Claudio Monteverdi biography. Claudio Monteverdi
Monteverdi defends the rights of feelings and freedom in music. Despite the protests of the defenders of the rules, he breaks the fetters in which music has entangled itself, and wants it to follow only the dictates of the heart from now on.
R. Rollan
The work of the Italian opera composer C. Monteverdi is one of the unique phenomena in the musical culture of the 17th century. In his interest in man, in his passions and sufferings, Monteverdi is a true Renaissance artist. None of the composers of that time managed to express in music the tragic, feeling of life in such a way, to come closer to comprehending its truth, to reveal the primordial nature of human characters in such a way.
Monteverdi was born into a doctor's family. His musical studies were led by M. Ingenieri - an experienced musician, bandmaster of the Cremona Cathedral. He developed the polyphonic technique of the future composer, introduced him to the best choral works by G. Palestrina and O. Lasso. Moiteverdi began to compose early. Already in the early 1580s. the first collections of vocal polyphonic works (madrigals, motets, cantatas) were published, and by the end of this decade he became a famous composer in Italy, a member of the Academy of Site Cecilia in Rome. From 1590, Monteverdi served in the court chapel of the Duke of Mantua (first as an orchestra member and singer, and then as a bandmaster). Lush, rich court Vincenzo Gonzaga attracted the best artistic forces of the time. In all likelihood, Monteverdi could meet with the great Italian poet T. Tasso, the Flemish artist P. Rubens, members of the famous Florentine camerata, the authors of the first operas - J. Peri, O. Rinuccini. Accompanying the Duke on frequent travels and military campaigns, the composer traveled to Prague, Vienna, Innsbruck, and Antwerp. In February 1607, Monteverdi's first opera, Orpheus (libretto by A. Strigio), was staged with great success in Mantua. Monteverdi turned a pastoral play intended for palace festivities into a real drama about the suffering and tragic fate of Orpheus, about the immortal beauty of his art. (Monteverdi and Striggio preserved the tragic version of the myth's denouement - Orpheus, leaving the kingdom of the dead, violates the ban, looks back at Eurydice and loses her forever.) "Orpheus" is distinguished by a wealth of means surprising for an early work. Expressive declamation and a wide cantilena, choirs and ensembles, ballet, a developed orchestral part serve to embody a deeply lyrical idea. Only one scene from Monteverdi's second opera, Ariadne (1608), has survived to this day. This is the famous “Lament of Ariadne” (“Let me die ...”), which served as a prototype for many lamento arias (arias of complaint) in Italian opera. (Lament of Ariadne is known in two versions - for solo voice and in the form of a five-part madrigal.)
In 1613, Monteverdi moved to Venice and until the end of his life remained in the service of Kapellmeister in the Cathedral of St. Mark. The rich musical life of Venice opened up new opportunities for the composer. Monteverdi writes operas, ballets, interludes, madrigals, music for church and court festivities. One of the most original works of these years is the dramatic scene “The Duel of Tancred and Clorinda” based on the text from the poem “Jerusalem Liberated” by T. Tasso, combining reading (the part of the Narrator), acting (recitative parts of Tancred and Clorinda) and an orchestra that depicts the course of the duel , reveals the emotional nature of the scene. In connection with the "Duel" Monteverdi wrote about the new style of concitato (excited, agitated), contrasting it with the "soft, moderate" style that prevailed at that time.
Many of Monteverdi's madrigals are also distinguished by their sharply expressive, dramatic character (the last, eighth collection of madrigals, 1638, was created in Venice). In this genre of polyphonic vocal music, the composer's style was formed, and the selection of expressive means took place. The harmonic language of madrigals is especially original (bold tonal comparisons, chromatic, dissonant chords, etc.). In the late 1630s - early 40s. the operatic work of Monteverdi reaches its peak ("The Return of Ulysses" - 1640, "Adonis" - 1639, "The Wedding of Aeneas and Lavinia" - 1641; the last 2 operas have not been preserved).
