CLAUDIO

MONTEVERDE (1567-1643)  , Italian priest and musician, was born• at Cremona in May 1567; he was engaged at an early age as violist to the duke of Mantua, and studied composition under Ingcgneri, the duke's maestro di capella . His bold experiments, while bringing upon him the attacks of Artusi and Banchieri (q.v.), led to discoveries which exercised a lasting influence upon the progress of musical art . He was the first to make deliberate use of unprepared dissonances, or what are now known as fundamental discords . These discords constituted a revolution against the laws of 16th century music . He employed them first in his madrigals, where they are a sign of decadence, but afterwards introduced them into music of another kind with such excellent effect that theirvalue was universally recognized . Before 1595 Monteverde was married to the singer Claudia Cattaneo, who died in 1607 . In 1602 he succeeded Ingegneri as maestro di capella; and in 1607 he produced, for the marriage of Francesco Gonzaga, his first opera, Ariana, in which he employed the newly-discovered discords with irresistible effect . Though he did not invent the lyric drama—Peri's Euridice having been produced at Florence in 1600—he raised it to a level which distanced all contemporary competition . His second opera, Orfeo, composed in 16o8, was even more successful than Ariana . In 1613 Monteverde was invited to Venice, as maestro di capella at St Mark's, with a stipend of 300 ducats, which in 1616 was raised to 400 . Here he composed much sacred music, the greater part of which is lost . In 1630 he wrote another grand opera, Proserpina rapita .

He did not become a priest until 1632 . In 1639 he produced L'Adone, and in 1641 Le Nozze di Enea and Il Ritorno d'Ulisse . He died in Venice on the 29th of

November 1643 . Monteverde's harmonic innovations and power of musical rhetoric seemed to put an end to the school of Palestrina, and led the way to modern music .