the originality of monteverde

The Originality of MonteverdeAuthor(s): J. A. WestrupSource: Proceedings of the Musical Association, 60th Sess. (1933 - 1934), pp. 1-25Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Royal Musical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/765787 .

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7 NOVEMBER, 1933.

PROF. E. J. DENT, M.A., D.Mus., PRESIDENT,

IN THE CHAIR.

THE ORIGINALITY OF MONTEVERDE.

BY J. A. WESTRUP, M.A., B.MUS.

IF I desired a precedent for a paper on Monteverde, I could not do better than look back to that read in 1916 by Sir Hubert Parry, then President of the Musical Association, on The Significance of Monteverde. And if I were looking out for a suitable way of introducing the subject I could not do better than quote his introduction. He said:-

" Everyone who has any idea at all of what the name of Monteverde represents must see that a proposal to discuss him fully in a single paper, even of abnormal length, would be absurd."

That is as true to-day as it was then; indeed it might be stated with even greater emphasis at the present day, when our knowledge of Monteverde, thanks to the labours of Malipiero and others, is considerably greater than in 1916. You will understand, therefore, that I am obliged to dispense with biographical details, which are readily accessible in works of reference and biographies, and confine myself to one aspect of Monteverde and to one part of his production. I can promise, further, that the paper will not be of abnormal length.

The embarras des richesses which confronts us in the case of Monteverde is one reason for restricting the scope of this paper. Another, possibly less excusable, is that I happen to be more acquainted with Monteverde's operas than with his other works. An intelligent study of the operas certainly necessitates some knowledge of the other works, and I hope I have not been unmindful of this. But whereas I should be unable to sing in his madrigals myself with any pleasure to my companions and also do not know any body of singers which is in the habit of performing them, it has been my privilege in the past to be closely connected with performances of two of his operas, while I have also heard two broadcast performances of part of the third. I venture to think that some practical acquaintance



2 The Originality of Monteverde

of this kind is almost essential in dealing with the work of a composer like Monteverde, and indeed this acquaintance is my only justification for addressing you to-day. Since I have mentioned my practical interest in these operas, I should like to take this opportunity of assuring your President of something that he has probably forgotten, that it was his interest and enthusiasm for our apparently mad and chimerical projects in those days which encouraged me to undertake the study of Monteverde from first-hand sources, and indeed first intro- duced me to a composer whom I have not ceased to admire.

I need hardly remind you that three of Monteverde's operas survive--Orpheus (16o7), The Return of Ulysses (1641), and The Coronation of Poppaca (1642).

The first was printed twice in the 17th century, but the other two are known to us only from manuscripts, preserved at Vienna and Venice respectively. It is a commonplace to doubt the authenticity of Ulysses, but I have never had any doubt myself that it was by Monteverde. There are weaknesses certainly and the work is inferior to Poppe a. But to anyone who is familiar with Monteverde's style and mannerisms the authorship could hardly be doubtful. What is Monteverde's place in the history of opera ? The answer is fairly simple. Orpheus follows fairly closely the model of the first Florentine experimenters and in form does not differ very considerably from the works of Caccini and Peri. Poppwa, on the other hand, with its far greater proportion of set songs, many of them with instrumental introductions, is more akin to later Italian opera, in which the aria became an essential and regular element, even to the extent of tyrannising over probability and dramatic continuity. Regarded in this light, Monteverde neither opens nor closes an epoch. As the composer of Orpheus, he is working on the lines laid down by his immediate predecessors. As the composer of Ulysses and more particularly Poppmea, he is providing models for his successors. As far as originality of form in Orpheus is con- cerned, there is therefore comparatively little to say, though I shall examine this question more closely in a minute or two. The originality or otherwise of the form of the later operas depends on a knowledge of the structure of intermediate Italian operas and the methods of Monteverde's contemporaries.

It was the custom, however, of the older text-books to con- centrate more on the details of Monteverde's writing, particularly in Orpheus, than on the form of his operas. There can hardly be a person in this room who has not heard him hailed as a pioneer on the dubious ground of being the first to write the chord of the dominant 7th without preparation, and the first to write tremolando passages for strings, as if either of



The Originality of Monteverde 3

these devices, however new and strange, would be sufficient to entitle anyone to be called a great composer. Even though there are modem and up-to-date text-books which have taken account of work which has been done on Monteverde in recent years, I think there is still a popular belief among musicians, who have not had the opportunity of investigating the question for themselves, that Monteverde's principal title to fame is that he was a daring and rather naughty pioneer in the realm of harmony and orchestration, a sort of enfant terrible, as it were, of early I7th century musical history. It is the purpose of this paper to examine how far Monteverde's originality, which I do not dispute, lies in the use of new forms, new harmonies and new orchestration and how far it consists of that far more subtle and elusive something which is the characteristic of a great composer in any age.

