Claudio Monteverdi was born in Cremona. Only the date of his baptism is known for sure - May 15, 1567. Cremona is a northern Italian city that has long been famous as a university and musical center with an excellent church chapel and an extremely high instrumental culture. In the 16th-17th centuries, entire families of famous Cremonese masters - Amati, Guarneri, Stradivari - made bowed instruments, which had no equal in the beauty of sound and nowhere else.
The composer's father was a physician, he himself, perhaps, received a university education and, even in his youth, developed not only as a musician skilled in singing, playing the viol, organ and composing spiritual songs, madrigals and canzonettes, but also as an artist of a very broad outlook and humanistic views. He was taught to compose by the then famous composer Marc Antonio Ingenjern, who served as bandmaster of the Cremona Cathedral.
In the 1580s, Monteverdi lived in Milan, from where, at the invitation of Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga, he, twenty-three years old, went to the Mantua court as a singer and virtuoso on the viol. Subsequently (since 1601) he became the court Kapellmeister at Gonzaga. Documentary materials, and, above all, the correspondence of the composer himself, tell that his life there was by no means sweet; he suffered from the despotism and greed of his patrons, who imperiously and petty took care of his work and doomed him to a forced existence. “I would rather beg than be subjected to such humiliation again,” he later wrote. Nevertheless, it was in these difficult conditions that Monteverdi finally formed as a mature and outstanding master - the creator of works that immortalized his name. The improvement of his art was facilitated by daily work with the excellent ensembles of the court chapel and the Church of St. Barbara, wandering around Europe in the suite of Gonzaga in Hungary, Flanders, communication with outstanding contemporaries, among whom were such brilliant artists as, for example, Rubens. But a particularly important factor in progress for Monteverdi was his inherent modesty, tireless work and exceptionally strict exactingness to his own compositions. In the 1580s-1600s, the first five books of beautiful five-part madrigals were written in Cremona, Milan and Mantua.
The significance of this genre in the formation of the creative method and the entire artistic personality of the master was enormous. The point is not only that in Monteverdi's heritage the madrigal quantitatively dominates over others (only about two hundred works based on texts by Tasso, Marina, Guarini, Striggio and other poets). It was this genre sphere that became a creative laboratory for Monteverdi, where he undertook the most daring innovative undertakings even in his youth. In chromatizing the mode, he was far ahead of the madrigalists of the 16th century, without, however, falling into subjectivist sophistication. A huge progressive acquisition of Monteverdi was the brilliantly accomplished fusion of Renaissance polyphony and a new homophonic warehouse - a dramatically individualized melody of various types with instrumental accompaniment. This, according to the composer himself, “second practice”, which found full and vivid expression in the fifth book of five-part madrigals, became the path to achieving the highest aesthetic goal of the artist, to the search and embodiment of truth and humanity. Therefore, unlike, say, Palestrina, with its religious and aesthetic ideals, Monteverdi, although he began his journey with cult polyphony, eventually established himself in purely secular genres.
Nothing attracted him as much as the exposure of the inner, spiritual world of a person in its dramatic collisions and conflicts with the outside world. Monteverdi is the true founder of the conflict dramaturgy of the tragic plan. He is a true singer of human souls. He persistently strove for the natural expressiveness of music. "Human speech is the mistress of harmony, and not its servant." Monteverdi is a resolute opponent of idyllic art, which does not go beyond the sound painting of "cupids, marshmallows and sirens." And since his hero is a tragic hero, his “melopoetic figures” are distinguished by an acutely tense, often dissonant intonation system. It is natural that this powerful dramatic beginning, the further, the more closely it became within the boundaries of the chamber genre. Gradually, Monteverdi came to distinguish between the “madrigal of gestures” and the “madrigal of non-gestural”.
But even earlier, his dramatic searches led him to the path of the opera house, where he immediately acted fully armed with a “second practice” with the first Mantua operas Orpheus (1607) and Ariadne (1608), which brought him great fame.
With his "Orpheus" the history of genuine opera begins. Intended for a typical court festivity, "Orpheus" is written on a libretto, clearly associated with fabulous pastoral and luxurious decorative interludes - these typical attributes of court aesthetics. But Monteverdi's music turns the hedonistic fairy-tale pastoral into a deep psychological drama. The apparent pastoral is characterized by such expressive, individually unique music, fanned by the poetic atmosphere of a mournful madrigal, that it still influences us to this day.
"... Ariadne touched because she was a woman, Orpheus - because he is a simple person ... Ariadne aroused true suffering in me, together with Orpheus I prayed for pity ..." Monteverdi's essence is also contained in this statement own creativity, and the main essence of the revolution he made in art. The idea of the ability of music to embody the "wealth of the inner world of man" during the life of Monteverdi was not only not a hackneyed truth, but was perceived as something unheard of, new, revolutionary. For the first time during the millennium era, earthly human experiences found themselves at the center of composer creativity on a truly classical level.
The music of the opera is focused on revealing the inner world of the tragic hero. His part is extraordinarily multifaceted; various emotional and expressive currents and genre lines merge in it. He enthusiastically calls out to his native forests and coasts or mourns the loss of his Eurydice in artless folk songs.
In recitative dialogues, Orpheus's passionate remarks are written in that excited, in Monteverdi's later expression, "confused" style, which he deliberately contrasted with the monotonous recitative of the Florentine opera. The image of the hero, his inspired art, happy love and grievous loss, his sacrificial feat and achievement of the goal, the tragic denouement and the final Olympic triumph of the singer - all this is poetically embodied against the background of contrasting musical stage scenes.
Throughout the opera, melodious melodies are scattered with a generous hand, always in tune with the appearance of the characters and stage situations. The composer by no means neglects polyphony and from time to time weaves his melodies into an elegant contrapuntal fabric. Nevertheless, the homophonic warehouse dominates in Orpheus, the score of which literally sparkles with bold and precious finds of chromatic harmonies, colorful and at the same time deeply justified by the figurative and psychological content of this or that episode of the drama.
The Orpheus orchestra was huge at that time and even excessively diverse in composition, it reflected that transitional period, when they still played a lot on old instruments inherited from the Renaissance and even from the Middle Ages, but when new instruments were already appearing that corresponded to the new emotional system, warehouse, musical themes and expressive possibilities.
The instrumentation of "Orpheus" is always aesthetically consonant with the melody, harmonic color, stage situation. The instruments that accompany the singer's monologue in the underworld are reminiscent of his skillful playing the lyre. In the pastoral scenes, the flute intertwines the artless melodies of the shepherd's melodies. The roar of the trombones thickens the atmosphere of fear that envelops the bleak and formidable Hades. Monteverdi is the true father of instrumentation, and in this sense Orpheus is a fundamental opera. As for the second operatic work, written by Monteverdi in Mantua, "Ariadne" (libretto by O. Rinuccini, recitatives by J. Peri), it has not survived. An exception is the world-famous aria of the heroine, which the composer left in two versions for solo singing with accompaniment and in a later version - in the form of a five-voice madrigal. This aria is of rare beauty and is rightfully considered the masterpiece of early Italian opera.
