Vespro della Beata Vergine - Monteverdi

The music of Claudio Monteverdi (Cremona 1567 – Venice 1643), whether secular or religious, is not doubt the most striking reflection of the profound change of mentality that took place at the end of the Renaissance. Medieval man’s symbolic perception of the universe as being in harmony with divine truth gave way to the exploration of terrestrial reality. In the world of art music was to become the foremost medium for the expression of the mysterious depts  of human nature. “To depict the passions”, movere gli affeti: this was to be the composer’s new parole. At the end of the 16^th century, with the collision of Reformation and Counter-Reformation, sacred music, too, reflected this aesthetic rupture. Although it remained pledged to the spiritual message, it recalled that this message was also addressed to man and thatit had to adopt the appropriate language in order to achieve its true goal: edification through emotion. Monteverdi was an extraordinary precocious genius. His first works, the Sacrae Cantiumculae, were published in 1582, when he was only fifteen. In this first collection of little three-part motets Monteverdi’s distinction is his highly personal treatment of the liturgical text. He thus rendered himself conspicuous at a period when religious music was dominated by the precepts of the Counter-Reformation with its demands for clarity and the primary importance it accorded to the comprehension of the sacred texts, mixed up with the rules of what was still called the Ars Perfecta. This “Perfect Art” was that of the Franco-Flemish composers with Josquin as its foremost representative. It continued throughout the 16^th century, spread throughout Europe by northem masters like Willaert, Isacc, Gombert, De Wert and even Lassus, reaching its final peak in the works of the Italian, Palestrina and the Spaniard, Victoria. The foundation of this style lies in a skillfully contrapuntual polyphony, i.e. the quest for a perfect balance between musical lines that are all of equal importance.

Until the end of his life Monteverdi demonstrated a perfect mastery of this “old practice”, which he called his prima prattica, as is borne out in the Sacrae Cantiunculae of 1582, the Missa in illo tempore from the collection of 1610, and the two Missa a Quattro voci da cappella published in 1640 and 1650. It was upon these extremely solid foundations that he was able progressively to construct his seconda prattica, a new style that set the mould for the technical and aesthetic foundations of “modern music”, based on the quest for a credible expression of the “passions”. …

                                                                                                                       Denis Morrier

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