It is a natural temptation to fix upon certain events in history and hail them as landmarks. It makes history easier to remember and gives confidence to nervous examinees. The danger always is that one may lose sight of the continuity of development which necessarily runs through all history, whether of an art, a people or mankind. It is certainly so in the history of music. The year I6oo is not only a convenient date to remember; it also saw the first example of a drama with music which can truthfully be said to belong to the same genus as later examples of what we know as opera. But there was nothing new in the idea of dramatic performance with musical accompaniment and nothing new in solo-singing with instrumental accompaniment, which is certainly as old as the troubadours, however much in the nature of an improvisation their accompaniments might be. Precedents for drama with music are to be found in the liturgical spectacles of the Middle Ages and in the secular entertainments which were popular in the courts of Renaissance Italy. The novelty of the Florentine experiment was the attempt at what they supposed to be a more exact reconstruction of Greek drama by setting the whole of the text in such a way that the music followed obsequiously on the words by interpreting closely the natural modulations of speech. This method called for solo-singing, except in a few places where the text afforded opportunities for concerted pieces. Monody, as I have remarked, was no new thing. A good deal of what is sometimes described as vocal polyphonic music of the Middle Ages was undoubtedly written for solo voice and instrumental accompaniment. Even the rise and development of the madrigal, polyphonic though it was, did not kill monody. The principal part was now in the treble, and lute arrangements made it possible for madrigals to




be sung by solo voice with instrumental accompaniment. The homophonic part-song (of a popular type) was particularly suitable for this treatment and drew attention still further from horizontal to vertical writing. The madrigal itself could not escape these influences and, concurrently with the new interest in monody which these operatic experiments created, began to disintegrate. In 1605 Monteverde was not ashamed to issue his fifth book of madrigals with a basso continuo for clavier, lute or some similar instrument. It is not possible to draw too hard and fast rules in the history of musical development. There are always several straws which show which way the wind is blowing.

The growing interest in the horizontal aspect of concerted music led naturally to experiments in tonality which would have horrified and puzzled the older polyphonic writers. The late Philip Heseltine, in Carlo Gesualdo, Musician and Murderer, a book which has suffered from the eccentricities of the biographical section by another hand, has an excellent chapter on the enterprising harmonic experiments of some of the composers of the r 6th century. What seem to us surprising chromaticisms came to be employed for the expression of deep emotion, or, by a crude but popular method of pictorial sugges- tion, for such natural phenomena as were suitable for this treatment. The works of Cipriano de Rore and Luca Marenzio in particular afford examples of this harmonic enterprise, which was possible when the limited modes-the major and minor scale-were not yet firmly established. Chromaticism runs riot particularly in the works of Gesualdo, where licence is abused. Mr. Heseltine's parallels with Wagner and Delius are interesting but do not convince the reader that harmonic audacity is sufficient to make a great composer.

If there were opportunities for expression in the madrigal- which could be highly expressive in the hands of a master, in spite of the occasional puerility of excessive pictorial sugges- tion by tricks of melody and harmony-there were even more in the new melodic declamation which was the basis of what we know as the first opera. That Peri and Caccini did not make more of their opportunities is easily understandable. You cannot make music out of a theory, however ingenious and sound the theory may be. There are enough regrettable examples of unsuccessful attempts in our own day to warn us against subscribing to a fallacy of that kind. In doing what they set out to do, Peri and Caccini certainly accomplished something and in a sense may be regarded as pioneers; unfortunately what they did was so often lacking in musical interest. The impression that one gets from reading these




works is that too often the melodic line can only be justified by the theory, that is to say, that it follows the words and allows them free expression. This is particularly true of Caccini's Euridice. Peri's setting of the same words is altogether a more musical and expressive piece of work, and whereas Caccini on the whole fails to rise to the situation when the death of Eurydice is announced, Peri, by a skilful use of melody and harmony, does not merely set the words but translates them into musical terms:- Ez. x. DAFNE. CACCINI.

Mi. se- ra - bil bel- ta - te, co-me in un pun -

to, &c.

Ex. 2. DAFNR. PER1.

Las - sa che dispa.ven- to e di pie - ta - te

4

Ge - la-mi ii cor nel se no. Mi-se -ra bil bel-ta te,

I,# ,,, 4, #3 ,

Co-me in un pun-to, ohi m, ve-nis ti me no. &c.

S 4 10 11 5 6 4 t3 2

The greater part of both operas consists of this new melodic declamation, which is mostly supported by simple chord progressions, except, as in the madrigals which we have been discussing, where the text or the situation calls for something a little more elaborate. Here again Peri shows more enterprise than Caccini, as you can see from the examples I have just




given. Equally striking in their way are the following passages from the same part of Peri's Euridice:- Ex. 3. (a) DAFNL OxIFO.

del mio do-lo re. Nin - fa deh sia con - ten ta, &c.

716 11

(b) ORFEO.

e la -cri- man - doilpie - de &c.

S 6 11 * (c) Oarao.

for- se t'af

--

i gie pia - gni l'a cer - bo fa to &c.

(d) ORFsO.

Ohi - me, Ohi - me

(c)

Oi..o. Mi - se - ro &c.




