Claudio Monteverdi

A Research and Information Guide

Susan Lewis, Maria Virginia Acuña

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781135042929
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

Claudio Monteverdi: A Research and Information Guide is an annotated bibliography that navigates the vast scholarly resources on the composer with the most updated compilation since 1989. Claudio Monteverdi transformed and mastered the principal genres of his day and his works influenced generations of musicians and other artists. He initiated one of the most important aesthetic debates of the era by proposing a new relationship between poetry and harmony. In addition to scholarship by musicologists and music theorists, Monteverdi's music has attracted attention from literary scholars, cultural historians, and critical theorists. Research into Monteverdi and Renaissance and early baroque studies has expanded greatly, with the field becoming more complex as scholars address such issues as gender theory, feminist criticism, cultural theory, new criticism, new historicism, and artistic and popular cultures. The guide serves both as a foundational starting point and as a gateway for future inquiry in such fields as court culture, opera, patronage, and Italian poetry.

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Reference

General Reference

1. Basso, Alberto, ed. Dizionario enciclopedico universale della musica e dei musicisti. Turin: Unione Tipografico-Editrice Torinese, 1983–90. Pt. 1: Il lessico (subject), 4 vols. Pt. 2: Le biografie (biographical), 9 vols. ISBN 8802037329. ML100.D6 1983.

The standard reference work in the Italian language, with approximately 37,000 signed entries. Like MGG2 it is divided into subject and biographical entries. Part 2 (biographical) includes works lists that, for major composers such as Monteverdi, list contents by madrigal book, rather than alphabetically by first line as in GMo. For more complete bibliographies, consult GMo. The last volume (vol. 13) is a biographical supplement.

2. Bianconi, Lorenzo. “Weitere Ergänzungen zu Emil Vogels Bibliothek der gedruckten weltlichen Vocalmusik Italiens, aus den Jahren 1500–1700 aus italienischen Bibliotheken.” AnM 9 (1970): 142–202 and AnM 12 (1973): 370–97.

Final supplement to Vogel’s Bibliothek der gedruckten weltlichen Vocalmusic Italiens aus den Jahren 1500–1700 (no. 15). An inventory of madrigal and cantata prints found in Italian archives. Entries include a transcription of the title page and dedication, a list of contents, and notes on surviving sources.

3. Brown, Howard Mayer. Instrumental Music Printed before 1600: A Bibliography. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1965. 559p. No ISBN. ML128.I65.B77.

Valuable reference bibliography that catalogs and describes all of the instrumental music published before 1600, including lists of lost volumes, theoretical treatises that deal wholly with instruments or with the music written for them, volumes of music for instruments and voices, and anthologies that contain some vocal music and some instrumental music. An important resource for tracking instrumental intabulations of madrigals. Indexes of libraries, notations, performing medium, names, and first lines and titles.

4. Finscher, Ludwig, ed. Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. 2nd ed. 28 vols. in 2 parts. Sachteil, 9 vols. Personenteil, 17 vols. Kassel, Germany: Bärenreiter, 1994–2008. ISBN 3761811004. ML100.M92 1994. [MGG2].

A substantial update and revision of the first edition (ed. Friedrich Blume, 17 vols. [Kassel, Germany: Bärenreiter, 1949–86]). Entries for madrigal, canzonetta, and villanella in the subject encyclopedia are authored by James Haar, Ruth I. DeFord, and Donna G. Cardamone, respectively, and follow the structure of the authors’ corresponding entries in GMo. Haar’s extensive bibliography is an excellent resource for locating modern editions and secondary literature up to 1996. Cardamone’s entry on the villanella includes an extensive short-title list of villanella anthologies (from RISM B/I, 1504⁴ to RISM B/I, 1577⁸) and a list of modern editions. The biographical encyclopedia includes entries for composers of madrigals with bibliographies often more up to date than the corresponding entries in GMo.

5. Ghisalberti, Alberto M., ed. Dizionario biografico degli italiani. Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana fondata da Giovanni Treccani, 1960—. A—M = 73 vols. up to 2009. ISBN 9788812000326 (set). CT1123.D5 Biog.

Indispensable tool for scholars of Italian history, culture, literature, art, and music. Entries for poets and composers include detailed biographies, notes on modern editions, and extensive bibliographies.

6. Giger, Andreas, ed. Saggi musicali italiani. Center for the History of Music Theory and Literature, University of Indiana. www.chmtl.indiana.edu/smi/

Full-text, searchable database of major Italian music treatises from the Renaissance to present. Materials added on an ongoing basis. Ten treatises from the sixteenth century available as of August 10, 2010, including works by Pietro Aaron, Ercole Bottrigari, and Gioseffo Zarlino. Treatises can be downloaded, browsed, and searched. Includes graphics and musical examples.

