Lecture:  Monteverdi Vespers
By Audrey Wong



So much can be said about Monteverdi and about the particular piece we're presenting tonight that I have to limit my focus for this lecture.  I refer you to the actual printed program notes which discuss the 1610 Vespers and which actually give you a blow-by-blow description that you can follow movement by movement as we perform this concert. 

For this lecture I will share some biographical highlights, since Monteverdi hasn't been the subject of any popular film or miniseries. As you well know, "The Full Monty" is not about him.

Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi was born in Cremona, in 1567.  He was the son of a doctor and the oldest of five children.  Not much is known about his youth, but considering the historical and cultural background of 16th C. Cremona, some educated guesses can be made regarding his early musical career.  Claudio started as a choirboy in the Cremona cathedral, which historians assume was the central musical focus of the city since Cremona did not enjoy the patronage of any powerful ruler who would have held grand court.  There was a guild of skillful town musicians, but acceptance into that association was by apprenticeship.  As a doctor's son, Claudio would not have been apprenticed to a town musician.  Finally, documents do show that he studied with a Marc' Antonio Ingegneri, prefect of music at the Cremona cathedral.

Monteverdi was somewhat of a prodigy, publishing his first work, Cantiunculae sacrae, a volume of sacred songs, in 1582.  Brilliance and innovation are not yet revealed - he was, after all, just a 15-year-old choirboy.  What IS noteworthy is the fact that the book was printed by the most famous Venetian publisher, and that it is not dedicated to a member of the nobility (who might have subsidized the work) but rather to a priest.  His second book, published the following year by a lesser establishment, was dedicated to a Cremonese nobleman (who almost certainly picked up the tab).  In 1584 his third book, was published by the Venetian house of Vincenti and Amadino, which would become his main publisher.  Three years later he published his First Book of Madrigals.  He was only 19 years old and had already published four books in less than five years.

By then he was outgrowing Cremona and began to think of fulfilling his ambitions outside his home town.  In 1589 he visited Milan, hoping to land a job there.  Unsuccesssful, he returned home and kept writing music.  In his Third Book of Madrigals, published in 1592, Monteverdi was identified as suonatore di vivuola (viol player) to Vincenzo I, Duke of Mantua.  He was 25.

Mantua was under the protection of the powerful Gonzaga family, and Monteverdi's lot depended very much on the character of the ruling duke.  The first Gonzaga Duke Guglielmo was wise, cultured, educated, talented, and pro-gressive.  Under him Mantua enjoyed prosperity and stability - and, apart from Rome and Venice, housed the best musicians in Italy.  Vincenzo I, Guglielmo's successor and Monteverdi's boss, fell short of the ideal Renaissance monarch.  An inconsistent ruler whom some even described as "brutish," he did however harbor a great love for drama and music; and kept a stable of virtuoso performers to gratify his passion for display.  There was ample work for Monteverdi in the Gonzaga court.  Moreover, the opportunity to perform with great singers and players changed and matured his music considerably. 

Duke Vincenzo promoted Monteverdi from viol player to singer.  This seniority allowed Monteverdi to accompany the duke on expeditions, and in 1595 they travelled across the Alps, pursuing Turks in Austria-Hungary.  These warlike activities were brief (they returned home in six months) but the experience affected him deeply, both emotionally and in his pocketbook.   

The next year Monteverdi was disappointed when the maestro di cappella (the main music guy) died and the vacancy was filled by Benedetto Pallavicino, an older well-published musician whom Monteverdi nevertheless considered his inferior.  Despite his own growing fame and the fact that he was the highest paid court singer - and next in line for promotion - Monteverdi began to feel discontent. With Vincenzo's permission, he married court singer Claudia Cattaneo in May 1599, but in June set out with Vincenzo for Flanders, another expedition which left him richer in experience and poorer in pocketbook.  When Pallavicino died in 1601, Monteverdi applied for the maestro di cappella position and was awarded that post, much to his relief since his son Francesco was born that same year.  He was now a father, at age 34. 

Ironically, while his elevation in status and income was finally providing a measure of security, his music was attacked by Bolognese theorist Giovanni Maria Artusi, who in 1600 and again in 1603 pointed to Monteverdi as perpetrator of crimes against music.  When the Fifth Book of Madrigals appeared in 1605, perhaps in reply to Artusi, public opinion sided with Monteverdi.  Not only was this fifth volume reprinted within a year, the publisher reprinted all of Monteverdi's earlier books. 

Two more children were born to Monteverdi, a daughter in 1603 and another son in 1604.  His debts mounting, Monteverdi complained about irregular payment of his salary.  In 1607 he presented Orfeo, but had little opportunity to enjoy the triumph of his first opera.  Claudia died in September of that year, after a long illness, and Monteverdi was left a widower with his two surviving children, sons aged six and three.  He was 40 years old.

He had no desire to resume composing, but was coaxed back by a letter promising fame - plus a prince's gratitude.  He buried his sorrows in work - a new opera (Arianna), an intermezzo, a ballet - for the celebration of the royal wedding of Vincenzo's son Francesco. Despite working conditions and circumstances which caused extreme duress (including the untimely death of the soprano who was to sing the title role in Arianna), his music was a great success. However, the promised fame and royal gratitude that he secured could not alter his depression and Monteverdi went home to Cremona in such a collapsed state that his father (the doctor) wrote the Duchess of Mantua with a request that Claudio be released from his duties.

