Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643)

Claudio Monteverdi displayed a talent for music early in life, studying at Cremona Cathedral and publishing his first compositions at age fifteen. By the time he was twenty, he had written two books of madrigals and was an established composer.

In Monteverdi's time, Cremona was already famous as a center of musical instrument manufacture, especially violins. As early as 1530, Andrea Amati had set up a shop that produced high-quality violins well into the eighteenth century. His grandson Nicolò Amati, Antonio Stradivari, and Andrea Guarneri continued to refine the techniques of violin construction and design, making instruments of exceptional tone and elegant shape.

In 1590, Monteverdi was invited to join the musical staff of the court of Vincenzo Gonzaga I, duke of Mantua (r. 1587–1612), where he continued to compose. By 1607, he had published five books of madrigals and was famous throughout Italy for his ability to write music that was both dramatic and expressive of word and text. At this time, a new musical idiom was being invented—opera, a combination of drama and music—and Monteverdi was chosen to write the music for a court entertainment in this new style. The result was Orfeo, based on the story of Orpheus, the legendary hero of Greek mythology who sang and played the lyre so wonderfully that animals, trees, and rocks were moved to dance. When a snake killed Orpheus' wife Eurydice, he followed her to the Underworld and, with music and song, persuaded Hades to release her. In the opera, choruses and dances are interspersed with arias and recitatives, and Monteverdi's instrumental score is one of the first in which exact instrumentation is marked. It also demonstrated his skill at crafting melodic passages that complemented the texts, adding rhythms, harmonies, and combinations of instruments that showed an extraordinary sensitivity to the meaning of words. For instance, in Orfeo, the unique sound of the choir of sackbuts (trombones) is employed to evoke the regions of Hell.

Not surprisingly for a musician who had grown up in Cremona, Monteverdi incorporated violins into his orchestras, as well as viols, whose sweet sound was preferred by some to the power of the violin. Orfeo is scored for strings, winds, and continuo instruments, including ten little violins doubling five parts, three bass viols, two violone (contrabass viols), two recorders, two cornets, four sackbuts, three trumpets, two harpsichords, two positive organs, a regal (reed organ), and a double harp. The orchestra is augmented at times with chitarrone and bass citterns.

After the death of the Duke, Monteverdi moved to Venice, where he held the post of maestro di cappella at the Basilica of San Marco. His reputation grew as he wrote in a variety of styles, both sacred and secular. When the first public opera house opened in Venice in 1637, he composed several operas of which only two survive.

Monteverdi continued to write music until the end of his life. When he died, all Venice went into mourning.