The lamento character is identified with the structure

the composition. it as a of the descending ostinato motif, and later composers have taken the and structure The nature. technique are model for works of that

but the servants whose purpose is to express the human affections. Monteverdi's contemporaries understood at once that the technique was subservient to the affection. It was a stroke of genius to have a
the group of voices accompany
pressive

Nymph

with

dimness of sound ex

of pity.

only by

but one that could be invented simple device, of human a genius, and a man who had grown in knowledge
It is a

affections.

rhythm The basic rhythm of the Lamento is in 6/1; in older terminology two triplets to the measure. tempw imperfectum and prolatio major, that is,
21

the

has

344
There

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

are

few compositions that have this human directness un adorned, utterly simple, and perhaps for that reason unmistakable. Is it
animo," this humanization of the music, that places representative music? Is it repre sentative because *the human affection becomes a dramatis persona and makes his appearance in the madrigal? Human affection is the substance
this "affetto del

the

Lament o in the sphere of dramatic,

of the music drama that Monteverdi created. The cantata, the madrigal, or indeed any of the musical forms is no less than a human drama if
the musical interpretation of the affection
is

grounded in human nature.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The

Final

Drama

had never interrupted his dramatic work since his Orfeo and Arianna were recognized as the outstanding music dramas of the age, he was constantly requested to write operas for the nobility. He complied with the requests, not only from ambition, but also from his own natural impulse, which was so strong that all his compositions were dramatic in the last analysis, whether they were madrigals, operas, or even religious music in the
he Mantua. Because MONTEVERDI
left

modern form. Except for the two

last

dramas,

all

the dramatic composi

tions of Monteverdi's Venetian period are irretrievably lost, but the guiding principle that gave all his compositions a dramatic character

can help the imagination to reconstruct the style of these lost dramas, and the few extant scenic .compositions, including the ballo, offer fur ther assistance. At all events, these, and the dramatized madrigals with or without gesture (con e senza gesto), serve to refute the assumption that there was an irregular or inconsistent development in Monteverdi's dramatic style. It has often been said that between the Orfeo and the last dramas there is so complete a break that Monteverdi must have become
estranged from the conceptions of his Orfeo.

The

contrary

is

true.

Monteverdi composed his madrigals with such unswerving logic that the works in the sixth, seventh, and eighth books are the inevitable result of those that preceded. Just as the Orfeo, though a music drama,

was prepared for by the madrigals, so there is nothing in the two last dramas that was not anticipated in Monteverdi's madrigalesque com before the Orfeo had more of a position. It is true that the madrigals
of their completeness as art works, preparatory function, irrespective

and that once

full

adequacy of form and

345

artistic

intention had been

346

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

but were con
madrigal

reached, Monteverdi's efforts were no longer preparatory centrated on intensifying the dramatic expression and sharpening the after Orf eo was, in every respect, an tools, so that the
stylistic

end

in itself.

The music drama had

been, and

still

was, the chief artistic form for

representations his dramas for the courts

at the courts

on state occasions. Monteverdi composed of Mantua and Parma, and his minor scenic

as well as one full drama, for the patricians of Venice. In as the Venice, during the twenties, certain patrician families, such in dramatic interest a Giustiniani and the Grimani, took great composi and had it not been for the plague, this interest would have had

works,

tions,

and more tangible results. The festivities in the noble palaces of Venice had been in no way inferior to those at princely courts, but the Venetian state could hardly allow any one family to monopolize such a concentration of splendor and power, and it is probably for this of music dramas were begun and the reason that
earlier

public performances in Venice opened. Public it was, though owned "public" theater and fully controlled by the Venetian nobility, but to differentiate be tween a "democratic" opera of Venice and an "aristocratic" opera of
first

the courts

is

absurd in view of the city's social structure and the legal

theaters. ownership of the Venetian After the wounds of the plague had healed, there was a wave of interest in the musical forms of dramatic entertainment. In 1637, a

memorable
at the

the first theater, the Teatro S. Cassiano, was opened year, noble family of the Tron. The music drama presented the in Venice, by

latter a follower of

F. Manelli and B. Ferrari, the opening was the Andromeda, by from whose hands he said he re Monteverdi, ceived the achievements of the new art. The patricians now began to

compete with one another in founding

theaters,

which were

built not

because the people clamored for more shows, but because of the rivalry of the leading families. By 1641 Venice had four operatic theaters, and at the end of the century, there were sixteen, all owned by noble fami
lies,

who

leased boxes for the season to the other nobles of Venice.

theatrical

group was hired for the carnival season

at

which the operas

were performed. Monteverdi had no part in the opening of the Teatro S. Cassiano, but when in 1639 the family of the Grimani erected the Teatro SS. Gio 1 vanni e Paolo, a work by Monteverdi was commissioned Adone,
iLivio Nisco Galvani, 7
p. 30.
te&tri musicali di

Venezia nel secolo

XVII

(Milan, 1879),

THE FINAL DRAMA

Teatro

347

carne from a a "tragedia musicale." Its librettist, Paolo Vendramin, their of own, the a theater which in the same noble

year opened family and is preserved, S. Moise. Only the libretto of the Adone the Since certain. Monteverdi's authorship of the music is not entirely
the Adone had been a favorite subject, and it had days of Marino, set to music used by Cicognini for a music drama reported to have been S. Moise, Teatro their Vendramins the When Peri. opened

been

by Jacopo
improved

famous Arianna, which the composer had they presented Monteverdi's before; it is to be assumed for Mantua some
that this corrected version,

twenty years not one with still further changes, was a full year. in Venetian the on 1639, where it ran for stage given The year 1641 was a great one for Monteverdi. The Teatro SS. Gio Le Nozze cfEnea con Lavinia, by Giacomo vanni e Paolo
if

presented music is lost, the libretto Badoaro, a patrician of Venice, and though the In Monteverdi's composition. contains Badoaro's brief remarks about
S. Cassiano

the same year, the oldest theater

Ritorno d'Ulisse

in f atria, with Monteverdi. Finally in 1642, one year

last

a libretto

produced a drama and music by Badoaro by before his death, Monteverdi's

a libretto

//

work was

presented

in the theater of the Grimani, SS.

di

Paolo. This was Vlncoronazione

Poppea, with

Giovanni e by Fran

cesco Busenello.

From Monteverdi's correspondence concerning La finta pazza Licon, we know that he exerted a strong influence on the form and character
to of the text, that he persuaded the poet to add scenes and characters,^ to give divide the work into five acts instead of three, and particularly similar influence is recorded a proper presentation of the affections. The in connection with Le Nozze d'Enea con Lavinia.

by Badoaro Argomento,

in

of the libretto

which poets usually discussed the content and character and their ideas of drama, gave Badoaro an opportunity to
with Monteverdi,

speak of his collaboration dinary terms as a composer

in all countries

whom he praises in extraor

artist

who

has brought music in general and

is

whose name is whose known all farfetched thoughts and avoided "I adds: Badoaro immortal. is art more attention to the affections as Monteverdi conceptions and paid left out many wished to have them; to his satisfaction I also changed and indeed was Monteverdian; of those materials that I first had used." This his of the human affections was a basic tenet of the musical
dramatic music in particular to perfection, as an

where music

cultivated, as a musician

stressing

art,

Abstract ^ose^ubject was always man.

ideas,

purely mythologi

he rejected cal figures, inanimate matter did not interest him;

them

just

348

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

he had rejected a proposal to write about winds instead of human beings. By his concentration on the affections, he brought music in the drama such a concentration was and and man
as in the past

together,

certainly

indispensable.

that

Badoaro and Busenello are part of a movement in the Italian drama had gradually turned from the pastoral or purely mythological to or historical subjects. At the same time different factions affirmed The dis action. and the Aristotelian unities of time, place,
questioned
as with the desire of the poets that the spirit of the time should prevail over tradition. Were the "modern rules of caprice and to "the good rules" of the old masters? Badoaro, by of

pute was as of Aristotle

much concerned with approval

or disapproval of the rules

passion" superior

no means

anti-Aristotelian, wisely

assumes that rules are formulated

of a period and that had Aristotle according to the prevailing temper lived in the seventh century he would have formulated rules in harmony It is the aspiration of the seventeenth of that with the
aspirations

age.

of men, above century to speak of the passions

all

of the passion of

ifigures

heroism. Thus it is the heroic figures of history and those mythological who have heroic character that attract the dramatic poets, and

not the lyricism of the pastoral. It is also the "capriccio" of the time to understand art as something that is above the ordinary and the common to natural simplicity. Just as the prince is above the and that is
superior

common
tion
is

people,

above

and the hero above the ordinary man, so complica art above nature. Complications are proof of simplicity,

the degree of art. Hence, in opposition to the Aristotelian unity of action, the seventeenth-century "capriccio," sometimes even called the
turns in the plot or brings in "capriccio bizzarro," develops unexpected with the main action. secondary plots that parallel or even interfere who is capable of to the connoisseur studious s^Ehe dramatist appeals

unraveling complicated plots and men are out of the ordinary.

is

best pleased

when

the actions of

Did Badoaro at first follow the "capriccio bizzarro"? Monteverdi, he admitted, had insisted on omitting the farfetched conceptions. The composer was probably more inclined to preserve unity, to avoid the distractions of too many secondary lines, and to think that the variety
of affections, essential to the dramatic interpretation of music, did not necessitate the devious contrivances of the "capriccio bizzarro." In one
the general trend of the drama agreed with his art: respect, however, the heroic passions, as shown in history and legend, lent themselves to his concepts of dramatic interpretation. The presentation of heroic

THE FINAL DRAMA

story
affairs of life

349

as a in music drama, on a scale as grandiose and exemplary passions The of heroic man, becomes the "decoro di Personaggi grandi."

ordinary

that the great passion

7

must be enlarged to remarkable proportions so of the historical hero can be made to harmonize

with the baroque passion for the great personality. Monteverdi's // Ritorno d Ulisse in patria is something of a hybrid half mythological, but Ulncoronazione di Popper is the first great^ his half historical
torical

music drama and will beget a long line of opere serie dealing witrTthe heroic figures of history. Whether Monteverdi was the composer of // Ritorno d'UUsse in of dispute for many years. The majority of patria has been a subject Monteverdi students accept the authenticity of the work, though Giacomo Benvenuti, an expert on the music of that period, has recently denied that Monteverdi was the composer. The reasons for doubt, ex 2 for the first time by Emil Vogel, are based on the considerable pressed Badoaro's libretto, which has five acts, and the between discrepancies three acts. 3 Since the disputes have score, which has

not been

only not reproduce them here. It is sufficient to the opera and his madrigalesque composition say that the link between mat of Monteverdi's is authorship. To complicate convincing proof to Monteverdi was attributed Vlisse another of the existence ters, in 1855, when he reported brought into the discussion by Giordani the publication of Le glorie della Musica e della foesia rappresentandosi

anonymous

fruitful,

we

shall

in

Bologna

h Delia, e r Ulisse nel teatro

degli illustrissimi Guastavillani.

e di Francesco Bologna 1630, in 4, musica di Claudio Monteverdi seen been Manelli* This pamphlet has never by anyone but Giordani, recorded is elsewhere, no other Manelli and while a Delia by Francesco discovered. been ever has Monteverdi reference to an Ulisse by is of Ulisse an of existence the 1630 very doubtful, be may add that and active a was Monteverdi time that at cause correspondent,

We

fairly

he wrote for the nuns of S. Lorenzo, he except for the church music makes no mention of any work in that year.
Badoaro's libretto
//

only in manu Marciana in Venice, expressly names Claudio Monteverdi script in the
Ritorno
d' Vlisse in patria, extant
. Vogel, VfMW, III, 403f. which This is so in manuscript 18763, preserved in the National Library in Vienna, Vol. and DTOe, 57 (Vienna, is the basis for the editions. See Malipiero, Opere, XII, the authenticity of the work: Hugo Gold1922; ed. Robert Haas). Discussions of and IX; Robert II ritorno d'Ulisse," in S1MG, IV "Claudio Monteverdis

2 *

schmidt,

Haas "Zur Neuausgabe von Monteverdis II Ritorno," in StzMW, IX (1922). * See Gaetano Giordani, Intorno al Gran Teatro del Commune e ad altri minon
Bologna
(Bologna, 1855), p. 62.

Oper

350
as the

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

by

d'Enea con Lavinia of that same year composer. In the Nozze Badoaro had stated that upon the advice of Monteverdi he omitted
several parts criticized

the composer. Is it not possible that Monte verdi also suggested alterations for // Ritorno d' Ulisse in patria, which libretto but account for the were not worked into the

manuscript 5 the Viennese score? with discrepancies

Badoaro's libretto
is

based on the
is

last

books of Homer's

epic.

