Page 71 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained

BAROQUE 1600–1750 69

some performances contrast large From the Renaissance
choirs with smaller ensembles to the Baroque
using the cori spezzati (separated
choirs) technique to create a
“stereo” effect. Instruments are The Monteverdi
I would rather be only specified for certain sections Vespers builds on
moderately praised for of the work: the opening fanfare traditional Gregorian
plainchant structure.
the new style than borrowed from Monteverdi’s opera
greatly praised for Orfeo of 1607; the Sonata; and
the ordinary. sections of the Magnificat.
Claudio Monteverdi
Voices and instruments
Contemporaries were sometimes It adds virtuoso music
critical of Monteverdi’s change in for solo singers, creating
style from the traditional prima a more emphatic,
pratica to the more operatic expressive effect.
seconda pratica technique he
available, such as at a court like used in the sacred concertos and
Mantua, St. Peter’s in Rome, or also in his madrigals. They may
St. Mark’s in Venice. A minimum have found this sort of writing too
of ten voices is required to perform ostentatious for religious music. This freer expression is
Vespers, and instrumental and One writer, Giovanni Artusi, supplemented by
vocal parts require enormous attacked the Baroque style, improvisational flourishes
dexterity. For the more “choral” quoting madrigals by Monteverdi and dramatic devices.
sections, such as Laudate Pueri, in support of his arguments.
Dixit Dominus, and the closing He found the use of dissonance,
movement of the Magnificat, unorthodox key changes, and
irregular cadences objectionable.
However, Monteverdi did not see
A page from a manuscript shows the two techniques as radically A greater emphasis on
Monteverdi’s handwritten notation harmony leads to a freer
for L’incoronazione di Poppea (“The different: they were both ways of compositional technique.
Coronation of Poppea”) of 1642, his setting a text expressively and
last work before his death in 1643. of being faithful to it. ■

The ultimate effect
is a grand
public sound …

… that builds
upon traditional
structures to create
a new choral style.

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