responsibilities may be gathered from his own words:--
"Music exerts a great influence upon the minds of mankind, and is
intended not only to cheer these, but also to guide and to control them,
a statement which has not only been made by the ancients, but which is
found equally true to-day. The sharper blame, therefore, do those deserve
who misemploy so great and splendid a gift of God in light or unworthy
things, and thereby excite men, who of themselves are inclined to all
evil, to sin and misdoing. As regards myself, I have from youth been
affrighted at such misuse, and anxiously have I avoided giving forth
anything which could lead anyone to become more wicked or godless. All
the more should I, now that I have attained to riper years, and am not
far removed from old age, place my entire thoughts on lofty, earnest
things such as are worthy of a Christian."
With these words does Palestrina dedicate his first book of Motettes to
Cardinal d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, and no historian or reviewer could give
a truer summing up of Palestrina's character and its influence on his
music than he has here done for himself.
[Illustration: Louis C. Elson]
[Illustration: VIEW OF THE TOWN OF PALESTRINA--THE ANCIENT PRAENESTE
Birthplace of Palestrina, who received his surname from this place.]
[Illustration]
CLAUDIO MONTEVERDE
In Claudio Monteverde we have to do with one of those composers who mark
an epoch in art. Starting apparently in full touch with the ideas of
the generation into which they happen to be born, such masters acquire
originality as they proceed, and, guided entirely by the depth and
reliability of their own intuitions, almost imperceptibly digress from
the methods in vogue, and at the end leave the world a rich heritage
of thoroughly original and enjoyable works. Such a genius adorned the
beginning of the sixteenth century in Josquin des Près, another was the
richly gifted Orlando Lasso, and in later times many such have appeared;
the epoch of modern romantic music being peculiarly rich in them.
Claudio Monteverde was born at Cremona, in Lombardy, in the year 1568. He
was the son of poor parents. From earliest childhood he manifested a love
of music, and very soon became proficient upon the viola, which even then
had become perfected, through the work of Andrea Amati and Gaspar da Salo.
While still a boy, Monteverde was engaged as viola player in the private
orchestra of the Duke of Mantua, and there his talent became so evident
that the ducal music director, Messer Marc Antonio Ingeneri, taught him
counterpoint and the art of composition as it was then practised. Under
this stimulation, Monteverde published his first composition at the age
of sixteen, in the year 1584. They were called "Canzonettas for three
voices," and were printed at Venice. Quite naturally, considering the
youth of the composer, these compositions do not show the originality
which later rendered his works famous. Their more noticeable peculiarity,
judging them from the standpoint of their own day, was a degree of
laxity, at times approaching carelessness, in counterpoint. It is
evident even thus early that Monteverde's ear for melody enabled him
to tolerate harmonic faults between the voices which, without this
appreciation of melodious flow, would have been highly disagreeable.
His position in the service of the prince was by no means a sinecure.
A letter of his brother, Giulio Cæsar Monteverde, declares that he
was incessantly occupied, not alone with the music of the church,
but also with that for chamber concerts, ballets, and all sorts of
divertissements, making constant demands upon the fertility of the
overflowing invention of the young musician. He seems to have been in a
somewhat personal relation to the Duke, and all through life he evinced
his attachment to members of the Gonzaga family.
His first book of madrigals was published in 1587, when the young
composer had reached the age of eighteen. Five other books followed them,
dated 1593, 1594, 1597, 1599, and finally 1614. All these were printed at
Venice, which was then the chief book-making city of Europe. In a later
portion of this discourse the innovations characterizing the third book
of madrigals will be more fully considered. Meanwhile Monteverde appears
to have steadily advanced in his art, and in the favor of the prince. The
brother's letter, already mentioned, is authority for the statement that
in 1599 he spent some months at the baths of Spa, and brought back from
thence certain traits of the French style.
Very soon after the publication of the third book of madrigals,
Monteverde found a critic. A certain Canon Artusi, of St. Saviour, in
Bologna, published a brochure upon "The Imperfection of Modern Music,"
taking for his text one of the madrigals in Monteverde's third book.
