Book Review
Sep. 15th, 2013 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariMonteverdi
by Denis Arnold
This biography of Claudio Monteverdi was a good introduction to his life and works. Arnold dispatches with Monteverdi's life in a couple of short chapters, and then gives a more in depth examination of the music, divided by genre. There are plenty of musical examples and good analysis of the development of Monteverdi's style and techniques. I think I would have preferred that the biography and works sections had been more integrated, especially for a composer who worked in a time when most music was written to serve the needs of particular establishments and events. This 1990 edition also included an afterword that looked at the state of current research on Monteverdi - it was illuminating but likely to be quite out of date by now. Nonetheless, I got a lot out of this book and especially enjoyed the way it fit in with some of my other recent reading on Gesualdo and music in Italy.
by Denis Arnold
This biography of Claudio Monteverdi was a good introduction to his life and works. Arnold dispatches with Monteverdi's life in a couple of short chapters, and then gives a more in depth examination of the music, divided by genre. There are plenty of musical examples and good analysis of the development of Monteverdi's style and techniques. I think I would have preferred that the biography and works sections had been more integrated, especially for a composer who worked in a time when most music was written to serve the needs of particular establishments and events. This 1990 edition also included an afterword that looked at the state of current research on Monteverdi - it was illuminating but likely to be quite out of date by now. Nonetheless, I got a lot out of this book and especially enjoyed the way it fit in with some of my other recent reading on Gesualdo and music in Italy.