7. Hilmar, Elmar. “Weitere Ergänzungen zu Emil Vogels Bibliothek der gedruckten weltlichen Vocalmusik Italiens, aus den Jahren 1500–1700.” AnM 4 (1967): 154–206 and AnM 5 (1968): 295–8.

Supplements to Vogel’s bibliography of Italian secular vocal music prints (no. 15). Entries include a transcription of the title page and dedication, a list of contents, and notes on surviving sources. Includes many examples from US libraries.

8. Lincoln, Harry B. The Italian Madrigal and Related Repertories: Indexes to Printed Collections, 1500–1600. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988. ix, 1139p. ISBN 0300036833. ML128.M2.L56 1988.

Massive thematic index of more than 9,000 Italian-texted madrigals and related forms found in sixteenth-century printed anthologies (defined, following RISM, as volumes with more than one composer represented). The main index is arranged by composer and includes melodic incipits for each surviving voice part. This is followed by an alphabetical index to first lines, a thematic locator (using numerical language designating intervals, such as +2 for a rising second), and an index of sources arranged by RISM number.

9. Mangani, Marco. Il repertorio vocale profano nelle raccolte a stampa del secolo XVII. Rome: Torre d’Orfeo, 1993. 125p. (Istituto di paleografia musicale—Roma, ser. 1, Studi e testi, 8; Bibliografia, 1). ISBN 8885147534. ML120.I8.

Chronological list of seventeenth-century anthologies of secular vocal music. Entries include an alphabetical list of contents with text attributions where known. The index of first lines, composers, and poets makes it easy to locate items relevant to the study of Monteverdi.

10. RISM A/I. Einzeldrucke vor 1800. 9 vols. A—Z. Ed. Karlheinz Schlazer. Kassel, Germany: Bärenreiter, 1976–81. 4 vols. of Addenda and Corrigenda. Kassel, Germany: Bärenreiter, 1986–99. Index of Publishers, Printers, and Engravers and Index of Places to vols. 1–9 and 11–4. Kassel, Germany: Bärenreiter, 2003. ISBN 3761802285. ML113.I6 vol. AI.

Alphabetical listing by composer of single-author volumes of music printed before 1800. Monteverdi’s printed editions are listed as RISM M3443—M3505 in vol. 6 with divisions into sacred vocal music, stage works, secular vocal music, and collections. Information on locations should be confirmed with other sources.

11. RISM A/II. Musikhandschriften, 1600–1800. Munich: K.G. Saur, published on CD-ROM, updated annually, and by NISC on the Internet. www.nisc.com.

Comprehensive annotated index and guide to 620,000 works by over 22,500 composers transmitted in manuscripts produced after 1600; the database includes images of over 506,000 searchable music incipits.

12. RISM B/I. Recueils imprimés XVI–XVII siècles. Liste chronologique. Ed. François Lesure. Kassel, Germany: Bärenreiter, 1960. 639p. ML113. I6 vol. BI.

Chronological list of music anthologies published in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. An anthology is defined as a volume with music by more than one composer. Indexed by title, author, publisher, and printer.

13. Root, Deane, ed. Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. www.oxfordmusiconline.com [GMo].

Indispensable online resource that offers the full texts of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (1992), and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 2nd ed. (2001), along with updates and revisions. Over 60,000 signed articles by more than 6,000 scholars. The search functions enable users to locate titles and first lines of musical works across the dictionaries, a useful tool for finding a specific work or for locating parallel settings of a single text. Valuable resource for information on musical genres and contemporaries of Monteverdi. It is possible to limit a keyword search to a single article. Works lists may include either a list of printed volumes or a detailed list of first lines of texts, at the author’s discretion. Periodic updates to bibliographies.

14. Sadie, Stanley, and John Tyrrell, eds. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 29 vols. London: MacMillan, 2001. ISBN 1561592390. ML100.N48 2000. [NGM2].

The standard English-language reference work for all aspects of music research. Bibliography up to the mid-1990s.

15. Vogel, Emil. Bibliothek der gedruckten weltlichen Vocalmusik Italiens aus den Jahren 1500–1700. 2 vols. Hildesheim, Germany: Georg Olms, 1962. Vol. 1: xxiii, 530p. Vol. 2: 832p. No ISBN. L120.I8.V8 1962. (Reprint; original published Berlin, 1892.)