In 1608, Monteverdi, who had long been burdened by his position at the ducal court, left Mantua. He did not bow to his power-hungry patrons and remained a proud, independent artist, holding high the banner of human art. After a short stay in his homeland in Cremona, in Rome, Florence, Milan, Monteverdi in 1613 accepted an invitation to Venice, where the procurators of San Marco chose him as the conductor of this cathedral.
In Venice, Monteverdi was to perform at the head of a new opera school. She differed in many ways from her predecessors and far ahead of them. This was due to different local conditions, a different historical balance of social forces and ideological currents.
Venice of that era is a city with a republican system, a deposed aristocracy, with a rich, politically strong, cultured bourgeoisie and a daring opposition to the papacy. The Venetians in the Renaissance created their art, more secular, more cheerful, more realistic than anywhere else on Italian soil. Here, in music from the end of the 16th century, the first features and forerunners of the Baroque sprouted especially widely and brightly. The first opera house of San Cassiano was opened in Venice in 1637.
It was not an "academy" for a narrow circle of enlightened aristocratic humanists, as in Florence. Here the pope and his court had no power over art. It was replaced by the power of money. The Venetian bourgeoisie built a theater in their own image and it became a commercial enterprise. Cash became the source of income. Following San Cassiano, other theaters grew up in Venice, more than ten in all. There was also inevitable competition between them, the struggle for the public, artists, income. All this commercial and entrepreneurial side left its mark on opera and theatrical art. And at the same time, for the first time, it became dependent on the tastes of the general public. This was reflected in his scope, repertoire, staging, and finally, in the style of opera music itself.
Creativity Monteverdi was the culminating moment and a powerful factor in the progress of Italian operatic art. True, Venice did not bring him complete liberation from addiction. He arrived there as a regent, who led the vocal and instrumental chapel of San Marco. He wrote cult music - masses, vespers, spiritual concerts, motets, and the church, religion inevitably influenced him. It has already been said above that, being by nature a secular artist, he accepted death in the clergy.
In the course of a number of years preceding the heyday of the Venetian opera house, Monteverdi was forced to serve patrons here too, though not as powerful and omnipotent as in Milan or Mantua. The palaces of Mocenigo and Grimani, Vendramini and Foscari were luxuriously decorated not only with paintings, statues, tapestries, but also with music. The Chapel of San Marco often performed here at balls and receptions during the time free from church services. Along with Plato's dialogues, Petrarch's canzones, Marina's sonnets, art lovers were fond of Monteverdi's madrigals. He did not leave this genre he loved in the Venetian period and it was then that he reached the highest perfection in it.
The sixth, seventh and eighth books of madrigals were written in Venice, a genre in which Monteverdi experimented before his last operas were created. But the Venetian madrigals also had great independent significance. In 1838, an interesting collection of martial and loving madrigals appeared. It showed the deep psychological observation of the artist; the musical and poetic dramatization of the madrigal was brought there to the last possible limit at that time. This collection also includes some earlier works "Ungrateful Women" - an interlude of the Mantua period and the famous "Single combat of Tancred and Clorinda" - a magnificent dramatic scene written in 1624 on a plot from Tasso's "Jerusalem Delivered", intended to be performed with theatrical costumes and props.
During the thirty years he lived in Venice, Monteverdi created most of his musical and dramatic works for theatrical or chamber stage performance.
As for the operas themselves, Monteverdi has only eight of them: Orpheus, Ariadne, Andromeda (for Mantua), The Seemingly Mad Licori - one of the first comic operas in Italy, The Abduction of Proserpine, The Wedding of Aeneas and Lavinia", "Return of Ulysses to his homeland" and "Coronation of Poppea". Of the Venetian operas, only the last two have survived.
Monteverdi's most significant work of the Venetian period was the opera The Coronation of Poppea (1642), completed shortly before he died at the zenith of his fame as the oracle of music, on November 29, 1643. This opera, created by the composer when he was seventy-five years old, not only crowns his own creative path, but immeasurably rises above everything that was created in the operatic genre before Gluck. The thoughts that gave rise to her courage and inspiration are unexpected at such an advanced age. The gap between The Coronation of Poppea and all Monteverdi's previous work is striking and inexplicable. This applies to a lesser extent to the music itself, the origins of the musical language of "Poppea" can be traced in the search for the entire previous, more than half a century, period. But the general artistic appearance of the opera, unusual both for the work of Monteverdi himself and for the musical theater of the 17th century in general, is decisively predetermined by the originality of the plot and dramatic design. In terms of the completeness of the embodiment of the truth of life, the breadth and versatility of the display of complex human relationships, the authenticity of psychological conflicts, the acuteness of the formulation of moral problems, none of the other works of the composer that have come down to us can be compared with The Coronation of Poppea.
The composer and his talented librettist Francesco Busenello turned to a plot from ancient Roman history, using the chronicles of the ancient writer Tacitus, Emperor Nero, in love with the courtesan Poppea Sabina, enthrones her, expelling the former Empress Octavia and putting to death the opponent of this undertaking, his mentor philosopher Seneca.
This picture is written broadly, many-sidedly, dynamically. On the stage - the imperial court, his nobles, the wise adviser, pages, courtesans, servants, praetorians. The musical characteristics of the actors, opposed to each other, are psychologically accurate and accurate. In fast and many-sided action, in colorful and unexpected combinations, various plans and poles of life are embodied, tragic monologues - and almost banal scenes from nature; rampant passions - and philosophical contemplation; aristocratic sophistication - and artlessness of folk life and customs.
Monteverdi was never at the center of fashion, never enjoyed the same wide popularity as that which fell to the share of some more "moderate" madrigal writers, and later composers of "light" canzonets and arias. He was so independent of the views and tastes of his contemporaries, so much wider than them in his artistic psychology, that he equally accepted both ancient, polyphonic and new, monodic writing.
Today it is indisputable that Monteverdi is the "founder of modern music." It was in the work of Monteverdi that the system of artistic thinking was formed, which is characteristic of our era.
Monteverdi Claudio (baptized May 15, 1567, Cremona - November 29, 1643, Venice), Italian composer. He studied with M. A. Ingenieri, the bandmaster of the Cathedral of Cremona, learned the traditions of choral polyphony (J. P. da Palestrina, O. Lasso, etc.). In 1582 he published a collection of 3-voice motets "Small spiritual songs" ("Sacrae cantiunculae"), in 1587 - the 1st collection of madrigals (5-voice). From 1590 (or 1591) chorister and violist (performer on viole da gamba), from 1602 Kapellmeister at the court of Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga in Mantua. In 1607, his first opera, Orpheus, was also staged there (libretto by A. Strigio, based on the plot of an ancient Greek myth, set forth mainly according to Ovid and Virgil). After the death of the Duke of Monteverdi, he moved to Venice, in 1613 he took the post of bandmaster St. Mark's Cathedral, created 6 operas for the Venetian opera houses. Author of 8 collections (“books”) of madrigals; late madrigals, especially from the 7th (1619) and 8th (1638) books, which already belong to the aesthetics of the Baroque, can only be called madrigals conditionally - these are large-scale theatrical vocal and instrumental compositions “The Battle of Tancred and Clorinda” (text from "Jerusalem Liberated" by T. Tasso), balli (madrigals with dances) "Ball of ungrateful women" and "Tirsis and Chlorus", duets, tertsets and solo arias with basso continuo (for example, "Complaint of a Nymph" for soprano and male tercet, close opera stage). In 1651, under the title Madrigals and Canzonettes, Book 9, a collection of Monteverdi's secular music of various years was published (including 11 previously unpublished pieces); the most valuable is the trio "Come dolce oggi l'auretta" ("How gentle the breeze is now") - the only surviving number from his opera "Stolen Proserpina". Of the sacred music of the composer, the most famous is "Vespers of the Blessed Virgin" (" Vespro della Beata Vergine " , 1610; its climax is the Magnificat); Besides, Monteverdi wrote 3 masses (including "In illo tempore") and motets - on the texts of the famous psalms "Dixit Dominus", "Laudate Dominum omnes gentes", "Beatus vir qui timet Dominum", etc., as well as on the text antiphon "Salve regina" (3 different motets). 37 spiritual compositions were included in the large-scale collection Selva morale e spirituale, first published in Venice in 1640.
