Luogo e data di registrazione		Westzaan (Holland) - 2/11 Novembre 1970
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer		Wolf Erichson
	Prima Edizione LP		Telefunken "Das Alte Werk" | SAWT 9577-B | 1 LP - durata 40' 12" | (p) 1971 | ANA
	Edizione CD		Warner Classics "The New Gustav Leonhardt Edition" | 01902964467714 | 35 CDs - CD 26 - durata 67' 17" | (c) 2022 | ADD
	Cover		"Der Lautenspieler", Gemälde von Giovanni Cariani. Musée des Beaux-arts. Strasbourg.
	Note		-

In the 16th and early 17th century particularly in Italy and then in England, the madrigal was the most important musical form, music being an integral part of contemporary court life. At the same time, the extent of its popularity and its lack of restrictive link with liturgical convention made it an important vehicle for experimental composition and new ideas. Claudio Monteverdi, admiringly called by his contemporaries »oracolo della musica«, exerted a decisive influence on the whole course of musical history. A »conservative revolutionary«, like all great revolutionaries, gradually he brought about a change in European musical style during a long continual process, a process of change particularly well demonstrated in his madrigal works. Monteverdi occupied himself with the madrigal well nigh all his life: in 1587, when he was twenty, he published his first book of madrigals, five years before his death his eighth book was published. In his Fifth Book of Madrigals (1605) Monteverdi introduced the use of an accompanying basso continuo. In defending this innovation in his preface to the book, against the attacks of critical protagonists of pure counterpoint, he made this now famous statement: »l’oratione sia padrona del armonia e non serva« (»The text should be the master, not the servant of music«). Fully aware of its modernity he named his new way of writing Seconda pratticca (»second way«), as opposed to the older Prima prattica («first way«) - the school of strict counterpoint. Two years later, in 1607, he composed his first dramatic work, »Orfeo«. Through the great variety of forms it contains, both structurally and musically this work surpasses anything previously written in the older declamatory style of the Florentine Camerata, and obviously owes much to the preceding work done in his madrigals. In his Sixth Book of Madrigals (1614), Monteverdi for the first time abandoned the traditional five-part structure of the madrigal, trying out various settings, sometimes in a soloistic-virtuoso style (stile concertato). The Madrigal Book VII and VIII are of particular value because they disclose the pattern of development of Monteverdi’s dramatic style. Unfortunately, through a turn of fate, of the other numerous dramatic works written between »Orfeo« and the two late Venetian operas »Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria« (1641) and »L’Incoronazione di Poppea« (1642) little is now extant. The Seventh Madrigal Book of 1619, entitled »Concerto«, comprises a tremendous variety of formal construction and settings (1-6 vocal parts and basso continuo; in addition frequent use of obbligato instruments). Thus, in Tempro la cetra, the first piece in the collection, the words of which might well serve as a motto for the whole book (»it is only of love that the lyre can sing«), the four sections of the sonnet are composed as variations over a strophic bass - itself varied - which alternate with instrumental ritornels, a construction strongly reminiscent of the famous »Underworld« aria in »Orfeo« - »Possente spirto«. The long stretches of parallel declamation in »Interrotte speranze«, on the other hand, are more reminiscent of the older style of Florentine opera. Tu dormi is a four-part work with both imitative, polyphonic elements and chordal passages. The Eighth Book of Madrigals appeared in 1638, during the Thirty Years’ War, under the title of »Madrigale guerrieri, et amorosi / con alcuni opusculi in genere rappresentativo, che saranno per brevi Episodii fra i canti senza gesto« and dedicated to Emperor Ferdinand III. By »canti senza gesto« are meant the »non-dramatic« madrigals of the collection. Of the pieces composed »in genere rappresentativo« (»in dramatic style«) should be mentioned the »Ballo delle Ingrate« and particularly the »Combatimento di Tancredi et Clorinda«. The »Combatimento« is the setting of a piece of Torquato Tasso’s epic poem » Gerusalemme liberata« (verses from Canto XII). Its completely unschematic construction fits it into no particular musical category, though it is sometimes called a »scenic madrigal« or »scenic cantata«, and it has not established any new form in itself. It is, however, one of Monteverdi’s most famous works and has, through its subtle musical-pictorial setting of the words and dramatic effects, retained its ability to achieve an immediate impact even today. To his Eighth Book of Madrigals Monteverdi added a lengthy introduction in which he clearly defines his position regarding the works published (cf. extract from this in the supplement). Wolfgang Dömling Extract from Monteverdi’s introduction to his Madrigal Book VIII “... Having duely pondered upon the fact that, according to all the notable philosophers, the quick pyrrhic verse metre was used for all warlike and powerfully excited dances and that the slow spondeic metre was used for the opposite, I began to realise that a semibreve sounded once, was the equivalent of one spondeic beat, but, however, if it were to be divided up into 16 semiquavers, rapidly sounded one after the other in connection with a text dealing with wrath and indignation, it would produce something very near to what I have been trying to find, even though the text would not be able to keep up with the rapidity achieved by an instrument. In order to put these experimental ideas into practice I turned to the works of the divine Tasso, who with such great originality and simplicity can so well express any emotion he chooses. I found in his description of the combat between Tancred and Clorinda an ideal vehicle for expressing my musical intentions: for here were war, entreaties, and even death to be interpreted in music. In 1624 I had the composition performed in the house of my most illustrious patron and special master, the honourable Girolamo Mozzenigo, most excellent dignitary of our nable republic. The music was performed in the presence of the Venetian nobility and was received with much applause and praise ... I am anxious that it should be known that the first experiments with these new means of expression, so necessary to the art of music as a whole, were done by me. Without these means music was an imperfect art-form, for only the gentle and the moderate could be expressed. At first, the musicians—especially those who played the basso continuo part—regarded the playing of a string 16 times in one bar as highly ridiculous, hence they only played the note once per bar, consequently producing a spondeic metre instead of the desired pyrrhic one and thus destroyed the whole attempt at imitating the agitated content of the text. Attention should therefore be given that the basso continuo be played exactly in the manner prescribed at all times, and that all other instructions as to methods of performance be strictly followed... .”