biography
| name: |
Monteverdi, Claudio
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pronunciation:
[montayvairdee]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1567–1643)
|
| biography:
| Composer, born in Cremona, N Italy. A proficient violist, he learned the art of composition in Cremona, publishing a set of three-part choral pieces at the age of 15. About 1590 he was appointed court musician to the Duke of Mantua, whose maestro di capella he became in 1602, moving on to a similar post at St Mark's, Venice, in 1613, where he remained until his death. His eight books of madrigals, which appeared at regular intervals between 1587 and 1638, show his originality and pioneering spirit. The two surviving operas of his later period, Il Ritorno d'Ulisse (1641, The Return of Ulysses) and L'Incoronazione di Poppea (1642, The Coronation of Poppaea), both written when he was well past 70, show development towards the Baroque style and foreshadow the use of the leitmotif. His greatest contribution to church music is the Mass and Vespers of the Blessed Virgin (1610), which contained tone colours and harmonies well in advance of his time. |
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