One of the first and greatest opera composers in the history of music. Of the significant number of Monteverdi's works in this genre (c. 15), three have been completely preserved: Orpheus, Ulysses' Return to his Homeland (libretto by G. Badoaro based on Homer's Odyssey, Venice, Carnival 1639–40) and The Coronation of Poppea "(libretto by G. F. Busenello based on the Annals of Tacitus and other ancient sources, Venice, carnival 1642-43); from the opera "Ariadne" (Ducal Palace in Mantua, 1608) only the famous Lamento of Ariadne (or Ariadne's Lament) has been preserved.
The main feature of Monteverdi's musical language is the combination (often in one work) of imitation polyphony, characteristic of the Late Renaissance, and homophony as an achievement of the new Baroque era. Monteverdi considered himself the creator of a special emotional style: he found examples of “soft” and “moderate” styles in the works of his predecessors, and “never found examples of an excited style” (stile concitato). Monteverdi believed that music should be able to convey human feelings and passions (anger, prayer, fear, etc.), including in conflict opposition; this manifested itself in the musical characteristics of his opera characters, for which he found individual intonations. Along with recitatives and ariose constructions, developed solo and ensemble forms were introduced into the vocal parts of his operas (Orpheus' scene at the gates of hell, Ariadne's Lament, the virtuoso Duet of Nero and Lucan from the Coronation of Poppea), choral scenes (Seneca's Scene with students from the Coronation Poppei"), in "Orpheus" the overture (the original name of "toccata") first appeared. M.'s harmony combines the principles of modality and tonality, including in a chromatized form. In the score of Orpheus, published in 1609, for the first time in history, the composition of an opera orchestra is recorded; it combines instruments of the basso continuo group and a large number of monophonic instruments (violins, zinc, trumpets), which participated in the performance of the orchestral sections. Monteverdi was one of the first to convey various theatrical effects with the help of instrumentation: for example, in the pastoral scenes of the opera Orpheus he used strings, flutes, lutes, in the scenes of the underworld - zinc, trombones, regal.
Monteverdi's innovation was misunderstood by some of his contemporaries. The influential music theorist J. Artusi in his treatise On the Imperfection of Modern Music (parts 1–2, 1600–03) brought down criticism on the composer (in particular, for his daring use of unprepared dissonances and chromaticism). In a brief preface to the 5th book of madrigals (1605), Monteverdi replied that he "has higher considerations regarding consonances and dissonances than those contained in school rules." After 2 years, brother Monteverdi, composer and organist Giulio Cesare Monteverdi (1573 - c. 1630), in the expanded "Explanation to the letter printed in the 5th book" clarified the brother's musical and aesthetic position, while he used the concepts of "first practice" (prima pratica) and "second practice" (seconda pratica). According to him, for the "first practice" (its representatives are named the great polyphonists of the past Josquin Deprez, J. Okegem etc.), the mastery of the technique of composition was important as such, and the presentation of the text was not so essential, while the "second practice" (innovators-madrigalists starting with C. de Rore and the creators of theatrical music) requires that music reign supreme the text to which melody, harmony and rhythm obey. Monteverdi also outlined his compositional ideas in the preface to the 8th book of madrigals (1638).
Interest in Monteverdi was revived in the 20th century; his works were edited by V. d'Andy, E. Krenek, J.F. Malipiero and others. Historical records of "Orpheus" were made by P. Hindemith (1954), A. Wenzinger (1955), "Coronations of Poppea" - G. von Karajan (1963). “Vespers of the Blessed Virgin” (with the participation of valve wind instruments and “sensitive” operatic vocals) was recorded in 1966 in his own edition by R. Kraft. Since the late 1960s Monteverdi's music is actively performed by representatives authentic performance. Representative selections of Monteverdi's madrigals have been included in their live albums by ensembles
Claudio Monteverdi(Monteverdi) (baptized May 15, 1567, Cremona - November 29, 1643, Venice) was an Italian composer. From childhood he served as a chorister in the Cremona Cathedral; here he studied with the organist M. A. Ingenieri, from whom he adopted the technique of polyphonic writing (primarily in the genre of spiritual madrigals). In 1590 he moved to Mantua and for 12 years served there as a singer and violist, later as an assistant to the bandmaster. In 1599 he made a trip to Flanders, where he had the opportunity to get acquainted with Flemish and French music.
Initially, Monteverdi gained fame as the author of canzonets and especially madrigals - secular and spiritual. The first three collections of youthful madrigals by Monteverdi were published in 1582-1584. Already in these early works of Monteverdi, a high polyphonic technique is visible. During Monteverdi's lifetime, about 10 collections of 4- and 5-voice madrigals were published; the most significant of them are 5-voice madrigals published in 7 collections in 1587-1619. A separate collection was devoted to "Love and warlike" madrigals (1638). In madrigals, Monteverdi introduces many innovations in the field of harmony and polyphony: jumps to seventh and non, seventh chords, chromatisms, parallel fifths. Along with polyphony, features of a chord-harmonic warehouse appear in Monteverdi's madrigals. Monteverdi often added instrumental accompaniment to the vocal parts (harpsichord, lute).
The composition of madrigals and canzonettes was an important stage in Monteverdi's preparation for operatic work. A significant role was also played by Monteverdi's acquaintance with the work of Florentine composers, authors of the first operas - Peri, Caccini and others. In 1607, Monteverdi received an order to write music for a theatrical performance in the Duchy of Mantua. This was Monteverdi's first opera "Orpheus", which struck the audience with an unusual tragic interpretation of the mythological plot. Following "Orpheus", a number of other operas by Monteverdi appeared, which strengthened his fame as an opera composer (posted in Venice): "Ariadne" (1608), from which the only famous aria "Lament of Ariadne", "Proserpina" (1630), "Return Ulysses" (1641), "The Coronation of Poppea" (1642). The most innovative work of Monteverdi is "The Coronation of Poppea", for the first time in the history of the opera written on a true historical plot (events of times Nero).
Starting in 1613 and until the end of his life, Monteverdi served as director of the Chapel of St. Mark in Venice. For 30 years he wrote a lot of church music; Monteverdi's innovation extended to this area of creativity.
