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Of Mars I Sing: Monteverdi Voicing Virility

The Preface to Monteverdi’s Eighth Book of Madrigals (1638) contains the notoriously problematic claim that a systematic conceptual programme underpins the entire collection – one of the most ambitious and diverse books of secular music ever issued up to that time. Numerous scholars have attempted to explicate the programme, both in terms of the classical authorities it cites (and mis-cites) and also its place in early seventeenth-century music theory. But none has so far addressed its most practical claim that, according to ‘the ancients’, different human emotions (anger, moderation and humility or supplication) find their direct analogies in the three different pitches areas of the human voice – high, medium and low. Why would the composer raise this if it is not then played out in the music which follows? Analysis of the actual choices of solo voices for the portrayal of ‘virility’ (in terms of late-Renaissance ideas) in a number of pieces in the Eighth Book finds contemporary practice of virtuoso solo bass singing to be a possible key. Unlike sopranos and tenors, the most accomplished basses were renowned for their ability to sing in ‘all ranges’ and there was a particular association of this style of singing with texts dealing with the warrior ideal of ‘Arms and Letters’. The volume happens to include a setting – for solo bass – of a hugely extended translation by Ottavio Rinuccini out of Ovid, whose text covers the entire range of human emotions as enumerated in the Preface. Detailed examination shows that Monteverdi uses this poem as the vehicle for a practical ‘text-book’ demonstration of his theoretical claim. This essay offers a new approach to applying first-hand authorial performance practice knowledge to ‘theoretical’ musicological questions, and opens up possibilities for a radically fresh consideration of the composer’s long-promised (but never published) manifesto about musical-textual relations.