A Composer Four Hundred Years New

Imagine music so lusty, so jazzy that it sounds like something you’d hear on the streets of New Orleans today. Now—imagine that it was written about 400 years ago.

What you have is Claudio Monteverdi, who more than any other composer I know manages to sound timeless and utterly up to date at the same time. And if you don’t like this music, you require neurological or psychiatric care, and urgently at that.

Monteverdi managed to do it all—he wrote sacred music, theater music, the first opera (OK—almost the first opera, but definitely the first good opera), and some very sophisticated “songs” called madrigals. True, he never wrote any symphonies or string quartets, but neither had anybody else at that point. They were still well in the future.

Listening to the music, I’m prepared to believe it might be true, the theory espoused by my friend Sonia: there was a time when the distinction between music of the people and music as a sophisticated art form (today’s pop versus classical split) didn’t exist. There was just music, and everybody made it, not just professional musicians.

It’s an attractive idea, and however true it may be, it can’t be denied that the artists below are absolutely phenomenal. Philippe Jaroussky, the young French counter-tenor is at the top of his form; the musical group L’Arpeggiata is stunningly accomplished.

Oh, and what is Jaroussky singing, in this jazzy number entitled Ohime ch’io cado? Well, I looked it up, and it that oldest of themes, the lover spurned and ruing his foolishness. Here’s the last verse:

Eyes, beauteous eyes if for you


virtue has always been fair,

and mercy true


Oh, do not deny me
the glance and the laughter;


so that my prison


on such a beautiful ground


should become a paradise.

Or what about the clip below, which starts with the aria that concludes the opera The Coronation of Poppea? It’s an achingly tender love song between two really unsavory characters: Nero and his mistress Poppea, who will do—and who does do—anything to become Empress. At last she has succeeded, leaving a body dead and another (the legitimate wife) exiled. However rotten these people are, the music is glorious.

And then, more Jazz. Damigella tutta bella—and yes, it’s more about love….. 

In the clip below, Monteverdi in one song alternates between jazzy elation and poignant despair: called Zefiro Torna, it was a huge hit in 17^th-century Italy. Here are the lyrics in English:

Return O Zephyr, and with gentle motion


Make pleasant the air and scatter the grasses in waves


And murmuring among the green branches


Make the flowers in the field dance to your sweet sound;


Crown with a garland the heads of Phylla and Chloris


With notes tempered by love and joy,


From mountains and valleys high and deep


And sonorous caves that echo in harmony.


The dawn rises eagerly into the heavens and the sun


Scatters rays of gold, and of the purest silver,


Like embroidery on the cerulean mantle of Thetis.


But I, in abandoned forests, am alone.


The ardour of two beautiful eyes is my torment;


As my Fate wills it, now I weep, now I sing.

But there’s another side to Monteverdi, and by no means a small side. Monteverdi composed a lot of sacred music, including one piece that stands up there with the Bach passions at the Parnassus of sacred music. That piece, the Vespers for the Blessed Virgin of 1610, deserves a post in itself. Instead, let’s hear a wonderful setting of the Beautus Vir, based on the text drawn from the beatitudes. Here’s the translation:

Blessed is the man who fears the lord:

He delights greatly in his commandments.

His seed will be mightly on earth;

The generation of the upright will be blessed.

Wealth and riches are in his house;

And his righteousness endures for ever and ever.

Unto the upright there arises light in the darkness:

He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.

Good is the man who is full of compassion and lends.

He will guide his affairs with discretion:

Because he will not be moved for ever.

The righteous will be in everlasting remembrance.

He will not be afraid of evil tidings.

His heart is fixed, trusting in the lord;

His heart is established:

He will not be moved,

Until he gazes at his enemies.

He has dispersed, he has given to the poor:

His righteousness endures for ever and ever,

The strength of his soul will be exalted with honour.

The sinner will see it, and will be grieved;

He will gnash with his teeth, and melt away.

There are times when Monteverdi does the seeming impossible: take a simple love song, transform it into incredible art, and still make it seem like a simple love song. Let’s go back to one of his madrigals, Si dolce e’l tormento.

Lastly, if you’ve enjoyed Jaroussky and L’Arpeggiata, you might want to check out the full video of their concert. Here it is: