Monteverdi, Giulio Cesare (EN)

Monteverdi Giulio Cesare, baptised 31 January 1573 Cremona, †1630 or 1631 Salò, Italian composer and organist, brother of Claudio Monteverdi. From 1 April to September 1600, he served as organist at Mantua Cathedral. From August 1602 to July 1612, he was a member of the Gonzaga court musicians in Mantua. In 1607, he published in Venice Scherzi musicali a tre voci di Claudio Monteverde, raccolti da Giulio Cesare Monteverdi suo fratello, adding to the collection the famous Dichiaratione di una lettera (…) stampata nel Quinto libro de suoi madrigali; in 1608 he co-composed the music for the interludes (together with S. Rossi, G.G. Gastoldi, M. da Gagliano, P. Birto and C. Monteverdi) for G.B. Guarini’s comedy L’idropica, staged to mark the wedding celebrations of Francesco Gonzaga and Margherita of Savoy; he composed the dramma per musica Il rapimento di Proserpina, which was performed in 1611 in Casale Monferrato. Shortly after the dissolution of the ducal chapel in Mantua (before 31 July 1612), Monteverdi was appointed organist at Castelleone (in the province of Cremona). From 1620, he was employed as maestro di cappella at the cathedral in Salò. He died probably in 1630–31 during the plague (his successor was appointed in 1631). 

Monteverdi earned his place in the history of music as the publisher of Scherzi musicali a tre voci di Claudio Monteverde, and particularly as the author of the Dichiaratione included in that collection, in which he explained in detail Claudio Monteverdi’s views on prima and seconda pratica, as outlined by his brother in the preface to the fifth book of madrigals (1605), written in response to the criticisms of G.M. Artusi (published in L’Artusi, ovvero delle imperfettioni della moderna musica and Seconda parte dell’Artusi…, Venice 1600 and 1603); Monteverdi also mentioned there a particular style known as canto alla francese, which Claudio Monteverdi had encountered in 1599 during a trip to Flanders and introduced into Italian music. The few surviving compositions by Monteverdi do not stand out for their originality and seem to bear witness to the influence of Claudio Monteverdi. This concerns the madrigal Occhi vidi d’amore, written for three voices with basso continuo, and especially two scherzi: Deh, chi tace il bel pensiero and Dispiegate guance, included in Scherzi musicali by Claudio Monteverdi (1607). These last two compositions, like Monteverdi’s scherzi, are intended for three vocal parts and instruments performing ritornellos. They are characterised by regular phrasing, consistent metrical and rhythmic patterns, as well as the simplicity of their strophic form and the clarity of texture, which is mostly homorhythmic in the vocal parts. The text is treated syllabically or with moderate ornamentation; in the ritornellos, the two upper voices often run in parallel, contrasting with the bass line, whose motion is somewhat calmer. The motets published in Affetti musici… have the character of small-scale sacred concertos with songlike melody.

Literature: C.V. Palisca The Artusi-Monteverdi Controversy, in: The Monteverdi Companion, ed. D. Arnold, N. Fortune, London 1968; H.S. Powers Monteverdi’s Model for a Multimodal Madrigal, in: In cantu et in sermone, Festschrift for N. Pirrotta, «Italian Medieval and Renaissance Studies» II, ed. F. della Seta, F. Piperno, Florence 1989; S.G. Cusick Gendering Modern Music. Thoughts of the Monteverdi-Artusi Controversy, “Journal of the American Musicological Society” XLVI, 1993.