Claudio Monteverdi Research Paper

Claudio Monteverdi, the influence and inspirations

Alexander Lee

Claudio Monteverdi is considered to be one of, if not the most significant transformer of European music. A genius since childhood, Monteverdi was a creative and dominant musician. Though a good number of his compositions were famous with other musicians and composers, on the other hand, shaped the musical compositions of ages that followed. As the melodic atmosphere in Europe changed, Monteverdi modernized his vision of music. He had the ability to write completely two different expositions on composition. His original ideas and global inspiration was facilitated and fashioned by his teachers and surroundings. These in turn, guided the sixteenth and seventeenth century musical compositions of Europe into the initial baroque era. Despite his gift and outstanding teachers, Monteverdi could not have attained the respect and influence that he did as a composer, had it not been for the external influences. The turbulent environment surrounding Monteverdi, both political as well as musical were vital to his

Monteverdi learnt music at the Cathedral of Cremona, under the tutelage of the distinguished musician, Marcantonio Ingegneri. Though far yet from the revolutionary style, Monteverdi’s teacher wrote madrigals in the latest style of the 1570s. The brilliant talent of Monteverdi for music was very noticeable and well illustrated by the publication of his two madrigal books in 1587 and 1590 by the most recognized Venetian printers. The madrigals of the student were more beautiful and to an extent, more progressive than those of his teacher, Ingegneri. Perchance, this is correctly accredited to Monteverdi’s reviewing and analyzing of Luca Marenzio’s (1553-1599) works of art, the then greatest Italian madrigalist of the time (Arnold,