Monteverdi in Mantua Monteverdi, who was born in
Cremona in 1567, was a court musician for the
Gonzaga dukes of
Mantua from 1590 to 1612. He began as a
viol player under
Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga and advanced to become
maestro della musica in late 1601. He was responsible for the duke's sacred and secular music, in regular church services and soirées on Fridays, and for extraordinary events. While Monteverdi was court musician in Mantua,
the opera genre emerged, first as entertainment for nobility, to become public musical theatre later. The first work now considered as an opera is Jacopo Peri's
Dafne of 1597. In the new genre, a complete story was told through characters; as well as choruses and
ensembles, the vocal parts included
recitative,
aria, and
arioso. Monteverdi's first opera was ''
L'Orfeo,'' which premiered in 1607. The duke was quick to recognise the potential of this new musical form for bringing prestige to those willing to sponsor it. Monteverdi wrote the movements of the Vespers piece by piece, while responsible for the ducal services which were held at the Santa Croce chapel at the
palace. He completed the large-scale work in 1610. He possibly composed the Vespers aspiring to a better position, and the work demonstrates his abilities as a composer in a great variety of styles. The setting was Monteverdi's first published sacred composition after his
initial publications nearly thirty years before and stands out for its assimilation of both the old and the new styles.
Vespers , the ducal palace church at Mantua The liturgical
vespers is an evening prayer service according to the
Catholic Officium Divinum (Divine Office). At Monteverdi's time, it was sung in
Latin, as were all Catholic services then. A vespers service at the time contained five
psalms, a hymn and the
Magnificat (Mary's song of praise). The five psalms for Marian feasts (as well as other female saints) begin with
Psalm 110 in Hebrew counting, but known to Monteverdi as Psalmus 109 in the numbering of the
Vulgate: The individual psalms and the Magnificat are concluded by the
doxology Gloria Patri. The hymn for Marian feasts was "
Ave maris stella". Variable elements, changing with the liturgical occasion, are
antiphons, inserted before each psalm and the Magnificat, which reflect the specific feast and connect the
Old Testament psalms to Christian theology. Vespers are traditionally framed by the opening
versicle and
response from
Psalm 70, and the closing
blessing. On ordinary Sundays, the vespers service might be sung in
Gregorian chant, while on high holidays, such as the feast day of a
patron saint, elaborate
concertante music was preferred. In his Vespers, Monteverdi may have offered such music without necessarily expecting that all of it would be performed in a given service. Monteverdi deviated from the typical vespers liturgy by adding
motets (
concerti or
sacri concentus) between the psalms. Scholars debate if they were meant to replace antiphons or rather as embellishments of the preceding psalm. Monteverdi also included a
Marian litany, "Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis" (Holy Mary, pray for us). All liturgical texts are set using their
psalm tones in Gregorian chant, often as a
cantus firmus. Graham Dixon suggests the setting is more suited for the feast of
Saint Barbara, claiming, for example, that the texts from the
Song of Songs are applicable to any female saint but that a dedication to fit a Marian feast made the work more "marketable". There are just two Marian songs in the whole work ("Audi coelum" and "Ave maris stella"); and the sonata could easily be rearranged to any saint's name.
