Monteverdi: The First Book of Madrigals - Sestetto Italiano Luca Marenzio

Claudio Monteverdi, First Book of Madrigals for 5 voices liner notes

Claudio Monteverdi was born in Cremona, the great center of violin making and playing, on May 15, 1567. His father, Baldassare, was a physician. Claudio, precociously gifted for music, received instruction from one of the era's best composers, Marcantonio Ingegneri (1545-1592) who was at that time chapel master at the Cathedral of Cremona. Ingegneri had been able to humanize the great Palestrinian polyphonic tradition by infusing it with the new blood of the madrigal style. The fruits of this cross-pollination were not long in ripening. In 1582, at the age of fifteen, the adolescent genius published his first collection (Sacrae Cantiunculae for 3 voices), followed in 1583 by Madrigali Spirituali and in 1584 by Canzonette. In 1587, at the age of twenty, Monteverdi, with his book of madrigals (for 5 voices) easily put himself on an equal basis with the great masters of this form. Three years later, in 1590, he became a member of the chapel of the Duke of Mantua, Vincenzo Gonzaga, in the capacity of violist and singer. His stay in Mantua was to last twenty-two years.