In 1642, The Coronation of Poppea by Monteverdi was staged in Venice (libretto by F. Businello based on the Annals of Tacitus). The last opera of the 75-year-old composer has become a real pinnacle, the result of his creative path. Specific, real-life historical figures act in it - the Roman emperor Nero, known for his cunning and cruelty, his teacher - the philosopher Seneca. Much in the "Coronation" suggests analogies with the tragedies of the brilliant contemporary of the composer - W. Shakespeare. Openness and intensity of passions, sharp, truly "Shakespearean" contrasts of sublime and genre scenes, comedy. So, Seneca's farewell to the students - the tragic climax of the oaera - is replaced by a cheerful interlude of a page and a maid, and then a real orgy begins - Nero and his friends mock the teacher, celebrate his death.
“His only law is life itself,” R. Rolland wrote about Monteverdi. With the courage of discoveries, Monteverdi's work was far ahead of its time. The composer foresaw a very distant future of musical theater: the realism of operatic dramaturgy by W. A. Mozart, G. Verdi, M. Mussorgsky. Perhaps that is why the fate of his works was so surprising. For many years they remained in oblivion and again returned to life only in our time.
I. Okhalova
The son of a doctor and the eldest of five brothers. He studied music with M. A. Ingenieri. At the age of fifteen he published Spiritual Melodies, in 1587 - the first book of madrigals. In 1590, at the court of the Duke of Mantua, Vincenzo Gonzaga became a violist and singer, then the leader of the chapel. Accompanies the duke to Hungary (during the Turkish campaign) and Flanders. In 1595 he marries the singer Claudia Cattaneo, who will give him three sons; she will die in 1607 shortly after the triumph of the Orpheus. Since 1613 - a lifetime position of the head of the chapel in the Venetian Republic; the composition of sacred music, the last books of madrigals, dramatic works, mostly lost. Around 1632 he took the priesthood.
Monteverdi's operatic work has a very solid foundation, being the fruit of previous experience in composing madrigals and sacred music, genres in which the Cremonese master achieved incomparable results. The main stages of his theatrical activity - at least, based on what has come down to us - are two clearly distinguished periods: the Mantua at the beginning of the century and the Venetian, which falls in its middle.
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MONTEVERDI, CLAUDIO(Monteverdi, Claudio) (c. 1567–1643), Italian composer, author of madrigals, operas, church works, one of the key figures of the era, when the musical style of the Renaissance was replaced by a new baroque style. Born in the family of the famous doctor Baldassare Monteverdi. The exact date of birth has not been established, but it is documented that Claudio Giovanni Antonio was baptized on May 15, 1567 in Cremona.
Claudio, apparently, studied for some time with M. A. Ingenieri, regent of the Cremona Cathedral. The first five collections of works published by the young composer ( spiritual tunes, Cantiunculae Sacrae, 1582; spiritual madrigals, Madrigali Spirituali, 1583; three-part canzonettes, 1584; five-voice madrigals in two volumes: the First collection, 1587 and the Second collection, 1590), clearly testify to the training he received. The period of apprenticeship ended around 1590: then Monteverdi applied for a place as a violinist in the court orchestra of Duke Vincenzo I Gonzaga in Mantua and was accepted into the service.
Mantua period.
The service in Mantua brought the musician many disappointments. Only in 1594 did Monteverdi become a cantor, and only on May 6, 1601, after the departure of B. Pallavicino, did he receive the post of maestro della musica (master of music) of the Duke of Mantua. During this period (in 1595) he married the singer Claudia Cattaneo, who bore him two sons, Francesco and Massimiliano; Claudia died early (1607), and Monteverdi remained a widower until the end of his days. In the first decade at the Mantua court, Monteverdi accompanied the patron on his travels to Hungary (1595) and Flanders (1599). These years brought a rich harvest of five-part madrigals (Third collection, 1592; Fourth collection, 1603; Fifth collection, 1605). Many of the madrigals gained fame long before they were printed. At the same time, these compositions provoked a fit of anger in G. M. Artusi, a canon from Bologna, who criticized Monteverdi's composing techniques in a whole stream of poisonous articles and books (1602-1612). The composer responded to the attacks in the preface to the Fifth collection of madrigals and more extensively through the mouth of his brother Giulio Cesare in Dichiarazione(clarification), this work was published as an appendix to the collection of Monteverdi's compositions musical jokes(Scherzi musicali, 1607). In the course of the composer's polemics with critics, the concepts of "first practice" and "second practice" were introduced, denoting the old polyphonic style and the new monodic style.