After

allowed to return to Ithaca, the his endless wanderings, Ulisse finally the overcome intrigues of Nettuno. Disguised goddess Minerva having Eumete without being herdsman the to as an old beggar, Ulisse goes of the Ulisse, brings his son Telemaco Minerva,
recognized.
protectress

home from
ope,
beset

be Sparta to
suitors

welcomed by the overjoyed Eumete. Penel

the royal riches of Ulisse's wife, has greedy for in husband her for been waiting unswerving loyalty. The suitors dissi Ulisse's wealth and make themselves the impudent masters of his pate last attempt by the suitors to persuade Penelope to choose one palace. herself who says she will marry is met of them in

by

marriage

the one

who

bends

Ulisse's

by Penelope bow. None succeeds

until Ulisse,

who

has

been watching the impertinence of the suitors, bends his own weapon the suitors. For a while Penel and, aided by Minerva and his son, kills is he really her Ulisse, but a final scene ope hesitates, doubting whether the "drama in musica," as concludes of recognition and rejoicing Badoaro calls this work. It opens with the customary prologue with characteristic allegorical
figures:

Human Fragility, Time, Fortune, Love, in Monteverdi's score;

prologue

Fate, Prudence, Fortitude, in Badoaro's libretto. In its balanced propor tions the exemplifies Monteverdi's structural organization.

The

is handled as a musical-refrain form, part of L'Humana Fragilita with a slight variation each time the refrain occurs. Each of the alle

goric figures has

its

own melodic style: L'Humana

song with
its

Fragilita,
lines

an arioso

and cor proportionate a of favorite dance the Fortuna, melody rhythm, responding phrases; which exploits the sequential technique and in so doing heightens the

which comes

closest to the

irresistible
5

sweep of

dance song; Tempo, a melodic motion characII,

Cf Guido Pannain, Musica,

.

42ff .

When

in a production at the

Maggio musi-

tale in Florence (1942) the Ulisse was revived, the response was divided, and there arose the old argument that the Ulisse could not be by Monteverdi because it was
aesthetically less satisfactory than, for instance, the Incoronazione argument. Guido Pannain at last raised an overdue question which
at the core of the matter: Is
it

a rather dubious

we

believe strikes

really true that the Ulisse

is

an inferior, artistically

un

satisfactory

work? Pannain vindicated the

artistic quality

of the opera.

THE FINAL DRAMA

351

of the balanced teristic of the stile concitato; and Amore, a mixture arioso of L'Humana Fragilita and the dancelike motion of Fortuna. With the exception of L'Humana Fragilita, the allegoric figures at the end make up a trio which has the transparent structure realized by Monteverdi in his later years when he made use of the canzonetta. served as introduction to the prologue, Using the same sinfonia that where Penelope is attended by the in the first act opens royal palace the greatest scenes in dramatic of one is It Ulisse. of nurse Ericlea, the to Monteverdi's as doubt and authorship is incompre literature, any
hensible. Penelope's lament in which she bemoans her loneliness and eo and Arianna. for Ulisse has its direct ancestor in endless

The

grown maturer, the human intensity prodramas founder, and yet the essentials of the stile recitativo in the early Monte have been retained. The formal design of the scene reveals

waiting musical diction has

Of

verdi's inexhaustible ingenuity in the invention of expressive structures. Divided strophically into three sections, twice interrupted by Ericlea's

brief interjections,

which appear

as

the help contemplative refrains on

less misery of Penelope, the structure reinforces the increase of affec tion. Each section ends with the thought of Ulisse's return. The first been is a lament that Ulisse alone of all the Greek warriors has not

allowed to return home, expressed in a typically Monteverdian rise of chromatic melody. The other two sections end with the same imploraa tion of "Torna, torna, deh torna Ulisse," melodically
Penelope,
refrain

whose poignant chromaticism expresses the

affection, the last

time ingeniously preceded by the repetition of "Tu sol del tuo tornar." In the third stanza there is a further structural rise to a climactic tension,

wind and water, to make possible Penelope implores the elements, Ulisse's return. She begins with a songlike melody whose simple, balanced style resembles the intensive melodies of Monteverdi's latest The combination of the stile concitato with the declamatory
as

madrigals. line of the recitative produces that mixture of styles which Monte verdi cultivated in the dramatic recitations of his madrigals. of Ulisse when, less grandiose in its proportions is the monologue where he is. not awakens he of the shores on cast Ithaca, yet knowing he sees the shores and breathes the air after the ordeal of the storm,

No

As

he does not trust

his senses

and

fears he

is

deceived

by

a dream, the

brother of death. These uncertainties are expressed at the beginning of the monologue in striking harmonies, whose bold shifts express fear, to new torments, if and when distrust, and the dread of awakening controlled is not as this the dream ends. rigidly

Although

monologue

352

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

by

a premeditated structure as Penelope's, and although the melody the continuous renewal of phrases for every line which proceeds with of the stile recitative, Monteverdi holds the form together by is typical the strength of a repeated phrase in the basso continue. When Ulisse

blames the Phaeacians, his companions, for betraying and abandoning misero him, when he sings "mi lasciaste in questa riva aperta
. . .

abbandonato," the passage

of Arianna abandoned

is

by

an exact duplicate of the lamenting phrase Theseus.

follows Ulisse's monologue, in which long scene (8) that in the disguise of a little shepherd to aid Ulisse, is a Minerva

The

brilliant

appears demonstration of unity of style and dramatic purpose. All the to supply artistic experiences of his madrigals are used by Monteverdi there is First intentions. a variety of styles responsive to his expressive of idiom the Minerva, the a light, unpretentious canzonetta melody, his pastorela. with follows Ulisse the enchanted little shepherd; then as the In the course of the scene, recognition and style changes rapidly the climactic toward directed are the all and revelation
develop,
styles

to Penelope. There is a concerted form joy of Ulisse's home-coming in triple rhythm with the florid melody a section the with running bass; which Monteverdi used in sections of his madrigals and in his latest
ballo
in

Movete al mo

bel

suon (1637); there is an acceleration of changes

the increasing tensions of rhythm, meter, and style, all paralleling the situation and culminating in Ulisse's joy over Minerva's determina tion to lead him back to his throne. At the moment when Minerva sings destruction of Troja, the martial stile concitato of the of her

vengeful

of madrigals appears. Her triumphant outburst takes eighth book the form of a virtuoso coloratura which Orfeo had used and which

Tempro la cetra, and the final duet is a repetition the madrigalesque compositions. In fact, the from of similar passages are found throughout the first act. Thus, achievements madrigalesque in Ulisse's strophic aria O fortunate Ulisse, Monteverdi appears to be his own madrigalesque work, and the passage Melanto sings
recurred in Marino's

quoting

(scene 10),

"Un

bel viso fa guerra,

il

guerriero,"

is

a literal quotation

from the eighth book. Moreover, the love duet between Melanto and Eurimaco (scene 2), Dei nostri amor, is a companion of duets in the seventh book. Of particular interest and equally Monteverdian is the
in the madrigal for purposes of "psalmodic" recitation previously used which as the climactic confession here appears special expressiveness, of love. In every detail of all its sections, this second scene could well

function as one of the amorous madrigals that Monteverdi expanded

THE FINAL DRAMA

and
transformed into cantatas for a solo duet with the sectional
stile

353
group

ings of the

concertato.
is

The

concertato combined with the canzonetta

also exploited for

comic purposes, as in the brief scene (12) between Iro, the parasite and court fool, and Eumete, the herdsman. Monteverdi also revived the French manner of performing solo and chorus: the solo starts out, and

when

the chorus follows, the solo appears as the upper part of the choral group. Such is the arrangement of the chorus of the Phaeacians, In questo basso mondo (scene 6). Penelope's Amor, Amor, especially the passage "in constanza, in constanza e rigore," with the sequential structure between voice and basso contmuo, is directly modeled on
as Mentre vaga Angioletta ("hor la preme, passages in such madrigals hor la rompe") or better still Armato il cor ("contrasted col del").

abounds with reminiscences of madrigalesque scenes are modeled on a certain late type of compositions. Whole Mentre vaga Angio madrigal Especially suggestive was the madrigal contrasts in affec of its and profusion letta, with its sectional groups tion. The outline of a madrigal like Ogni amante e guerrier also in The strophic Ohime ctfio cado, the melodic spired direct imitations. and rhythmic ductus and structure of Alle danze, alle dame, and the models with which Monteverdi worked magnificent Ardo, all provided 6 in the drama. The second scene, with Eumete, Ulisse, and Telemaco

The second

act also

is

largely madrigalesque. and the duet of Eumete

It

begins with Eumete's

O gran figlio d' Ulisse;

and Ulisse, Dolce speme i cor lusinga, is, in and especially the basso ostmato with its regard to rhythm, melody, motif of four descending tones, an imitation of the Lamento delta Ninfa in genere rappresentati'vo from the eighth book. One of the great which the two rejoice scenes, a duet between Ulisse and Telemaco, in
in their mutual love

"Oh Padre

sospirato

Oh

figlio

desiato"

has

from a

formalistic point of

S'el vostro cor

Madonna,

view been anticipated by such madrigals as in the seventh book. The duet ends with

son to go to Penelope, "Vanne alia madre," in ex that rhythm of 6/1 which Monteverdi favored in his late work to affections of urgency and tension. press Two scenes stand out in the second act: the first (scene 5) which
Ulisse's request to his

shows Penelope surrounded by her imploring suitors, and the extensive the suitors. finale (scene 1 2 ) which ends with the victory of Ulisse over balance structural with entities as musical both Monteverdi organizes and structure of fusion This expression and dramatic
expressiveness.
i,

'Malipiero, Opere, DC,

pp. 68 and 32, respectively.

354
is

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

and
aesthetic sense as
it is

as characteristic of his art

of his dramatic

and human strength. He thinks of the scene as an organism whose con tinuous growth must follow a preconceived form and direction, and succession of avoids an strung together with
carefully
arbitrary
parts

out structural logic. To this end, he constructs his scenes and, musically with repetitive forms, with refrains, soloistic, choral, speaking, operates
in particular, allows us to recognize In this respect, Monteverdi could, whole. the the factors that organize

or instrumental.

The

repetition,

and

in his madrigalesque work. the organization is with In the scene (5) Penelope and the suitors, chorus of three The refrain. double a with form rondo a established by their love is one return to Ama lovers, dunque, imploring Penelope in a new, but similar trio, AlFallegrezze refrain. When the lovers
did,

draw upon achievements

join

end of the scene, they introduce the concluding "ballo greco." Performed by eight "Mori," this dance, of which only the text has been preserved, recalls the ending of the Of eo. The arioso

dunque

al ballo, at the

strophe of Penelope,

style. plea in the style which Monteverdi used for the first time in the Plutone his Ballo delPlngrate. To add strength to his plea, the trio part of Ama dunque follows, and Penelope's denial presents the answer to the Then the order is reversed. The trio begins, Penelope answers, plea. and the suitors Pisandro, Anfinomo, and Antinoo again make their in dividual pleas, in three strophes and three different styles: the late song with a canzonetta, and the concerted the ballo
style,

amar, the denial to the suitors, is the second refrain. These two refrains present the dramatic situation in the composer gives to all other essence, and aided by their strength order. Each suitor presents his balanced and of the scene a logical parts a bass recitative Antinoo melodic in a different begins with

Non voglio

style

following

The trio and the response of Penelope appear style. The new trio and the ballo terminate the scene. As

again as refrains. a whole, the or

of this scene resembles that of the rondo cantata, which was ganization soon to come into use. Since the dramatic situation that is, the affec
tion of the scene
is stable and consists largely of a mutual imploring a uniform, organic structure could be directly derived from denial,

and

this effect.

The

last

tions, requires entirely thrust toward a dramatic climax, the victory of Ulisse. There are, in and two victories; the first fight is the fact, two actions, two

scene of the second act, which handles a variety of affec different organization, since it has a forward an

fights

These actions directed toward wrestling between Iro and Ulisse.

THE FINAL DRAMA

similar goals could hardly

355
structure, and the

be

fitted into a repetitive

the stile recitativo for the dialogue, which continuity of action requires has no particular form of its own. Monteverdi uses different musical them a similar ending in the but forms for the two
actions,

gives

martial

in pure dialogue, begins with consort the Antinoo's mockery of old, shabby beggar, who should in the nobles the of in remain than rather Eumete's with sight hogs his for and Iro fool The impertinence is joins in,
stile

conchato.

The

first action,

palace.

The suitors, anticipating the match which is ask granted, and Penelope's permission, great fun, takes place and Ulisse is victorious. The continuity of the dialogue and
challenged

by

stuttering Ulisse to a wrestling match.

any particular affection, to be regulated by a series of passions. Monteverdi put the dialogue in the stile recitative, but attempted to link together the beginnings of the melodic phrases in the alternations
its

more or

less

narrative character, void of

did not allow the musical

form

of the dialogue: the result detected correspondences.

is

but easily sequence of unsystematic of the characterization The consistent

a

comical stutterer Iro helps further to balance the dialogue recitatives other. The part of Ulisse is a mixture of the stile recitativo against each and the stile concitato, and all the parts converge on the stile concitato at the mention of "guerriero," "combattitor," and "lotta," which is an instrumental sinfonia. The second action, which

accompanied by

follows immediately, lends itself to a more disciplined organization. the Here, also, two situations of different emotional content challenged
structural sense of the composer.