Superseded by no. 16, Vogel’s 1892 bibliography remains useful because volume 2 includes a chronological list of anthologies with full listings of contents. An important source for tracking the dissemination of Monteverdi’s madrigals outside of Italy. Anthologies are indexed by title of collection, printer, publisher, place of printing, and persons. The 1962 reprint includes Alfred Einstein’s revised and enlarged bibliography of secular vocal anthologies.

16. Vogel, Emil, Alfred Einstein, François Lesure, and Claudio Sartori. Bibliografia della musica italiana vocale profana pubblicata dal 1500 al 1700 [NV]. 3 vols. Pomezia, Italy: Staderini, 1977. Vols. 1–2: xxii, 1888p. Vol. 3 (Index): 615p. No ISBN. L120.I8.B18 1977.

Revision of Vogel’s Bibliothek (no. 15) partly based on corrections made by Vogel and Einstein. The bibliography grew from 2,499 single-composer and anthology editions to 3,030 single-composer volumes of Italian secular vocal music printed between 1500 and 1700. Entries for Monteverdi are found in vol. 2, NV1898–1955, beginning with Canzonette, Libro I a3 (1584) and ending with the composer’s Selva morale e spirituale (1640–1). Though NV excludes anthologies, it remains an indispensable tool for finding copies of madrigals and related genres, for finding works by a particular composer, and for tracking multiple settings of a poem. Its principal function is as an enumerative, rather than descriptive, bibliography. Transcriptions of title pages are abbreviated and spellings modernized. The physical description and pagination or foliation information is often inaccurate. The addition of an index of composers named on title pages, poets, dedicatees, editors, and first lines makes the bibliography easy to navigate.

Monteverdi Reference

17. Adams, K. Gary, and Dyke Kiel. Claudio Monteverdi: A Guide to Research. New York: Garland, 1989. xviii, 273p. (Garland Composer Resource Manuals, 23). ISBN 0824077431. ML134.M66.A5.

With 878 descriptive entries through 1986, this remains a useful guide to studies of Monteverdi and his musical context between 1550 and 1650. Divided into five sections: Monteverdi’s works, general background, biography, music, and Monteverdi today. The works list includes Stattkus numbers (abbreviated SV, see no. 23) and cross-references to Gian Francesco Malipiero’s edition of Monteverdi’s collected works (Vienna: Universal Edition, ca. 1926–68). Gives only a partial list of Monteverdi’s works included in anthologies (use no. 23 instead). Index of authors, proper names, and compositions.

18. An Alphabetical Index to Claudio Monteverdi: Tutte le opere nuovamente date in luce da G. Francesco Malipiero, Asolo, 1926–1942. New York, 1964. (Music Library Association Index Series, i). No ISBN. No LC.

Indexes Gian Francesco Malipiero’s edition of Monteverdi’s complete works. See Guide to Editions in the Appendices.

19. Carter, Tim, and Geoffrey Chew. “Monteverdi, Claudio.” In Grove Music Online: Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed July 15, 2017. www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/subscriber/article/grove/music/44352

Definitive reference and information on Monteverdi. With search features and more frequent updates, Carter and Chew’s entry for Claudio Monteverdi in the GMo has largely superseded the print version (no. 20). Search functions are particularly useful for navigating the works list.

20. Carter, Tim, and Geoffrey Chew. “Monteverdi, Claudio.” In NGM2 no. 17, pp. 29–60.

Essential reference and information on Monteverdi. The article is divided into ten sections: Cremona; Mantua; Venice; Theoretical and Aesthetic Basis of Works; Tonal Language; Imitatio and Use of Models; Early Works; Works from the Mantuan Years; Works from the Venetian Years; and Historical Position. Tim Carter’s works list includes SV numbers (see no. 23), date and place of first performance of dramatic works, and notes on sources, where relevant. Geoffrey Chew’s bibliography is comprehensive and includes scholarship up to 1999.

21. Koldau, Linda Maria. “Claudio Monteverdi.” In Oxford Bibliographies in ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction: Monteverdi in His World and Ours
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Monteverdi: A Chronology
• 1. Reference
• 2. Collections of Essays and Conference Proceedings
• 3. Studies of Monteverdi’s Life and Works
• 4. Claudio’s Brother: Giulio Cesare Monteverdi
• 5. Theory and Aesthetics
• 6. Canzonetta and Madrigal Books
• 7. Dramatic Works
• 8. Sacred Music
• 9. Issues of Performance
• 10. Monteverdi’s Historical Position and Status
• Appendices
• Index of Monteverdi’s Works
• Index of Authors
• Index of Names and Places