This led to further communications from Monteverde himself, prefixed
to one of his later volumes, in which he declares that "harmony is the
lady of the words" (_signora della orazione_), meaning thereby that the
composer must first consider the dramatic needs of his text, and only
thereafter permit himself to be governed by those of music as such.
Upon the death of the ducal music director, Ingeneri, Monteverde
succeeded to the place. This appears to have been in 1603, according to
the preface to the sixth set of his madrigals (in 1614), in which he
speaks of having been in the service of the Duke of Mantua ten years.
The famous "representative style," in other words, dramatic music, had
already been discovered, as recounted at greater length in the essay
upon Italy. It is sufficient for our present purpose to compare the
dates. It was about 1595 that Vincenzo Gallilei intoned at Count Bardi's
his epoch-making monologue upon "Ugolino," and in 1597 the first opera,
"Dafne," was privately performed at the house of Count Corsi. In 1600
the first opera, "Eurydice," the poem by Rinuccini and music by Jacopo
Peri, was publicly performed upon the occasion of the marriage of Henry
IV., of France, to Catherine de Medici. This work has the double honor
of having been the first opera ever publicly performed and the first
opera ever printed. A copy of the original edition of A. D. 1600 is
now in the Newberry Library of Chicago. The fundamental problem of the
new style was that of furnishing appropriate musical cadences for the
impressive utterance of the words of the text. Hence the musical handling
of "Eurydice" is very meagre. There is only one short instrumental
ritornello, and only one short aria, of sixteen measures. Almost the
entire remainder of the work is in a rather stiff and formal recitative.
No attempt is made at instrumental coloring. The accompaniment is simply
intended to support the voices and assure the singers of their pitch,
quite after the ideas advanced by Artistoxenos, and applied universally
in Greek tragedy. The tonality in "Eurydice" is almost wholly minor.
Whether Monteverde had opportunity of seeing any of these performances
we have no means of knowing. At all events he may well have possessed a
copy of the published "Eurydice." And so it was no doubt with pleasure
that in 1607, upon the occasion of the marriage of Francesco Gonzeaga
with Margherita, Infanta of Savoy, he received a commission to prepare
a "dramma per musica" for the festivities. The subject chosen was
"Arianna" (Ariadne), the text prepared by Rinuccini. In this work for the
first time Monteverde had opportunity to give free rein to his powers. No
doubt he realized that he had to present his work before hearers who had
attended upon the performances of "Eurydice," and were full of its novel
effects. One of his own singers, Rasi, had been engaged in the Florentine
performances. The effect of "Arianna" was extraordinary, even prodigious.
The aria of the deserted Ariadne, _Lasciatemi morir_, melted the hearers
to tears. Monteverde's rival, Marco da Gagliano, who had also been
commissioned to prepare a new setting of "Dafne" for the same occasion,
was astonished like all the rest. G. B. Doni, in his treatise upon
"Scenic Music," holds Monteverde's aria for a master-work indeed. Such
was the entrance of the master into the new style. "Arianna" had a long
life. As late as 1640 it was played in the theatre of S. Mose, in Venice.
The success of this work naturally led to others in the new style. Hence,
one year later, another opera, "Orfeo," the text by a writer not now
known, and a "Ballo del Ingrate," in which, Ambros says, the music, "in
spite of the ancient gods, who figure in the text, stands for the first
time in the magic glow of the romantic."
Monteverde was now in the fullness of his powers. He had reached the
age of forty-six. He was at once the most original of all Italian
musicians of the time, and the most distinguished. Hence upon the
death, in 1614, of Giulo Cæsare Martinengo, the musical director of St.