The suitors, one by one, present royal the last has offered his to Penelope, who responds to each. gifts she decides that she will no longer deny their petition; she present, she will be the prize of the suitor who bends Ulisse's bow. Hardly has their suitors her decision than she regrets it, but the joy express

When

spoken

with in a regular madrigal, Lieta gloria. The succession of the suitors of the increase a songtheir gifts is musically characterized by gradual of the recitative, which is most marked in factors in the
like

melody

Antinoo's presentation, a genuine arioso throughout. Penelope's re remain constant, but rise to an ornamental style and to the sponses concitato in the section where she makes her promise. The competition once more the succession of the suitors. Here the martial itself
brings

competitive form. stylistic

affection

is

The

appearance

the stile concitato is the over-all prevalent and of one suitor after the other also sug

certain structural arrangement: the instrumental sinfonia is gested a used as a refrain that introduces each of the competitors. Since each

356

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

Amor, Anfinomo
Monteverdi
to Mars,
differentiates

Pisandro to suitor prays to a different god to to Penelope herself but Antinoo Beauty,

admission of failure, and this their strophic melodies. All end with the as in a uniform way as a kind of refrain. Penelope ending is rendered to Ulisse allows she sumes the stile concitato at the moment when and the da Guerra, at the bow. With the Sinfonia try his strength a most aided by Minerva, the stile concitato comes to of Ulisse, victory this of complicated climax. The musical organization appropriate characteristic of the text, required, indeed, scene, responsive to every the hand of a genius.

The third act is

delayed, once

by

to forgive Ulisse, and again Giuno, Giuno to Giove, Giove to Nettuno, her husband. Though dramati slowness in

by

weakest. The final outcome is twice dramatically the the Council of the Gods, where Minerva prays to

Penelope's

recognizing

the act displays extraordinary musical qualities particularly cally weak, the gods with the conclud in the initial Iro scene, in the two scenes of in Ericlea's soliloquy (scene 8) and in the final ing "Coro in Cielo," has special interest, scene of recognition. The first scene with Iro's solo an is It ridicola." irregular refrain for Iro's aria is marked as a "parte in misfortune terrible being deprived of in which Iro bemoans his
aria,

been killed. food and drink from the tables of the suitors who have all feature Monteverdi parodies every To make this lament ridiculous, bass of his ciacona the uses he even of his noble madrigalesque style;

torna. The beginning "Oh dolor, oh martir" madrigal Zefiro and the style of profound over "Oh" the stretches eight long measures, that instead of is increasingly exaggerated, until Iro decides expression around with an empty stomach he will commit suicide on the

own

running uccider spot: "Voglio

tion of the

me

stesso." It

is

the

first aria in

The

is distinguished, serious style the highly florid brilliant: scenes with the gods are particularly

new

which exaggera used for comic effect.

coloraturas over the

stile

recitativo of the

Minerva

part,

the virtuoso

up panded work. The refrain is actually twofold, in the strophic form, three times of the strophe, and the ritornello between the recurring at the end final recognition scene Monteverdi prescribes an In the strophes. orchestral accompaniment for Penelope's Illustrates o Cieli, and this
aria has particular structural significance: the melodic phrases for the lines of the strophe are repeated in alternation, while the orchestral

concertato of stile concertato of Nettuno's part, the madrigalesque a refrain it is for aria, ex is Giuno. Ericlea's solo artistically notable, Monteverdi's time in first the for scene a whole make to

THE FINAL DRAMA

the lines

357

and not a ritornello between accompaniment functions as of Ulisse and Penelope, Sospirato mio simultaneously. The final duet duets of the seventh book. sole, is modeled on the madrigalesque There can be no doubt that // Ritorno d* Ulisse in patria is Monte verdi's work, or that from a musical and aesthetic point of view it has
Monteverdi here carried over into the opera ,all the great value. dramatized styles of the madrigal, and in so doing raised the art of dramatic characterization far above his early works. Monteverdi is at
his greatest as an artistic interpreter of situations; but the situations must be human and passionate, not objective, inanimate, or purely nar rative. The Ritorno d' Ulisse does not abound with human conflicts and affections, but wherever the drama gives an opportunity for the of human passion and suffering, Monteverdi at once

presentation realizes that musical language of human pathos that is entirely his own. Even when the drama fails to formulate the full tones of affections in
conflicts

and humanized

tensions,

a master of form, style, riority as

and

Monteverdi demonstrates his supe artistic organization^ His trans

ference of the style of the dramatized madrigal to the opera is not Ritorno d' Ulisse gives renewed evidence merely a shift of style, for the that techniques and devices are justified only if they cease to exist for themselves and are fully identified with expressive intentions. As a achieve drama, the Ritorno d' Ulisse is a hybrid and does not completely was beginning to favor. the realism that the seventeenth

century

The

final step

toward th^txejfern was taken

in Busenello's Incoro-

nazione di Poppea. The human reality of passions in conflict was one Buse of the articles of Monteverdi's artistic faith, and on this ground than more nello's text must have inspired the composer considerably
Badoaro's work. Francesco Busenello, a Venetian lawyer, was for some time ambassador at the court of Mantua and became a leading librettist. him into contact with Monteverdi's His dramatic work had

brought

who was beginning to make a name for pupil and successor, Cavalli, himself as an operatic composer. At the age of seventy-five, Monte in verdi composed the Incoronazione, which was first performed

Venice in 1642, with great success. The Incoronazione was repeated as the for several years after Monteverdi's death and has been regarded ar its of the epoch. At all events, it has proved supreme music drama in modern revivals. What Monteverdi presumably set tistic
of his out to accomplish, he realized: the synthesis of his art, of the art There seventeenth the of century. time, and, prophetically, of the art were operas that in many ways were the equals of his, but of genuine
greatness

358

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

necessary synthesis basic dramatic conceptions of his work. Gluck's reform, for instance, was actually a return to the principles of Monteverdi. The Incoronazione is preceded by apologue which anticipates the

music dramas there was none. His dramatic work was so complete a to bring opera back to the that "reforms" were

theme of the dramaall-powerful love. The allegoric figures Fortuna, hold in the world Virtu, Amore, dispute as to the degree of power they the ruler over men. he is of man; the dispute leaves Amor victorious;

The drama

is

built

upon

principles

that began to
it still falls

become "modern"
short of the over

with the generation of Busenello, though

of intrigue that fill the librettos of the second half complicated stories of the century, ^econdary situations, contrasting actions, even some roles that are quite apart from the main theme, contribute to the dramatic conflicts and add to the variety of affections. The secondary

however, do not confound the spectator with a continual the dramatic accents, ^ut^ converge, in a contributory shifting of manner, upon the main theme of the drama: the love of Nero and comes to its fulfillment with Poppea which, despite all hindrances,
actions,

The chief conflict springs from the situation in Poppea's coronation. which the two lovers find themselves at the very beginning: Poppea further conflict and hindrance is married to Ottone, Nero to Ottavia. caused is the of lovers to the desires by Seneca, the Emperor's wise

private
is

counselor and the guardian of the law, who thinks that renouncing all and desires, the princes of the world should exhibit their pomp
to the

ceremony
against

world but never reveal their inner suffering. Since he

all

lawlessness, especially

among

kings, he opposes the plans

of

Nero and Poppea.

The story of the opera is as follows. In order to satisfy his ardent love of Poppea, Nero had dispatched Ottone on state business into
remote regions from which he unexpectedly returns. The opera opens with Ottone's return home, where he has unsuspectingly prepared to serenade his Poppea, in typically Italian fashion, "Apri un balcon Popdiscovers Nero's guard, the soldiers fast asleep in front of Poppea's room, and knows that Poppea has been disloyal in his absence: "Ah, perfida Poppea." His outburst of painful wrath awakens the sol

pea."

He

diers

whose conversation further

reveals the calamitous tidings to the

hidden Ottone. The morning dawns, and Nero and Poppea say fare well in a love duet, secretly witnessed by Ottone. After these three
scenes, skillfully drawn, the drama is ready to develop. Warnings, counterplots, and intrigues are contrived to restrain the lovers. The

THE FINAL DRAMA

359

and in this scene first warning comes from Arnalta, Poppea's old nurse, Monteverdi shows great skill in exploiting the contrast of affections for the sake of the musical structure: Arnalta's warning to Poppea to be is contrasted with Poppea's defiant and ware of Ottavia's
jealousy

With subtle feeling for dramatic contrast, there fol triumphant love. lows immediately a companion scene: Ottavia with her nurse. Arnalta's her fate, the fate of all helpless warning is justified; Ottavia laments swears Nero in she womanhood; Poppea's embrace, and pictures
shape. vengeance. Thus the plot Ottavia goes to Seneca for advice; but his advice is that of philo to maintain imperial dignity and to follow virtue. sophical wisdom This is no balm for the burning wounds of her jealousy, and she rejects the advice, her young page (valletto) taking her side. Disappointed,

takes

Ottavia leaves Seneca, and Pallas Athene appears to warn him that death will come to him on that very day; the warning anticipates the
intrigue of "

Seneca welcomes death: Poppea and Nero against him; yet Nero to strengthen the warning, Venga, venga la morte." As though evil plan. In a violent an set not upon yet immediately appears, though

in a musically, outstanding, rapid dialogue, Nero dispute, presented reveals his intention to dispose of Ottavia in order that he may marry

Poppea. In fulfillment of

his intention, Nero goes to Poppea, their meeting. In the midst of this love scene, of witness a secret being to become empress, uses her seductive Poppea, in her ardent ambition

Ottone

charms to persuade Nero to have Seneca killed; Nero gives his promise: at "in questa sera ei mora." In the seventh scene, Ottone and Poppea last meet, with the nurse Arnalta as an eavesdropper. Poppea recog and she nizes Ottone's undiminished love, but Fortuna has decided,
is

determined that her ambition

shall

know no

hindrance: "e cosi

is Fambitione sovra ogni vitio tien la monarchic" Ottone, left alone, woman and calculations cold despises deeply wounded by Poppea's but the body." He hood, "that imperfect sex that has nothing human from Poppea's court, who is in love a is joined by Drusilla, young lady to kill Poppea her of him. with feelings, Ottone plans Taking advantage aid. her with The second act begins with a scene in the house of Seneca, who is once more forewarned of his approaching death, this time by Mercurio. im His answer remains the same: "O me felice." His servants vainly

plore

him not to go to his death. In sharp contrast, the fifth scene, which is fragmentary in the extant version of the score, is an inter mezzo of a comic character, made up entirely of songs presented by

360

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

young
girl (vattetto

the page and a

shows Nero

in wild exuberance over Seneca's death,

and damigella). The sixth scene which seems to

love a free course and of his love he will sing: "Hor che give his Seneca e morto cantiam amorose canzoni." Ottone's important mono centers on his plan to murder Poppea. When he is logue (scene 8) who also demands Poppea's death, Ottone becomes joined by Ottavia, her agent as well. He persuades Drusilla to lend him her dresses that he is under the special may have easy access to Poppea's room. But Poppea she while her over watches who (scene 13). of sleeps Amor, protection Ottone enters in disguise, and when he advances to murder his wife,
his by Amor. Poppea awakens and Amor triumphant sings I wish to make you empress." for defended have "I you, Poppea, song: In the third act disaster befalls those who have plotted against the

he

is

barred

Emperor. Drusilla

is

arrested

and brought before Nero,

who by

all

manner of

tortures extorts her confession. Rather than accuse her be

loved Ottone, she declares herself guilty of the murder, but Ottone assures Nero of her innocence; in noble rivalry each wants to save the

and Ottone, united, are other; and Ottavia is finally accused. Drusilla be to condemned is sent into exile, and Ottavia put out to sea alone in

moving farewell: A Dio Roma, a Dio patria. the public coronation of Poppea, the with concludes drama The duet of Nero and Poppea, fur ti miro, pur ti the and of Love, victory
a boat. Ottavia sings her

go do.
In this last work Monteverdi adapted the musical form to the dramatic situation and to the nature and action of the characters more jftan ever before. The Jesuit was a wealth of forms, structures, styles,
that served the purpose of dramatic characterization. longer did he dramatic situation, although need to invent each form to express each

No

the

work contains many novelties that testify to his ever-creative mind,

his previous work. His in reaches its own madrigal greatest triumph the^music drama, and, in this respect, the Incoronazione di Poppea rises above // Ritorno

but for the most part, he was able to draw upon

Not only the duet forms, but many of the solos are unthinkable without the madrigal. It is thej^ariety^f affectipns that are musicaUy^erpreted, rather than the variety of characters. The
d'Ulisse in patria.