This juxtaposition of two comparatively unrelated common chords is, as we have seen, a device used by the madrigalists. So also is the poignant effect of certain suspensions, such as the following from Gagliano's Dafne (contemporary with Monteverde's Orpheus), where the harmony is clearly indicated by the figures :- Ex. 4. APOLLO.

e'l fia - to al cru-do ser pe ho tol - to

1-C __ _ -- __ -_ - I

The dramatic intensity secured by changing directly from a major to a minor chord has already been illustrated. The change from G minor to E major, which occurred in the first example from Peri can also be paralleled from the works of the madrigal composers and recurs again, though in the reverse order, in Monteverde's Orpheus.

Besides this more or less continuous declamation there are concerted pieces here and there and in both operas a set song with two verses, sung by Tirsis. (In addition, Peri has a song for Orpheus in three-time at the end of the opera.) A comparison between the settings of the two songs is interesting, especially as they are both a setting of the same text. Peri's version opens with a 'sinfonia' for three flutes.

[Musical Illustrations.] Both these songs are innocent enough, and Peri's amiable thirds (I am afraid Monteverde wrote a good many, too) amble along pleasantly without getting anywhere in particular. But if we compare either of these settings with Orpheus's song in Monteverde's opera (to be sung to us at the conclusion of this paper), we shall begin to get an inkling of the gulf that separated Monteverde from his predecessors.

The choruses are conventional in style and, at the tragic climax of the opera, entirely lacking in that rich and poignant feeling which Monteverde gives to the chorus which laments the fate of Eurydice and which has the additional interest of being built upon the messenger's solo as a bass. One example from Caccini will suffice. The only remarkable point is a rather abrupt change from D major to Eb major in the middle after a rest. Otherwise it is undistinguished, though it suggests interesting comparisons with the choruses in Monteverde's Orpheus.

[Musical Illustration.] 3 Vol. 60




The purely instrumental portions of both operas are inconsiderable. I have already played a typical 'ritornello' or ' sinfonia ' from Peri. It is interesting to notice that each verse of the introductory recitative, sung by the spirit of Tragedy, ends with a short passage for the continuo only, in both operas. Here again one thinks of Orpheus--only there the instrumental interlude is for the five-part string orchestra and has a significance, both here and later in the opera, which is quite foreign to the spirit of the earlier operas. I shall refer to it again in a minute or two.

Such then, in the barest outline, was the work of Monte- verde's predecessors. But he appears also to have been influenced by other than Italian sources. According to the preface which his brother wrote for the Scherzi Musicali (1607), Monteverde was the first to introduce into Italy the practice of il canto alla francese of which he had acquired a knowledge during his sojourn at Spa in the train of his patron in I599. Exactly what type of canto was imitated by Monteverde is not specified by his brother; but a good case has been made out by Prunitres for supposing that it was the new music mesurde a" l'antique of Claude le Jeune, Mauduit and others, that attracted Monteverde. It is true that, if this theory is correct, Monteverde refrained from imitating the complicated and pedantic scansion affected by the members of Baif's Academy; at the same time the rhythmic structure of many of the Scherzi Musicali, in which each line is set to the same fixed rhythm, recalls the principles of the Academy, even though its method is not followed in detail. As Prunitres suggests, Monteverde takes the idea from the French and treats it in an Italian way. That is to say, the regularity of rhythm attracts him, while he refuses to be bound by humanistic theories. (One cannot help being reminded of a similar attitude towards the theories of the Florentine experimenters.) I give an example from the Scherzi Musicali :- Ex. 5. [Upper part only.]

I, a .

I I r

_ j

. . , - w ?: -" , - vvJ ! LiiO + t

a l "F " .. ] h a , "-7-

- ' ,= -I- ,- ltV

! II '

I .

" - Ago+ +-ffr, n t , , fi . , o o _ _




With these it is instructive, as we are particularly considering the operas, to compare Orpheus's great song, which is to be sung to us at the conclusion of this paper. I will just underline the comparison now by playing the song without the instrumental introduction, which is in the same rhythm.

[Musical Illustration-XI, p. 49.'] The method found its imitators. Here is an example from Domenico Mazzochi's La Catena d'Adone (1626), a six-part chorus marked adagio.

[Musical Illustration-Goldschmidt, "Studien zur Geschichte der italienischen Oper im 17. Jahrhundert," I, p. 172.]

It is most unfortunate that the operas which Monteverde wrote between Orpheus (1607) and Ulysses (1641) have not survived. The task of tracing the development in his style would be considerably easier. As it is, all that one can do is to glance at the general development of music at the time and the growth of new tendencies and at the same time notice what effect, if any, they had on Monteverde's other compositions. The start given by the Florentine experimenters and Monte- verde seems to have encouraged a number of other composers to try their hands at the new form. The additional impulse to solo-singing which opera provided tended also to draw attention away from the rather monotonous recitative which had been, as it were, the backbone of the Florentine opera and to incline composers to consider the possibilities of set songs for solo voice, of the kind which Monteverde has already demonstrated in Orpheus. This is merely a further development in the break-up of polyphony and the growth of the solo song with figured bass accompaniment. Behind it lie many influences, among them doubtless, as I have already suggested, the immediate appeal of the popular homophonic part-song, with a simple rhythm and a singable tune. These influences can be observed in the work of composers between I6Io and 164o and they can be studied in the examples given by Goldschmidt in the first volume of his Studien zur Geschichte der italienischen Oper. A further development during this period which influenced opera was the growth of the concert cantata for solo voice, with freely set songs, interspersed with recitative. An aria in a cantata by Francesco

I The references are to the volumes and pages of Malipiero's complete edition of Monteverde's works (Universal Edition). This song is published separately as No. I of Songs and Duets from the Works of Monteverde (Oxford University Press).