Mark's, in Venice, Monteverde was called to the place, which both by
reason of its celebrity as already the appurtenance of great composers
for two centuries, and on account of its relation to the official life
of Venice, was perhaps the most desirable one in the whole world. The
salary paid the deceased conductor had been two hundred ducats yearly;
that of Monteverde was made three hundred at the start, and in addition
a sum of fifty ducats for expenses of removing from Mantua. In 1616 the
salary was raised again to four hundred ducats, and later he was awarded
the free use of a house in the canon's close. Valuable gratuities were
voted him upon several occasions, as one hundred ducats, Dec. 14, 1642,
one hundred and fifty in 1629, etc. Honors came fast upon him. When he
was invited to Bologna, in order to direct the music for some festivity,
a delegation of distinguished citizens met him a long way out upon the
route, and orations and formal recognitions of the honor done the city by
his accepting the invitation had full place, according to the imposing
forms of the time.
In spite of the distinction which Monteverde had gained in the musical
dramas already mentioned, it was not for several years after entering
upon his duties at St. Mark's that he found opportunity to pursue his
ideal. Between 1614 and 1624 he appeared only as church composer,
excepting now and then when he produced music for a state _fête_, for
as yet there was no public opera house in the world. In the year 1637
the first one was erected at Venice, in the parish of S. Cassiano. But
previously, in 1624, the senator Girolamo Moncenigo invited Monteverde to
compose a new work in the representative style, which accordingly he did,
and it was privately performed in the Moncenigo palace. It was called "Il
Combatimento di Tancredi e Clorinda," an intermezzo. The story was taken
from Tasso's "Jerusalem Delivered," and represented Clorinda going in
search of her lover, Tancred, in disguise of a young knight. Through some
misunderstanding a duel between them was unavoidable, and at the moment
when the swords flash and the strokes make grim accents in the pretty
love story, Monteverde had the happy thought of introducing the pizzicato
effect with the strings; and later when Clorinda falls, mortally wounded,
the suspense is indicated by the still usual orchestral means, the
tremolo. These striking effects, however, were by no means Monteverde's
chief claim to memory for this work, for throughout, if we may believe
the hearers (the music having disappeared), the music accurately
reproduced and interpreted the feeling of the story, and the hearers were
intensely absorbed, and at the critical moment moved to tears.
Another celebrated work of Monteverde was a solemn requiem which he
composed in 1621, for the funeral services in honor of Cosmos II., in the
church S. Giovanni e S. Paulo. Concerning this, the opera librettist,
Giuol Strozzi, writes complimentarily if not clearly, that the music
"depicted grief in the Mixolydian tone, the happy discovery of Sappho;
and the _Dies Iræ_ and the well intoned _De Profundis_, by their novelty
and mastery, awakened in the hearers the greatest wonder."
From this time onward, Monteverde composed often in the new style. In
1627 he composed for the court of Parma five intermezzi; in 1629, for the
birthday of Vito Morisini, a cantata, "Il Rosajo fiorito"; and in 1630,
for the marriage of the daughter of his patron, the senator Moncenigo, to
Lorenzo Giustiniani, he wrote to a poem by Strozzi, "Proserpina Rapita."
Here again the enthusiasm of the hearers was unbounded. The magic
combination of drama and song in choruses, dances, and orchestration was
magical. Unfortunately almost all the operatic and church compositions
of Monteverde have been lost. But his continual progress in the art
of orchestration is shown now and then in the chance allusions of his
contemporaries. Thus we are told that in 1631, upon the day when the
votive church S. Maria della Salute was opened by the Doge (in memory
of the stay of the plague), a solemn service was also held in St.
Mark's, when a great effect was made in the _Gloria_ and _Credo_ by the
resounding trombones.
As soon as a public opera house was opened in Venice, the demands upon
Monteverde's talent as opera composer became more frequent. Thus followed
one important work after another, until almost the end of his long and
honored life. In 1642, at the age of seventy-four, he produced his last
opera, "L'Incoronazione di Poppea," which had the customary effect of
novelty and nobility.