madrigal had served to present

specific, single,

and limited

affections,

and now,

in this

work

it

provides formal and structural inspiration as

aff ections.

well as musically defined

jn^soliloG^es, some of which have extraordinary scope, test the composer's capacity for uniting the dramatic and the musically com-

THE FINAL DRAMA

prehensive

361

form. Although

it

the stile recitativo, logue largely in

was the tradition to ^present the mono whose structure must Always be

invented anew, Monteverdi never used the pure stile reciutivo^ In the Incoronazione^the mono throughout extended monologues. are not only very long but also which and Ottone of Ottavia, logues are almost always divided into \velldramatic of the
greatest
intensity,

the recitative never serves a purely narrative 4efined parts, so that The first mono purpose but is always reserved for, .dramatic passages. are to Seven logue of Ottone illustrates this technique. strophic^ntities twice be distinguished within the musical

{orrD^mcGm^s^JSd

the recitative organize the whole complex, in perfect proportions. short aria on a repetitive bass figure with ritornello opens the mono
logue, 'anftKe the dwelling of
first
7

follows a long

"O dearest home, passage of heightened emotion, life and love/ is givenjaji short recitative. There my serenade-like strophic aria, three strophes on the same
and the
last

bass with ritornelli,

lengthy

recitative

with a brief arioso ending.

to an equally strophe passes directly The recitative is inserted

what do I see," when Ottone such is faced with the proof of Poppea's betrayal. Even long recitatives
at the dramatically decisive place: "Alas,
as this

one are not without subtle symmetries, almost imperceptibly

introduced, which give further articulation. In most soliloquies, just as in the first scene, the use of the full aria mono makes for a arrangement of the recitative. Shorter

symmetrical

logues

may

also use the aria,

would curb the

cal structure

recitative. Ottone's

but in a different way, since the full aria in which he decides to

monologue

musi is another example of the coincidence of punish Poppea's perfidy

and human affection; the affection of the monologue is and the division is made accordingly. Monteverdi pain and vengeance,
used the aria phrase "Otton, mio cor, torna in te stesso" as a refrain,
times on the same bass between the lines of the recita repeated three moment tive. When Ottone resolves to murder Poppea, at this decisive an has which in eminently recitative, the monologue is given wholly

dramatic function.
Ottavia has

two monologues of the

Regina

ture: Disprezzata
act.

in operatic litera highest rank Dio Roma in the last in the first act and

Both have such

cannot easily be made; imposes the passage in the middle of the To thejMtative. organization upon felice e godi," he first monologue, "In braccio di Poppea tu dimori
^

a continuity of affection that a division into parts a musical nevertheless, Monteverdi

applies

the words "godere, tbemastyle, on account of

lieto, felice,"

362

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

3,

which he designated using the aria rhythm

symmetrical
tones.

that

is

6/r.

By

thus

in typical aria style, he gives the recitative rendering a central passage the stile recitative of its poignant form without

depriving

The monologue

in

which Ottavia

bids farewell to

Rome,

to her

exhibits Monteverdi's ability to express the country, and to her friends, at its height. Such compositions as this fare pathos of human tragedy Monteverdi's well go far to explain the emotional reactions ascribed to structure handled the have to freely audiences. The monologue seems the of reminiscences has beginning, thus of a song, for the latter part is in the Its bisectional style of melody arrangement. indicating a most dramatic recitative, that indefinable mixture of

Monteverdi's
elements.

recitation, arioso,

and concitato, that can hardly be separated into

its

another form of the monologue occurs when Seneca speaks to bliss of faith. the unhappy Ottavia of the duties of royalty and of the a dignity affections: The beginning and the end convey the dominant are pre Both faith. constant a and befitting the empress' high position is section middle the governed by sented insti^ejeciutivo, while long melodic styles of madrigalesque origin, so that the style changes three unique arrange times in accordance with the change of affections. occurs in the scene (II, 1 3 ) in which Amor watches ment of a solo
Still

part

out caution, for human beings, living always in darkness, are wont to think themselves secure from evil when they close their eyes. At the the solo continues with a large line, "O sciocchi o frali sense mortali,"
of four stanzas with ritornello. strophic song in the Venetian manuscript strophic structure

over the sleeping Poppea. Appropriately given in recitative is a short Amor expresses his fear that Poppea is sleeping with passage in which

The beginning
is

of this
the

marked "Aria"

of this term in Monteverdi's dramatic scores. only appearance In the jn^aoLogues, or solo^ scenes, of the Incoronazione, Monte verdi's creative inventiveness came into full play. There is not a single of the same formal arrangement in any of the monologues;
repetition

each is new and unique. For the general ductus of the melodic motion Monteverdi could make use of his earlier achievements, but for the structure of the stile recitative in the monologue, he had no models,

because the dramatic situations were never identical. In the case of the duets, the texts to which they are set have a

one

character that Is moreTyrical than dramatic, and since they dwell on affection, the madrigals could be used more freely as models. Or

duet does not dinarily the

work with the pure

stile recitative,

and even

THE FINAL DRAMA

fully absorbed

363

where it occurs, it is by other elements of the madrigal. the true duet form and that of the between differentiate must also as in the monologue^ the stile recitative may be In

We

dialogue.

dialogue,

Hse3ToFthe purpose of

a climactic affection. The meeting expressing of Dttone and Poppea (I, n) has a musical structure that organizes the whole scene on a grandiose scale. It is a double strophic aria in

and with two ritornelli, all doubled in order to give the dialogue an alternating form and also a superior, it ends at the emotional climax with a recita uniting organization; and
alternation

on two

bass melodies

tive

melody

in alternation.

The

stile recitativo is also

employed in the scene of

it

Brasilia's

exam

ination" before

Nero, where

seems an appropriate medium for the

excited questioning of the suspected culprit. Here the aria style quick, Nero also gives a pattern to the line of the dialogue; for instance, when form. the concitato martial stile the Drusilla orders tortured, provides In this scene, however, the recitative is characteristically transformed

by the mixture
the
stile

of

two

styles,

concitato and great intensity

of utter simplicity, which is love and innocence are struggling fiercely with each other. ever the discourse proceeds with a rapid alternation of the speakers, the dialogues can use the medium of the recitative without encounter of organization, and in such passages Monte ing complicated problems without forcing verdi establishes the continuity of the phrases

emotional excitement being expressed by by Monteverdi's late arioso style used when Drusilla admits that in her soul

When

logical

them

into

any predetermined

recitativo
situation,

when

the affection

is

structure. >uch dialogues use the stile the direct result of the specific dramatic

and the arioso melody when the affection is more general and not closely linked with a tragic moment.Jlt is in such subtle proce dures that Monteverdi reveals himself as a genius who weighs one form in such a way as to make the dramatic development against another
serve the logical process of the music. The duets proper, which are considerably less frequent than the arioso or recitative, follow closely the structural dialogue in either out ideas which arose within the madrigalesque style, and would not be to In of respect of place in the seventh and eighth books madrigals. one than more for teacher the these structures Monteverdi became and imitated so many were of musicians.

repeated They generation times that in later periods they often verged on the commonplace, when handled by those who were incapable of unifying the especially
affection

and the

structure.

364

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

note that most of the structures adopted

It is interesting to
'

by

to repetitive Monteverdi's contemporaries and successors were related of the bass, for the late music drama, like the madrigals, arrangements music. demonstrates that the bass is the all-powerful element in baroque of arias and recitatives, in solos and dialogues, In innumerable

passages in every single composi in instrumental sinf onie and ritornelli, in fact with tion of the music drama, the bass plays its decisive role, operating has these of One only in two principal forms. stereotyped material or fixes, the harmonic tones with which the bass at once circumscribes,

harmonic design for the whole passage. Such a bass is not melodious, of a melody. This bass "motif" may be though it has the full length scheme is to remain the same, or unchanged, if the harmonic
repeated
transposed,
if

harmonic variations are intended; or merely

its

rhythmic

or any other variation imposed on it; repeti pattern may be repeated, this bass motif. The tion is, at all events, not an indispensable feature of which the bass is as in stile the of concertato, other form is an offspring
active and lively in motion as the upper parts but equally stereotyped, a contra for it consists mainly of figurative material. It lends itself to
to the other parts, and the short imitations between puntal relationship achieve the intricacies of contrapuntal and the bass upper parts often Both these forms of the bass may underlie the structures of

writing. strict arias or duets or dialogues. The duets, however, impose a further ness upon the bass by adding a repetition that is in the nature not only of the strophic aria but of the more rigid type of the basso ostinato. the pnj^triojCthe Incoronazione, Strophic repetition is found in the servants of e doke vita troppo, sung by the "Famigliari," /Questa an ostinato-]ike Seneca, while in the preceding Non morir, Seneca,

prologue: ceeds in equal tones (half notes) and in diatonic descent through the whole octave: g-G. This motif is repeated as mostinatOj but each repe* * * * tition lowers the descending scale by a tone: g-G; f-FJ; e-E; d-G.

of a chromatically rising motif is used. repetition The role that the strict types of repetitive bass structures are to play] in the duets of the drama is anticipated in the duet of Fortuna and VirtuJ Human non e, non e celeste core. The bass here pro in the

has an additional, different ending. repetition, incomplete, of structural interest that the lowering of the scale passes d. This is exactly the motif of through the range of a fourth: g, f#, e, the basso ostinato for the finale: the duet of Poppea and Nerone after the coronation. Human non e has the duet in strict canon during the

The fourth
It is also

THE FINAL DRAMA

first

365

upper

two repetitions of the bass; during the last two, however, the two voices are more loosely linked by free imitation and parallelism.
the figurative concertato, style follows closely

The melodic

which

is

because of the mention of the rivalry with the particularly appropriate of Amor, and the restless duet contrasts sharply with the calm, powers

even persistent bass. The duet between Nerone and

lar

his

companion Lucano has

(II,
,

a structure

of equal importance and, since it occupies a full scene

6) of particu

and stylistically differentiated, complexity. Sectionally organized cantata and belongs with the scene with all its variety resonbles.

Monteverdi's last madrigals. of Poppea's feminine charms,

in the dramatic development,

The
is

is lyrically descriptive no part in itself, since it plays complete

text,

which

and the scene would have the character a highly dramatic, repeated exclama for not of an intermezzo, werejt Nero's and out lIHwrT "Ahi, Ahi destin." With char tion, emphatic, this acteristic ingenuity, Monteverdi used this exclamation to relate an extraordinary device he con scene to the drama as a whole, and

by

terms. The profoundly intellectual dis purely musical veys of Monteverdi's art is revealed in this scene, whose music we are position familiar with in all its details from his madrigals. He has made the
this link in

scene dramatic by eliminating the large banquet scene which would tend to give the section the character of an intermezzo. "^TThe scene is divided into four parts, the third of which, "Idolo mio
cebrarti io vorrei,"
is

a short recitative

by Nero

that

is

followed by

his

ritornello aria Son rubin amorosi,

bothntornello and

aria

basses. The first two sections of the scene are given whose elaborate concerted style and figurative ornamentation require a good deal of vocal virtuosity. Words such as "cantiamo amorose forth a florid style canzoni," "ridente," and "glorie" have here called handled as a free is modeled on the madrigal. Structurally the section the florid and the bass of upper parts refrain, with a musical recurrence on "cantiamo." The second section, though directly connected with the first, is set off by a new rhythmic meter. Lucano gives an extended of feminine charms, while Nero, with Poppea and his aria in

having similar over to a duet,

praise
is,

love (that

his destiny) in

mind, interjects

his passionate

exclamation,

"Ahi destin." This whole dramatic duet aria is based on a basso ostinato which makes a diatonic descent througK a fourth: g, f#, e, d, in long, Fortuna and Virtu declared even, rhythmic values. In the prologue, Amor the victor Amor the lord over man's fate and that theme finds musical expression in both the form and its symbolic connotations.

366
Here

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

at the close

and love Nero's Poppea is the incarnation of love, musical expression, with the same the finds the theme again destiny; same symbolism of affection in the musical structure; the last duet links

the end to the beginning. There is yet another type of duet form, whose organization depends on the bass, but in a different manner. This is a free^^^3jtructure whose motif forms itself in the course of the composition and is re
ostinato fashion; at the same time there takes peated in the customary of affection. This type occurs in the meeting of place a^oncentration Both are jubi Poppea and Nero shortly before the coronation (III, 5) life new their on which come has the lant that begins. After
.

day

finally

a long dialogue in stile recitativojsjwzll asjiriaj: orm, the two join in the with their duet, joyfully singing that no further delay will interfere with an increase of affection, with the statement desires.

Together

in the text that one has stolen the heart

bass congeals, as

motif is because of the passage through a fourth (e, f #, gjf, a/a, g, f, e) it recurs as an ostinato in the second part of the duet, again with a renewed concentration of affection, and from then on to the end of the scene,
;

The

from the other, musically the were, into a motif and moves on as a basso ostinato. not the "symbol of love," but has a certain resemblance
it

there

is

a gradual

growth of

of intensity in the expression

mutual love

"I shall be lost in thee"

and a second ostinato

is

formed, repeating

the same octave in descent (a-A). The diatonic descent through the octave and the fourth are the bass motifs which Monteverdi prefers
for ostinato structures and are always symbolic of affections at their
height.

