Farnese Festival – Claudio Monteverdi, The Fourth Book of Madrigals for Five Voices (Venice, 1603)

Vocal polyphony of the sixteenth century finds its most complete form in the fascinating madrigals of Claudio Monteverdi, an author who, in the space of fifty years, dedicated nine books to this genre. The fourth of these, for five voices, published in 1603 by Ricciardo Amadino eleven years after the previous volume, constitutes a clear example of the transformation of the genre and an emblematic model of the stylistic evolution of the Cremonese composer. This bold and complex work represents the culmination of the application of the principles of the famous “seconda prattica”, characterized by a different way of composing compared to that of the musicians who lived years before, in particular Giovanni Pierluigi known as Palestrina. In fact, the “seconda prattica” provided for greater freedom of writing, the reversal of the traditional relationships between word and sound, the use of dissonances in expressive terms, but it also constituted that transgression of the rules so contested by Giovanni Maria Artusi.

The collection of madrigals, published right at the turn of the century, represents the pinnacle of the application of the principles refuted by the Bolognese theorist, but constitutes, precisely because of its modernity, one of the most evident examples of a descriptive genre which, perhaps, was also proposed in a dramatic-representative form in the Ducal Palace of Mantua, where Monteverdi worked.

The dedication of the volume reveals that some of the madrigals had originally been intended for Duke Alfonso II d’Este, whose court in Ferrara was one of the major

centers of musical innovation. The texts used, finally, except for “Quell’augellin”, refer to painful experiences connected to love affairs and move from the deeply sensual languors of «Sì ch’io vorrei morire» to the gallant conflicts of «Non più guerra», until reaching the peak of pathos due to separation in «Longe da te, cor mio».

The Program