The grand Vespro alla Beata Vergine, or Vespers of the Blessed Virgin, may conjure up visions of the Cathedral of San Marco, but Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) was not yet in Venice in 1610 when he composed and published this revolutionary work.

Though only forty-three, he had already been twenty years at the court of Mantua in service to the powerful Gonzaga family. As maestro di cappella under Duke Vincenzo, he wrote mostly secular music to entertain courtiers at the ducal palace, but also provided some sacred music for the court church of Santa Barbara.

Monteverdi was not happy in Mantua despite the great fame and high status he enjoyed. He had financial quarrels, and the recent death of his wife had left him a widower with two young children. In 1610 he was looking to secure a post in Rome and Venice, which were the only places that could possibly offer him a position better than his present one.

Monteverdi published the Vespers of the Blessed Virgin and a six-voice parody mass in a collection that dedicated to Pope Paul V. The Missa In illo tempore demonstrated his mastery of the older Renaissance polyphonic style that the conservative papal chapel favored. On the other hand, the Vespers showed his ability to write sacred music using the forms and styles of the new secular music that he helped to create.

The search for another position became urgent when Duke Vincenzo died in 1612. His son Francesco ascended the throne and suddenly dismissed Monteverdi, who returned to his hometown Cremona with the equivalent of one month's salary in his pocket, his only savings after more than twenty years of service. The following year the maestro di cappella at San Marco in Venice died and Monteverdi was quickly appointed to fill the vacancy. The Vespers written in 1610 may well have been his audition piece.

The Vespers is synthesizes old and new. Over a thousand years before Monteverdi's day, the Rule of St. Benedict had laid down the structure and texts of the Vespers service. Monteverdi recast the prescribed texts using the new compositional methods developed under his secular music, and thereby effected great splendor and variety. Several stylistic elements appear throughout:

falso bordone	chanting of psalms. This device from the early 17th century allows the audience can hear words distinctly
cantus firmus	plainsong in long sustained notes. One voice sings the cantus firmus while the other voices perform in free manner. This technique was then a bit out of date.
monody	differentiating the solo voices from the accompanying instrumental lines. This rather new melodic style was essentially an aria.
cori spezzati	divided choirs. This often involved complex divisions and echo effects.

On feast days devoted to the Virgin Mary, Vespers includes five psalms, an "Ave maris stella," and a Magnificat. Each psalm is recited on a psalm tone, a melodic formula used for each verse of the text. Monteverdi based his psalm settings on the psalm tones, at times letting the tune stand alone and at other times weaving it into a dense texture.

In place of the antiphons usually chanted before and after each psalm, Monteverdi included solo movements not prescribed by the Vespers liturgy. These demonstrate his treatment of the solo voice and offer a contrast to the choral movements with which they alternate.

In the opening canticle and response, Deus in adjutorium - Domine ad adiuvandum, Monteverdi synthesizes old and new by mixing the chanting of sacred text with his modern secular music. The chorus chants on a single chord in falso bordone while the orchestra plays an adaptation of the opening toccata of Monteverdi's first opera, Orfeo. The chorus joins the dancelike refrain for the closing Alleluia.

In the Dixit Dominus (Psalm 109), the plainsong theme appears in rhythmically animated counterpoint beginning with the first phrase. Chanted passages in falso bordone interrupt and expand into new polyphony. An instrumental variation punctuates the larger sections. The soloists sing virtuoso duets and trios over an organ bass with the plainsong theme as cantus firmus. The Gloria Patri doxology begins in utter simplicity with the chanted plainsong. Then the chorus and orchestra erupt into a full outburst.

Nigra sum, the voluptuous text from the Old Testament, is in fact appropriate for a Marian Vespers. It was taken to refer not to Solomon's consort, but to Mary as the consort of God. Monteverdi's setting a striking example of monody, a solo motet of recitative-like lines with ornamental, highly emotional and compelling musical phrases to bring out the words.

The concertato-style Laudate pueri (Psalm 112) setting is for 8 voices, but not two separate choirs. Monteverdi uses a mass of sound to contrast with solo sections in which one voice sings cantus firmus and two other voices weave an extravagant filigree around it. The full chorus sings the doxology. At the words "Sicut erat in principio," literally "As it was in the beginning," Monteverdi recapitulates the music that began the movement. This structural device has been popular with composers for ages, and Monteverdi uses it more than once in the Vespers. More unusual is his treatment of the final Amen where the full eight-voice chorus dwindles down to a tenor duet.

The chamber duet for two sopranos, Pulchra es, is Monteverdi's sets another passage from the Song of Solomon. Monteverdi highlights the emotional words with ornament or dissonance, expanding each phrase, giving the melody to one voice, then bringing in the second to place a new ornamental counterpoint against it. In style and technique, this duet is much like Monteverdi's later madrigals.

Monteverdi sets Laetatus sum (Psalm 121), too, in concertato style, as a series of highly ornamented duets and trios interspersed with passages for full chorus. The full chorus sings the densely textured doxology, with a falso bordone section for contrast to introduce the final phrase.

The second chamber duet, Duo seraphim exhibits the height of Monteverdi's secular style, with all the voluptuous sensuality that is present in Monteverdi's madrigali amorosi. Every ornament of seventeenth century opera is present: sobbing trills, dotted rhythms, dissonances and melismas. Monteverdi also employs the kind of literalism found in his secular works. Later, a third tenor voices enters at the words "tres sunt," literally "there are three." Then for "unum sunt," or "they are one," the trio unites on the same note.

Monteveri sets Nisi Dominus (Psalm 126) for two choirs of five voices each. He combines the modern technique of cori spezzati, or divided choirs, with the already rather old-fashioned cantus firmus, which the baritones of each choir sing. The two choirs alternate, coming together for climaxes. Venetian composers were using cori spezzati in the same way in the Cathedral of San Marco.

The eco aria Audi coelum was a favorite device used in early opera and Renaissance pastoral plays. The solo tenor sings a decorative line and as he finishes each phrase a second tenor voices answers, as an echo from the distance. The full chorus enters on the word "omnes," or "all."

In Lauda Jerusalem (Psalm 147), the second psalm for double choir, the tenors sing a highly energized and syncopated melody. The changing harmonies and jaunty rhythms keep the piece exciting throughout. Monteverdi ends this movement with a robust doxology.

Monteverdi bases the rhythm and form of the instrumental interlude, Sonata sopra Sancta Maria, on a chamber canzona by a fellow northern Italian composer named Francesco Crotti, turning it into a splendid Venetian sonata. He allows each element of the orchestra to shine. Against the orchestra, the treble choir sings a simple Gregorian phrase eleven times, but with each repetition the phrase undergoes a transformation. Monteverdi alters the rhythm for every choral interjection.

Monteverdi sets the first and last verses of the plainsong hymn Ave maris stella in old-fashioned, sixteenth-century counterpoint for double choir and sets the others as a triple-time song with hemiola accentuation for one choir or soloist and organ. Between verses, the orchestra plays a dancelike ritornello.

Monteverdi divides the Magnificat into twelve sections. Although he treats each section differently, he unifies them with cantus firmus on the plainsong throughout. For this grand finale, he uses every device known to the seventeenth century composer and shows off the entire ensemble of voices and instruments. There are vocal duets for pairs of tenors, basses, or sopranos, instrumental duets for pairs of cornetts, violins, sackbuts, or flutes, and various dancelike ritornelli. A choir of high voices converses with a choir of low voices in "Et misericordia." And in the final "Sicut erat," Monteverdi employs the full choral counterpoint with instrumental doubling of all seven voices.

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