Monteverdi: Sacred Vocal Music

Featuring

Roy Goodman
David Thomas
Peter Holman
Dame Emma Kirkby
Ian Partridge
The Parley of Instruments

Claudio Monteverdi

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Compositional Technique

Monteverdi's Venetian church music, and that of his contemporaries, was based on a "concerted style" that mixed voices and instruments in small ensembles, moving away from the polychoral tradition.

Historical Context

For every hundred people familiar with Monteverdi's Orfeo and the Vespers of 1610, only a handful know his later sacred music, much of which comes from his thirty years as director of music at St Mark's in Venice.

Historical Context

By the 1630s, Vespers had replaced the Mass as the primary occasion for elaborate church music in many Italian churches.

Compositional Technique

Monteverdi and his contemporaries often used ground bass and repeated string ritornelli to bring formal order to their music, a technique first explored in early opera.

Recording & Production

The musical texts for this recording were based on Malipiero's complete Monteverdi works, but were checked and corrected against original prints, leading to readings substantially different from those usually heard in some cases.

Interpretation

The performers aimed to recreate a performance in St Mark's during Monteverdi's lifetime, using Baroque string instruments with bows copied from early 17th-century models.

Interpretation

The recording uses a pitch of A = 440Hz, which is believed to be closer to Venetian pitch than the A = 415Hz commonly used in modern Baroque performances.