Monteverde had been happily married while still living in Mantua. He had
two sons, one of whom became a priest, the other a physician. Upon the
death of his wife he entered the church, and took holy orders, so that
from the age of sixty-five to the close of his life he was priest as well
as composer and musical director. In person he seems to have been tall,
rather meagre in figure, and the few existing portraits represent him as
serious, perhaps even ascetic, in face. After a short illness, Monteverde
died, in 1643. His funeral was held in St. Mark's, under the musical
direction of his pupil, Giovanni Rovetta. But a second and more formal
service was held on the 15th of December, 1643, in the Frari church,
under the direction of another of his pupils, Giambattista Marinoni,
musical director at the cathedral of Padua. The great master was buried
in the Frari church, in a chapel at the left of the choir. No stone bears
his name to mark the spot.
Monteverde's position in the world of art might almost be designated as
that of "father of the opera." For, while it is true that he did not
himself directly discover this great form of applied music, he certainly
was the first to produce dramatic works characterized by the same general
ideas as those which prevail at the present day. The connection of Jacopo
Peri with opera was altogether fleeting and temporary, having been
limited to the two works already mentioned. Monteverde, who was already
a vigorous and fully established musician and composer at the time of
Peri's first attempt, took hold of the new art form with such vigor and
readiness, and with such truth of insight, that he must always stand in
the place of honor. Peri's conception of the musical part of opera was
rather small and limited. What he sought was a truthful declamation of
the text in the matter of cadence and emphasis. To this Monteverde added
a deeper insight into the feeling pervading the dramatic situation. This
gave the key-note to his music, whether that of the voices, or of voices
and instruments together.
This honor belongs still more incontestably to Monteverde when it is
remembered what innovations he made in the general points of musical
structure and instrumentation, both of which place his fame in the
strongest possible light as that of a master. In his earliest canzonettas
the defects are those of a half-taught composer, rather than of one
deliberately marking out a new path. But in the third book of madrigals
there are innovations which have been pointed out by all critical writers
upon the history of harmony, especially by Choron and Fétis. In the
madrigal "Stracciami pur il côre" (the music of which is given entire in
Burney's "History of Music," Vol. III.), the rhythm has more movement,
the metrical form is better, there are natural cadences, and prolonged
dissonances of a materially different character to anything preceding
them. Fétis mentions, at the words _non puo morir d'amore_, double
dissonances, arising by suspension of 9--4, 9--7--4, 6--5--4, the latter
having an extremely disagreeable effect. Modern tonality is anticipated
by the use of the leading tone. In his fifth book of madrigals he gives
free rein to his ideas, and introduces dissonances without preparation,
especially the seventh and ninth on the dominant. There is also a
diminished seventh. He thus possessed the means of a rational harmonic
accentuation and dramatic characterization.
In the department of orchestration, Monteverde may properly be considered
the originator of the art, and here again we come upon one of those
accidental connections, or harmonies, between the man and his environment
which impart to art-history so much the character of a chapter in
development. It was Monteverde who first placed the violin in its place
of honor in the orchestra. Peri's orchestra contained two tenor-viols,
but no violin. While still retaining the chittarone, or large guitars,
cembali, or harpsichord, Monteverde had two bass-viols, ten tenor-viols
(his own instrument, with whose possibilities he was acquainted), two
violi da gamba (a tenor-viol with frets), one double harp, two small
French violins, four trombones, a regal or small reed organ (for
sustaining tones), one small octave flute, one clarion, and three
trumpets with mutes. From the complete loss of anything like orchestral
scores or individual parts, it has been surmised that these players
exercised their own judgment as to what and when to play. This, however,
appears impossible. Otherwise the peculiar effects graphically employed
for dramatic coloration would not have been produced. Such effects as
the pizzicati and tremolo of violins in "Tancred", and the trombone
effects in the mass, mentioned above, do not come by the happy chance of
players putting in notes at their unregulated wills. The characteristic
difference between the orchestra of Monteverde and Peri was in the
possession of means of prolonging tones, and thereby rendering the music
impressive and pathetic. Without the stringed instruments this would
forever have remained impossible.
[Illustration: W. S. B. Mathews]
[Illustration: A. SCARLATTI
_From a rare print loaned for reproduction by Mr. C. Weikert of New
York._]
[Illustration]
ALESSANDRO SCARLATTI
There has never been in the musical history of the world such another
blossoming into song as took place in Italy after the invention of
the representative style. The great master, Monteverde, lived to see
the opening of the first public opera houses, and by the end of the
century there were theatres devoted to the musical drama in almost
every city of Italy. Monteverde was succeeded by several composers, in
part contemporaries of each other, among whom the most eminent names
were those of Cesti, Lotti, and Legrenzi. All the tuneful instincts of
the Italian nation came to expression in the new form of art, and the
theatres vied with each other in obtaining the composition of new works
by the best masters available. In these there were two national instincts
operative: that for the drama, and that for tune. Hence we begin to find,
very early in the development, the merely declamatory consideration which
ruled Peri, and the additional element of musical characterization which
led Monteverde into many new paths, giving place to the merely tuneful,
and delaying the drama until an aria had time to fully complete itself.
In its earliest forms the aria gained in symmetry and tunefulness,
without seriously hampering the dramatic movement. Soon, however, the
voice began to attract attention to itself, and in the illustration
of its previously forgotten talents the action of the drama was still
further delayed.
Many illustrations of these generalized statements might be cited, but
those following later are perhaps sufficient for showing the point which
had been reached in the development when the great genius Alessandro
Scarlatti appeared.
Born in Trajano, Sicily, and gifted with the music-loving organization of
the Sicilians, Alessandro Scarlatti seems to have made his way to Rome
at an early age. It is uncertain where he obtained his musical education.
Some writers credit him to Pavian masters, others to Carissimi at Rome.
It is quite likely that he may have received instruction at both places,
while the greater part of his equipment as composer he may have acquired
by his own exertions. Nothing at all is known of his first thirty years.
But from the assertion of the Marquis of Villerosa (in his work upon the
Neapolitan composers) that Scarlatti was a fine singer, a virtuoso upon
the harp, and an excellent composer when he first came to Naples, we are
at liberty to suppose that he gained a musical livelihood by exercising
the first two of these talents. He must have made very thorough studies
as composer, for there are several of his works (hereafter cited) which
show that he was proficient in all the learning of the ecclesiastical
schools.
At length, in 1680, he emerges from the obscurity through the performance
of his first opera, "L'Onesta del' Amore," at the palace of the ex-queen
of Sweden, Christina, in Rome. The work pleased, and the young composer
seems to have been taken into the service of the queen, where he remained
until her death, which took place in 1688. Nothing is known of this
opera beyond the fact of its performance. Even the influence it may have
had on the fortunes of the young composer is inferential, for there is
no evidence that he may not have been in her employ previously. The
next reliable glimpse we have of him is in the performance of his opera
"Pompeo" in January, 1684.
Then for nine years we lose sight of him again until January, 1693, when
an oratorio of his, "I Dolore di Maria, sempre Virgine," was written
for the congregation of the "seven griefs," at San Luigi di Palazzo. In
the same year, also, his opera of "Teodora" was played at Rome. Other
indications combine to show that Scarlatti must have rapidly gained in
popular estimation during these years, whose record for the present, at
least, seems so hopelessly lost.
[Illustration: ALESSANDRO SCARLATTI.
From an engraving of a portrait by Solimène, published in Naples, 1819.]
One year later, namely, on Jan. 6, 1694, Scarlatti was appointed
musical director of the royal chapel at Naples, where his first work
seems to have been the production of Legrenzi's "Odoacre," with certain
adaptations and additions of his own. In a prefatory note to the
published edition, Scarlatti says: "The airs rewritten by the editor are
distinguished by an asterisk, to the end that their faults should not
prejudice the reputation of Legrenzi, whose immortal glory is an object
of the editor's unlimited respect." Nevertheless, it may be remarked in
passing, this respect did not prevent him from making important changes
in the work,--changes which he must have believed improvements, and
likely to render the performances more successful. Apparently the modesty
of the young composer was technical and verbal rather than anything
deeper.