Monday, September 19, 2005
This workshop I attended Saturday was a dissection of Claudio Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine 1610, led by Simon Carrington and sponsored by the Friends of Chamber Music here in KC. My only disappointment was not singing more of the music; we participants had a piece of the hymn Ave Maris Stella. The musical insights were fascinating. The music itself inspiring--I have to see this concert. If you're in town, you might, too. Monteverdi was part of the departure of the musical mainstream from polyphony to the Baroque style of monody. He also employed secular musical styles in his 1610 setting of Vespers. Not forty years after the Council of Trent was trying to nail down liturgy and music, one genius was testing the boundaries and succeeding magnificently. And we are more enriched for it.
One tidbit I did not know: Monteverdi was ordained a priest in his mid-60's, presumably after the death of his wife Claudia.
