Monteverdi: Sesto Libro
I became familiar with Monteverdi by way of my formal education in music in college; as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I had a professor whose specialty was Monteverdi. He got a lot of airtime, so to speak, in our classes.
He’s famous for establishing a new style in music composition known as the second practice, leaving a polyphonic tradition that came to heights during the Renaissance, and this new style is characterized by both a codification of rhetorical devices (that would continue to be developed by composers after Monteverdi), alongside the idea of melody accompanied by bass, the birth of the so-called basso continuo.
Monteverdi’s sixth book of madrigals—written for multiple voices—broke from tradition by including a basso continuo part. The opening piece is an arrangement of the composer’s most famous piece from his lost opera, L’Arianna, the famous lament. He’d arrange it here for multiple voices, and later re-set it as the lament of the Virgin Mary. The piece was popular!
RossoPorpora isn’t the first vocal ensemble to take on recording Monteverdi’s madrigals. I’m already familiar with two especially, the 1992 recording by Concerto Italiano and the earlier recording by Anthony Rooley and the Consort of Musicke. All three of these collections are worth checking out.
RossoPorpora, directed by Walter Testolin, however, I think, have made the more interesting recording. The recording itself is well done, sonically a bit more satisfying than the others, although Concerto Italiano’s recording has a brightness that isn’t unwelcome. The dynamic range, at least, is worth pointing out for its depth. Rooley’s group uses some vibrato, but the vocal style adopted by RossoPorpora for me is ideal, with voices that are not attempting to lean into operatic territory.
When published, Monteverdi had just become the musical director at St. Mark’s in Venice. It wouldn’t be his last publication, of course; he’d go onto write three more books of madrigals alongside his main gig of writing religious music. These pieces look backward more than forward, not yet incorporating the full gamut of dramatic elements that would become the second practice; he most likely wrote these in Mantua before arriving in Venice.
This recording provides a very clear incorporation of the continuo instruments. In A dio, Florita bella the continuo instruments provide support for the monodic episodes. The composer could use the solo episodes to divide up the drama of the poetry. The use of a solo voice with continuo would in short time turn into an instrumental form, giving rise to solo sonatas for violins, cornetti, etc.
In Ohimè il bel viso the distance of the soprano voice is well-captured at a distance:
Alas, the lovely face! alas, the gentle gaze, alas, the graceful and proud bearing; alas, the speech that could make every harsh and savage soul humble, and every lowly man courageous.
And alas, the sweet smile, from which flew the dart that gave me death—no other joy I now expect. Royal soul, most worthy of a crown, if only you had not descended among us so late!
For you, I must burn, and in you I must breathe, for I was yours; and if I am now deprived of you, no other misfortune grieves me so deeply.
You filled me with hope and with desire, when I departed from that living summit of pleasure; but the wind carried away your words.
These madrigals then were an attempt to translate the human emotions embedded within this classical poetry into something we could feel: misfortune, death, sensual touches, amid natural phenomena, such as wind.
They were of interest, then, to the educated class. The annunciation in the short Batto qui pianse Ergasto is well done; as is the way the sopranos provide affective ornamentation with their sound. Listening without any knowledge of Italian will betray the art in these works, one is required to follow the words to see how Monteverdi is providing us word painting. In this piece especially we get the start of the stile concitato, the war-style: trembling, flames, and fire.
Expressive, this album is. These are not pieces that are likely to become earworms; for those who might shy away from these examples of early baroque music, the evolution of style and the ways this composer musically attempts to convey the poetry is worth our attention. It showcases that what will follow, especially as we leave vocal music and transition to the rise of the instruments, how composers were purposeful in using music to convey affect that was born here, from this period of musical history.
I found this recording beautifully made, with great singing. The layout of the lyrics in the booklet is less than ideal, at least for an English speaking person who wants to see the Italian and English side by side. But it’s my only criticism of the production. I hope to hear more from this ensemble and their director.