The creative evolution of Monteverdi in the genre of opera began later, in February 1607, when The legend of Orpheus (La Favola d'Orfeo) to a text by A. Strigio the Younger. In this work, the composer remains faithful to the past and anticipates the future: Orpheus- half Renaissance interlude, half monodic opera; the monodic style had already been developed by that time in the Florentine Camerata (a group of musicians led by J. Bardi and J. Corsi, who worked together in Florence in 1600). Score Orpheus was published twice (1609 and 1615). Monteverdi's next compositions in this genre were Ariadne (L"Arianna, 1608) and opera-ballet Ballet of the Ungrateful (Il Ballo dell'ingrate, 1608) - both works to texts by O. Rinuccini. In the same period, Monteverdi made his first appearance in the field of church music and published an old-style mass In illo tempore(it is based on Gombert's motet); in 1610 he added to it Vespers Psalms. In 1612, Duke Vincenzo died, and his successor immediately dismissed Monteverdi and Giulio Cesare (July 31, 1612). For a while, the composer and his sons returned to Cremona, and exactly one year later (August 19, 1613) he received the position of head of the chapel (maestro di cappella) in the Venetian Cathedral of St. Mark.
Venetian period.
This position (the most brilliant among those available at that time in Northern Italy) immediately saved Monteverdi from the injustices experienced by him at the time of maturity. He served in the honorary and well-paid post of cathedral conductor for three decades, during which time, quite naturally, he switched to ecclesiastical genres. However, he did not leave his opera projects either: for example, a realistic comic opera was created for Mantua in 1627. imaginary crazy (La finta pazza Licori). This work has not survived, like most of Monteverdi's musical and dramatic works, relating to the last thirty years of his life. But a wonderful work has come down to us, which is a cross between an opera and an oratorio: Duel of Tancred and Clorinda (Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorindo), written in 1624 in Venice (published in the Eighth collection of madrigals, 1638), based on a scene from T. Tasso's poem Liberated Jerusalem, one of the composer's favorite poetic sources. In this work, for the first time, a new dramatic style (genere concitato) appears with the expressive use of tremolo and pizzicato techniques.
The fall of Mantua in 1630 caused the loss of many autographs of Monteverdi's works. The political upheaval caused by the struggle for the duchy after the death of the last of the Gonzaga dynasty (Vincenzo II died childless) also left traces in the life of the composer (in particular, his son Massimiliano was arrested by the Inquisition for reading unauthorized books). The end of the plague in Venice was celebrated in the Cathedral of St. Mark November 28, 1631 with a solemn mass with music by Monteverdi (lost). Shortly thereafter, Monteverdi apparently became a priest, as indicated by the title page of his edition. musical jokes (Scherzi musicali cioè Arie e Madrigali in stile recitativo, 1632). A book devoted to the problems of musical theory (melody) was written in the early 1630s, but little has survived from it, as well as from operas of this period.