I o The Originality of Monteverde

Mannelli (1636) has the following phrase:- Ex. 6,

&c.

with which we may compare fragments of the damigella's song in Poppcea :-

Ex. 7. (a)

As - tu - tel - lo, gar - zon- cel - lo, &c.

Se di - vie - ni a - man - te af -fe &c.

.--- -

The older composers, as we have seen, restricted the set song or duet in the main to pastoral scenes where they might be considered to have some element of probability. In the new style which was gaining ground probability is sacrificed by giving set songs, however short, to characters whom no one would expect to break into arias in real life.

It is not easy to trace the development of the aria, as opposed to the pastoral song (though there is no very consider- able difference in actual fact). Its origin in opera may partly be traced to short rhythmical ejaculations which break the free course of the recitative in order to express some particular emotion. Thus in the middle of a recitative in Peri's Euridice Amyntas suddenly breaks into the following rhythmical figure in three-time :

Ex. 8.

Tut - to lie - to e gio - con do &c.

-. - L-o--- -- -

,, T-------



The Originality of Monteverde Ir

This is an unusual example in an opera which consists principally of recitative. In later operas the device is more common. Both Ulysses and Poppmaa supply us with examples to which I shall refer later. In the operas by other composers which were produced between Orpheus and Ulysses there are frequent examples of continuous songs for solo voices, whether in three-time or four-time, some of them actually described as arias or ariettas. Thus in Landi's S. Alessio (Rome 1634) there is an arietta a una voce sola in that queer mixture of three- and four-time which seems to mark some of the work of the transitional and experimental period. The same work also contains an arietta a due voci in four-time. Michel- angelo Rossi's Erminia sul Giordano (Rome I637) contains a short aria a una voce sola. Similar directions are found in the cantatas of this period.

Some of the continuous arias in three-time appear to be based on dance rhythms. Thus there is at least a family resemblance between the final moresca of Monteverde's Orpheus and Charon's song in Landi's La morte d'Orfeo (16i9).

[Musical Illustrations-XI, p. I53 and Goldschmidt, op. cit., p. 201.]

The rather square rhythm of the middle section of Landi's song and the solid, if unimaginative, foundation of related common chords reminds one of a somewhat similar song in Ulysses-Fortune's song in the Prologue, which is to be sung to us at the conclusion of this paper.2 Other songs in three- time suggest a comparison, as I have already remarked, with the popular homophonic part-music of the latter part of the I6th century. Such, for example, is a little chorus of Damigelle in Francesca Caccini's La Liberazione di Ruggiero (Florence I625).

[Musical Illustration-Goldschmidt, op. cit., p. 174.]

One may note further a certain similarity of structure between this and one of the most charming songs in Ulysses-Melanto's song about love in the first act.

[Musical Illustration -XII, p. 24.]

The songs in four-time in the operas of this period suggest a

2 Songs and Duets, &c., No. 2 (b).




similar origin. Particularly to be noted is the moving bass which is of frequent occurrence, in contrast to the songs in three-time, where the bass tends more often to be composed of single-bar units, as in Charon's song mentioned above. This moving bass in four-time-it might almost be called a marching bass, consisting as it so often does of four regular crotchet~ in the bar--is of particular interest, since Monte- verde employed it so successfully in his later work. It is to be noticed, for example, in Amor's fine song from Poppea, which is to be sung at the conclusion of this paper.3 The best precedent for it occurs in Monteverde's own work-in Orpheus's song of triumph at being allowed to lead Eurydice out of Hades; the composers of the intermediate period employ the same device for less specialised occasions. But a moving bass in four-time is also to be found in Cavaliere's Rappresentazione di Anima e di Corpo, which is seven years earlier than Orpheus, and it is no doubt to be referred back to the madrigal and the part-song. A characteristic of the later practice is the writing of rapid passages for the voice over the steadily moving bass.