The
It

last

ecstatic outburst of love

duet of Poppea and Nero, Pur ti miro, pur ti godo, is an heightened by the fulfillment of all aspiration.
its
7

exemplary structure, tonal beauty, and the last composition Monteverdi wrote, sweeping his noble efforts and sets the to it is a noble pattern for operatic ending its of the so that full whole baroque era, importance can compositions
has often been praised for
affection.
If this is

only be
roots of
[n

felt in

ture of the duet

its

the arias of operas after Monteverdi's death. The struc is that of a fully developed da cajjQ aria (ab:ba). The form lie in the duet of Fortuna and Virtu in the prologue,
after the

view of

this intimate relationship,

:omposed the prologue

one can assume that Monteverdi drama had been completed a pro-

7 There is no need to mention all the quotations of this duet in the secondary literaure Special attention may, however, be called to the essay of Egon Wellecz, who iiscusses the significance of the basso ostinato; see his "Cavalli und der Stil der

renetianischen Oper," in

StzMW,

(1913), 4off.

THE FINAL DRAMA

fur
ti ti

367

cedure in keeping with the habits of the time. The duet in the prologue of does not have the da capo structure, but the form of the first part
miro, pur
is is

order,

structurally

are repeated in reversed godo> whose two sections identical with the duet Human non e. The pstinato

motif
finale

the basis of the structure; and the motif of the ostinato in the the symboli"c"theme g, f J, e, d. The ostinato underlies the first section (#), but a new bass formula is used for the second section (). Thus, the finale is beyond the concentrated form of the pro
is

expanded of the upper voices is often the same. the organization though logue, links the upper parts together, and canon the Similarly, in the finale The strictness of structure section. the second into is also extended of affection, as though form the with to coincide seems again highest

an outburst of such proportions demanded the artistic control of the At the same time, the flow of melody is restrained greatest discipline. of symmetrical balance. The voices in the duet sense an unerring by move within so close a range that the phrase of one voice seems to be and commensurate response to the phrase of the other a the
logical

madrigalesque duets. The melody has an almost intoxicating sensuousness and euphony that was the consequence of Monteverdi's growing simplicity and direct ness. This unity between a vital sensuousness and the rational control of carefully balanced symmetries in the melody, between climactic
style

Monteverdi had studiously refined in

his

affection

and a

has a classic perfection only disciplined structure,

artist

achieved

when an
by

has analyzed his

medium and

discovered

by

experience,
art.

or learning,
last

Monteverdi's

his by inborn wisdom, the secret essence of work, the Incoronazione di Poppea, is a classic

achievement of complete equilibrium of all the forces active in an artistic form. In this last work Monteverdi attained the perfection he

had been striving for from the beginning, in which ture, and form and expression are one.

art fulfills its

na

With the Incoronazione

and
last

di

his life, too,

was near

its

end.

Poppea Monteverdi's work was finished, He was almost seventy-six, and these

The Madrigali Guerrieri, the Selva years had been most fruitful. additional compositions that several and four music dramas, Morale, after his death were composed within four or five years, and
appeared
the composer felt his age and the strain of his efforts. Early in 1643 Monteverdi submitted a request for leave to the procurators of St. Mark's. He wanted to visit once again the scenes of his youth, of his

368
on

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

of his
rise to

first successes,

fame.

Though frail and

his journey to

Cremona and Mantua.

He

became

declining, he set out a witness to his

own renown

and the deep admiration felt by lovers of his art. Many held in his honor as tokens of devotion, too many, in were receptions his age. His strength began to fail, and he felt that the a of man for fact, end was near. "Like a swan that, feeling the fatal hour near, approaches the water and, in it, a 'Musico gentile/ passes on to another life singing,
haste returned

with suaver harmony than ever, the sweeter tones, so Claudio in great
to Venice, the

Queen
a

of

all

waters."

Upon his

arrival

performed vanni Rovetta, Monteverdi's pupil and successor, conducted the music, and all Venice attended, mourning. Monteverdi was buried in the few of the church of S. Maria dei Frari. Cappella di S. Ambrogio later the Venetians again gathered in the church of S. Maria dei days the great musician with a commemoration which Frari to honor

few days later died on November in Venice, Monteverdi fell ill, the most solemn funeral service the of 29, 1643. By order procurators, of the state of Venice. Gio a tribute as Mark's St. at was
and

again

Matteo Caberloti has described in Laconismo delk alte qualiti di Claudio Monteverde. "With truly royal pomp a catafalque was erected in the Chiesa de Padri Minori de Frari, surrounded by so many candles that the church looked like a night sky luminous with stars." All the of Venice took part. Monteverdi's old friend and companion

from the days of Mantua, Giovanni Battista Marinoni, now maestro di of Padua, was in charge of the solemn music. cappella at the cathedral The fame of Monteverdi was unsurpassed. When he was called the
"most celebrated composer of the century," or "the greatest musician of Europe," such praise was not mere politeness or flattery in the an acknowledgment of reality. Upon re language of the day; it was
Monteverdi's death, the ambassadors at Venice ceiving the news of hastened to inform their home governments. Even compositions were named after him. He could not have asked for greater success, for

singers

and approval of his work. greater admiration

When

a few months after Monteverdi's death Marinoni published

lllustre, E Molto Reverendo Signor Claudio Monteverde (1644), he paid tribute in the manner of the time. Some fifty poems and a necrology by Caberloti were dedicated to the sovereign in the realm of mtisic, of which he

the Fiori Foetid Raccolti nel Funerale del Molto

8 Matteo Caberloti, Laconismo delle alte qualita di Claudio Monteverde (in Marinoni, have no doubt that the "Musico gentile," with reference Fiori Poetici, 1644), p. n. to the swan and thereby to Monteverdi, is actually a citation of Tasso, Gerusalemme

We

Liberat^ XVI, 42, "Qual musico gentil."

THE FINAL DRAMA

knew
all,

369

the natural, the human, and the artistic:

et

Claudio in Terra, Naturale,

strana."

humana,

L'artificiale ancor,

Although the effusion of such eulogies most of these poems, in spite of their poetical mediocrity, testified time, to to Monteverdi's effect on his contemporaries and to his greatness, the human aspects of his work. When they praised the eminence of his and of the incredible power of art, they spoke of the human affections his music over men's minds and emotions. From the Of eo on, Monte verdi's music, with its human qualities, had exercised the most powerful of his audience; his listeners were unanimous influence on the
feelings

"La Musica reggava che non e was the custom of the

a Johann Albert Bannius, a friend of Descartes', thorough Monteverdi's of student music, wrote connoisseur and a most intelligent airs de cour French and Italian the that William Boswell madrigals
as to this.

deserve little praise since they merely attempt to realize the indispen sable relationship between word and tone. In this respect the French are even a bit better than the Italians, but though this music may be de
lightful,
it

does not move the

human soul. Monteverdi alone is capable of

terms of pathos; only his music has the "zinroerende speaking in musical 9 to move the human mind). Music must be ex kracht" (the

power

pressive

of affections and must

move

the aff ections of

felt in
all

man

that

is

the

his composition.
is

force which Monteverdi's contemporaries rather singular poem concludes the Fiori Foetid.

the elements of
It

a Sonetto Musicale, by Padre Maestro Paolo Piazza, in which he re

lates

the rhythmic values to the specific individual affections which he lists, and speaks of affections in the "counterpoint of human actions" delle humane attioni) Monteverdi himself had taught
(//

contrapunto

that musical

Caberloti brought the eulogy of his Laconimo to its climax when he as the molder of affections which are the essence praised Monteverdi of all his music. "Claudio alone possessed the total comprehension of

rhythm

is

bound up with human

affections.

the affections; at his will he engendered the affectionate dispositions in the human minds and moved the senses to that climactic delight which in his dramatic music, where "the to he

conveyed

them," especially

affections varied

slaved man to the

through the labyrinth

nature.

from moment to moment." Thus Monteverdi en human dispositions of his music; he guided his listener of affections and in so doing unfolded human

The experience of his music is an experience of humanity. Caberloti gave Monteverdi's music this distinction on the basis of a
et

See W. J. A. Jonckbloet and J. P. N. Land, Correspondance de Const. Huygens (Leyde, 1882), pp. Lxmf., cxxvraff.

oeuvre musicales

370

THE YEARS OF FULFILLMENT

comparison of the aif actions of his compositions with those of Greek music, as they were related to the Dorian, Phrygian, Aeolian, and Lydian harmonies. Whether he was right or wrong about Greek music and this particular ancient doctrine, he is comparing Monteverdi's music with the general effects of Greek music rather than with its of particular forms, and finds that Monteverdi has become the equal the ancients; the power of music over man has been reborn in him. When Monteverdi introduced a new style for an affection he felt he had neglected, he himself believed that he had discovered a new power in the wealth of antiquity and that he had become the equal of the Greek musicians. Caberloti even thought Monteverdi surpassed them, for never had the human affections been expressed so comprehensively in the work of one artist. It was the conquest of human affections that gave Monteverdi his is the over triumph antiquity. In his embodiment of human passions, he has that forms of music. He created modern musicianship prophet cultivated ever since, and laid the foundation of the principal concepts of melody, harmony, style, and structure. He made his artistic work the medium of a message concerning man and human nature in which the work of art is inseparable from human existence. Monteverdi created
his work on the foundation of the basic truths of the "Oracolo della Musica."

human nature. He was

BIBLIOGRAPHY
THIS BIBLIOGRAPHY is selective; it has been limited strictly to the literature on Monteverdi. All general histories of music and monographs on subjects of the music of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have been omitted even if they contain chapters on, or special references to, Monteverdi. There are enough satisfactory and comprehensive bibliographies on ba roque music available. Two admirable works, however, hav.^ been listed for the benefit of the reader: that of Carl von Winterfeld, and the new
standard history of the madrigal by Alfred Einstein. None of the small, but rather general, articles which appeared in newspapers have been included

numerous whenever works of Monteverdi, such were revived in modern performances. In view of the enor mous vastness, the literature of general culture, on subjects of literature, poetry, art, artistic theories, philosophy, religion, etc., though used, had to be omitted completely; even Molmenti's classic study on private life in Venice could not be listed. For any selection from that vast literature would have been questionable, no matter how carefully selective the list might
here; they are particularly
as his operas,

have been.

ADEMOLLO, ALESSANDRO. La beir Adriana ed altre virtuose del suo tempo alia corte di Mantova (Citta di Castello, 1888). "I Basile alia corte di Mantova [1603-1628]," Giornale Ligustico, XI (Genoa, 1885). Anonymous. "Preziose scoperte di autografi di Claudio Monteverdi," La.
.

Vol. 38 (Florence, 1937), PP- 69-70. "An English Pupil of Monteverdi," The Musical Anti quary, IV (1912-1913), 236-257. Artusi ovvero delle imperfettioni della moderna musica. Artusi, G. M. (Venice, 1600 [?]; 2nd edition, 1603). [Artusi, Giovanni Maria]. Discorso secondo mvsicale di Antonio Braccino da Todi. Per la Dichiaratione della lettera porta ne* Scherzi musicali del Sig. Claudio Monteverde (Venice, G. Vincenti, 1608). Collezione di
Bibliofilia,

Arkwright, G. E. P.

trattati e musiche antiche edite' in fac-simile. Bollettino bibliografico musicale (Milan, 1934).

BENVENUTI, GIACOMO.
Vol. RMI, "
.

"II

manoscritto

della'

Incoronazione di Poppea,"

'II

41 (1937), pp. 176-184. Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria'

17, 1942). Musici alia Corte dei

non

e di

Monteverdi,"

II

Gazzettino

(Venice,
Bertolotti,

May

A.

Gonzaga

in

Mantova

dal secolo

XV al

1891). Borren, Charles van den. Messa a 4, edited Preface.

371

XVlll (Milan,

by A.

Tirabassi (Brussels, 1914),

372

BIBLIOGRAPHY

" Patria' de Claudio Monte Borren, Charles van den. 'II ritorno d'Ulisse in No. 3 (Brussels, verdi," Extrait de la Revue de VUniversite de Bruxelles,

1925).

ducale di San CAFFI, FRANCESCO. Storia della wwsica sacra, nella gia cappella Marco in Venezla dal 1318 al 1797, 2 vols. (Venice, 1858). del R. Institute Veneto Canal, Pietro. "Della Musica in Mantova," Memorie di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti (Venice, 1858). Della musica in Mantova, notizie tratte principalmente dal? archivio
.

Gonzaga (Venice, 1881). Vol. Carse, Adam. "Monteverde and the Orchestra," The Sackbut,
(London, 1921), pp. 12-17. Castera, R. de. "L'Orfeo de Monteverdi,"
(Brussels, 1904), pp. 286-288.