First publication ) The first mention of the work's publication is in a July 1610 letter by Monteverdi's assistant, Bassano Casola, to
Cardinal Ferdinando Gonzaga, the duke's younger son. Casola described that two compositions were in the process to be printed, a six-part
mass (
Messa da Capella) on
motifs from
Nicolas Gombert's
In illo tempore, and psalms for a vespers setting for the Virgin (
Salmi del Vespro della Madonna). He described the psalms as "varying and diverse inventions and harmonies over a canto fermo" (cantus firmus), and noted that Monteverdi would travel to Rome to personally dedicate the publication to the Pope in the autumn. The printing was completed in
Venice, then an important centre for music printing. The printing of collections of sacred music in Italy at the period has been described as "a fast-growing and very large and lucrative market", with around 50 collections in 1610 alone, 36 of them for
offices such as Vespers. The publisher was
Ricciardo Amadino, who had published Monteverdi's opera ''L'Orfeo'' in 1609. While the opera was published as a
score, the Vespers music appeared as a set of
partbooks. It was published together with Monteverdi's mass
Missa in illo tempore. The cover describes both works: "Sanctissimae Virgini Missa senis vocibus ad ecclesiarum choros, ac Vespere pluribus decantandae cum nonnullis sacris concentibus ad Sacella sive Principum Cubicula accommodata" (Mass for the Most Holy Virgin for six voices for church choirs, and vespers for several voices with some sacred songs, suitable for chapels and ducal chambers). partbook (
short score), the voice part left and continuo part right One of the partbooks contains the
basso continuo and provides a kind of
short score for the more complicated movements: it gives the title of the Vespers as: "Vespro della Beata Vergine da concerto composta sopra canti firmi" (Vesper for the Blessed Virgin for concertos, composed on cantus firmi). Monteverdi's notation is still in the style of
Renaissance music, for example regarding the duration of notes and the absence of
bar lines. There is no score, but a partbook for each voice and instrument. The corresponding continuo notes the beginnings of text lines, for example Magnificat, "Et exultauit", "Quia respexit" and "Quia fecit", and the names of instruments, for example
cornetto, trombone and
flauto. The
initials of a title are embellished, such as the M of Magnificat, and in the voice part, the initials of a cantus firmus line begin with a larger letter, e.g. "E t exultauit..." and "Q uia respexit...". Sections where the voice or instrument is silent are marked "Tacet.". The notation poses challenges to editors adopting the current system of notation, which was established about a half-century after Vespers was written. Monteverdi dedicated the work to
Pope Paul V, who had recently visited Mantua, and dated the dedication 1 September 1610. The schedule seems to have resulted in some of the movements being printed in haste and some corrections had to be made. Monteverdi visited Rome, as anticipated, in October 1610 and it is likely that he delivered a copy to the Pope, given that the
Papal Library holds an alto partbook. It is not clear whether he was honoured with a
papal audience. The alto partbook which the Pope received, with hand-written corrections, survived in the Biblioteca Doria Pamphilij. Monteverdi later wrote further music for vespers services, in the collection
Selva morale e spirituale, published in 1641, and in another collection,
Messa e Salmi (Mass and Psalms) which was published after his death in 1650. There is no indication that any of his publications of sacred music received a second edition.
Later publication After the original print, the next time parts from the Vespers were published was in an 1834 book by
Carl von Winterfeld devoted to the music of
Giovanni Gabrieli. He chose the beginning of the Dixit Dominus and of the Deposuit from the Magnificat, discussing the variety of styles in detail.
Luigi Torchi published the Sonata as the first complete movement from the Vespers at the turn of the 20th century. The first modern edition of the Vespers appeared in 1932 as part of
Gian Francesco Malipiero's edition of Monteverdi's complete works. Two years later,
Hans F. Redlich published an edition which dropped two psalms, arranged the other movements in different order, and implemented the figured bass in a complicated way. In 1966,
Gottfried Wolters edited the first critical edition. Critical editions were published by, among others, Clifford Bartlett in 1986,
Jerome Roche in 1994, and
Uwe Wolf in 2013, while Antonio Delfino has edited the Vespers for a complete edition of the composer's works.
Performance The historical record does not indicate whether Monteverdi actually performed the Vespers in Mantua or in Rome, where he was not offered a post. He assumed the position of
maestro di cappella at the
Basilica di San Marco in Venice in 1613 and a performance there seems likely. Church music in Venice is well documented and performers can draw information for historically informed performances from that knowledge, for example that Monteverdi expected a choir of all male voices. The Vespers is monumental in scale and requires a choir of ten or more vocal parts split into separate choirs, and seven soloists. Solo instrumental parts are written for violin and cornetto. Antiphons preceding each psalm and the Magnificat, sung in plainchant, would vary with the occasion. Some scholars have argued that the Vespers was not intended as a single work but rather as a collection to choose from. The edition by Hans Redlich was the basis for performances in Zurich in February 1935 and of parts in New York in 1937, followed by Switzerland (mid-1940s), Brussels (1946) and London (on 14 May 1946 at Westminster Central Hall). It was printed in 1949 and used for the first recording in 1953. The first recording of the work with added antiphons was conducted in 1966 by
Jürgen Jürgens. More recent performances have usually aimed to provide the complete music Monteverdi published. == Music ==