Monteverde was appointed maestro di cappella at Venice in 1613, at the age of 46, but he had to wait till 1637 for an event of some importance in the history of opera-the opening of the theatre S. Cassiano as the first public opera house. The impetus given to operatic composition by this new development is obvious enough and has often been stressed. It meant a further insistence on those elements in opera which were practically absent from the Florentine experiments and Orpheus, and hence contributed still further to the meta- morphosis of early music-drama into opera as we know it in the I8th century, not least in the subjects of the libretti. Monteverde, now an old man, was himself affected by these tendencies and could watch with interest the work of younger composers, who were destined to carry on his work. Notable among them was Cavalli, his pupil, five of whose operas were produced well before Monteverde's death-Le Nozze di Teti e di Peleo (1639), Didone (164x), and three others in 1642, the year of Monteverde's Poppea. Without an adequate knowledge of Cavalli's operas it is hardly possible to assess with any finality his relation to Monteverde, and adequate knowledge is at present impossible without a personal study of the manuscripts in the Marciana. Only a very small part of his output has been printed in modern times. That Monteverde

3 Songs and Duets, &c., No. 6.




had an influence on Cavalli is probable enough, and such fragments as I have seen would appear to confirm such an opinion. Prunikres, however, in his valuable study of Cavalli and the Venetian opera, to which I must fefer those who are anxious for a more detailed treatment than is possible here, notes the close similarity of style between Monteverde's last and Cavalli's first operas and suggests that it is not impossible that Cavalli influenced his master. If this hypothesis, which can hardly be proved, is correct, we may add yet another influence to those which contributed to the development of Monteverde's style.

That those influences were numerous has been fairly apparent from the summary which I have given. The master- pieces of the I6th century madrigal composers, Florentine experiments, popular part-songs, French airs de cour, the Italian cantata and the development of opera by other composers at Rome and Venice-all appear to have provided him with models or materials which he could use in his own works. The time has now come to examine more closely the details of his operas and see how far he can be shown to be indebted to these sources. The preliminary discussion of his predecessors and contemporaries makes this a fairly simple task. That Orpheus is an opera on the Florentine model is obvious enough. It consists for the most part of expressive monodic declamation or recitative, while set songs are con- fined to what may be termed purely pastoral occasions or moments of climax when a lyrical outburst seems justified. For the moment I shall deal with the recitative only. Like Peri and Caccini Monteverde has a prologue sung by a symbolical figure (in this case the Spirit of Music), the recitative being interspersed with instrumental ritornelli. But whereas each verse of Peri's and Caccini's prologues is sung to the same tune, Monteverde, while retaining practically the same bass for each section, varies the melody in accordance with the words. There is nothing particularly subtle here; the words indeed are not particularly emotional or striking. The point is that Monteverde is not merely working out a theory. He is thinking of his text, as every opera composer should, and writing music instead of producing a humanistic experiment. Neither harmonically nor melodically is there anything new here. The occasional suspensions and the significant variation of bass and harmony at the words le pi*s gelati menti are in the madrigal tradition. One simply feels that this is the work of a sensitive musician. Perhaps most significant of all is the last section, where music bids all nature be still while the story, both joyful and sad, is unfolded.




The conventional cadence is interrupted before the final chord is reached, and the recitative is left hanging in the air on what we should now call the dominant. The effect is as though one were anxiously listening for silence :

Ex. 9. LA MUSICA.

l Et o-gni au-ret-ta in suo ca-min s'ar-res - ti

I apologise for devoting so much time to this introductory recitative, but the difference between it and the other operas is so striking (and indeed it is intrinsically so beautiful, as anyone who has heard Orpheus will agree) that from the very start it provides me with a large part of what I hope to make my text.

The rest of the recitative in Orpheus might be treated in the same way. Much has been made of a certain number of striking progressions in the more poignant moments; but as I have already shown these progressions are not new. Thus in the second act, when Orpheus is stricken by the news of Eurydice's death the following passage occurs:-

Ex. Io. MESSAGIERA. ORFEO.

ULL La tua bel-la Eu-ri-di - ce Ohi-me che o - do?

MESSAGIERA.

la tua di-let - ta spo - sa mor - ta &c.

it -

This change of harmony, especially as the most striking part of it occurs at a change of speakers and may be said to represent the aposiopesis of the text, is no more audacious than the



The Originality of Monteverde s5 extracts which I quoted from Peri's Euridice, and these in their turn may be paralleled by some of the abrupt chord changes favoured by madrigal composers, e.g., the following, which I quote from Heseltine :

Ex. II. MARKNZIO (1599).

n L? -41

, -, - I-

, I

f I' I~ _

- i_- _1 y-!J-4

I -- --e-- --' - )-- ,=-

op ISO

If there is anything to admire in this particular piece of recitative in Orpheus-and personally I believe it to be both dramatically and musically effective-it is therefore not the novelty of the progression so much as the skilful use of a device already known to composers, and also to the inspired way in which Monteverde picks up the thread of the Messenger's tale by reverting not only to the same key but to the same tune.

We may adopt a similar attitude to those changes from E major to G minor which he introduces more than once in this scene. In the example from Peri which I quoted earlier in this paper the progression was reversed, from G minor to E major, but the novelty is no less striking if the emotional effect is different. Peri's use of this abrupt change of chord is actually more striking than Monteverde's since he introduces a suspension (see Ex. 2, bar 7). In the following example from Monteverde the progression (in the reverse order) marks a change of emotional intensity- from the climax of Eurydice's wild cry " Orpheus, Orpheus " to the Messenger's quiet recital of her last moments. At the very end the progression occurs in the same order as in




Peri, here transposed to C minor and A major :- Ex. I2. M3SSAGIERA.