2,

No.

Guide musical. Vol.

50,

No.

13

Cesari, Gaetano.
///.

"Die Entwicklung der Monteverdischen Kammermusik," Kongress der IMG, Haydn Zentenarfeier (Leipzig- Vienna, 1909),
J

pp. 152-156. . "L 'Orfeo' di Claudio Monteverdi

all'

'Associazione di

Amici

della

Musica* di Milano,"

RM1, XVII

(1910), 132-178.

Attilio. "I Madrigali di Claudio Monteverdi," Musica, II (Flor 943), 3-34. Collaer, Paul. "L'orchestra di Claudio Monteverdi," Musica, II (Florence,

Cimbro,
ence,

1943), 86-104. u . La Representation du Corps et de PAme, de Cavalieri Le Ballet des Ingrats, de Monteverde," Le Monde Musicale, XLVII (Paris, 1936),

108-109.
Courville, Xavier de. "L'Ariane de Monteverdi,"
22), pp. 23-37.

RM,

An.

3,

No.

(1921-

DALLAPICCOLA, LUIGI. "Per una rappresentazione de 'II ritorno di Ulisse in di Claudio Monteverdi," Musica, II (Florence, 1943), 121-136. patria' Damerini, Gino. "Venezia al tempo di Monteverdi," Musica, II (Florence,
1943), 105-120. Davari, Stefano. "La Musica a Mantova. Notizie biografiche di maestri di musica, canton e suonatori presso la Corte di Mantova nei secoli XV, XVI, XVII, tratte dai document! dell' Archivio storico Gonzaga," Es-

trattodellaRivi$taStoricaMantovana,Vo\.I,Fasc. 1-2 (Mantua, 1884). Notizie biografiche del distinto maestro di musica Claudio Monte
.

verdi (Mantua, 1884).

DufHocq, Enrico Magne. "L'Orfeo di Claudio Monteverdi. Commento di Enrico Magne Duffloca," Edizioni sonore Musiche Italiane Antiche.
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EINSTEIN, ALFRED. The Italian Madrigal, translated by Alexander H. Krappe, Roger H. Sessions, and Oliver Strunk; 3 vols. (Princeton, Prince ton University Press, 1949).
Epstein, Peter. "Zur Rhythmisierung eines Ritornells von Monteverdi, VIII (1926), 416-419. "Monteverdi in unserer Zeit," Die Musik, XXII (Berlin, 1929-30), 86-88.

AfMW,
.

IBLIOGRAPH Y

373

e coreografici in FERRARI, PAOLO EMILIO. Spettacoli drcmrmatico-musicali Parma dalFanno 1628 all' anno 1883 (Parma, 1884). Rudolf von. "Claudio Monteverdi," Neues Musikblatt, Vol. XVI,

Fischer,

No.

32, pp. 7-9.

GALVANI, LIVIO Niso. (See Salvioli, Giovanni.) * GOLDSCHMIDT, HUGO. Studien zur Geschichte der italienischen Oper,
vols. (Leipzig, 1901-4).
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"Monteverdi's Ritorno d'Ulisse," SIMG, IV (1902-3), 671-676. "Claudio Monteverdi's Oper: II ritorno d'Ulisse in patria," SIMG, IX (1907-8), 570-592.
.

HAAS, ROBERT. "Zur Neuausgabe von Claudio Monteverdis "

d'Ulisse in Patria/

'II

Ritorno

(Vienna, 1922), 3-42. " Heuss, Alfred. "Die Instrumental-Stucke des 'Orfeo,' SIMG, 3), 175-224.
.

StzMW, IX

IV (1902-

"Ein Beitrag zu dem Thema: Monteverdi als Charakteristiker in seinen Madrigalen," Festschrift zum 90. Geburtstage Sr. Excellenz des Wirklichen Geheimen Rates Rochus Freiherrn von Liliencron uber-

reicht

von Vertretern deutscher Musikivissenschaft

(Leipzig,

1910),

Vol. 65 Howes, Frank. "Notes on Monteverde's Orfeo," Musical Times,

pp. 93-109.

(London, 1924), pp. 509-511. of Monteverdi," Hughes, Charles W. "Porter, Pupil

1934), 278-288.

MQ, XX (New York,

KlavierbeKINKELDEY, OTTO. "Luzzasco Luzzasdii's Solo-Madrigale mit

,. gleitung," SIMG, IX ( 1907-8), 538-565Concitato von Claudio Kreidler, Walter. Heinrich Schutz und der Stile Monteverdi, dissertation, University of Bern (Stuttgart, 1934). Monteverdis Toppea, Kfenek, Ernst. "Meine Textbearbeitung von
,

Anbruch, XVIII (Vienna, 1936), 106-108. "Zur musikalischen Bearbeitung von Monteverdis
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-. "Zur TTr"
1LJTj.

Poppea,

LXXVI
-.

(Zurich, 1936), 545-555.

~*

2 3, Bearbeitung von Monteverdis Toppea, dramaturgischen it _!.__ 7-^"VT^^ ^ /"\Tiot^r\^ T^\TTI T1"\ *?> "9C\ Wiener Musikzeitsckrift, Nos. 31-33 (Vienna, 1937), pp. 22-3Werke Cavalli s Kretzschmar, Hermann. "Die Venezianische Oper und die
*

erne

undCesti's," VfMW, VIII (1892), 1-76. "Monteverdi's Incoronazione di Poppea,

.

'*

VfMW, X

(1894),

483-530.

drame lyrique: Claudio LALOY, Louis. "La musique. Un pr6curseur du (Paris, 1921), pp. 653-664. Monteverdi," Revue de Paris, An. 28, Vol. als Madrigalkomponist," SIMG, Leichtentritt, Hugo. "Claudio Monteverdi

XI (1909-10),

255-291.
II

monodie Monteverdiane," Musics, Lupo, Bettina. "Sacre

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No.

10 (Pans,

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1-25.
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-.

"Monteverdi and the Orchestra," ML, XXI (1940), 230-245. " "Monteverdi's 'Lamento d'Arianna,' The Music Review, I ( 1940),

144154. -154.
( von. Johannes Gabrieli Winterfeld, rfeld, Carl

und

sein Zeitalter, 2 vols. (Ber-

lin,

1834).

EDITIONS
ONLY
CRITICAL, historical editions have

been

listed.

All arrangements of

or complete works such as the operas, i.e., the edi separate compositions tions by Vincent d'Indy, Kf enek, Redlich, Westrup, and others have been omitted since each would require more or less elaborate comments.

L'incoronazione di Poppea, facsimile del manoscritto It. Cl. 4. N. 439 della Biblioteca nazionale di S. Marco in Venezia. Introduzione di Giacomo
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L'Orfeo, favola pastorale in un prologo e cinque atti di Alessandro Striggio Realizzazione della partitura del 1609 e riduzione per canto e figlio. piano forte a cura di Giacomo Benvenuti. I Classici musical! italiani, Vol. 9, Milan,
1942.

Messa a 4. Selva morale, 1641. Ed., A. Tirabassi. Preface by Charles van den
Borren. Brussels, 1914.
[L'incoronazione di Poppea] Berceuse d'Arnalta, air inedit de Tlncoronazione di Poppea (1642), (Acte II, sc. 12) de Claudio Monteverdi. Realisa tion de la bass continue et traduction de Ch. van den Borren, RM, An, 3,

No.

9,

Suppl. musical, July

i,

1922.

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e i primordi La musica in Cremona nella seconda meta del secolo deU'arte monteverdiana: Madrigali 34635 voci di M. A. Ingegneri, Sacrae cantiunculae e Canzonette di C. Monteverdi, a cura di Gaetano Cesari. Con prefazione di Guido Pannain su appunti di G. Cesari, Istituzioni e monumenti delTarte musicale italiano, Vol. VI, Milan, 1939.

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schaft fur Musikforschung (Robert Eitner), 1910.

L'incoronazione di Poppea; Hugo Goldschmidt, Studien zur Geschichte der italienischen Oper im 17. Jahrhundert, Leipzig, 1901-1904, Vol. II.
ritorno d'Ulisse in patria. Die Heimkehr ^es Odysseus. Mit deutscher "Obersetzung und ausgesetztem basso continuo bearbeitet von Robert Haas, Denkmaler der Tonkunst in Osterreich, XXIX. Jahrgang, Vol. 57, Vienna,
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1922.

Tutte le opere di Claudio Monteverdi nuovamente date in luce de G. Francesco Malipiero, 16 vols. in 17. Asolo, 1926-1942.
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Monteverdis Orfeo, Faksimile des Erstdrucks der Musik, eingeleitet und herausgegeben von Adolf Sandberger, Augsburg, 1927. Torchi, Luigi. L'arte musicale in Italia; Vol. 4, 39-72: Cruda Amarilli, Mirtillo, Sonata sopra 'Sancta Maria'; Vol. 6, 197-239; II ballo delle ingrate; Vol. 6, 135-195: II combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda.

INDEX
Academic de poesie
.

et

de musique,

ballet

balletto, 297,

Accademia Accademia Accademia

186 degli Intrepidi, degl' Invaghiti, 224 Florida, 307

de cour, 245 334 Banchieri, Adriano, 307

Bannius, John Albert, 369 Bardi, Pietro de', 46, 4711., 158, 226, 291 Barera (Barella), Rodiano, 78 Barges, Antonio, 60
barzoletta, 53f.
Basile,

Achillini, Claudio, 312 affections, 445., 208, 226f., 242, 299, 320,

347 33' 334* 34 1 * 343 66 > 3$9 f 357' 359 ff -> 3 Agnelli, Scipione, 277, 3031.
323*
-

f-

f-

354

Adriana, 265
continuo,
163^,
198,

Basile, Margherita, 310

Agricola, Alexander, 19, 27 Alberti, Filippo, 135 Alberti, Leon Battista, 53, 224 126 Allegretti, Antonio, Amadino, Ricciardo, 106

basso

201,

212,

2I5ff., 2I9f., 222, 231, 249, 255, 282,

284, 287, 300, 317, 321, 323, 327, 332, 336ff., 34of., 352f. basso ostinato, 121, 128, 2 2 in., 295,
3 24f., 338f., 343, 353,

Amati

family, 79

364^.

Ambrosini, Pietro, 126 Amerighi da Caravaggio,

angelo, 278f.

Michel

basso seguente, 201, 217, 249 Bembo, Pietro, 1351*., i47f. Bentivoglio, Ercole, 135, 311

Amidano, Marc' Antonio (Abbot), 82 Amphion, 27

Andreini, Giovanni Battista, 305 Andreini, troupe of comedians, 238, 305, 308 Anerio, Felice, 67 Animuccia, Giovanni, 84

Berchem, Jacques, 84
Berg,

Adam,

63
67, 126

Berg & Neuber,

Antonius de Episcopis, 319

Arcadelt, Jacques,
58, 62, 84,

bergerette, 57 Bemhard, Christoph, 207 Berni, Francesco, 47n. Bianchi, Vincenzo, 322 Biat, Paolo, 239

148

Archilei, Vittoria, 158 Ardizzino, Count, 297

aria:

bicmium, 83 Binchois, Gilles,

2 if., 119 Boccaccio, Giovanni, 189

da capo, 227, 366; seicento, 129

Aristotle, 348 ars nova, 21,23

ars perfecta, 18, 24f., 29, 35, 41, 48"Artusi, Giovanni Maria, 43 f., 17 in., 210 i84f., 196^., 2oif., 204f M 208, Attaignant, Pierre, 57

Boethius, Anicus Manlius Torquatus Severinus, 22, 27, 299 Bonaiuncta, Giulio, 66 Borghese, Cardinal, 248, 265 (Pope), 248, 265, 270 Borghese, Paul

Borgo, Cesare, 107

Augsburg, Diet

of, 51

Borromeo, Carlo, 8 if. Borromeo, Federico, .65, 208

Boswell, William, 369 Brumel, Antoine, 28 BruneUeschi, Filippo, 37 Brunswick, Dukes of, 272 Buonarroti, Michelangelo, Buontalerrti, Bernardo, 158 Burgundian school, 22, 27

Avaux, Count

d',

269

Bacchino, Teodoro, 169 Bach, Johann Sebastian, 52n., 325 Badoaro, Giacomo, 347^., 357 Badoero, Federico, 32 Baif t Jean-Antoine de, 17 iff.
ballade, 56

37f.,

56

Burney, Charles,
378

<

INDEX
Busenello, Francesco,

379

Busnois, Antoine, 2 if., zyf.

Buttigli, Marcello, 312

Chieppio, Annibal, 155^, 246 Christine of Lorraine, 157

Cicognini, G. A., 347
di Pepo), 37, 39, 4on. Cipriano de Rore, 4 if., 62, 64, 66, 7 iff., 125, 131, 138, 204 classicism, 24, 38, 367 Claudio da Correggio. See Merulo da Correggio, Claudio Clemens non Papa, 28, 33, 62f., 64, 84, 163, 204 Clyelle, L B. de la, 177

Cimabue (Cenni

Caberloti, Matteo, 368^.

