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MONTEVERDI Madrigals Book 3 Delitiæ Musicæ • Marco Longhini

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MONTEVERDI Madrigals Book 3 Delitiæ Musicæ • Marco Longhini 555309 bk Monte 3 US 19/11/2003 11:57 am Page 16 Early Music • Alte Musik DDD Also available in this series: 8.555309 Claudio MONTEVERDI Madrigals Book 3 Delitiæ Musicæ • Marco Longhini 8.555308 8.555309 16 555309 bk Monte 3 US 19/11/2003 11:57 am Page 2 Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) Madrigals Book III Also available in this series: ΩMonteverdi’s Third Book of Madrigals was published The first madrigal, La giovinetta pianta, sets an in Venice in 1592 by Ricciardo Amadino and sold anonymous text and is well constructed but not overly extremely well, with five reprints before 1611. Two interesting musically even though it was usual practice further editions published in 1615 and 1621 included a for the first (and last) pieces of such a work to be basso continuo line “for harpsichord, chittarone or other remarkable in some way or another (a practice similar instrument” to aid the instrumentalists who Monteverdi had followed in the Second Book and would otherwise have had to work out their part from would do again in the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth, Naxos the vocal parts and transcribe it by hand. These 8.555310, 8.555311 and 8.555312). As with the First madrigals were clearly in the performance repertoire Book, however, what matters most here is not musical therefore for a good thirty years (quite remarkable innovation but the tribute to the dedicatee: Vincenzo given the rapidly changing tastes at the turn of the Gonzaga, hedonist, spendthrift and libertine (not unlike sixteenth century as monody and opera developed) and Verdi’s Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto...) would no doubt were the composer’s first major success. Having been have been pleased by the explicitly mischievous and engaged two years earlier by the Gonzaga family at the sensual references in a text encouraging young girls to court of Mantua as a humble singer of madrigals and take enjoyment in love. viol-player, by 1592 Monteverdi was also working as a Love is once again the principal theme of these composer alongside Giaches de Wert, maestro di songs, whether in subtle portrayals of sensuality, as in cappella at the ducal chapel of Santa Barbara (where all Sovra tenere erbette 3, or as the source of pain when a the major sacred ceremonies of the court took place). lover’s feelings are unrequited or he is betrayed 4 and By that time Wert was suffering from various illnesses, @. Betrayal is also the theme of the very beautiful including smallpox and malaria, and Monteverdi, keen Ch’io non t’ami # with its tormented finale on the to make his name and hoping to succeed Wert, words “come poss’io lasciarti e non morire”, and of dedicated his Third Book to Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga, Occhi un tempo mia vita $ , with its wealth of partly out of respect, but also well aware that he was contrasting attitudes depicted by the masterly use of offering “mature and tasty fruit” that would be of great horizontal counterpoint (for expressions of love) and interest in the cultural atmosphere of the time. There is vertical harmony (for moments of reluctance and inner no mention here, as there was in the First and Second pain). Books (Naxos 8.555307 and 8.555308), of either his Several of the madrigals in this book (for example origins or his teachers: as a court musician he had both the seventh and twelfth) are characterized by a long assimilated and become part of the sophisticated culture opening passage written for a single voice (a sign of the that had always fascinated him. The Third Book is trend by then to separate out the voices and personalise clearly influenced by the musical, literary, architectural them by providing solo introductions), or for the trio of and other artistic splendours of the Mantuan court. It is the top three voices. Many academics believe that this an innovative, at times revolutionary work, full of bold points to a connection with the Concerto delle Dame di expressive features, which draws once again on the Ferrara, one of the few all-female groups in poems of Torquato Tasso and Giovanni Battista Guarini Renaissance Italy (made up of noblewomen and singers (the author of one of the most famous Renaissance visiting the Ferrarese court). Their flawless taste, 8.555307 texts, Il pastor fido (1589), who was visiting Mantua at technique and virtuosity were renowned throughout the time). Europe; while the usual cappella was made up of a a 8.555309 2 15 8.555309 555309 bk Monte 3 US 19/11/2003 11:58 am Page 14 small number of male singers and instrumentalists, we The innovative nature of this book is visible above know from contemporary reports such as that by the all in the “cycles” of madrigals: much has been written Florentine