In 1637, the first public opera house opened in Venice under the direction of Monteverdi's friends and students B. Ferrari and F. Manelli. This event marked the beginning of the flowering of the Venetian opera of the 17th century. For the first four Venetian opera houses, Monteverdi, who was then in his eighties, wrote four operas (1639–1642), of which two have survived: Return of Ulysses to the Fatherland (Il ritorno d "Ulisse in patria, 1640, to the libretto by G. Badoaro) and Coronation of Poppea (L "Incoronazione di Poppea, 1642, to a libretto by G. Busenello). Shortly before this, the composer managed to print his madrigals, chamber duets and cantatas, as well as the best of his creations in church genres in two huge collections - Madrigals about war and love (Madrigali guerrieri ed amorosi, Eighth collection of madrigals, 1638) and Selva morale e spirituale (Spiritual and moral wanderings, 1640). Shortly after the publication of these collections, on November 29, 1643, the composer died in Venice, having still managed to make his last trip to the places where his youth passed, i.e. to Cremona and Mantua. His funeral took place solemnly in both the main temples of Venice - St. Mark and Santa Maria dei Frari. The remains of the composer were buried in the second of these churches (in the aisle of St. Ambrose). For roughly a decade, Monteverdi's music continued to excite his contemporaries and remained relevant. In 1651, a posthumous edition of his madrigals and canzonettes (Ninth collection) and a significant collection of church music called Four-Part Mass and Psalms (Messa a quattro e salmi), they were published under his editorship by the publisher Monteverdi A. Vincenti. In the same year, a new production was shown in Naples Coronations of Poppea, which differed significantly from the production of 1642. After 1651, the great Cremonese and his music were forgotten. Monteverdi's appearance is captured in two beautiful portraits: the first was reproduced in the official obituary in the book poetic flowers (Fiori poetici, 1644) - the face of an old man, with an expression of sadness and disappointment; another portrait was found in the Tyrolean Ferdinandeum Museum in Innsbruck, it depicts Monteverdi in his mature years, when they were created Orpheus And Ariadne.
Critical Assessment.
The significance of Monteverdi's work is determined by three factors: he is the last madrigalist composer of the Renaissance; he is the first author of performed operas of the kind of genre that was characteristic of the early baroque; finally, he is one of the most important authors of church music, since in his work Palestrina's stile antico (old style) is combined with Gabrieli's stile nuovo (new style), i.e. style is no longer polyphonic, but monodic, in need of the support of the orchestra.
Madrigalist.
Palestrina began writing madrigals in the 1580s, during the heyday of this genre, and completed work on the madrigal the Sixth Collection (1614), containing five-part madrigals with the obligatory basso continuo, i.e. quality that defines the new concept of madrigal style. Many texts of Monteverdi's madrigals are taken from pastoral comedies like Aminte Tasso or good shepherd Guarini, and are scenes of idyllic love or bucolic passion, anticipating operatic scenes in the earliest examples of this new genre: the experiments of Peri and Caccini appeared in Florence c. 1600.
Opera composer.
The beginning of Monteverdi's operatic work is, as it were, hidden in the shadow of Florentine experiences, his early operas continue the tradition of the Renaissance interlude with its large orchestra and choirs in the style of a madrigal or with a polyphonically lively movement of voices. However, already in Ballet of the ungrateful the predominance of solo monody and ballet numbers in the sense of the French ballet de cour (court ballet of the 17th century) is palpable. In a dramatic scene Duel according to Tasso, the accompanying orchestra is reduced to a string quintet, here the picturesque techniques of tremolo and pizzicato are used to convey the ringing of weapons in the hands of the fighting Tancred and Clorinda. The composer's latest operas reduce orchestral accompaniment to a minimum and focus on the expressiveness of virtuoso singing. The vocal coloratura and the aria da capo are about to appear, and the psalmodic recitative of the Florentine Camerata is changing and enriching dramatically, anticipating the achievements in this field of Gluck and Wagner.
Church music.
Monteverdi's church music has always been characterized by duality: polyphonic pasticcios coexist here with theatrically colorful interpretations of the psalms; one feels that many pages were written by the hand of an opera composer.
Revival of Monteverdi's work.
The composer's music remained in oblivion until the 19th century, when it was rediscovered by K. von Winterfeld (1834). Beginning around the 1880s, German and Italian scholars competed in the work of reviving and re-evaluating Monteverdi's personality and work; this movement culminated with the publication of the first complete collection of the surviving works of Monteverdi, edited by J.F. Malipiero (1926–1942), a book by H.F. Redlich To the history of the madrigal(1932) and his own edition with comments for performers Vespers 1610 (1949).
Claudio(Giovanni Antonio) Monteverdi(baptized May 15, 1567, Cremona - November 29, 1643, Venice) - Italian composer.
Claudio(Giovanni Antonio) Monteverdi(baptized May 15, 1567, Cremona - November 29, 1643, Venice) - Italian composer.
Creativity Monteverdi, in many respects innovative, in the history of music marks the transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque era. He worked in many genres of secular and church music. Most notable are his madrigals and operas, including the opera Orpheus, which is performed to this day.
