Monteverdi is one of the famous Italian composer, singer and musician. The audience regards his compositions as revolutionary composing in the Baroque Period. He created two new styles of composing, Polyphony and Basso Continuo technique of baroque. He was a renowned composition and enjoyed a lot of fame and popularity in his life. He has written many compositions, and most of them are revolutionary compositions. He faced a lot of criticism on his compositions throughout his life but still he is one of the most popular composers of his term.
Madrigal
A madrigal is a secular music composition, a part-song of the early baroque period. Commonly, Polyphonic madrigals are solo and vary from two to eight or six to three. It shares only the name, but it is quite different from Italian Trecento Mardrigal. The madrigal was the famous music of its time.
“AhDolente partita”
O sorrowful parting!
O end of my life!
Do I leave you, and not die? Yet I endure
The pain of death
Feel upon our parting
A lively death
That gives life to sorrow
So that my heart may die unendingly
The composition points towards leaving a beloved person, is just like bringing death to the life, it just like leaving someone and put one in difficulty. Monteverdi’s songs are an example of prominent single melody line. The bell pattern in his composition provided a sequence without a repetition until 52 minutes. Monteverdi understands the importance of romance his creations reflect the Romanticism.
Monteverdi compositions are the example of Articulation markings as they show the way he used the music pattern on a single note. Monteverdi’s creation reflects Strophic forms. The “Triadic motive “can be easily identified in each vocal part in his creations as he has used harmonic and Rhythmic ligatures in his music. Sestina (Tears of the lover” is a masterpiece of Monteverdi multi-movement masterpiece. Monteverdi altered Motivic material from his collection and learning. The orchestra requirements can be easily noticed in the beginning of his published score.
Artusi is older than Monteverdi and a distinguished theorist. He published his book of “The Imperfections of Modern Music”. The main purpose of the book is about critique on an anonymous composer, clearly Monteverdi. There was a controversy between two contemporary points of views. Monteverdi realizes the advancement of instrumental music and tried to include every modern technique in his compositions. He utilized the enlarge vocabulary mixed with diatonic.
On the other hand, Artusi felt that these compositions are compositions of unschooled composers. On the clear note, we can declare that the battle is drawn, and we cannot declare anyone ‘the winner of the battle. Artusi, said that the roots of the music should not change, the old rules and compositions are the main assets. Throughout the controversy, Artusi objected madrigals in two ways, improvised center point and instrumental music innovations are out of the norms of classical music. The style adopted in Mardiganals is the strict violations of the style taught by Zalino. Artusi, criticsed the style and pattern of Monterverdi as he thinks the composition did not follow the rules of Zalino. Monteverdi replied, the criticism on his compositions in book V by presented a proposal of division of musical learning in two categories, Prima Practica, and Seconda Practica.
Work Cited
Redlich, H. F. Claudio Monteverdi: Life and Work. London: Oxford University Press, 1952
The Montverdi/Artusi Controversy (2012), The Monteverdi/Artusi Controversy, Retrieved: 25-oct-2013< http://toddtarantino.com/hum/artusi.html>