E te chia-man-do 'Or-fe-o, Or - fe o,' Dop-po un gra-ve sos -

A f pi - ro Spi-ro fra ques-tebrac-cia ed io ri-

mart-

si Pie-nailcox di pie- ta - de e di spa - ven - to&c. 0 i_4 4- J l

Peri's use of chromaticism is certainly more restrained than Monteverde's. Perhaps he did not feel quite so much at home with it; and certainly there are passages in Orpheus such as the following from Act V:- Ex. 13. ORFEO.

S'hai del mio mal pie - ta - de lo ti tin- gra- tio, &c. '- " '-

for which no exact parallel can be adduced from Peri. But once let chromaticism be admitted to music, as it was by the I6th century madrigalists, and any chord progression becomes possible. These progressions are most fantastic, as I have suggested, in the works of Gesualdo, though we cannot quote them as precedents for Monteverde's Orpheus as they practically all occur in the fifth and sixth books of madrigals, which were not published till 1611. We do not as a matter of fact need to quote them. Enough has been said to show



The Originality of Monteverde 17 that in his use of chord progressions and suspensions Monte- verde was simply using devices identical with or similar to those already tried by others, and carrying to their logical conclusion the harmonic experiments which grew up when the shackles of the old modes had been removed. What he does do is to treat these raw materials in a musicianly way, to employ them at the right time and in the most effective way, and to let us hear through the actual note which he writes the passionate song of his own heart. There could be no better example of this than those two recitative-like duets in which two shepherds sorrow for the death of Eurydice-to my mind one of the most beautiful moments in the opera. There is nothing sensational about these duets. They are quietly accompanied by the organ (and, in the first, the lute as well) and the progressions on the whole are simple and natural. But there is a beauty in them which one will look for in vain in Peri or Caccini. I may be allowed to quote a few bars from the second duet, as an example of the inspired use which Monteverde makes of chromaticism:

Ex. 14.

[andia-]mo Pie - to - i a ri- tro-var * le E di la-

[andia-]mo Pie-to - sia ri -tro-var-le E di la - gri-me a-ma-

l - 1% r- r-" - -i,

gri-me a-ma - re II do - vu - to tri-bu- to Per noi si pa-ghi &c.

re II do vu - to tri- bu - to Per noi si pa -ghi, per noi si pa -ghi

The lapse of time between Orpheus and Ulysses (thirty-four years) would itself be sufficient to prepare us for differences in the later opera. Besides this, as I have already indicated, there were tendencies at work in the musical world which were bound to affect the original form of opera as established




by Peri and Caccini. The long recitative of Penelope which opens the first act is an instructive example of the way in which Monteverde's style had altered in the intervening period. Her lament for the absent Ulysses is full of pathos, but the pathos is achieved in the music not by abrupt chord progressions but largely by a subtle use of expressive suspensions and by a little figure which, with its falling diminished intervals reminds us of Orpheus but at the same time makes its effect principally by its threefold recurrence as a sort of refrain :

Ex. 15. PENELOPE.

Tor -

na, tor - na, tor -

na, deh tor - na,

tor - na, U-lis se I-- /71%

A significant and particularly expressive suspension is that produced by a succession of sevenths, each of which resolves to a sixth, as in the following examples:- Ex. 16. PENELOPE. (a)

non ter- mi na - ti, non ter- mi- na- ti mai, mai,

mai do-len - ti af .

fan ni

-->? +,-e9



The Originality of Monteverde 19 v(b)

Linno-] cen-te dell' al - trui col-pe io so - no I'af-flit - ta, I'af - flit - ta,

I'af - flit-ta pe-ni - ten -

te

- t,, , ,-

The use of sevenths in this and similar ways is one of the features of Monteverde's later style. A particularly expressive progression, which he affects in Poppea is:-

Ex. I7. t~j -~

It had been used by Caccini and Landi, among other composers. A further noticeable characteristic of Penelope's recitative

is the short arioso with its moving bass and semiquavers in the voice part, which breaks into the recitative at the end. I have already commented on this type of song, and shall have occasion to do so again when I consider Monteverde's use of the aria. We may here note that both in Ulysses and Poppcea there are frequent examples of short arioso passages, not complete arias, which interrupt the recitative for the sake of emotional effect. I have already quoted precedents for this practice.

If one were to take, therefore, only Penelope's recitative, there would be abundant evidence for Monteverde's change of style. But the whole opera bears out the same conclusion. The recitative pure and simple has ceased to be the most important part of the opera. A good deal of it is conventional, thus approximating to the almost meaningless recitative of later opera. One does occasionally meet with an expressive chromatic passage and our old abrupt change from G minor to E major actually puts in an appearance in one of Ulysses's recitatives; but on the whole there is far less in the recitative to interest us than in the recitative of Orpheus. Interest is created and sustained by frequent arioso passages, sometimes very short, on the model of those which have been referred to




as occurring in operas of the intermediate period, sometimes continuous and worthy to be called songs. An interesting example of the growth of a song from short arioso passages is to be seen towards the end of Act I. Ulysses twice interrupts Minerva's comfortable assurance with expressions of rapturous joy.

