Claudio Monteverdi paved the way for new ideas and musical styles of Renaissance and Baroque music. Born in Cremona, Italy on May 15, 1567, young Monteverdi showed promise from an early age, composing his first works at fifteen. A few years later, he assumed the role of a court musician, composing madrigals for the Gonzagas in Mantua, Italy (Whenham & Wistreich xv-xvi). Monteverdi’s works became increasingly popular among the people of Italy and beyond. After being recognized throughout Italy for his madrigals of the late Renaissance, his very first opera, Orfeo, paved the way for Monteverdi to become known on a much broader scale as a composer. Upon the death of his wife shortly after Orfeo’s premiere, he spent a short time back in Cremona before returning to Mantua. In 1613, he moved to Venice to assume a higher position as the maestro di cappella at St. Mark’s Basilica. From this came his sixth and seventh books of madrigals, and a whole new mindset for Monteverdi. He became a highly respected composer and provided several other works before his death in Venice in 1643 (Whenham & Wistreich xvii-xxi).
Figure 1: Italy at the End of the Sixteenth Century. “Emerson Kent.” 1912.
Monteverdi is known to us as one of history’s “transition” composers. Working under the Gonzaga family occurred during a time that sparked creativity from Monteverdi, changes for Italy, and the world at large. The beginning of the Baroque era in Italy was marked by the counter-reformation (Friederich 132). Many of the changes that would occur in the Baroque era were influenced by the Catholic church, and this deeply impacted the Italian culture, especially in regards to art and music. While Monteverdi paved the way for new Baroque musical works, artists such as Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio and Annibale Carracci created new pieces that defined the artwork of the new era (Martin 167-168). “Naturalism” is a theme that defined the artwork of the Baroque era (Martin 166). These naturalistic works were a result of artists seeking to create more detailed, realistic art. A particularly stunning piece of Baroque art is The Crowning with Thorns by Caravaggio (See Figure 2). Created sometime between 1602 and 1604 by way of oil on canvas (Google Arts & Culture), this work is a beautiful example of the attention to detail and contrast that defined Baroque art and music.
Figure 2: da Caravaggio, Michelangelo Merisi. The Crowning with Thorns. 1602/1604 While Monteverdi was employed as a court musician for the Gonzagas in Mantua, it was inhabited by other artists and poets that gave Monteverdi much of his inspiration. Claudio Monteverdi's madrigals of the late Renaissance utilized the concept of text stress to allude to the ornate compositional techniques of the Baroque era, as demonstrated in “Stracciami pur il core” from Il Terzo libro de madrigali a cinque voci, No. 5.
Monteverdi composed several books of madrigals throughout his life. His third book of madrigals, composed in 1592 (Whenham & Wistreich xvi), including Stracciami pur il core from Il Terzo libro de madrigali a cinque voci, the stylistic elements that made Monteverdi’s madrigals so innovative are apparent. At the time that his third book of madrigals was composed, Monteverdi pulled much of his inspiration from Giaces de Vert, the maestro di cappella of the Gonzaga court (Whenham & Wistreich 53).
Monteverdi’s madrigals contain a wide variety of themes and voicings, which sets him apart from some of his contemporaries. His madrigals also included solo and ensemble works with several intricate vocal lines (Arnold). Monteverdi demonstrated a desire to place emphasis on the meaning of the text in the first lines of Stracciami pur il core. Translating to “Tear my heart, then; it is right, ungrateful!, that if I loved you too much, it should receive the punishment for the mistake I committed” (Campelli), this particular work was composed for five voices. This polyphonic work contains a theme with descending vocal lines and points of imitation between the voices (See Example 1). In the first section of the music, Monteverdi uses repetition of the first line “Stracciami pur il core,” or “tear my heart, then.” The repetition of the text paired with the sweeping, descending lines imitated throughout the five voices aids in the listener’s understanding of the subject’s heartbreak. In Example 1, the first six measures of the piece show the different voice parts entering into the texture. The theme begins in the tenor, and then moves to each of the other voice parts until everyone has joined in the texture. This type of imitation, where one voice begins a musical idea and it is later reflected in the other voices, is shown throughout “Stracciami pur il core” and many of Monteverdi’s other madrigals.
Example 1: An excerpt from the first page of Monteverdi’s “Stracciami pur il core.”
Monteverdi’s use of the imitation shown above aids in his goal of expressing the meaning of the words through the melodies and rhythms. The repeated descending lines can be interpreted to reflect the despair of the text. In measure four, the texture begins to change in the lower voices from quickly moving, short notes, to longer, held notes on the word “ingrato,” or “ungrateful.” This is also an example of the way Monteverdi is able to place importance on certain words by taking the word “ungrateful” and drawing it out longer than the rest of the text to mirror the subject’s disdain. Example 2: page 239 of Monteverdi’s “Stracciami pur il core.”
Further exploring the methods that Monteverdi uses to place emphasis on his text, he is able to take chunks of the poetic verses and give each section of its own thought. Gary Tomlinson states in his journal article Music and the Claims of Text, “[Monteverdi] cultivated a shrewd ear for contemporary poetic styles and a quick appreciation for their aptness to a musical setting” (565). In Example 2, Monteverdi makes the musical shift between two ideas. We are able to observe the shift that occurs after the final measure at the end of second system on page 239. The texture before the end of the second system remains more buoyant, with smaller note values and independence amongst the five voices. However, at the start of a new mood in the text at “non può morir d’amor alma fedele!,” which translates to “a faithful soul cannot die of love!” (Campelli), Monteverdi strategically begins to bring the five voices together to a similar texture with more sustained notes to further emphasize the text.
Dissonance is a tool that Monteverdi began to explore in his compositions around the end of the sixteenth century. Though Stracciami pur il core sounds beautifully harmonic and tuneful to the ear, there are places where Monteverdi strategically places points of dissonance in the voices to further aid in his expression of the poetic idea (See Example 3).
Example 3: an excerpt from the first page of Monteverdi’s Stracciami pur il core.
Example 3 shows the third system on page one of Stracciami pur il core. In the first measure, Monteverdi places dissonant intervals between the three middle voices as they are each moving through their respective lines. First, with the tenor one and alto, then the tenor one and two, and continuing to provide moments of dissonance throughout this section of the piece. The measures pictured in Example 3 depict the shift in mood that has just occurred in the piece to express the new idea. Now explaining the lover’s ingratitude, the voices give the illusion of a slowing of time by lengthening the notes. The longer note values and dissonance creates a sharp contrast for the listener and indicates the impression of the text.
During his time living in Mantua, Italy and working as the cappella for the Gonzaga Court, Claudio Monteverdi proved himself to be a master of polyphony and word painting. He followed the rules of Prima Practica and perfected its form, utilizing every voice part in unified harmony. Stracciami pur il core, from his third book of madrigals, provides insight into the different ways he would use text stress, dissonance, and coordination of polyphony to make the text come to life through the pitches. His methods of composition were innovative and alluded to the works that were to later come in the Baroque era.