from program notes by director Barbara Jones:
Structurally, this work is an ingenious melding of “old” style writing, and the new style that was developing in Italy at the turn of the 17th century. All of the major movements (the psalms, the sonata, the hymn and the Magnificat) are based on the traditional Gregorian plainchant, which appears in a single voice as a cantus firmus (a fixed voice, sung in long notes) upon and around which an elaborate choral structure is built.
Each movement stands like a cathedral – the cantus firmus providing the structural buttress, the choral and solo parts spinning around that center, as the many ornaments and carving that adorn the structure. The psalm settings present every verse in appropriate manner, each verse divided into two balanced sections. Every such movement ends with the doxology (Gloria patri). Listen for the incredible variety Monteverdi achieves in setting this familiar text (nine times in today’s performance), each evoking a different mood and an appropriate finish to the movement.
One must remember that in 1610, Monteverdi was best known as a madrigalist and a composer of opera. Examples of musical metaphors or word painting abound, as does the sense of high drama in the large choral movements.
I. Domine ad adjuvandum (6 voices)– A splendid call upon the Lord for aid; each verse is followed by a brief instrumental ritornello.
II. Dixit Domine (6 voices) – Combines two compositional traditions: polyphony surrounding the cantus firmus, and the use of falsobordonne, or chanting of text on a single pitch. This movement dramatically illustrates the power of a vengeful God. Rhythmic figures develop from simple quarter notes, to eighths, to dotted eighths to dotted sixteenth figures, usually associated with battle, horses, or whips.
III. Nigra Sum – the only solo song in the Vespers. A setting of a sensual poem from the Song of Solomon, which through tradition has come to be associated with Mary.
IV. Laudate Pueri (8 voices) – Structure determined by text concerned with praising God, contemplating His glory, or dealing with His intervention in man’s affairs. The use of triple meter would have been recognized as a metaphor for pleasure. The final amen is most unusual, especially for such an exciting movement – the voices and instruments fall away, leaving only the tenor solos, who meet on a gentle, final unison note.
V. Pulchra es – Beautiful duet for sopranos, drawn from the Song of Solomon.
VI. Laetatus sum (6 voices) – Characterized by sections using a “walking bass”. Text reflects Jerusalem as the as the center of the Nation of Israel.
VII. Duo Seraphim – (originally for 3 tenors; today with 2); The angels’ song is characterized by a style representing the height of a singer’s art; the two angels call each other across the vastness of creation.
VIII. Nisi Dominus (10 voices) – Full of busy canons in outer sections, depicting workers at their task of constructing an edifice; middle section is a dialogue between two overlapping choruses. Tenors anchor with the cantus firmus.
IX. Audi coelum (motet; 6 voice chorus) – 8 freely invented stanzas, each followed by an echo, the voice from the heavens that responds to the invocation; chorus enters on “Omnes” and ends in a gentle, contemplative mood.
X Lauda Jerusalem (7 voices) After the opening command and response, musical dialogue between two trios of soprano, alto and bass, surrounding the psalm tone presented throughout by tenors. Closes with highly imitative and expressive amen.
XI. Sonata sopra Sancta Maria – Grand and brilliant instrumental concerto, with eleven statements of the psalm tone sung by sopranos; the phrase gradually breaks down into short, unpredictable sobbing motifs.
XII. Ave Maris Stella (8 voices) Beautiful 8-part setting of the hymn; verses separated by triple-meter ritornello for five unspecified instruments.
XIII. Magnificat – (7 voices) Canonic opening followed by intimate presentation of the Virgin’s words. The doxology begins as a virtuosic duet between two tenors, while sopranos spin the psalm tone in extraordinarily long, sustained notes, creating a sense of the vastness and eternity of God’s realm. Final chorus is a fittingly elongated Sicut erat, and florid amen.