In 1637 in Venice, with the direct participation of Monteverdi, the first opera house was opened, in which his operas were also staged (in particular, Ariadne - 1639).
Monteverdi entered the history of music as one of the great opera composers of his time, the largest representative of the late Renaissance in Italy. An important merit of Monteverdi is the introduction of ariose numbers and dramatic choirs into the opera, along with the recitatives that characterize the operatic style of his predecessors. Monteverdi sought to subordinate the music to the content of the text, to create individual musical characteristics of the characters. A large role in this was played by harmonic and orchestral means. Monteverdi was the first to introduce the overture into the opera, as well as new techniques in the orchestra - tremolo and pizzicato of stringed instruments. The orchestra in Monteverdi's operas reaches a considerable size ("Orpheus" - about 40 instruments). Along with string and wind instruments, which later became part of the classical orchestra, Monteverdi used viola, lute, harpsichord and organ.
The emergence of opera
OPERA (Italian opera, lit. - work, work, composition) - a kind of musical and dramatic work. The opera is based on the synthesis of words, stage action and music. Unlike various types of drama theater, where music performs auxiliary, applied functions, in opera it becomes the main carrier and driving force of the action. An opera needs a holistic, consistently developing musical and dramatic concept. If it is absent, and the music only accompanies, illustrates the verbal text and the events taking place on the stage, then the operatic form falls apart, and the specificity of the opera as a special kind of musical and dramatic art is lost.
The emergence of opera in Italy at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries. was prepared, on the one hand, by some forms of the Renaissance theater, in which music was given a significant place (a magnificent court interlude, pastoral drama, tragedy with choirs), and on the other hand, by the wide development in the same era of solo singing with instrumental accompaniment. It was in the opera that the searches and experiments of the 16th century found their fullest expression. in the field of expressive vocal monody, capable of conveying various nuances of human speech. B. V. Asafiev wrote: “The great Renaissance movement, which created the art of the “new man”, proclaimed the right to freely reveal soulfulness, emotions outside the yoke of asceticism, brought to life new singing, in which the vocalized, sung sound became an expression of the emotional richness of the human heart in its limitless manifestations. This profound revolution in the history of music, which changed the quality of intonation, i.e., the revelation of inner content, soulfulness, emotional mood by a human voice and dialect, could only bring opera art to life.”
The most important, inalienable element of an opera work is singing, which conveys a rich range of human experiences in the finest shades. Through a different system of vocal intonations in the opera, the individual mental warehouse of each character is revealed, the features of his character and temperament are transmitted. From the collision of different intonational complexes, the relationship between which corresponds to the balance of forces of dramatic action, the “intonation dramaturgy” of the opera as a musical-dramatic whole is born.
Claudio Monteverdi. Characteristics of creativity
Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (05/15/1567 (baptized) - 11/29/1643) - Italian composer, musician, singer. The most important composer of the Baroque, his works are often regarded as revolutionary, marking the transition in music from the Renaissance to the Baroque. He lived in an era of great change in music and was himself the man who changed it.
Claudio Monteverdi was born in Cremona, the son of an apothecary and a doctor. He was musically gifted from childhood and at the age of 15 had already published his first collection of works. In the preface to this edition, he says that his teacher was Mark "Antonio Ingenieri, bandmaster of the Cathedral of Cremona. He studied composition, singing, playing string instruments. He published his second book in 1583, a year after the first was published. By that time when he got his first position, he already had several collections released.
During the seventeenth century there were two approaches to making music - the "First Practice" or "Antique Style" created by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and the new "Second Practice" style. Monteverdi wrote in both styles with equal skill. He lived and worked in an era of change, when Renaissance music was giving way to the Baroque style, and stimulated this transition by developing and transforming all aspects of music.
He was the first composer who fully realized the creative potential of the new musical and dramatic genre - opera. Taking the primitive means created by the Florentine Camerata and Jacopo Peri, he enriched them with dramatic power, imagination and richness of sound. He transformed the recitative into a flexible, clear melody with long and consistent lines. Compared to Peri's archaic vocabulary and methods, his operas are truly a new art.
He used rhythm, dissonance, instrumental colors, and key shifts to deliver dramatic action, presenting characters, moods, and emotions in a way that none of his predecessors and contemporaries did. He came up with instrumental techniques for playing stringed instruments - pizzicato and tremolo - to create the necessary excitement, passion and emotional tension. Monteverdi was the first to understand the role of the orchestra in opera, painting his own instruments for each part, realizing that wind and percussion are good for conveying military moods, flutes for pastoral scenes, violas and lutes for sentimental episodes. For his merits, Monteverdi was called the "prophet of the opera." In his madrigals, Monteverdi also introduced instrumental accompaniment, making it not just an ornament, but an integral part of the work.
Monteverdi proved to be an inventive and daring composer. His inventions and handling of harmony and counterpoint were well received by listeners, yet many of his colleagues criticized him harshly. Being a "modern" composer, at the same time he knew how to pay tribute to the older generation and their traditional principles. He published two completely different pieces in the same collection, "Missa in illo tempore" and "Vespro della Beata Vergine", proving that he is a true master of music, combining completely different styles with his magic, while maintaining their individual characteristics - this could only be done genius.
(Orpheus, Coronation of Poppea)
3. Organ music of the 17th and 18th centuries
4. Clavier music of the 17th and 18th centuries
5. Violin music. Music for instrumental ensembles of the 17th and 18th centuries
6. Venetian opera school of the 17th century
7. Neopolitan opera school of the 17th and 18th centuries
8. French opera of the 17th century
Music of the 17th and 18th centuries
At the turn of the 16th-17th centuries, polyphony, which dominated the music of the Renaissance, began to give way to homophony (from the Greek "homos" - "one", "same" and "background" - "sound", "voice"). Unlike polyphony, where all voices are equal, in homophonic polyphony one stands out, performing the main theme, and the rest play the role of accompaniment (accompaniment). The accompaniment is usually a system of chords (harmonies). Hence the name of the new way of composing music - homophonic harmonic.
Ideas about church music have changed. Now the composers sought not so much to ensure that a person renounces earthly passions, but to reveal the complexity of his spiritual experiences. There were works written on religious texts or plots, but not intended for mandatory performance in the church. (Such compositions are called spiritual, since the word "spiritual" has a broader meaning than "ecclesiastical".) The main spiritual genres of the 17th-18th centuries. - cantata and oratorio. The importance of secular music increased: it was played at the court, in the salons of aristocrats, in public theaters (the first such theaters were opened in the 17th century). There was a new kind of musical art - opera.
Instrumental music is also marked by the emergence of new genres, most notably the instrumental concerto. Violin, harpsichord, organ gradually turned into solo instruments. The music written for them made it possible to show talent not only for the composer, but also for the performer. First of all, virtuosity was valued (the ability to cope with technical difficulties), which gradually became an end in itself and artistic value for many musicians.
Composers of the 17th-18th centuries usually not only composed music, but also virtuoso played the instruments, and were engaged in pedagogical activities. The well-being of the artist largely depended on the specific customer. As a rule, every serious musician sought to get a place either at the court of a monarch or a wealthy aristocrat (many members of the nobility had their own orchestras or opera houses), or in a temple. Moreover, most composers easily combined church music-making with the service of a secular patron.
