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MONTEVERDE, CLAUDIO (1567-1643)

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 778 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MONTEVERDE, CLAUDIO (1567-1643) , See also:Italian See also:priest and musician, was See also:born• at See also:Cremona in May 1567; he was engaged at an See also:early See also:age as violist to the See also:duke of See also:Mantua, and studied See also:composition under Ingcgneri, the duke's See also:maestro di See also:capella. His bold experiments, while bringing upon him the attacks of See also:Artusi and See also:Banchieri (q.v.), led to discoveries which exercised a lasting See also:influence upon the progress of musical See also:art. He was the first to make deliberate use of unprepared dissonances, or what are now known as fundamental discords. These discords constituted a revolution against the See also:laws of 16th See also:century See also:music. He employed them first in his madrigals, where they are a sign of decadence, but afterwards introduced them into music of another See also:kind with such excellent effect that theirvalue was universally recognized. Before 1595 Monteverde was married to the See also:singer Claudia Cattaneo, who died in 1607. In 1602 he succeeded Ingegneri as maestro di capella; and in 1607 he produced, for the See also:marriage of See also:Francesco See also:Gonzaga, his first See also:opera, Ariana, in which he employed the newly-discovered discords with irresistible effect. Though he did not invent the lyric See also:drama—See also:Peri's Euridice having been produced at See also:Florence in 1600—he raised it to a level which distanced all contemporary competition. His second opera, Orfeo, composed in 16o8, was even more successful than Ariana. In 1613 Monteverde was invited to See also:Venice, as maestro di capella at St See also:Mark's, with a See also:stipend of 300 ducats, which in 1616 was raised to 400. Here he composed much sacred music, the greater See also:part of which is lost. In 1630 he wrote another See also:grand opera, Proserpina rapita.

He did not become a priest until 1632. In 1639 he produced L'Adone, and in 1641 Le Nozze di Enea and Il Ritorno d'Ulisse. He died in Venice on the 29th of See also:

November 1643. Monteverde's See also:harmonic innovations and See also:power of musical See also:rhetoric seemed to put an end to the school of See also:Palestrina, and led the way to See also:modern music.

End of Article: MONTEVERDE, CLAUDIO (1567-1643)

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