The Problem of Reconstruction in Monteverdi

Abstract

THE PROBLEM of arranging Monteverdi's music for concert performance has not yet been satisfactorily solved. The principle difficulty lies in the proper interpretation of his basso continuo. To give it a plain chord setting, as we are accustomed to do in music towards 1700, causes a painful contradiction between Monteverdi's highstrung pathetic melody, full of dramatic tension and emotional expressiveness, and the plain bass, which generally lacks even the customary figures of thorough-bass. This contradiction can be avoided only by learning to interpret Monteverdi's abbreviated bass notation in terms of his own harmonic system, with its colorful chromatic progressions, its sudden surprising changes, as we find it in hundreds of his madrigals. Applying this kind of harmony, we get the proper harmonic background for the striking declamation, free rhythm, pathetic expression of Monteverdi's melody. Such a colorful harmonic setting may sometimes be enhanced in effect by judicious use of polyphonic writing in the accompaniment. To show the actual effect of this system of accompaniment the speaker presented a performance of his own version of the famous d'Arianna scene, the first complete performance of this scene since more than 300 years ago. He had attempted a restoration of the entire scene, with newly composed material of his own for the four lost choral episodes and the four lost soprano soli, of which only the words have been transmitted to us. In order to give an adequate idea of the dramatic grandeur and beauty of the entire scene, this attempt at restoration seemed indispensable. Monteverdi's own version of the Lamento as a cycle of five-part madrigals gave many a clue to his intention. A number of quotations from seventeenth-century treatises on basso continuo furnished further evidence regarding an adequate method of treatment.