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Author
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643: Italian)
- father was a doctor, apothecary, and surgeon
- published eight books of madrigals
- ordained as a Catholic priest in 1632
- Wikipedia Article
About the Piece
(much of thedescription comes from elements that were brought out by Forney and Machlis, The Enjoyment of Music, and the accompanying DVD)
- Genre is Italian madrigal
- Written in 5 voices (SSATB)
- alternation of voice groups, from low to high in playful exchange
- opens with the bottom 3 voices
- imitative counterpoint
- natural images (although they don't mean anything unless you have a translation)
- parallel thirds
- no clear melody, counterpoint throughout
- ends with slow notes
Purpose
Reflections
In general, I really like the concept of counterpoint in music. It does seem to muddle the text quite a bit, but that doesn't really matter when the piece is in a language that I can't understand anyway. Anything in much more than 5 voices, though, would probably start to confuse me.