Oratorio and cantata
As an independent musical genre, the oratorio (Italian oratorio, from late Latin oratorium - "chapel") began to take shape in Italy in the 16th century. Musicologists see the origins of the oratorio in the liturgical drama (see the article "The Theater of Medieval Europe") - theatrical performances that tell about biblical events.
Similar actions were played out in temples - hence the name of the genre. At first, oratorios were written on the texts of the Holy Scriptures, and they were intended for performance in the church. In the 17th century, composers began to compose oratorios on modern poetic texts of spiritual content. The structure of the oratorio is close to that of an opera. This is a major work for solo singers, choir and orchestra, with a dramatic plot. However, unlike the opera, there is no stage action in the oratorio: it tells about events, but does not show them.
in Italy in the 17th century. another genre was formed - cantata (it. cantata, from lat. canto- "sing"). Like the oratorio, the cantata is usually performed by soloists, choir and orchestra, but it is shorter than the oratorio. Cantatas were written on spiritual and secular texts.
Music of Italy
At the end of the 16th century, the Baroque art style developed in Italy (from um. barocco - "strange", "bizarre"). This style is characterized by expressiveness, drama, spectacle, the desire for a synthesis (combination) of different types of art. These features were fully manifested in the opera that arose at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries. One work combined music, poetry, dramaturgy and theatrical painting. Initially, the opera had a different name: "drama for music" (it. dramma per musica); the word "opera" (it. opera - "composition") appeared only in the middle of the 17th century. The idea of "drama for music" was born in Florence, in the artistic circle Florentine Camerata. The meetings of the circle were held in a chamber (from the Italian camera - "room"), at home. From 1579 to 1592 enlightened music lovers, poets and scientists gathered in the house of Count Giovanni Bardi. It was also visited by professional musicians - singers and composers Jacopo Peri (1561 - 1633) and Giulio Caccini (circa 1550-1618), theorist and composer Vincenzo Galilei (circa 1520-1591), father of the famous scientist Galileo Galilei.
The participants of the Florentine Camerata were excited about the development of musical art. They saw its future in the combination of music and drama: the texts of such works (unlike the texts of complex choral polyphonic chants of the 16th century) would become understandable to the listener.
The members of the circle found the ideal combination of words and music in the ancient theater: verses were sung in a singsong voice, every word, every syllable sounded clear. So the Florentine camerata came up with the idea of solo singing accompanied by an instrument - monody (from the Greek "monos" - "one" and "ode" - "song"). The new style of singing began to be called recitative (from the Italian recitare - "to recite"): the music followed the text and the singing was a monotonous recitation. The musical intonations were unimpressive - the emphasis was on the clear pronunciation of words, and not on conveying the feelings of the characters.
Early Florentine operas were based on scenes from ancient mythology. The first works of the new genre that have come down to us are two operas under the same name "Eurydice" by the composers Peri (1600) and Caccini (1602). They were created on the plot of the myth of Orpheus. The singing was accompanied by an instrumental ensemble, which consisted of a cembalo (the forerunner of the piano), a lyre, a lute, a guitar, etc.
The heroes of the first operas were ruled by fate, and its will was proclaimed by messengers. The action opened with a prologue, in which the virtues and the power of art were sung. Further performance included vocal ensembles (opera numbers where several participants sing at the same time), a choir, and dance episodes. A musical composition was built on their alternation.
Opera began to develop rapidly, and above all as court music. The nobility patronized the arts, and such care was explained not only by love for the beautiful: the prosperity of the arts was considered an indispensable attribute of power and wealth. In the major cities of Italy - Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples - their own opera schools have developed.
The best features of different schools - attention to the poetic word (Florence), a serious spiritual subtext of the action (Rome), monumentality (Venice) - were combined in his work by Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643). The composer was born in the Italian city of Cremona in the family of a doctor. As a musician, Monteverdi developed in his youth. He wrote and performed madrigals; played the organ, viola and other instruments. Monteverdi studied music composition with well-known composers of that time. In 1590, as a singer and musician, he was invited to Mantua, to the court of Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga; later he led the court chapel. In 1612, Monteverdi left the service in Mantua and from 1613 settled in Venice. Largely thanks to Monteverdi in 1637, the world's first public opera house was opened in Venice. There, the composer led the chapel of the Cathedral of San Marco. Before his death, Claudio Monteverdi took holy orders.
Having studied the work of Peri and Caccini, Monteverdi created his own works of this genre. Already in the first operas - "Orpheus" (1607) and "Ariadne" (1608) - the composer managed to convey deep and passionate feelings by musical means, to create a tense dramatic action. Monteverdi is the author of many operas, but only three have survived - "Orpheus", "Return of Ulysses to his homeland" (1640; based on the plot of the ancient Greek epic poem "Odyssey") and "Coronation of Poppea" (1642).
Monteverdi's works harmoniously combine music and text. The operas are based on a monologue in which every word sounds clearly, and the music flexibly and subtly conveys the shades of mood. Monologues, dialogues and choral episodes smoothly flow into each other, the action develops slowly (three-four acts in Monteverdi's operas), but dynamically. The composer assigned an important role to the orchestra. In "Orpheus", for example, he used almost all the instruments known at that time. Orchestral music not only accompanies the singing, but itself tells about the events taking place on the stage and the experiences of the characters. In Orpheus, an overture first appeared (French ouverture, or Latin apertura - "opening", "beginning") - an instrumental introduction to a major piece of music. The operas of Claudio Monteverdi had a significant influence on Venetian composers and laid the foundations of the Venetian opera school.
Monteverdi wrote not only operas, but also sacred music, religious and secular madrigals. He became the first composer who did not oppose polyphonic and homophonic methods - the choral episodes of his operas include polyphonic techniques. In the work of Monteverdi, the new was combined with the old - the traditions of the Renaissance.
By the beginning of the XVIII century. an opera school was formed in Naples. Features of this school - increased attention to singing, the dominant role of music. It was in Naples that the bel canto vocal style (Italian bel canto - "beautiful singing") was created. Bel canto is famous for its extraordinary beauty of sound, melody and technical perfection. In the high register (the range of voice sounding), singing was distinguished by the lightness and transparency of the timbre, in the low register - by velvety softness and density. The performer had to be able to reproduce many shades of the timbre of the voice, as well as masterfully convey numerous fast sequences of sounds superimposed on the main melody - coloratura (it. coloratura - "decoration"). A special requirement was the evenness of the sound of the voice - in slow melodies, breathing should not be heard.
In the 18th century, opera became the main type of musical art in Italy, which was facilitated by the high professional level of singers who studied at conservatories (it. conservatorio, err lat. conserve - "I guard") - educational institutions that trained musicians. By that time, four conservatories had been created in the centers of Italian opera - Venice and Naples. The popularity of the genre was also served by the opera houses that opened in different cities of the country, accessible to all segments of society. Italian operas were staged in the theaters of major European capitals, and composers from Austria, Germany and other countries wrote operas based on Italian texts.
