1 - Approaching Monteverdi: his cultures and ours

Summary

In an anonymous letter, written just two years before Monteverdi died, and printed with the libretto of his opera Le nozze d'Enea con Lavinia, the author recommends the composer to the audience and imagines the fate of his music in the far-distant future:

Enjoy the music of the never-enough-praised Monteverdi, born to the world so as to rule over the emotions of others … this truly great man … known in far-flung parts and wherever music is known, will be sighed for in future ages at least as far as they can be consoled by his most noble compositions, which are set to last as long as they can resist the ravages of time.

The future predicted in this letter seems substantially to have come true. Centuries after his death Monteverdi's works continue to be appreciated in far-flung parts of the world, they continue to console us, and we still think of Monteverdi as a great musical figure. As for the ravages of time, over three hundred of his works have managed to survive together with one hundred and twenty-seven of his letters and numerous other documents directly relevant to his life and times.

The mere fact of the survival of many of Monteverdi's compositions would be remarkable, but his music has also accomplished something else: it has reached out to exert a formidable influence on the imaginations of many recent composers. Numerous adaptations and arrangements of his works have appeared over the past hundred years (those by D’Indy, Orff, Respighi, Hindemith, Maderna and Henze are only the most famous), and his musical procedures have shown a remarkable capacity to insinuate themselves almost seamlessly into the creative fabric of our modern musical languages.