The request was denied and Monteverdi was summoned to return - but with a substantial pay raise.  By 1610 he was back in Mantua, composing another book of madrigals, but obviously casting about for another job. He traveled to Rome and Venice, the only two places which could possibly offer him something that was not a step down from his present position.  The Vespers of the Virgin and a six-voice parody mass were published in a collection that was dedicated to Pope Paul V.  The mass demonstrated Monteverdi's ability to compose in the older Renaissance style that was favored by the conservative papal chapel.  The Vespers demonstrated his ability to write sacred music using new forms and styles of the secular music that he helped to create.

The need to find another job became urgent when Vincenzo Gonzaga died in 1612 and his son Francesco ascended the throne - and suddenly dismissed Monteverdi.  After more than twenty years of service in the Gonzaga ducal court Monteverdi returned to Cremona with the equivalent of one month's salary in his pocket, his life savings.

The following year the maestro di cappella at San Marco in Venice died.  Monteverdi applied for the post (the Vespers may well have been his audition piece) and was appointed on the spot.  His fortunes had changed at last.

Monteverdi's new job was an overwhelming responsibility.  San Marco was perhaps the largest musical establishment in Italy, with regularly employed singers and instrumentalists and many others contracted for special events.  Music had to be provided - composed, rehearsed, performed - for about forty festivals per year.  Up until then, Monteverdi's composing was not of sacred music.  However, invigorated, he rose to the challenge.  Morever, besides his numerous artistic and administrative duties for San Marco, he still found time to continue composing and publishing secular music. 

In his mid-40s, he was in his prime not only in his own composition but also in how he energized Venice's music program - he reorganized the chapel band, brought the choir up to strength, hired more musicians for more services, expanded the music library.  His job performance was recognized and appreciated.  After three years he was granted a 10-year contract.  He was happy - financially comfortable, famous, appreciated by his employers, and loved by the public.  (Are you listening, Latrell?) 

By 1620 Venice was a hotbed of contemporary music composition - there were six composers employed by the basilica itself.  Monteverdi was in his fifties, secure in his job, venerated at home and abroad.  He continued to publish successfully and music at San Marco was running smoothly.  As a responsible dad, he had settled his sons' positions - the older Francesco in service as a singer in San Marco and the younger Massimiliano a medical student at Bologna University and living in the Cardinal's College there.  Free to follow his outside interests, he composed solo motets, duets, and other more easily performed works for various anthologies of church music.  He freelanced for the Mantuan court, who offered him the maestro di cappella job - twice - which he declined, the first time angrily but the second time, seven years later, gently.  Job security and satisfaction erased his resentment. 

This happiness was fractured in December of 1627, when Monteverdi learned that his son Massimiliano had been arrested by the Inquisition. At the same time the last of the Gonzagas, Vincenzo II, died, leaving no male heir thus setting the stage for the Mantuan War of Succession. Massimiliano was acquitted the following year, but Monteverdi suffered cruelly during the months of fearful waiting and frantic attempts at intervention, all the while producing the musical works that were required of him.

Monteverdi could at least be thankful for remaining in Venice, which was unaffected by the political unrest that rocked northern Italy. Venice remained so politically stable that Heinrich Schütz visited from Germany in 1628 to learn from Monteverdi the new art of opera and church music.  Although untouched by invasion, the city could not escape the bubonic plague that the imperial troops brought across the Alps when they invaded Italy.   In 1630 the plague swept through Venice, killing 40,000 but sparing Monteverdi and his son.  However, he was worn down by the strain.  He took a leave of absence and when he returned began to show signs of old age.   The turmoils of the years 1627-1631 moved him towards the priesthood.  Although he continued to publish, the new collection Scherzi musicali was a slim volume of light, fashionable airs.  The title page of this 1632 publication indicated that he had been ordained a priest.  He was 65 years old. 

Just when it seemed that his career was beginning to fade, in 1636 two musicians arrived seeking patronage in Venice.  Monteverdi recognized the talents of Manelli and Benedetto Ferari, who had been producing operas in Rome, and hired them immediately for San Marco's choir, even though he knew their interest was not in church music.  Venice was evolving into a city of opera.  In 1637 the first public opera house opened with Manelli's Andromeda.  Soon after, several others were opened and Monteverdi was not one to be left out.  At age seventy Monteverdi's composing took new life.  Arianna was revived in 1639, a series of new works followed as well as a balleto for the Duke of Parma.  He published his Eighth Book of Madrigals and a collection of church music.  In 1642, at the age of 75, he composed L'incoronazione di Poppea. (Which SF Opera will present beginning two weeks from now.)

Twice he was awarded with generous presents and he was granted a long leave of absence to revisit his old home in Cremona.  In 1643 he spent six months visiting places where he had spent his earlier years.  He returned to Venice to die, of a malignant fever on November 29, 1643. The city mourned him with an impressive funeral ceremony held in two churches, San Marco and Santa Maria dei Frari, where he was buried. His publisher Vincenti collected the manuscripts of all his unpublished church music and published them in 1651.  Also that year, L'incoronazione was performed in far-away Naples. This time a long and careful search was conducted for a successor. Sadly, though typically, after that, Monteverdi's name quickly disappeared from contemporary annals and by the end of the century, he and his music were forgotten.  

When you hear the fireworks tonight you may well wonder - how can this happen? How could anybody forget this?  Well, 300 years ago this was "modern" music.  And tastes change.  Who knows?  In 250 years the world may see rap revivals, funk festivals, and ska symposia.  Seems inconceivable doesn't it?  I hope you enjoy the concert.

May 30 & 31, 1998


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