1st Edition

Approaches to Monteverdi Aesthetic, Psychological, Analytical and Historical Studies

By Jeffrey Kurtzman Copyright 2013
    308 Pages
    by Routledge

    This volume gathers together twelve essays on the composer’s music, reflecting the author's interests in aesthetic and psychological issues, the sacred works, methods of structural analysis, and the problems of making critical editions. The opera Orfeo and two madrigals from Monteverdi's Book Eight are the subject of aesthetic and psychological investigation, especially from the perspective of Michel Foucault's The Order of Things and the psychology of C.J. Jung, all supported by musical analysis. Two essays analyze in detail the structural principles of the psalms Laetatus sum from the 1610 Vespers and the first Dixit Dominus from the Sevla Morale e spirituale of 1641. Two others re-examine the story of Monteverdi's Mass of Thanksgiving and consider the question of what sacred music Monteverdi actually or likely wrote but is now lost. The final essay critiques and compares the methodology and problems of the Malipiero and Cremona editions of Monteverdi's Opera Omnia. All but one of these essays were originally published over a time span of twenty years in journals, conference reports, Festschriften, and as book chapters. The majority of them were not widely distributed or readily available until now. The essay on the Malipiero and Cremona editions appears here for the first time.

    Contents: Introduction; Bibliography; Part 1 Aesthetic and Psychological Studies: Monteverdi and early Baroque aesthetics: the view from Foucault; A taxonomic and affective analysis of Monteverdi’s Hor che'l ciel e la terra; A Jungian perspective on Monteverdi's late madrigals; Intimations of chaos in Monteverdi' L'Orfeo; The psychic disintegration of a demi-god: conscious and unconscious in Striggio and Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo. Part 2 Sacred Music Studies: What makes Claudio divine? Criteria for analysis of Monteverdi’s large-scale concertato style; The Mantuan sacred music; 'Laetatus sum' (1610); A Monteverdi Vespers in 1611 (with Licia Mari); Monteverdi’s Mass of Thanksgiving: da capo; Monteverdi’s missing sacred music: evidence and conjectures. Part 3 Critical Editions: Collected works of Claudio Monteverdi: the Malipiero and Cremona editions; Indexes.

    Biography

    Jeffrey Kurtzman is Professor of Music at Washington University in St Louis, USA.

    '... this is a well-presented series of previously published essays collated to make an interesting volume, containing many challenging ideas and much information concerning the historical background to Monteverdi’s music ... this book will prove a valuable acquisition for the Monteverdi connoisseur, the musico-psychologist, and for music libraries.' The Consort Early Music Journal