Musica Moderna, Monteverdi: Moving Fast and Breaking Things

Four hundred years ago, at the turn of the seventeenth century, Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi stood at the centre of a profound musical shift.

As Renaissance polyphony reached its height, its governing principles prioritised structural clarity through balanced harmony, independent vocal lines, and controlled dissonance. Monteverdi challenged these conventions, employing a more text-driven approach in which music could respond directly to the meaning and affect of the words. When this dramatic expression attractee criticismfor “breaking the rules”, Monteverdi defended his style as musica moderna.

In this programme, Brighton Consort explores that moment of transformation. Alongside the Messa a quattro voci da cappella (published posthumously in 1650), which reflects Monteverdi’s command of the older prima pratica, madrigals from the Fourth Book reveal the heightened expressivity associated with the emerging seconda pratica.

Throughout the concert, the creative tension between tradition and innovation remains central. Monteverdi’s music stands at a pivotal moment: grounded in Renaissance practice, yet already shaping the dramatic, text-led language of the Baroque.

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Host or Publisher Brighton Consort