Claudio Monteverdi was born in 1567 in Cremona, a city in Northern Italy, in the family of Baltasar Monteverdi, a doctor, pharmacist and surgeon. He was the eldest of five children. From childhood, he studied with M.-A. Ingenieri, Kapellmeister of the Cathedral of Cremona. Monteverdi comprehended the art of music, taking part in the performance of liturgical chants. He also studied at the University of Cremona. His first collections, which included small motets and spiritual madrigals, were published in 1582 and 1583 (Cantiunculae Sacrae, 1582; Madrigal Spirituali, 1583). They were followed by collections of three-voice canzonettes (1584), later two "books" (collections) of five-voice madrigals (1587; 1590). From 1590 (or 1591) to 1612, Monteverdi worked at the court of Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga (1562-1612) in Mantua, first as a singer and gambo player, and from 1602 as a bandmaster, organizer of all musical life at the ducal court.
In 1599 Monteverdi married court singer Claudia Cattaneo, with whom he lived for 8 years (Claudia died in 1607). They had two boys and a girl who died shortly after birth.
In 1613 Monteverdi moved to Venice, where he took the post of Kapellmeister of the Cathedral of San Marco. In this position, he quickly restored the professional level of the choir musicians and instrumentalists (the chapel was in decline due to the waste of funds by his predecessor, Giulio Cesare Martinengo). The managers of the basilica were glad to have such an exceptional musician as Monteverdi, because the musical part of the services had been in decline since the death of Giovanni Croce in 1609.
Around 1632 Monteverdi was ordained a priest. In the last years of his life, two last masterpieces came out from under his pen: The Return of Ulysses (Il ritorno d "Ulisse in patria, 1641), and the historical opera The Coronation of Poppea (L" incoronazione di Poppea, 1642), the plot of which was based on events from the life of the Roman Emperor Nero. The coronation of Poppea is considered the culmination of Monteverdi's entire work. It combines tragic, romantic and comic scenes (a new step in the dramaturgy of the operatic genre), more realistic portraiture of the characters and melodies that are distinguished by extraordinary warmth and sensuality. The performance of the opera required a small orchestra, and the choir also had a small role to play. For a long time, Monteverdi's operas were regarded only as historical and musical fact. Beginning in the 1960s, The Coronation of Poppea was revived in the repertoire of the world's major opera stages.
Creativity Monteverdi is represented by three groups of works: madrigals, operas and sacred music. The main feature of Monteverdi's compositional technique is the combination (often in one work) of imitation polyphony, characteristic of composers of the late Renaissance, and homophony, the achievement of the new Baroque era. Monteverdi's innovation was sharply criticized by the prominent music theorist Giovanni Artusi, in a polemic with whom Monteverdi (and his brother Giulio Cesare) indicated their commitment to the so-called "second practice" of music. According to the declaration of the Monteverdi brothers, in the music of the second practice, the poetic text reigns supreme, to which all elements of musical speech are subordinate, primarily melody, harmony and rhythm. It is the text that will justify any irregularities of the latter.
Claudio Monteverdi is an Italian Renaissance composer and a man who made a significant contribution to the development of such a genre as opera. Working according to the tradition of the early Renaissance and at the same time applying the “basso continuo” characteristic of the Baroque period, he can be said to have built a bridge between two different eras in the history of music. Born in the mid-sixteenth century in the Lombardy region of Italy, he studied music with Marco Antonio Ingenieri at the local cathedral. The composer began writing religious and secular music early in his life, publishing his first work at the age of 15. Around the age of 22, Claudio began his career as a musician at the court in the city of Mantua. Later he moved to Venice. Staying there until his death, Monteverdi wrote a lot of religious as well as secular music. La favola d'Orfeo, one of his first operas, is still performed regularly.
