Biography of Claudio Monteverdi
Italian Composer, Late Renaissance and Early Baroque Eras
Claudio Monteverdi, Italian composer known for opera La Favola d'Orfeo (The Fable of Orpheus), stood across the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods, and made the most important contribution to the opera's early development. He specialized in opera, madrigals, and motets.
He exhibited this development from from his first, La favola d’Orfeo (The Legend of Orpheus) for the carnival in Mantua, to his last opera, L’incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea). His next opera, Arianna, is now lost in performance except for the famous "Lament", which also made him famous after Orfeo. Claudio Monteverdi died in Venice, at the age of 76.
Monteverdi is often compared to his German contemporary Heinrich Schütz, both of them across the High Renaissance and Baroque era. And like Stravinsky, he showed tremendous capacity to adapt his musical style according to the changing times.
Early Beginnings
Claudio Monteverdi was born on May 15, 1567, in Cremona, a son of a surgeon who engaged the director of music of Cremona's cathedral to instruct Claudio and his brother in music. He was in the service of the Duke of Mantua as maestro di cappella for some eleven years, and later, director of music at St Mark’s in Venice.
Monteverdi's Other Compositions
His other works include some 250 madrigals, motets and sacred music, notably the Vespers, adding beautiful church music to his previous works. In 1630, he took holy orders after escaping the plague at Venice. From this period two more of his operas survived, the Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria (The Return Of Ulysses to Country) and L'Incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea).
In 1610, Monteverdi dedicated his collection of church music, the Vespers, to Pope Paul V. This later became known as "The Vespers of 1610", a perfect introduction to the genius of baroque vocal writing. It was also evident from its opening chorus that for the first time, music was moving away from the private, that is, palace courts, into the public domain.
Monteverdi Key Works
- Book 1 of Madrigals, 1587
- La Favola d'Orfeo (The Fable of Orpheus), opera, 1607
- Vespro della beata vergine (Vespers), 1610
- Book 6 of Madrigals, including "Arianna's Lament", 1614
- Book 8 of Madrigals, Madrigali Guerrieri e Amorosi (Madrigals of War and Love", including "The Combat Between Tancredi and Clorinda")
- Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria (The Return of Ulysses to his Homeland), opera, 1640
- L'Incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea), opera, 1642
Sources:
The Encyclopedia of Music by Max Wade-Matthews & Wendy Thompson, HHouse (2002)
The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd Edition, edited by Stanley Sadie (2000)
The Oxford Companion to Music, edited by Alison Latham, OUP (2002)
Claudio Monteverdi
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