“Monteverdi's importance and musical contributions cannot be overestimated. For starters, he invented opera through his developing of monody (a single voice on a melodic line) in the early Baroque. He was the transitional composer between the Renaissance and the Baroque, and he invented music for single instruments to play in an ensemble, or, what we today call symphonic music. His Sonata Sopra Sancta Maria in the Vespers is the first piece ever composed for independent instrumental ensemble. No composer in history ever contributed as much!“—Robert Shafer, Artistic Director

For the final performance of its inaugural season, the City Choir of Washington is gathering the musical talents and forces of nearly 250 musicians to present the Vespers of 1610 by Claudio Monteverdi. Composed for St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, this masterpiece’s dramatic impact is created by four choirs—the City Choir of Washington, the Shenandoah Conservatory Choir, the Children’s Chorus of Washington, and the Blue Ridge Choristers—singing on stage, above it, and in the rear of Strathmore Hall.

Soloists include Laura Lewis, Danielle Talamantes, sopranos; Robert Baker, Michael Forest, and Robert Petillo, tenors; James Shaffran, baritone, and Gary Poster, bass.

Find out what our soloists think of their upcoming performances of the Monteverdi Vespers of 1610.

Notes on the Program
Marian Vespers of 1610 – Claudio Monteverdi
In the Roman liturgy, the Vespers is the seventh of the Daily Office Hours and is the one that has been most often set to music. In 1610, Claudio Monteverdi put into one volume a number of miscellaneous works, including not only a setting of the Vespers, but the Mass In illo tempore, a number of florid concerti for solo voices and instruments, and an additional Magnificat (a simplified version of the final movement of the Vespers

Monteverdi’s motivation for composing this monumental collection is unclear. From a letter of a Mantuan courier, we know that the collection was printed in July 1610. Monteverdi dedicated the work to Pope Paul V, in the hope that his son, Francesco, would be accepted in the Seminario Romano. He took the printed edition to Rome in November, but his son was never accepted as a student at the seminary.

When planning a performance today, one must first decide what movements will be performed from this entire volume and whether the Gregorian antiphons will be included before and after each Psalm and the Magnificat. Some contemporary musicologists feel that the concerti, with their text alluding to the Song of Solomon, should not be performed if the piece is to have any liturgical credibility. Other performances have included the concerti, but with the Gregorian antiphons omitted, with the reason given that the concerti were substitutes for the antiphons. I think that the concerti and the Psalms should be performed as they appear in Monteverdi’s collection, with the Gregorian antiphons inserted in their appropriate places. In this way, the Psalm sequence attains greater continuity through its connection to the plainsong antiphons, and the concerti take on an independent life of their own.

Monteverdi’s masterpiece is highly enigmatic, much as Bach’s Mass in B Minor. Although we do not know the precise liturgical conditions surrounding Monteverdi’s own performance of the Vespers, we do know that it was composed while he was under the employ of the Gonzagas in Mantua (1590-1612). The Gonzagas’ palace church of St. Barbara was the site of splendid liturgical celebrations, and the court heard many of the first operas, most notably Monteverdi’s own Orfeo. In this highly musical environment, it is easy to imagine a complete liturgical performance of the Vespers, with the florid concerti heard as intimate, reflective meditations upon the Psalms and antiphons.

A major challenge to a contemporary performance of the Vespers is instrumentation. We have little idea as to Monteverdi’s choice of instruments, and, in performances of his day, the actual disposition of instruments was often determined by which musicians turned up at the time of each performance. We know that Monteverdi, while in Mantua, participated in several concert tours by the ducal orchestra. The orchestration of his first opera, Orfeo (1607), was undoubtedly influenced by the Venetian canzona orchestra: violins, viols, and low stringed instruments contrasted by cornets, trombones, and a variety of continuo instruments, including the harpsichord, organo di legno of wooden pipes, and the large double harp. When we examine the first movement, Domine ad adjuvandum, we see that the orchestral material underlying the voices is identical to the Toccata that opens Orfeo. With this masterful stroke, Monteverdi introduces operatic style into church music for the first time, greatly expanding its possibilities of style and sound with the use of the operatic orchestra.

We must also decide how the instrumental parts can be played effectively by modern instruments. With the advanced technique of string playing today, most of Monteverdi’s string parts can be served quite well with judicious control of vibrato and bowing. Oboes, flutes, and trombones can easily play the parts of the cornetti, fifari, and sackbuts. With careful control of dynamics, the modern instruments project much better in a large concert hall.

The assignment of solo vocal parts is yet another question to be answered by the conductor of the Vespers. Nothing is really known about the allocation of vocal lines, so we do not know which of the parts are to be sung by soloists and which by the chorus. Through an analysis of form and melodic design, we can begin to see the sections of music that were most likely for the soloists and those parts that would be effectively sung by the chorus.

Even after months of study, a conductor finally realizes that he or she would be sadly mistaken if he or she thought the answers to questions of this kind were correct, final, and authoritative. Nonetheless, I feel that the decisions I have made for this performance are technically consistent and musically satisfying in a large concert hall.—Robert Shafer, Artistic Director, The City Choir of Washington

Photo © Carol Pratt, Pratt Photography

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