I was reminded of this gorgeous Monteverdi this week while researching other settings of the Laudate text - can't wait for the next time I get to dive into Italian Baroque music!
Catarina Martinelli
Monteverdi's Lamento d'Arianna and his magnificent Sestina are linked by one soprano - Catarina Martinelli. Never heard of her? Learn about her in Early Music Sources' video and then go listen to the Sestina!
Orfeo, Hindemith, and the Early Music Revival
Do you know how Orfeo connects Monteverdi to Hindemith (and also why I have serious doubts about an early music piece "arranged" by basically anyone...)? Early Music Sources has the answer to this fascinating chapter of history!
Ornamentation in Monteverdi
Ornamentation - one of the most discussed topics in Early Music. How much? What type? Where? Here's an interesting discussion of those issues as they apply to Monteverdi!
Monteverdi mass for four voices
Remember the video on "stretto fuga" from June 14 (how much can a composer do with two intervals)? Here's an entire mass Monteverdi wrote using that idea!
Stretto fuga - a masterpiece of two intervals
How much can you really do with two intervals? If you were a Renaissance composer, quite a bit! Early Music Sources explains the stretto fuga with some fantastic examples from Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610!
Salomone Rossi and his Innovations
Composer Salomone Rossi is an important Jewish composer of the late Renaissance/early Baroque periods. But did you also know that he worked with Monteverdi, bridged the gap between the "old" and "new" styles, and wrote madrigals? Early Music Sources has all the details!
O primavera
That feeling when something you were waiting for falls just a little short of your hopes? Monteverdi understands.
O spring, the youth of the year,
beautiful mother of flowers, fresh herbs, and new loves,
you indeed return but without the sweet days of my hopes.
You are simply that with was charming and lovely,
but I am not now as I once was - so dear to the eyes of another.
(Translation by Hilary Anne Walker)
Artusi vs. Monteverdi - "Get off my lawn!"
Remember the terms “prima” and “seconda practica”? Just want the dirt on another early music controversy? Early Music Sources has a fantastic video on the Artusi/Monteverdi squabbles!
Durum & Molle in the Renaissance
Ever wonder why composers chose certain keys for their pieces? Or what all those accidentals meant? Early Music Sources has all the answers, as always! BONUS: Quick explanation of hexachords and my personal favorite, Monteverdi’s “Zefiro torna”.