Significant achievements of the music of Italy XVII-XVIII centuries. and in the field of instrumental genres. The composer and organist Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643) did a lot to develop organ creativity. "In church music, he laid the foundation for a new style. His compositions for organ are detailed compositions of a fantasy (free) warehouse. Frescobaldi became famous for his virtuoso playing and the art of improvisation on the organ and clavier. Violin art flourished. By that time, violin production traditions had developed in Italy. The hereditary masters of the Amati, Guarneri, Stradivari families from the city of Cremona developed the design of the violin, the methods of its manufacture, which were kept in deep secret and passed down from generation to generation.The instruments made by these masters have an amazingly beautiful, warm sound, similar to the human voice. gained popularity as an ensemble and solo instrument.
The founder of the Roman violin school is Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713), one of the creators of the concerto grosso genre (um. concerto grosso - "great concert"). A concert usually features a solo instrument (or a group of instruments) and an orchestra. The "Grand Concerto" was built on the alternation of solo episodes and the sound of the entire orchestra, which in the 17th century was chamber and mostly strings. Corelli's soloists were mostly violin and cello. His concerts consisted of parts of different character; their number was arbitrary.
One of the outstanding masters of violin music is Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741). He became famous as a brilliant violin virtuoso.
Contemporaries were attracted by his dramatic style of performance, full of unexpected contrasts. Continuing the traditions of Corelli, the composer worked in the genre of "great concert". The number of works written by him is enormous - four hundred and sixty-five concertos, forty operas, cantatas and oratorios.
Creating concerts, Vivaldi strove for bright and unusual sounds. He mixed the timbres of different instruments, often included dissonances (sharp harmonies) in the music; he chose rare instruments at that time as soloists - bassoon, mandolin (it was considered a street instrument). Vivaldi's concertos consist of three parts, with the first and last performed at a fast pace, and the middle one is slow. Many Vivaldi concertos have a program - a title or even a literary dedication. The cycle "The Seasons" (1725) is one of the earliest examples of program orchestral music. Four concerts of this cycle - "Spring", "Summer", "Autumn", "Winter" - colorfully paint pictures of nature. Vivaldi managed to convey in music the singing of birds ("Spring", the first part), a thunderstorm ("Summer", the third part), rain ("Winter", the second part). Virtuosity, technical complexity did not distract the listener, but contributed to the creation of a memorable image. Vivaldi's concert work has become a vivid embodiment of the Baroque style in instrumental music.
Operaseria and operabuffa
In the XVIII century. opera genres such as opera seria (it. opera seria - "serious opera") and operabuffa (it. opera buffa - "comic opera") were formed. Operaseria established itself in the work of Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725) - the founder and largest representative of the Neapolitan opera school. During his life he composed more than a hundred such works. For the opera series, a mythological or historical plot was usually chosen. It opened with an overture and consisted of completed numbers - arias, recitatives and choruses. The main role was played by large arias; usually they consisted of three parts, and the third was a repetition of the first. In arias, the characters expressed their attitude to the events.
There were several types of arias: heroic, pathetic (passionate), mournful, etc. For each, a certain range of expressive means was used: in heroic arias - decisive, invocative intonations, peppy rhythm; in plaintive ones - short, intermittent musical phrases showing the excitement of the hero, etc. Recitatives, small fragments in size, served to unfold the dramatic narrative, as if moving it forward. The heroes discussed plans for further actions, told each other about the events that had happened. Recitatives were divided into two types: secco (from Italian secco - "dry") - a fast tongue twister to the mean chords of the harpsichord, and accompaniato (It. Assotraniato - "with accompaniment") - an expressive recitation to the sound of an orchestra. Secco was more often used to develop the action, accompaniato - to convey the thoughts and feelings of the hero. Choirs and vocal ensembles commented on what was happening, but did not take part in the events.
The number of active lias depended on the type of plot and was strictly defined; the same applies to the relationships of the characters. The types of solo vocal numbers and their place in the stage action were established. Each character had his own voice timbre: lyrical heroes - soprano and tenor, noble father or villain - baritone or bass, fatal heroine - contralto.
By the middle of the XVIII century. the shortcomings of the opera series became apparent. The performance was often timed to coincide with court celebrations, so the work had to end happily, which sometimes looked implausible and unnatural. Often the texts were written in artificial, refined mannerisms. Composers sometimes neglected the content and wrote music that did not fit the character of the siena or the situation; there were many stamps, unnecessary external effects. The singers demonstrated their own virtuosity, without thinking about the role of the aria in the work as a whole. Operuseria began to be called "a concert in costumes". The audience did not show serious interest in the opera itself, but went to performances for the famous singer's "crown" aria; during the action, spectators entered and left the hall.
Operabuffa was also formed by the Neapolitan masters. The first classical example of such an opera is The Maid's Servant (1733) by the composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736). If in the opera seria the arias are in the foreground, then in the opera buffa there are colloquial dialogues alternating with vocal ensembles. In operebuffa, the main characters are completely different. These are, as a rule, ordinary people - servants, peasants. The plot was based on an entertaining intrigue with dressing up, fooling a stupid rich owner by servants, etc. From the music, elegant lightness was required, from the action - swiftness.
Operubuffa was greatly influenced by the Italian playwright, creator of the national comedy Carlo Goldoni. The most witty, lively and vibrant works of this genre were created by Neapolitan composers: Niccolo Piccinni (1728-1800) - "Chekkina, or the Good Daughter" (1760); Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816) - "The Barber of Seville" (1782), "The Miller" (1788); singer, violinist, harpsichordist and composer Domenico Cimarosa (1749-1801) - "Secret Marriage" (1792).
String instruments
The forerunners of modern stringed bowed instruments - violin, viola, cello and double bass - are violas. They appeared at the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th century. and soon, thanks to their soft and gentle sound, they began to play a leading role in orchestras.
Gradually, the violas were replaced by new, more advanced stringed bowed instruments. In the XVI-XVII centuries, entire schools of craftsmen worked on their creation. The most famous of them are the dynasties of violin makers that arose in the north of Italy - in the cities of Cremona and Brescia.
The founder of the Cremonese school is Andrea Amati (about 1520 - about 1580). Nicolo Amati (1596-1684), his grandson, was especially famous for his art. He made the device of the violin almost perfect, strengthened the sound of the instrument; at the same time, the softness and warmth of the timbre were preserved. The Guarneri family worked in Cremona in the 17th-18th centuries. The founder of the dynasty is Andrea Guarneri (1626-1698), a student of Nicolò Amati. The outstanding master Azuseppe Guarneri (1698-1744) developed a new violin model, different from the Amati instrument.
The traditions of the Amati school were continued by Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737). He studied with Nicolò Amati and in 1667 opened his own business. Stradivari, more than other masters, managed to bring the sound of the violin closer to the timbre of the human voice.
The Magini family worked in Breche; the best violins were made by Giovanni Magini (1580-1630 or 1632).