Caccini, Giulio,

158,

i88f.,

204, 224,

226, 230, 248, 291

Caccini, Luca, 158 Caccini, Margherita, 158

Caimo, Giuseppe, 107 Camarella, G. B., 328

Camerata. See Florentine Camerata Campagnolo, Francesco, 266f.
Canis, Cornelio, 33
cantata, 52, 129, 256, 273, 297, 306, 328, 6 337> 34 2 344, 354 3 5

Coclico, Adrianus Petit, 27^. Compagnia di suonatori, 79

Compere, Loyset, 58 concertino, 233

di Santa Congregazione ed Accademia
Cecilia, 151

canto alia francese, cantus firmus, 49^,

170!., 175*1.
252*1"., 2586*., 3 231".

canzona, 53, 58, 175

canzona villanesca,
canzonetta, 49, 53,

59f.
6of.,

65, 69*?., 84,

Consilium, Johannes, 28 Contarini, Federico, 267 Contarini family, 272^

105, 125, izyf., 134, i39n., i6m., 175, 183, 2i9f., 222, zpif., 328, 334, 342. See also Monteverdi, Claudio, works

contrapunctus: gravis, luxuriant. See Prattica: Prima, Seconda Coppini, Aquilino, 2o8ff., 240, 276
cori spezzati, 63, 127

capriccio bizzarro, 348 Cara, Marchetto, 56

Cornaro, Zuanne, 267

Corsi, Jacopo, 187

Giovanni Pietro, 34, 53 da CaraCaravaggio. See Amerighi

Caraffa,

cosa bassa. See villanella

Costa, Gasparo, 107

vaggio
Carissimi,

Giacomo, 286
of Savoy),

Carlerius, Jacobus, 21

Council of Ten, 27of. Counter Reformation,

Courtois, Jean, 33

34, 65, 70,

73,

Carlo 266

Emmanuele (Duke

8if., 86f., 89, 103, 137, 163, 208,

248

Caron, Philippe, 2 if., 28 Casola, Bernardo, 249^, 277, 282 Casoni, Girolamo, 135
Castellino, Aluvise, io8n.

62f., Crecquillon, Thomas, 28, 33, 51, 84, 204 Cremona, University of, 80

Castiglione, Baldassare, 56 Cattaneo, Claudia. See Monteverdi,

Claudia Cattaneo Cattaneo, Giacomo, 168 if. Caurroy, Francois-Eustache du, 17

Cavalieri. See Emilio de' Cavalieri
Cavalli, Francesco, 357

Dafne: (Peri), 187^; (Gagliano), 238 Dante, Alighieri, 43n., 46, 228, 233 Descartes, Rene, 274, 369

Des

Pr6s, Josquin. See Josquin des Pres

dialogo, 286 Dichiaratione. See Monteverdi, Giulio

Cesare

Ceba, Ansaldo, 219

Cenci, Giuseppi, 246n.

Domenico da Nola, Giovanni,

112
iiof.

59, 107,

Cer9ne, Domenico Pietro, chanson, French, 57f., 60, 68, i47n., 175 Charles (Emperor), 51

Cherub etti, 78
Chiabrera, Gabrielo,
187, 305
156,
219!".,

239,

Donate, Baldassare, 59, 84 Donato di San Vitale, 37 Doni, Giovanni Battista, 46, 47n., 184, 204f., 238, 276f., 289^., 334 Dufay, Guillaume, 2 if., 27f., 51, 119
.

Dunstable, John,

2 if., 51

380
Efrem, Muzio, 305 Emilio de' Cavalieri, 158 Erasmus, Desiderius, 23, 26 Erizzo, Francesco (Doge), 319
Essenga, Salvador, 107
Este, Alfonso II
Este, Ercole I
d',

IND E

Gardano, Angelo,

65, 72n., 83, 124 Gastoldi, Giovanni, 66, 106, i6of., 173,

186

d',

29

184, 239 Gerlach, Theodor, 66f. Gero, Jhan, 84 Gesualdo da Venosa, 184 Ghiberti, Lorenzo, 37

Este, Ercole II d', 71 Este, Isabella d', 152

Ghiselin, Jean, 28

Giaches de Wert,

6of., 136, 138,

153^,

Euridice: (Caccini), 224; (Pen), 224

Faa di Bruni, Camilla, 297

faburden, 260, 321. See also psalmodic
recitation

258 Giacobbi, Girolamo, 307 Giulio, 126

i6of?., 184, 204, 247,

Gigli,

Farnese, Margherita, 155 Farnese, Odoardo, 311 fauxbourdon, nof., 113, i*

II

Ferdinand (Emperor). Ferdinand II Ferdinand III (Emperor). See Medici, Ferdinand III
.

See Medici,

,,

,.

Ferrabosco, Alfonso, 66, 172

Ferrari, Benedetto, 346
Ferrari,

Giorgione (Giorgio Barbarelli), 56 Giotto di Bondone, 37, 39* 4 on Giovanelli, Ruggiero, 67, 250 Giovanni de Antiquis, 64 Giovanni de Macque, 6of Giovanni del Tintore di Nivelle. See Tinctoris, Johannes Giustiniani, Lorenzo, 313 Giustiniani, Vincenzo, 47n. Giustiniani family, 2 7 if., 38> 34^
.

Padre

Cherubino, 208, 2251.

Giuvizzani, Alessandro, 305 Glareanus, Henricus, 2in., 23ff., 28, 39,

4on., 41

Ferretti, Giovanni, 65

Festa, Costanzo, 84, 94n., 95

Gluck, Christoph Willibald, 227, 358

60 Fiamengo, Matthias, See basso contmuo figured bass. 1 Finck, Hermann, 3of., 35, 4 Prlma First Practice. See Prattica: Flemish School. See Netherlands style n Florentine Camerata: 38, 43, 45, 47
-

Gombert, Nicolas,

19, 28, 31, 33

35 39

41, 49, 51, 62, 204, 206,

249^
287, 303,

Gonzaga, Catarina Medici-,

305

Gonzaga, Eleonora,
314, 334f.

152, 155, 157, 266,

187*1".,*

291;

composers,

212,

218,
45,

226f.,
i88f.,

231, 256, 291; monody, 199, 291; opera, 71, 159, 209,

Gonzaga, Ercole (Cardinal), 152 Gonzaga, Federigo, 152 Gonzaga, Ferdinand (Duke), 238,

297,

226
Follino, Federico, 153^, 2351., 2391!.

303, 305f., 309; (Cardinal), 248, 277 Gonzaga, Francesco, 157, 225, 235,
266f.

Fondulo, Gabrino, 80 Foscarini family, 272^

126 Fraganesco, Alessandro, Franchinus. See Gafori, Franchino frottola, 53, 58, 6o y io6f., no

160 Gonzaga, Guglielmo, 47n., 152^, d'Este da, 152 Isabella Gonzaga, Gonzaga, Vincenzo I, 136, i53fT.,
i6 5 ff., i68f., 177, 179, 184, i8 5 f., 188, 201, 220, 225, 235, 237^, 247, 265, 267,
184,

GabrieH, Andrea, 62f., 218, 258 Gabrieli, Giovanni, 34,

3 29

66f.,

91,

272, 297

Gonzaga, Vincenzo

II,

306, 309, 312

67f., 184, 258,

Gonzaga

family, i5ifL, 266, 287, 3o6f.

39, 42ff., 46, 205,

Gosswin, Anton, 66

Gafori, Franchino,

2 in., 28, 39,

4on.

Greek music:

236^,

Gagliano,
Galilei,

Marco

da. See

Marco da

Gagliano 7 Vincenzo, 3 SB ., 291 Gardane, Antonio, 62f ., 84, 94n. Gardano, Alessandro, 65

370; theory of, 35, 54, 241 Gregorian chant, 26 I, 22 Grille,

Gregory Nicolo Gregory XIV. See Sfondrato,

Giovanni
Battista,

320

INDEX
Grimani family,
272, 346 Grossi da Viadana, Lodovico, 1626*. Gualberto, Giovanni, 225 Guami, GiosefTe, 66

8l

Lodovico da Vittoria, 250 Louis XIII (King of France), 177

Lupi, 28, 33

Guarini, Giambattista,
239, 28yf., 335, 340

i26f., 133,

135^,

156, 179*1, 184, iSpf., 196, 210, 2i3f.,

Lupus, Johannes, 28, 62 Luther, Martin, 26, 51 Luzzaschi, Luzzasco, 136, 204

Guarneri family, 79

Gudron, Pierre, 177 Guicciardini, Lodovico, Guido of Arezzo, 22, 27

Hasler,

Macchiavelli, Ippolito, 246n.

3 if.

Macque, Giovanni
de Macque
madrigal, 49, 52,

de.

See Giovanni

57fT.,

64^, 69, 71. See

Hans Leo, 68

Hasler, Kaspar, 68 Hauvil, Adrien, 66 Henry IV (King of France), 177, 188 Hermannus Contractus, 318 Hilary of Poitiers, 22

Monteverdi, Claudio, works Magni, Bartholomeo, 326f.

also

Magni, Carlo, 225

Maineri, Camillo, 78

Manchicourt, Pierre, 64
Manelli, Francesco, 346, 349 Manfredi, Muzio, 160

Homer, 350
Horace, 72, 331 humanism, 20, 23, 28
imitation in art, 24if., 334f., 34*

Mantegna, Andrea, 56, 224 Mantua, ducal chapel of Santa Bar

bara, 61, 65, 152, i59f., 162, 166, 247,

Ingegneri, Marc' Antonio, 64, 66f., 7 iff., 77ff., 8iff., 89, 102, 104, i24f.,
151, 179, 204

296

Marco da Gagliano,
Marenzio, Luca,
125,138,158,
i84f.,

156, 236, 238,

246

64, 65^, 67, 7of., 73,

204

Inghirami, Luigi, 31 if. Isaac, Heinrich, 19, 28f.,

Margherita of Savoy, 157, 235

5of.,

58

Jacobus de Buis, 28 Jan, Meyster, 28 Jannequin, Clement, 60

Joanelli, Pietro, 63

Marigliani, Ercole, 306, 308 Marini, Francesco, 169, 277 Marino, Giambattista, 220, 278$., 284,
286fF., 335, 339.352 Marinoni, Giovanni Battista, 169, 368

Johannes de Muris, 22 Josquin des Pr6s, 19, 235.,

Marotti, Cesare, 246n.

28rT., 35, 39,

41, 495., 58, 63, 7if., 91, 204

Marrinengo, Giulio Cesare, 267 Martianus Capella, 22

Martinelli, Caterina, 238, 277

Kaufmann,

Paul, 184

Lafage, Pierre de, 28 Lami di Federico, Alessandro, 78 Landi, Antonio, 267 Lassus, Orlandus, 19, 52, 60, 63 f.,
70, 84, 91

Mass, 49f., 54, 62, 66ff., 73f. See also Monteverdi, Claudio, works Massaccio (Tommaso di Giovanni
Guidi), 37 Massaino, Tiburtio, Massenus, Petrus, 28
77f.,

184

66f.,

Le Brun,

Jean, 28

Lechner, Leonhard, 66 Le Jeune, Claude, 17 if., 174

LeoX
Leo
di I6 5

(Pope),

37, 51

Maudit, Jacques, 17 if. Maximilian I (Emperor), 51 Maximilian II (Emperor), 63 Medici, Catarina. See Gonzaga, Catarina MediciMedici, Cosimo I de, 36 Medici, Cosimo II de, 320 Medici, Eleonora de. See Gonzaga, Eleonora

Modena (Juda

da Modena),

Leonardo da Vinci, 56
Lerithier, Jean, 28, 62 Le Roy and Ballard, 172

Medici, Ferdinand
i57f., 160, 334!.

II

(Emperor),

152,

Lindner, Friedrich, 66f

8z
III

INDEX
(Emperor),
334,

Medici, Ferdinand

La Maddalena, 305^
Gli
3

337 Medici, Francesco de, 276 Medici, Giovanni de (Pope Leo X),
37 5 1

Amori
1

di

Diana e d'Endimione,

if.

Andromeda,
gali,

306, 308

Concerto settimo libro de Madri

Medici, Margherita de, 311 Medici, Maria de, 188

Lamento
64, 66,

287$. di Apollo, 306

di

Medici family, 152, 156 Merulo da Correggio, Claudio,

Combattimento
336, 338

Tancredi

e Clo-

rinda, 298fL, 3o8f., 313, 324, 334,

68, 162, 184 Michel Michelangelo. See Buonarroti, angelo Milanuzzi, Fra Carlo, 327 Mocenigo, Girolamo, 2981"., 312

Armida,

3i2f.

Licori finta pazza inamorata d'Ammta, 309^., 313, 347

Mer-curio

Mane,

312
.

