Monteverdi: The Revolutionary

Second to no one in his boundary shattering compositions, Claudio Monteverdi can safely be named the most essential link from one era to the next in western classical music. This is not revolution as in who can deviate the furthest from the standard template. Monteverdi's genius in path-marking came from his flawless transition from the old Renaissance style to natural next, Baroque. His perfection was not in the direction of change, but the manner in which he executed it, creating new styles via exploration of combination. His theories of progression opened for his hands "harmonic invention, the freedom and richness of orchestral accompaniments, and the increased effectiveness of recitative" giving his name "a place of the highest importance in the history of music" (The Oxford Companion to Music).

Monteverdi was equal parts passion and business: this man knew who wanted what and held the genius to produce the old and modern styles simultaneously-- a formula for success. The differences being: the "polyphonic ideal" of the Renaissance with its "flowing strict counterpoint, prepared dissonance, and equality of voices" and the "freer counterpoint with an increasing hierarchy of voices" (Monteverdi: Creator of Modern Music). These styles have names, as Monteverdi published in his Fifth Book of Madrigals (there were nine in total, describing the delicate shift from Renaissance to Baroque), Prima prattica and Seconda prattica, respectively. His juxtaposition of the two styles was practiced both within the same piece and in separate works written at the same time. He composed for the Venetians  and their radical developments in religious and social freedom, filling their public opera houses with his works: Il ritorno d'ulisse (The Return of Ulysses, 1640) and L'incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea, 1642) (Norton Concise History of Western Music). All the while, he was generating sacred Mass's in the old style for conservatives back in Rome. 

Monteverdi's revolution in opera also came from his classic "I'm one step ahead of you" thinking. As Jacopo Peri and Jacopo Corsi were perfecting the modern operatic interpretations of ancient Greek tragedies upon the theories of their elders in the Florentine Camerata, Monteverdi tore through their debates on oral tradition and dove head first into the new genre. The result: L'Orfeo. A clear parallel to Peri's Euridice, but with the added expanse of interspersed "solo airs, duets, madrigalesque ensembles, and dances", leaving Peri's "new" recitative in the dust. 

A common example of Monteverdi's mastery of drama and "monodic experiements" is the emotional passage of Orfeo's lament upon Euridice's death. It begins, "Tu se' morta" (You are dead), and each time the text returns in a new phrase, the drama increases through "rising pitches, chromatic alterations, and rhythmic changes" (Norton Anthology of Western Music).

His breadth of psychological openness allowed him to move with ease into the humanness of opera. He was the first to create "opera out of characters who live, breathe, love, and hate" (www.npr.org/programs/specials).

A prime example of Monteverdi's ancient and modern amalgamations is in his Vespro della Beata Vergine 1610 (Vespers for the Blessed Virgin 1610). This excerpt of the Catholic liturgy follows the necessary Gregorian guidelines for sacred service, and yet employs the variety of new instrumentation and numerous musical forms. The abrupt dissonances are most revolutionary. They foreshadow the depth and beauty of Bach's later motets. The clearest portrayal of this technique is the opening of Magnificat, of the Vespers of 1610. It is this talent that allows Monteverdi to explore the borderless aspects of styles, where old meets new and genre no longer exists.

This type of interweaving reminds me of Anton Webern's take on Bach's Fuga (Ricercata). The Schoenberg influenced composer took the harmonic perfection of J.S. Bach and contorted the melody and chordal foundations with his new organization of tonal structure.