Monteverde

A comparison of two major Baroque composers: Claudio Monteverdi and Domenico Scarlatti The purpose of this paper is to analyze two psalms by Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (1567-1643) and Giovanni Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) and compare and contrast the two pieces to find out how music changed throughout the Baroque period.

While historians grouped music of the Baroque period together based on certain characteristics, the music did not remain the same throughout the period, as it would not for any other musical time period. Composers from different points in the Baroque period were chosen, but the things the two composers had in common were the country of residence and their nationality. Special care was taken to chose composers from the same country so that differences could not be accounted as being because of different nationalistic styles.

The piece by Monteverdi, Confitebor tibi Domine (Psalm 110), which I have translated into, You Confess to the Lord, was a psalm that was used as part of the vespers on Sundays. This particular psalm is found in varied forms in the publication Selva morale et spirituale, Selva Moral and Spirit, published around 1640. This setting is set for four voices, a solo soprano voice, and is accompanied by continuo. The piece begins and ends in C major, with use of very few accidentals. The accidentals in this piece were used to create a leading tone to the fifth or tonic. The piece is mostly homorhythmic and has a combination of polyphony and homophony, and occasionally there is a duet with the soprano and solo soprano lines. The piece is written in Latin, which was common practice for the time. To complicate the piece a little more there are no indicated dynamics. When comparing two transcription I found, bar lines were added since almost none existed in the actual manuscript, and some corrections were made in the number of rests in some places in the score.

The psalm composed by Scarlatti, called Laetatus sum, Be Glad, (Psalm 121), is set for four voices, soprano, alto, tenor, bass, a continuo accompaniment, and solo soprano and alto lines. This piece is also a part of the vesper psalms used in church. There is use of imitative polyphony within the chorus parts and within the solo lines, but the chorus lines and solo lines did not imitate each other so in essence, the piece is a duet and a chorus piece put together. There is figured bass present throughout the psalm setting. The text is actually the text to psalm 122. There is octave doubling in the bass, and the fifth occurs often since it was considered to be perfect or somehow godly. What makes this psalm different from Scarlatti’s other psalms is that it is the only psalm that exhibits an organized concerto style. This psalm is also written in Latin, and has no indicated dynamics. It begins in D major, and switches to A and E major, and b and a minor throughout the setting, and ends back on D major. The piece does have some ornamentation, consisting of argued trills. The argument comes from odd markings on the original manuscript. Some people feel that the markings were just hastily drawn trills, while others feel they may actually be mordants. In the newest transcription, they have all been transcribed as trills. The main reason for the lack of ornamentation put into the music is an attempt to make the music less frilly. In the Baroque era this tooking away from the sacred message it was supposed to send.

While both pieces are a part of each composer’s library of sacred music, they are in some respects not very much alike and in others they are very similar. There are the obvious things they have in common such as the fact that they are