The highest register stringed bowed instrument is the violin. It is followed by viola, cello, contrabass in descending order of sound range. The shape of the body (or resonant box) of the violin resembles the outlines of the human body. The body has a top and bottom deck (German Decke - "lid"), with the first made of spruce and the second made of maple. Decks serve to reflect and amplify sound. On the top there are resonator holes (in the form of the Latin letter f; it is not by chance that they are called "efs"). A neck is attached to the body; usually it is made of ebony. It is a long narrow plate over which four strings are stretched. Pegs are used to tension and tune the strings; they are also on the fretboard.
Viola, cello and double bass are similar in structure to the violin, but larger than it. The viola is not very large, it is held at the shoulder. The cello is larger than the viola, and when playing, the musician sits on a chair, and puts the instrument on the floor, between the legs. The double bass is larger than the cello, so the performer has to stand or sit on a high stool, and place the instrument in front of him. During the game, the musician leads the strings with a bow, which is a wooden cane with horsehair stretched; the string vibrates and produces a melodious sound. The sound quality depends on the speed of the bow movement and the force with which it presses on the string. With the fingers of the left hand, the performer shortens the string, pressing it in various places against the fretboard - in this way he achieves different pitches. On instruments of this type, the sound can also be extracted by plucking or striking the string with the wooden part of the bow. The sound of bowed strings is very expressive, the performer can give the music the finest nuances.
9. English opera of the 17th century on the example of the opera "Dido and Aeneas"
10. Operabuffa on the example of Pergolesi's opera "Maid-Mistress"
11. Life CREATIVE path of Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the greatest philosophers in music, an exalted humanist, a deep lyricist.
Bach came from an old family of musicians. Unlike Handel, he never left Germany. He himself was the father of a large family. The surname "Bach" in Germany at that time was synonymous with the word "musician".
Like Handel, Bach completes an entire era of German music associated with the names of Hans Sachs, Pachelbel, Buxtehude. Bach's influence on composers extends to the present day. His music is still heard everywhere.
Bach's lyrics, sincerely elegiac or violently pathetic, always awaken the best human feelings. His music is serious, deep and beautiful.
The world of Bach's images is a bright and reasonable world. The power of the intellect is extremely strong in his work.
Bach is a brilliant master of fugue. The polyphonic form of the fugue enables the composer to capture the inner world of a person in those moments when he is overwhelmed by various thoughts and feelings. They float on each other, crowd, stratify, disperse, echo each other and reappear in a holistic form. Fugues are present in Bach's oratorios, cantatas, masses, variations, suites, inventions. Along with single-dark fugues, complex double and triple fugues appear.
The theme of any of their Bach fugues is like a grain that sprouts and develops into a fugue. The themes of the famous "Well-Tempered Clavier" are capacious, clearly delineated, full of internal energy. And they're also downright beautiful.
Bach's favorite instrument was the organ. Bach mastered it to perfection. It was the organ with its richest possibilities that revealed to the listeners all the richness and power of Bach's genius. Bach's organ works are inspired, virtuoso, brilliant. For the organ, he wrote many preludes, fugues, and concertos.
Bach's secular works are distinguished by a variety of themes, vivid images, and the breadth of the composer's interests. Among them are concerts, sonatas, suites and cantatas (“Joke”, “Peasant”, “Coffee”).
12. Bach's organ work
Organ music in Germany by the time of Bach already had a long tradition that had developed thanks to Bach's predecessors - Pachelbel, Böhm, Buxtehude and other composers, each of whom influenced him in his own way. Bach knew many of them personally.
During his life, Bach was best known as a first-class organist, teacher and composer of organ music. He worked both in the "free" genres traditional for that time, such as prelude, fantasy, toccata, passacaglia, and in more strict forms - chorale prelude and fugue. In his works for organ, Bach skillfully combined the features of different musical styles with which he became acquainted throughout his life. The composer was influenced both by the music of northern German composers (Georg Böhm, whom Bach met in Lüneburg, and Dietrich Buxtehude in Lübeck) and the music of southern composers: Bach rewrote the works of many French and Italian composers for himself in order to understand their musical language; later he even transcribed some of Vivaldi's violin concertos for organ. During the most fruitful period for organ music (1708-1714), Johann Sebastian not only wrote many pairs of preludes and fugues and toccata and fugues, but also composed an unfinished Organ Booklet, a collection of 46 short choral preludes, which demonstrated various techniques and approaches to writing works on choral themes. After leaving Weimar, Bach wrote less for the organ; however, many famous works were written after Weimar (6 trio sonatas, the Clavier-Übung collection and 18 Leipzig chorales). Throughout his life, Bach not only composed music for the organ, but also consulted in the construction of instruments, checking and tuning new organs.
13. Bach's piano music
Bach also wrote a number of works for harpsichord, many of which could also be played on the clavichord. Many of these creations are encyclopedic collections, demonstrating various techniques and methods for composing polyphonic works. Most of Bach's clavier works published during his lifetime were contained in collections called "Clavier-Übung" ("clavier exercises").
· "The Well-Tempered Clavier" in two volumes, written in 1722 and 1744, is a collection, each volume of which contains 24 preludes and fugues, one for each common key. This cycle was very important in connection with the transition to instrument tuning systems that make it easy to play music in any key - first of all, to the modern equal temperament system.
· Three collections of suites: English suites, French suites and Partitas for clavier. Each cycle contained 6 suites built according to the standard scheme (allemande, courante, sarabande, gigue and an optional part between the last two). In the English suites, the allemande is preceded by a prelude, and there is exactly one movement between the sarabande and the gigue; in the French suites, the number of optional movements increases, and there are no preludes. In partitas, the standard scheme is expanded: in addition to exquisite introductory parts, there are additional ones, and not only between the sarabande and the gigue.
· Goldberg Variations (circa 1741) - a melody with 30 variations. The cycle has a rather complex and unusual structure. Variations are built more on the tonal plane of the theme than on the melody itself.
Various pieces such as Overture in the French Style, BWV 831, Chromatic
14. Gluck's operatic reform on the example of the opera "Orpheus and Eurydice"
Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714–1787) was an outstanding operatic composer and playwright who reformed Italian opera seria and French lyrical tragedy in the second half of the 18th century. An older contemporary of J. Haydn and W. A. Mozart, closely associated with the musical life of Vienna, K. W. Gluck adjoins the Viennese classical school.
Gluck's reform was a reflection of enlightenment ideas. On the eve of the French Revolution of 1789, the theater faced the important task of not entertaining, but educating the audience. However, neither the Italian opera-seria, nor the French "lyrical tragedy" coped with this task. They mainly obeyed aristocratic tastes, which was manifested in an entertaining, lightweight interpretation of heroic plots with their obligatory happy ending, and in an immoderate predilection for virtuoso singing, which completely overshadowed the content.
The most advanced musicians (Handel, Rameau) tried to change the face of traditional opera, but there were few partial changes. Gluck became the first composer who managed to create an operatic art consonant with his contemporary era. In his work, the mythological opera, which was going through an acute crisis, turned into a genuine musical tragedy, filled with strong passions and revealing high ideals of fidelity, duty, readiness for self-sacrifice.