[Musical Illustration--XII, p. 61.] At the end of the next scene one discovers that this is but the opening strain of a complete aria with two verses.

[Musical Illustration-XII, p. 68.] What I have said of the recitative of Ulysses applies also

in the main to Poppwea, which was produced in the next year, except that the pure recitative-that is. the recitative when uninterrupted by arioso passages-seems to me on the whole to be more sincere and more impressive. No doubt the extremely passionate and human character of the subject made an even greater impression on Monteverde than the story of Ulysses. As we know from one of his letters he was more con- cerned with the passions and emotions of human beings than with natural phenomena, though he did not disdain to use the current methods of translating them into music. One must not forget the moving farewell of Octavia at the end of Poppcea and some of Otho's recitative. One may note the striking end of the first act with its dropping sevenths and sharpened bass note:- Ex. IS. OTTONl. I ~ ?1r 7 ~11 e w ew - - R- - ,w '"I

L L , E pur al mio di - spet-to in-i-quoa-mo-re, Dru-sill' ho in boc-ca, ed

ho Pop - pea, ho Pop-pea nel co - re

? ----7 --T . .. :_ l i - = . , A, wI - _ I I -

I 7 - F- 1 . - I, _ ___ -.-.-.O

Again a passage like the following where Nero's beautiful mistress urges her lover not to leave her, is obviously from the hand of the same master who created the poignant and expressive recitative of Orpheus.

[Musical Illustration-XIII, p. 35.]1




But when the two finally part, after repeated assurances of undying love and present reunion, Monteverde gives us nothing better than an alternation of E major and A minor chords over which the farewells are sung; and it remains true that when emotion springs up it issues most frequently, as in Ulysses, in a short arioso passage or a complete song. I quoted an example from Ulysses in which a song was anticipated by a quotation of its opening bars. In Poppcea we have the reverse process, equally dramatic and perhaps more readily appreciable by the audience. Drusilla has an infectious song of joy at the thought that Otho has transferred his affections from Poppaea to her.

[Musical Illustration--XIII, p. 164.] Later in the scene with Otho which follows, when he assures her that she has nothing to fear from the jealousy of Poppaea, she breaks out once more into a fragment of the same song. Otho interrupts with the remark " Hear me, hear me" (natural enough since he has urgent instructions to impart), but she disregards him and continues the song, which no doubt she would have sung through to the end, if Otho had not made the same appeal again.

[Musical Illustration--XIII, p. 175.] Finally she rounds off the scene by singing yet another extract from the same song.

[Musical Illustration--XIII, p. 178.] The discussion of these passages in Ulysses and Poppca

naturally leads us to a general consideration of the aria or song (whether for one or more voices) in Monteverde. Most of the songs or duets in Orpheus are pastoral and do not require any detailed comment. I have already remarked on the similarity of scansion between Vi ricorda, o bosch' ombrosi (to be sung to us later) and some of the Scherzi Musicali of the same year (1607), and the possible influence of French music mesurde d l'antique. The other pastoral songs, duets and trios exhibit no striking originality of treatment. The fine swinging tune which Orpheus sings on the deliverance of Eurydice from Hades has its parallel in a song of rejoicing at the end of Peri's Euridice. Monteverde, however, employs what I have called the marching bass, which, with various modifica- tions, was adopted for songs of a certain character in later operas.

[Musical Illustration--XI, p. 12z.] It will be noticed here how the bass of the song grows out of the bass of the introductory ritornello. A natural development of this type of bass, with which the voice here moves, is to




employ it beneath a sustained passage for the voice. This is done in later operas and used by Monteverde himself with great effect in Ulysses where the buffo character Iros sings a sustained D for nine bars to the word O, followed by an expressive change at the word dolor in the tenth bar:- Ex. I9. IRO.

0

0

dolor, oh mar-tir che I'Al - ma at-tris-ta

__ __so z I cannot here examine all the continuous songs in Ulysses.

The finest of them-Penelope's song of rejoicing at the end of the opera-is to be sung shortly, as well as the delightful little ditty sung by Minerva in the guise of a young shepherd. Here is another attractive little song, of the four-in-a-bar type, sung by Telemachus on the completion of his aerial journey, and followed by a duet with Minerva.

[Musical Illustration-XII, p. 85.] All the devices of the time, of rhythm, syncopation, melodic embroidery of the most florid kind, are to be found in these songs. The harmony is generally straightforward and often sequential. The fashion of the time, as for many years after- wards, was for song. The examination of the songs and duets in Poppara (you will remember particularly the beautiful duet for Nero and Poppea in the last act4) is even more embarrassing. Amor's song, which is to be sung presently, is only one of several

4 Songs and Duets, &c., No. 3-




of equal merit. The flow of melody appears inexhaustible and even the jaded appetites of modern listeners have been known to be revived by a hearing of this work. Once again we find Monteverde doing consummately well what others had done blindly and without appreciation of the possibilities of the style they were employing. There was nothing in light comedy music that was new or original. Yet who of Monte- verde's predecessors or actual contemporaries produced anything of quality of the scene between the valletto and the damigella 5? Or again in all the little fragments of arioso in other operas is there anything to match this little snatch of song, inserted in a long scene between Otho and Drusilla :-

E x. 20.