ambassador in 1571, that at least until 1598 about Monteverdi’s use of declamation in Vattene pur (the year in which the last heir of Alfonso II d’Este died crudel 8 and the charm of the musical transposition of and the Ferrara dukedom passed into the hands of the the two cycles taken from Tasso’s Gerusalemme Roman Church), larger-scale concerts of around sixty liberata (also the source of his later work, Il singers and instrumentalists were staged. These were combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda). Nino Pirrotta undoubtedly exceptional events, proof both of the writes in Scelte poetiche di musicisti (1987) that these esteem in which the art form was held and of the great works contain “singing rather than recitative, because wealth of Ferrara. Given the regular cultural contests the implicit form of performance can avoid the practical and exchanges between the latter and Mantua, it is demands of realistic speech to which performance is too certainly plausible that Monteverdi might have written often subjected ... Song, representation in song, is the pieces expressly dedicated to the Ladies of Ferrara. declared artistic aim”. The sequence of three madrigals Three such pieces appear here: O come è gran %-& that begins with the desperate words “Vivrò fra i martire 2 a superb depiction of that cultured world and miei tormenti” sets to music the moment at the end of of the way in which such feelings would have to be the combat between Tancredi and Clorinda, when the experienced intimately and without outward show at Christian warrior removes his helmet only to realise court; Lumi, miei cari lumi *; and O rossignuol 6. The that he has unwittingly killed his beloved. A dreamlike latter two songs make frequent and effective use of atmosphere is created; the voices seem to fight one madrigalismi, or word-painting (to be found on the another, angry impulses alternating with long moments words “veloce” and “tardo” in Lumi, miei for example; of reflection. Blinded by anger and the violent contest, while in O rossignuol, a swiftly undulating theme on Tancredi is now condemned to wander for eternity in “rio” comes to a standstill on the words “fermarti remorse and self-hatred: the music perfectly portrays suoli”, the nightingale’s song takes flight in a volley of his confused and bewildered state of mind (beginning notes, and the words of suffering, tears and pain, always of ^ and &). The melodies wander harmonically, present in such texts, are treated with dissonant sustained only by syllabic repetition intoned on a single harmonies). note, an obsessive, recitative-like repetition. Yet every The text of one of the Third Book’s most famous time the force builds up it reverberates, leading into a pieces, O primavera, gioventù dell’anno ! is taken new episode in which other voices overlap, interrupted from Mirtillo’s monologue at the beginning of Act by the desperate cries of “ahi sfortunato” ^. The Three of Il pastor fido. This pastoral drama was a outcome of so much sorrow can only be death, the favourite of Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga, as proved by “tomba felice”, a phrase that expresses the Baroque reports of a sumptuous staging in 1598 (after a failed concept of contradiction. attempt in 1591). We do not know for sure, but it seems Both the First and Second Books contain extremely likely that this madrigal was included in that expressive settings of Tasso, but the Third Book performance. The text is polarised between ever- settings have a new drama and intensity (as does the renewing nature with her promise of the joy of new life only Tasso piece in the Fourth Book, Naxos 8.555310). and an unhappy lover nostalgically recalling a love now After an absence in the Fifth and Sixth Books, his work lost for ever; the contrast between these sentiments is reappears with full dramatic force in Combattimento, made even stronger by the music — fast-moving, Monteverdi himself writing in the foreword to the Frontispiece of the original 1592 edition playful episodes are set in opposition to slow, painful Eighth Book in 1638, “I entrusted myself to the divine dissonance. Tasso, whose words so clearly and naturally express the 8.555309 14 3 8.555309 555309 bk Monte 3 US 19/11/2003 11:58 am Page 4 passions he wishes to describe, and I rediscovered his Celiano. Thyrsis and Phyllida are two humble Delitiæ Musicæ description of the combat between Tancredi and shepherds who, without averting their gaze from one Clorinda, giving me the two opposite passions to set to another, part in great sorrow, with words of love, tears Alessandro Carmignani . countertenor (cantus) (a) music, war, in other words prayer, and death”. and sighs. Following the text, the music proceeds Fabian Schofrin . countertenor (quintus) (b) Expressing these “passions” presents challenges in haltingly, creating contrasts, led only by the feelings of Gianluigi Ghiringhelli .
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