Monteverdi

There are a number of dividing lines in music history. Most are artificial of course and arbitrary.  An old one is  known as Ars Nova and Ars Antiqua...simple New and Old Music. We are talking "old" here -middle 14th century and in summary, it was when things took something of a leap forward musically speaking - as if serious musicians said "hey, it is time we were a little bit more precise in what we are doing".

Music was a bit stalled after the great cathedrals were built or being built - the 12th century - as if it (music) had moved into a new house and the homeowner said "Wow. Done finally. I am going to just enjoy it and not change a thing for a while".  There was nothing stale about the music but as people and times change, well it was time to move on a bit.

Although there is no clear date when the old gave way to the new, there almost never is, the process was underway and by 1370 or so, the art of composing music was decidedly different and when the renaissance in music hit the musical "world" was ready for it.

Like Ars Antiqua, Ars Nova music is or was simply a period when the style was roughly the same and it ran from about 1350 to perhaps the traditional 1453 starting block for the renaissance. The renaissance in turn ran up to about 1600 with the beginning of the "baroque" period and so on. Okay. Enough little journeys in music history.

A fellow named Claudio Monteverdi was born near the end of the renaissance period  (the high renaissance) - roughly 1567 or so (3 years after Shakespeare by the way) and had a long and influential career.  In 1609 he wrote an opera titled "Orfeo"  which pretty much set the world - or his world - on fire and instead of gradual change in music happening over decades if not centuries, there was a real demarkation line drawn between the the old way and the new way. 

I doubt many have heard any Monteverdi in their lifetimes.  His stuff is mostly performed in hot-house college environments were music historians ooooh and ahhhh and nitpick, try to perform it the way it would have been performed "at the time" with period instruments right down to the gut strings on the violins. When it fails it is a miserable evening of wretched sounds. When it succeeds, you might as well be back in northern Italy at the turn of the 16th century listening to something you never dreamed existed or could have been thought out by the creativity of man.

Think back 45 years to the Beatles.  The idea of a band with 3 guitars and a drum set was pretty much the norm. They (John and Co.) didn't change the basic formula but they did change the music - altered it completely in just a couple years - in fact said here are old songs and here is new music and amazingly different although it used very familiar individual sounds.

Try this Monteverdi out. It is a modern performance but using old instruments and a very authentic re-creation of what the music "sounded" like 400 years ago.  It may not be to your taste but it is novel and new and at the time, a new age.