Il tri - bn . nal d'A- mor Tal - hor gin- sti - tia

f . Di me non hai pie - t, Al-tri si ri - de, Ot.

-ton, del tuo do - lo re. i_-_'-_-_-_'- '-I

We forget the weak points of a long opera (it takes about three and a half hours to play) when we come on things like this. The freshness of Monteverde's later lyrical style often suggests the easy grace and dignified splendour of Handel. Parry curiously says that " tune was not his strong point."

One aspect of Monteverde's operas remains to be considered -his use of the orchestra. It was traditional at one time to hold this up to admiring students as an example of astonishing pioneer work in the history of orchestration, because what appears to be rather an unusual collection of instruments is specified for Orpheus. This ghost was laid by Parry in his

5 Songs and Duets, &c., No. 5.

4 V6i. 60




Musical Association paper in 1916, but it may still carry on a furtive and melancholy existence. The records of the performances at ducal courts show that it was the regular practice to employ as many instruments as were available for a festal occasion. Further it was the practice in these days, before orchestration became the art of combining instrumental tone, to use the instruments in groups, exactly as Monteverde does in Orpheus, employing the strings and flutes for the more pastoral sections, and the wind for the wild and unearthly, if not particularly inspired, music of Hades. In the same way variety is secured in the recitative by allotting the work of accompaniment to appropriate instruments in turn--the quiet organ accompaniment to the shepherd's duet, which I have already mentioned, is an example; in contrast the singers of the infernal regions are accompanied by the harsh tones of the regal. There is nothing new in the orchestration of Orpheus; indeed the term orchestration has little meaning at this period of musical history. True the Toccata at the beginning is an experiment in a way and an astonishing noise, particularly when it is played the requisite three times; but it is not particularly remarkable as a way of combining instruments.

One point needs attention in the use of the orchestra in Orpheus. The symphonies for wind only are dull and uninspired, as well as being singularly difficult to play well. On the other hand the symphonies and ritornellos for strings have a grace and charm which adds materially to the beauty of the opera. They are far more frequent than in Peri's Euridice. I have already referred to the few bars for continuo only which occur at the end of each verse of the prologue in that work. Monteverde not only writes a ritornello for strings at this point, but also, as though appreciating how far it was bound up with that part of the opera which takes place above ground, repeats it with poignant effect at the end of the second act, after the last chorus of mourning (this is an unforgettable moment in performance) and also at the opening of the fifth act, when the scene changes from Hades to the plains of Thrace. This significant use of the orchestra, small though it is, may rightly, I think be regarded as something new. It consists of treating a convention, that of the instrumental ritornello to a song, as something with further possibilities in itself. The same sensitive treatment is to be observed in other instrumental movements for strings in this opera, two of which are to be played in a minute or two.

In Ulysses and Poppea, on the other hand, the insistence on lyrical song appears to have driven the orchestra again to occupy a subsidiary place. For one thing the resources of the




Venice theatres appear to have been inferior to those of the court of Mantua. Apparently only five-part strings and continuo are used in Ulysses, while Poppcea, at any rate as it has come down to us,6 is scored only for two violins and continuo. (When I say 'scored,' I refer to the instrumental movements. All the singing, both in Ulysses and Poppaea6, is accompanied by the continuo, and there is only one part of Orpheus where the voice is accompanied by the strings.) The function of these instruments is practically restricted in Ulysses and Poppcaa to playing the ritornellos which precede the songs. This use will become apparent from the examples from those operas which are to be sung shortly. The only notable excep- tion is the fine overture and the almost Handelian symphony which serves as a sort of triumphal march at the end of Poppwea and which I have also included in the illustrations.

I am conscious of having done only sketchily what I set out to do, and of having omitted points which might have strengthened the argument or examples which would have elucidated a connexion. At the same time I hope the main purport of this paper is clear--that Monteverde, whether he was writing like the Florentines or like the Roman and Venetian composers, was not an inventor in the sense of introducing harmonic and melodic devices and orchestration which no one had used before. His title to fame rests not on such doubtful pretensions, but on the intrinsic musical worth of what he wrote. We know from a study of musical history that as often as not the great man strikes out no new paths in the narrow sense but uses what others have done and often transmutes the dullest material into pure gold. This I believe to have been the achievement of Monteverde, and inasmuch as the work of a master influences others he may be considered to have played a valuable and important part not only in the history of opera, as is evident from the work of his successors, but in the history of music as a whole.

[The musical illustrations given at the end of the paper consisted of songs for soprano and baritone and instrumental movements for strings and continuo].

There being no time for discussion the meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the lecturer and to the ladies and gentlemen who performed the illustrations.

6 i.e., in the Venice manuscript. The Naples manuscript is for strings in four parts, which sometimes actually accompany the voice. The differences can be studied in Malipiero's text.



the originality of monteverde

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