Monteverdi

Silke Leopold's "Claudio Monteverdi und seine Zeit" was published in German in 1982 and was the first Monteverdi monograph to appear in German for over 30 years. This English translation has been revised in the light of recent scholarship and makes the author's illuminating research available in English for the first time. Eschewing a standard life-and-works approach, the author examines Monteverdi's music as a whole, focusing on the technical details of his style as they appear throughout his "oeuvre" and illustrating them with a large number of musical examples. Not only does this offer insights into the connections, links and inter-relationships in Monteverdi's works but it also illustrates how a major musical figure approached composition at a time when musicians had rejected the polyphonic compositional basis of the late Renaissance and turned instead to a monodic style, where harmonic and textual considerations were paramount. A detailed chronology provides the necessary biographical background and by listing Monteverdi's works alongside those of his contemporaries, places his music firmly in context.