Claudio Monteverdi was born in 1567 (May 9) in Cremona, Lombardy, Italy. The exact date of his birth is not known, but church records state that the man was baptized on May 15, 1567. Officially, he was born a Spanish citizen, but he always considered himself Italian. His father, Balthazar Monteverdi, was a surgeon and apothecary, and his mother was the daughter of a goldsmith. Claudio was the eldest of six children in the family, had three brothers and two sisters. Giulio Cesare, the composer's brother, also became a famous musician. Claudio lost his mother when he was eight years old. By that time, Balthazar Monteverdi had moved up the social ladder. In 1576 he married again. Claudio was emotionally close to his father, which would influence many of his compositions in the future. My father was also musical. At least he appreciated the musical talent of his two sons, both of whom began to study music in the choir at the local cathedral. Claudio began to study with Marco Antonio Ingenieri. His teacher was an internationally renowned composer and master of vocal style. Under his tutelage, Claudio not only learned to sing, but also developed the skill of playing the violin and other instruments.
Monteverdi began his career as a musician at the age of 15. He continued to write music when he was 20 years old, he had a variety of works, both religious and secular. In 1589, Claudio left Cremona to become a musician at the court of Duke Vincenzo I Gonzaga. The duke tried to create a center for music by appointing famous people from all over Europe as his court musicians. It was an ideal place for learning, and the young Monteverdi got the opportunity to participate in the theatrical activities at court. In 1599 Claudio became acquainted with the French school of modern music. In 1603 and 1605 he published two more of the nine madrigals, which presented real masterpieces. The musician used an intense and prolonged dissonance, which drew criticism from more conservative musicians, mainly Giovanni Maria Artusi. Very soon he focused on creating a practical philosophy of music, which found expression in his 1624 dramatic cantata and 1627 comic opera. Today Claudio Monteverdi is known as an important developer of operatic music. "La favola d" Orfeo "is probably his most popular work in this genre.
In 1599 Claudia Cattaneo, a singer at the court of Duke Vincenzo I Gonzaga of Mantua, became Monteverdi's wife. The couple had three children: two sons named Francesco and Massimiliano and a daughter, Leonora, who died in infancy. Claudia also died in September 1607. Monteverdi himself died on November 29, 1643, at the age of 76, in Venice. He was buried in the Cathedral of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari. His unpublished works were published after his death, in 1650. The following year, such works as canzonettes were released, which the musician wrote throughout his life.
MONTEVERDI Claudio (baptized May 15, 1567, Cremona - November 29, 1643, Venice), Italian composer. He studied with M. A. Ingenieri, the bandmaster of the Cathedral of Cremona, learned the traditions of choral polyphony (J. P. da Palestrina, O. Lasso, etc.). In 1582 he published a collection of 3-voice motets "Small spiritual songs" ("Sacrae cantiunculae"), in 1587 - the 1st collection of madrigals (5-voice). From 1590 (or 1591) chorister and violist (performer on viole da gamba), from 1602 Kapellmeister at the court of Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga in Mantua. In 1607, his first opera, Orpheus, was also staged there (libretto by A. Strigio, based on the plot of an ancient Greek myth, set forth mainly according to Ovid and Virgil). After the death of the Duke of Monteverdi, he moved to Venice, in 1613 he took the post of bandmaster St. Mark's Cathedral, created 6 operas for the Venetian opera houses. Author of 8 collections (“books”) of madrigals; late madrigals, especially from the 7th (1619) and 8th (1638) books, which already belong to the aesthetics of the Baroque, can only be called madrigals conditionally - these are large-scale theatrical vocal and instrumental compositions “The Battle of Tancred and Clorinda” (text from "Jerusalem Liberated" by T. Tasso), balli (madrigals with dances) "Ball of ungrateful women" and "Tyrsis and Chlorus", duets, tertsets and solo arias with basso continuo (for example, "Complaint of a Nymph" for soprano and male tercet, close opera stage). In 1651, under the title Madrigals and Canzonettes, Book 9, a collection of Monteverdi's secular music of various years was published (including 11 previously unpublished pieces); the most valuable is the trio "Come dolce oggi l'auretta" ("How gentle the breeze is now") - the only surviving number from his opera "Stolen Proserpina". Of the sacred music of the composer, the most famous is "Vespers of the Blessed Virgin" (" Vespro della Beata Vergine " , 1610; its climax is the Magnificat); Besides, Monteverdi wrote 3 masses (including "In illo tempore") and motets - on the texts of the famous psalms "Dixit Dominus", "Laudate Dominum omnes gentes", "Beatus vir qui timet Dominum", etc., as well as on the text antiphon "Salve regina" (3 different motets). 37 spiritual compositions were included in the large-scale collection Selva morale e spirituale, first published in Venice in 1640.
One of the first and greatest opera composers in the history of music. Of the significant number of Monteverdi's works in this genre (c. 15), three have been completely preserved: Orpheus, Ulysses' Return to his Homeland (libretto by G. Badoaro based on Homer's Odyssey, Venice, Carnival 1639–40) and The Coronation of Poppea "(libretto by G. F. Busenello based on the Annals of Tacitus and other ancient sources, Venice, carnival 1642-43); from the opera "Ariadne" (Ducal Palace in Mantua, 1608) only the famous Lamento of Ariadne (or Ariadne's Lament) has been preserved.
The main feature of Monteverdi's musical language is the combination (often in one work) of imitation polyphony, characteristic of the Late Renaissance, and homophony as an achievement of the new Baroque era. Monteverdi considered himself the creator of a special emotional style: he found examples of “soft” and “moderate” styles in the works of his predecessors and “never found examples of an excited style” (stile concitato). Monteverdi believed that music should be able to convey human feelings and passions (anger, prayer, fear, etc.), including in conflict opposition; this manifested itself in the musical characteristics of his opera characters, for which he found individual intonations. Along with recitatives and ariose constructions, developed solo and ensemble forms were introduced into the vocal parts of his operas (Orpheus' scene at the gates of hell, Ariadne's Lament, the virtuoso Duet of Nero and Lucan from the Coronation of Poppea), choral scenes (Seneca's Scene with students from the Coronation Poppei"), in "Orpheus" the overture (the original name of "toccata") first appeared. Harmony M. combines the principles of modality and tonality, including in chromatized form. In the score of Orpheus, published in 1609, for the first time in history, the composition of an opera orchestra is recorded; it combines instruments of the basso continuo group and a large number of monophonic instruments (violins, zinc, trumpets), which participated in the performance of the orchestral sections. Monteverdi was one of the first to convey various theatrical effects with the help of instrumentation: for example, in the pastoral scenes of the opera Orpheus he used strings, flutes, lutes, in the scenes of the underworld - zinc, trombones, regal.
Monteverdi's innovation was misunderstood by some of his contemporaries. The influential music theorist J. Artusi in his treatise On the Imperfection of Modern Music (parts 1–2, 1600–03) brought down criticism on the composer (in particular, for his daring use of unprepared dissonances and chromaticism). In a brief preface to the 5th book of madrigals (1605), Monteverdi replied that he “has higher considerations regarding consonances and dissonances than those contained in school rules.” After 2 years, brother Monteverdi, composer and organist Giulio Cesare Monteverdi (1573 - c. 1630), in the expanded "Explanation to the letter printed in the 5th book" clarified the brother's musical and aesthetic position, while he used the concepts of "first practice" (prima pratica) and "second practice" (seconda pratica). According to him, for the "first practice" (its representatives are named the great polyphonists of the past Josquin Deprez, J. Okegem etc.), the mastery of the technique of composition was important as such, and the presentation of the text was not so essential, while the "second practice" (innovators-madrigalists starting with C. de Rore and the creators of theatrical music) requires that music reign supreme the text to which melody, harmony and rhythm obey. Monteverdi also outlined his compositional ideas in the preface to the 8th book of madrigals (1638).
Interest in Monteverdi revived in the 20th century; his works were edited by V. d'Andy, E. Krenek, J.F. Malipiero and others. Historical records of "Orpheus" were made by P. Hindemith (1954), A. Wenzinger (1955), "Coronations of Poppea" - G. von Karajan (1963). “Vespers of the Blessed Virgin” (with the participation of valve wind instruments and “sensitive” operatic vocals) was recorded in 1966 in his own edition by R. Kraft. Since the late 1960s Monteverdi's music is actively performed by representatives authentic performance. Representative selections of Monteverdi's madrigals have been included in their live albums by ensembles
