from program notes by director Barbara Jones:
Anyone involved in choral music has heard of Monteverdi’s “Vespers”, but relatively few have had the opportunity to sing the work, as it is large in all respects, and offers an infinite number of approaches or “solutions”, depending on the availability of forces, performance venue, and time available.
A vespers is the evening service, one of the seven Offices (hourly services) celebrated every day in Catholic religious communities in the Renaissance. The central feature was the singing of psalms (usually 5) culminating in the Magnificat (the canticle of the Blessed Virgin). “Vespro della Beata Vergine” (Vespers of the Blessed Virgin, here referred to as the “1610 Vespers” by Monteverdi), is a collection of 14 pieces, two of which are settings of the Magnificat and therefore, only one is performed in a single mass or performance. The 13 pieces usually performed consist of a response (movement I), five Old Testament psalms (movements II, IV, VI, VIII, X), a hymn (movement XII) , a Magnificat (XIII), plus 5 sacred motets (III, V, VII, IX) and a concerto (XI). The large choral presentations of the psalm settings alternate with the more intimate motets, sung by various soloists.
This is music on a grand scale. The chorus is divided differently for various movements into 4, 5,6,7, 8 and even 10 voice parts, and frequently into two separate choirs. Orchestral parts that appear in the original source, notated in Monteverdi’s hand, only exist for the first, second, and final movements, with few exceptions. These contain virtuosic writing, especially for the violins and cornetti. For the remainder of the piece, the conductor determines the orchestration – when to double the voice parts and with which instruments, and even which sections within a movement are sung by the full chorus, the soloists, or in our case, a small group comprised of singers from the larger chorus. Therefore every performance is different; “definitive” is not an applicable term, either to editions, or performances. This is in keeping with 17th-century performance practice, which allowed for ad libitum use of many different instruments, in all kinds of music.
Like most late Renaissance publications of church music, the 1610 volume published together with a setting of the mass, was intended to serve a number of purposes. On one level, it could be seen as a vanity publication, a portfolio of the composer’s work gathered in preparation for an application for a position in Venice or Rome. On another level, it is a resource book for choirmasters who could have used several of the settings, as needed. That the 1610 publication has many purposes would have been accepted at that time; there is not one possible “1610 Vespers”, but many.
We do not know if it was ever heard as a complete unit during Monteverdi’s lifetime, but if it had been, it would have been in the context of the church service, as an adornment of the Catholic liturgy, not as a concert work. The composition, publication and performance of the Vespers compel a set of questions, the most basic being: Why was such a magnificent volume of church music written at that specific time—was it written over a period of time, or for one specific grand occasion? Where was it first performed? Who were the musicians involved – a choir and soloists? An ensemble of solo singers? Answers to these and many other questions remain elusive, at best.