Gluck approached the implementation of the reform already on the threshold of his 50th birthday - a mature opera master with extensive experience in various European opera houses. He lived an amazing life, in which there was a struggle for the right to become a musician, and wanderings, and numerous tours that enriched the composer's musical impressions, helped to establish interesting creative contacts, and get to know various opera schools better. Gluck studied a lot: first at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Prague, then with the famous Czech composer Bohuslav Chernogorsky, and in Italy with Giovanni Sammartini. He showed himself not only as a composer, but also as a bandmaster, director of his operas, and a music writer. Gluck's authority in the music world was recognized by his awarding the papal order of the Golden Spur (since then, the composer has been given the nickname with which he went down in history - "Cavalier Gluck").
Gluck's reform activities took place in two cities - Vienna and Paris, so three periods can be distinguished in the composer's creative biography:
I - pre-reform - from 1741 (the first opera - "Artaxerxes") to 1761 (the ballet "Don Juan").
II - Viennese reformist - from 1762 to 1770, when 3 reformist operas were created. These are Orpheus (1762), Alceste (1767) and Paris and Helena (1770). (In addition to them, other operas were written that were not directly related to the reform). All three operas were written to a libretto by the Italian poet Ranieri Calzabidgi, a like-minded and constant collaborator of the composer in Vienna. Not finding proper support from the Viennese public, Gluck goes to Paris.
Monteverdi defends the rights of feelings and freedom in music. Despite the protests of the defenders of the rules, he breaks the fetters in which music has entangled itself, and wants it to follow only the dictates of the heart from now on.
R. Rollan
The work of the Italian opera composer C. Monteverdi is one of the unique phenomena in the musical culture of the 17th century. In his interest in man, in his passions and sufferings, Monteverdi is a true Renaissance artist. None of the composers of that time managed to express in music the tragic, feeling of life in such a way, to come closer to comprehending its truth, to reveal the primordial nature of human characters in such a way.
Monteverdi was born into a doctor's family. His musical studies were led by M. Ingenieri - an experienced musician, bandmaster of the Cremona Cathedral. He developed the polyphonic technique of the future composer, introduced him to the best choral works by G. Palestrina and O. Lasso. Moiteverdi began to compose early. Already in the early 1580s. the first collections of vocal polyphonic works (madrigals, motets, cantatas) were published, and by the end of this decade he became a famous composer in Italy, a member of the Academy of Site Cecilia in Rome. From 1590, Monteverdi served in the court chapel of the Duke of Mantua (first as an orchestra member and singer, and then as a bandmaster). Lush, rich court Vincenzo Gonzaga attracted the best artistic forces of the time. In all likelihood, Monteverdi could meet with the great Italian poet T. Tasso, the Flemish artist P. Rubens, members of the famous Florentine camerata, the authors of the first operas - J. Peri, O. Rinuccini. Accompanying the Duke on frequent travels and military campaigns, the composer traveled to Prague, Vienna, Innsbruck, and Antwerp. In February 1607, Monteverdi's first opera, Orpheus (libretto by A. Strigio), was staged with great success in Mantua. Monteverdi turned a pastoral play intended for palace festivities into a real drama about the suffering and tragic fate of Orpheus, about the immortal beauty of his art. (Monteverdi and Striggio preserved the tragic version of the myth's denouement - Orpheus, leaving the kingdom of the dead, violates the ban, looks back at Eurydice and loses her forever.) "Orpheus" is distinguished by a wealth of means surprising for an early work. Expressive declamation and a wide cantilena, choirs and ensembles, ballet, a developed orchestral part serve to embody a deeply lyrical idea. Only one scene from Monteverdi's second opera, Ariadne (1608), has survived to this day. This is the famous “Lament of Ariadne” (“Let me die ...”), which served as a prototype for many lamento arias (arias of complaint) in Italian opera. (Lament of Ariadne is known in two versions - for solo voice and in the form of a five-part madrigal.)
In 1613, Monteverdi moved to Venice and until the end of his life remained in the service of Kapellmeister in the Cathedral of St. Mark. The rich musical life of Venice opened up new opportunities for the composer. Monteverdi writes operas, ballets, interludes, madrigals, music for church and court festivities. One of the most original works of these years is the dramatic scene “The Duel of Tancred and Clorinda” based on the text from the poem “Jerusalem Liberated” by T. Tasso, combining reading (the part of the Narrator), acting (recitative parts of Tancred and Clorinda) and an orchestra that depicts the course of the duel , reveals the emotional nature of the scene. In connection with the "Duel" Monteverdi wrote about the new style of concitato (excited, agitated), contrasting it with the "soft, moderate" style that prevailed at that time.
Many of Monteverdi's madrigals are also distinguished by their sharply expressive, dramatic character (the last, eighth collection of madrigals, 1638, was created in Venice). In this genre of polyphonic vocal music, the composer's style was formed, and the selection of expressive means took place. The harmonic language of madrigals is especially original (bold tonal comparisons, chromatic, dissonant chords, etc.). In the late 1630s - early 40s. Monteverdi's operatic work reaches its peak ("The Return of Ulysses" - 1640, "Adonis" - 1639, "The Wedding of Aeneas and Lavinia" - 1641; the last 2 operas have not been preserved).
In 1642, The Coronation of Poppea by Monteverdi was staged in Venice (libretto by F. Businello based on the Annals of Tacitus). The last opera of the 75-year-old composer has become a real pinnacle, the result of his creative path. Specific, real-life historical figures act in it - the Roman emperor Nero, known for his cunning and cruelty, his teacher - the philosopher Seneca. Much in the "Coronation" suggests analogies with the tragedies of the brilliant contemporary of the composer - W. Shakespeare. Openness and intensity of passions, sharp, truly "Shakespearean" contrasts of sublime and genre scenes, comedy. So, Seneca's farewell to the students - the tragic climax of the oaera - is replaced by a cheerful interlude of a page and a maid, and then a real orgy begins - Nero and his friends mock the teacher, celebrate his death.
“His only law is life itself,” R. Rolland wrote about Monteverdi. With the courage of discoveries, Monteverdi's work was far ahead of its time. The composer foresaw a very distant future of musical theater: the realism of operatic dramaturgy by W. A. Mozart, G. Verdi, M. Mussorgsky. Perhaps that is why the fate of his works was so surprising. For many years they remained in oblivion and again returned to life only in our time.
I. Okhalova
The son of a doctor and the eldest of five brothers. He studied music with M. A. Ingenieri. At the age of fifteen he published Spiritual Melodies, in 1587 - the first book of madrigals. In 1590, at the court of the Duke of Mantua, Vincenzo Gonzaga became a violist and singer, then the leader of the chapel. Accompanies the duke to Hungary (during the Turkish campaign) and Flanders. In 1595 he marries the singer Claudia Cattaneo, who will give him three sons; she will die in 1607 shortly after the triumph of the Orpheus. Since 1613 - a lifetime position of the head of the chapel in the Venetian Republic; the composition of sacred music, the last books of madrigals, dramatic works, mostly lost. Around 1632 he took the priesthood.
Monteverdi's operatic work has a very solid foundation, being the fruit of previous experience in composing madrigals and sacred music, genres in which the Cremonese master achieved incomparable results. The main stages of his theatrical activity - at least, based on what has come down to us - are two clearly distinguished periods: the Mantua at the beginning of the century and the Venetian, which falls in its middle.