Mocenigo, Giustiniana, 313

Mocenigo family,

272!., 308, 313

Proserpina rapita, 313 . a Scherzi Musicali .

e 2 voci

Mohammed

III,

169

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem de, 203 Montalto, Cardinal, 248, 265 Monte, Philippe de. See Philippe de

(1632), 326ff. . Madrigali guerrieri et amorosi . . libro ottavo, 286, 298, 300, 326,
3346., 336ff.,

367

Monte
Monteverdi, Baldassare, 18, 169 Monteverdi, Claudia Cattaneo,
185, 235
i68f.,

Adone, 346f. Selva Morale

c

e Spirituale, 176, 240!.,

patria,
^

3 i 4 ff.,334n ., 367 Ritorno d'Ulisse in

347,

Monteverdi,

Claudio,

works
83,
1

(in
86ff.,

349 ff., 360

chronological order): Sacrae Cantiunculae,

105, ii3f., 117, 124,

Nozze d'Enea con Lavima, 347

85,

Uincoronazione
35on., 357rT. Messa a quattro

di

Poppea, 347, 349,

et Salmi, 3i4ff.

86,

249^

Madrigali Spiritual!, 103$., 124, 126 Canzonette a tre voci, io6ff., i24ff. . Libro Madrigali a cinque voci
. .

Voci

Madrigali e canzonette a due e tre voci (Madrigals, Bk. IX), 329,

Primo,

i24ff.

Secondo libro de Madrigali, 135^. Terzo libro de Madrigali, 1798;. Quarto libro de Madrigali, 185^. Quinto libro de Madrigali, 186,
20off., 226 Scherzi music all a tre voci (1607),

i7oF., 2i9fF., 325

Orfeo, 2246% 288ff., 305, 327, 345^, 35 if., 369 Arianna, 215 (the Lamento), 2365.,
276*1".,

333* Monteverdi, Domemco, 79n. Monteverdi, Francesco, 248, 307, 320 Monteverdi, Giulio Cesare, lyof., 173, 189^, 202ff., 219, 223, 237, 239, 326 Morales, Cristobal, 28, 62, 84 moresca, 229 Morley, Thomas, 60 Morsolino, Antonio, 78 Morton, Robert, 21 motet, 49ff., 54, 62, 66ff., 70, 72ff. See
.

291

(the Lamento), 304^,

37>
Ballo

345> 347' 35 1

deW

Ingrate,

2406% 337, 354

Idropica, 239^ Sanctissimae Virgini Missa senis vocibus Ad Ecclesiarum Chores Ac

Monteverdi, Claudio, works 33, 204 musica da camera, 161 musica da Mesa, 161 musica rappresentativa. See stile rapalso

Mouton, Jean,

presentativo

Vespere pluribus decantandae

cum

musique mesuree,

17 iff.

nonnullis sacris concentibus, 247$. Sesto libro de Madrigali, 240, 278^. Tim e Clori, 296:6?., 303 Nozze di Peleo e Tetide,

Nachtanz. See proportio Nanini, Giovanni Maria, 67, Nasco, Giovanni, 60, 84

184,

250

INDEX
native songs, 49, 54^., 598.,
6$f., xoyf.,

383
IV
(Pope), 81

Pius

114, 119, 123, 127, 129, 134, 161, 173, 2i9f., 222f., 328, 334, 342 Netherlands: style, i8F., 3*8., 4&&-, 54,
5 6fL, 64, 66fL, 731., 8iff., Spflf., 9?rT.,

Plantin, Christopher, 172 Plato, 1 7 in., 203, 205, 242, 299, 304

Pleiade, 220

108, 112, 119, 123

(Northern music),
composers,
,

127, 163, 219, 249f.;

2311., 39,

i9f.,

47 n ->

48ff., 8 3 f

9* f

99, i0 4

207. See also Oltremontani Neuber, Ulrich, 63

Nevers, Due de, 169 Nola, Giovanni Domenico da. Domenico da Nola, Giovanni

See

Poland, Prince of, 3o8f. Poliziano, Angelo, 225 Porbus, Francois, 156 Porta, Costanzo, 66, 74, 77!. Pottier, Matthias, 67 Prattica: Prima, 25, 190, 2Ooff\, 249; Seconda, 25, 2Oorf. proportio, 115 psalmodic recitation, 260, 321, 324, 353
Pythagoras, 27, 35

Obrecht, Jacob, 21, 27, 33 2 Ockeghem, Johannes, 19, iff.,

25, 27!.,

Quadrio, Francesco Saverio, 104

Quagliati, Paolo, 67 Quirini, Vincenzo, 32
,

2 4, 2 49 _ 33, 39, 49*-. o Oltremontani, 3 iff., 47n., 54, 5811., 07,

105, 112. See also Netherlands: style,

composers
Orlandi, Sante, 305, 307

Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio), 56

Rasi, Francesco, 188, 305 recitativo accompagnato, 302. See also stile recitativo

Orpheus,

22,

zjL
19, 331.,

Padoano, Annibale, 66 Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi,

102, 2o6f., 250

Reformation, 34, Regis, Johannes,

53f.
2 if.

36n., 43, 4711., 52, 66fL, 70, 74, 82, 84,

Pallavicino, Benedetto, 77, i6if., 165,

184, 247

Renaissance, 20, 53*?. Ricardi, Giacomo, 134, 151 Richafort, Jean, 33

riforma. See Reformation Rinuccini, Ottavio, 156, 158,
1875.,

Pallavicino, Gaspar, 56 Parma, Duchess of, 311

236, 244f., 276, 305, 310, 3295., 335

Parma, Duke Octavio

parody, 133 passamezzo, 221 Paul IV (Pope),
Paul

of, 72

Roman

school, 68, 70, 250

152

Romanes-ca, 295 Romano, Giulio,

34.

See also CarafTa,

Giovanni Pietro

(Pope), 248, 265, 270

doctrine of, 20. See also

perfection, ars perfecta

Peri, Jacopo, 158, i87ff., 204, 224, 226,

238, 291, 347 Petrarch, Francesco, i04n., 1351., 278, 280, 329, 335, 339 Petrucci, Ottaviano dei, 57 Phalese, Pierre, 63, 66n., 67, 84, 172, 2oin., 208

rondeau, 57 Ronsard, Pierre de, 220 Rossi, Lodovico, 286 Rossi, Salomone, 162, 165^, 239, 305 Rovetta, Giovanni, 368 Rovigo, Francesco, 162, 184 Rubens, Peter Paul, 1551"., 169

Rudolph

II (King of Hungary), 169 Rue, Pierre de la. See Pierre de la Rue Ruffo, Vincenzo, 64, 66, 7 iff., 82, 84

Sagredo, Nicolo, 266

Saint Ambrose, 22 Saint Augustine, 22 Saint Mark's Cathedral, 79^,
274, 296, 307, 3i4ff.,

Philippe de Monte,
Piazza, Paolo, 369
Piccioli,

60, 64, 66, 172

Antonio, 66

267^

270,

Pierre de la Rue, 9, 28, 50, 204 Pietro della Valle, 47n.

Pii,

$6jL

Ascanio, 312 Pindar, 220 Pirkheimer, Willibald, 26

Sannazaro, Jacopo, 219 Sansovino, Francesco, 268 Saracini, Claudio, 327 Sarpi, Fra Paolo, 27of.

384
Scarlatti, Alessandro, 250

INDEX
Alexandre, 269, Toussaint de Limojon,
272

68 Schieti, Cesare,

Schioppi, Giuseppe, 313 329 Schiitz, Heinrich, 80, 207, 325, Scolari, Girolamo, 313 6zf ., 84 Scotto, Girolamo, Seconda Second Practice. See Prattica:
Senrl,

Trent, Council

2 8 of, 73, 81, 152, 4

Tron

family, 346

Tubal, 27
Ugolino, Baccio, 225 Francesco, 320 Usper, D.

Ludwig, 28, 51 of Cre Sfondrato, Nicolo (Bishop

mona),

8 iff., 89
II

Vakarengo, Stefano Caninio, 83

Valle, Pietro
della.

(Emperor), Sigismund Simonetti, Leonardo, 318

stile

80

See Pietro della

Valle

stile

294

a cappella, 317, 3'9i 3"> 3*3*- iVjn* concertato, 217, 2531!., 280, ff -> 336, 34"-. 353. i6f., 319, 3 f.,
3
.

Vanneo,

Steffano, 33

Vasari, Giorgio, 36^. Vecchi, Orazio, 66, 107, 173, 184

_
2 9 8ff., 3*4.
*

fcaw,

33*ff->

34,

Veen, Otto van, 169 Vendramin, Paolo, 347

342
stile

35i-,

',

Vendramin
5ee

guerriero, 300. works: verdi, Claudio,

^^Monte Madng*

family, 347 Venetian school, 33^, 6zf .,

127, 25&f.

10 7 67!., 91,

Guerrieri
stile

to the Sea, 274, Venice, Marriage of,

rappresentativo

(genere rappre62 Verdelot, Philippe, 33, 58,

Verita,

sentativo;

music* rappresentattva), f 273. i8 9 -, 3*-> 159, 20 9 f, 240, 244, 353 , 308, 337 34*i
recitative,
199,

Count Marco,

i24f.,

126

stile

212,

215,

2261.,
>

23 of.,
.,

3* 8 330, 235, 254. 289*- 3'7*-.

->

Verovio, Simone, 65 da. Viadana, Lodovico Grossi Grossi da Viadana, Lodovico Viani, Antonio Maria, i56f.
villanella:
io8rT.,

bee

Stradivari family, 79

strambotto, 53f., 162, 224, Strkdo, Alessandro, 136, 158,

226,266f., 287,2961*., 304,

no

8 4i IO<5 6 49, 53> 59^ cosa 117, 120, 220, 281, 342;

9^

bassa,

no, 117
Io8n
-

36,3"iS^*

villanesca, 53, 59fvillotta, 49, 53> 59*-

316
Strozzi, Giulio, 126, 275,

39 3"

320
style (stylus},

206
^

Vincenti, Alessandro, 214, 3 106 Vincenti, Giacomo, 67!., Vincentino, Nicolo, 1 10

virelai, 57

2(5

3 29

also 25. bee rty/oj antiquusy gravis, Prattica: Prima, Seconda also luxuriant, 25. See stylus modernus, Prattica: Prima, Seconda

Virgil, 72 Vittori, Loreto, 312

Susato,

Tylman,

63

Waelrant, Hubert, 63,

65, 66n.

Sweelinck, Jan Pieterszoon, 172

Tasso,

Torquato,
i55f-,

126,
I

133, 189, 2 4 6n.,

Wagner, Richard, 227 Matthias Werrekoren, See Fiamengo, de Giaches de. See Giaches
Wert,

i 4 6ff.,

i^

79^.

Wert
4> Willaert, Adrian, 19, 28, 33fT., 39, 8 84 9 1 * 8ff 62f> ' 6 7' 7 lf 7
-

300, 309, 312 Terzi, Serafino, 169

49, 51, 5

Testo, 30if.

107, 127, 204

Thibault de Courville, 1711.

2 Tinctoris, Johannes, iff., 271., 33 Antonio Braccini. See Artusi,
.

Zacconi, Lodovico, 36n.,

no

Todi, Giovanni Maria

2 202 20 ^ Zarlino, Gioseffe, 34fT., 43, 7 Giovanni Maria, 78 Zerrnignasi,

THE MONTEVERDI

COMPANION
Edited by Denis Arnold and Nigel Fortune
This book sets out to study certain aspects of Monteverdi's music and environment which

have been

in insufficiently stressed

most

of

the existing books about him, and to offer fresh views about some of his more familiar

works. Monteverdi

is still

of as a revolutionary

too often thought who, single-handedly,

position

overthrew the principles governing the com of music for generations past, to become in the words of the subtitle of one
of the best books about
of

him

- the

"creator

several chapters in the of to the present book to relate his achievement

modern music." It the main aims of

is,

on the contrary, one

music and ideas of

raries,

his elders

and contempo

to illustrate
to

from them, and

how much he learned show how gradual, in the

case of the madrigals, for example, was the infiltration into his music of new procedures

and

principles.

new

By this approach, something has been added to the store of knowl

edge of music in Monteverdi's time. The contributors are Claude V. Palisca, Jerome Roche, Denis Stevens, Robert Donington, and Janet Beat. The book also in cludes essays by Denis Arnold and Nigel Fortune, and begins with an account of
Monteverdi's
life as

seen through his letters.

forty letters (about

The

translation of

some

a third of the
essays

total) helps to illuminate the

which

follow.

The Monteverdi bibliography is the most comprehensive yet to appear and there is a
guide to the multifarious editions of the music
currently available. Denis Arnold is senior lecturer in music at

the University of Hull. Nigel Fortune is senior lecturer in music at the University of Bir

mingham and
Association.

Secretary of the Royal Musical

03

04 734