Monteverdi - The Sixth Book of Madrigals - 06. Una donna fra I' altre by Claudio Monteverdi Brass Ensemble - Digital Sheet Music

As part of my continuing project to transcribe Monteverdi's madrigals onto winds, here is the 6th book. In this book we see a much greater development towards dramatic representation. In a way, this book is divisible into two Scenes with a number of single items in between. The vocal lines are all much more complex and we can also see the beginnings of monodic writing appear in the semi-recit sections of some of the songs.

Also clearly developing are delineations of the voices into soloists and chorus. Several songs in this book are almost akin to arias, with clear soloistic writing for the higher voices (Cantus/Tenor).

The first four songs form a kind of introductory 'scena', which Monteverdi calls "Lamento d'Arianna". A little later, there is a set of 6 songs which he grouped together under the title "Sestina". Here, the song is describing "One woman amongst the others, honest and beautiful". Now, there's flattery for you! There is a subtitle to this song "Concertato nel clavicembalo" - "Conducted from the harpsichord". Obviously, this is not possible in this transcription. The continuo part has been incorporated into the rests of all of the parts, without swamping the leading voices.

As with all things madrigalian, the lyrics are rife with double entendres. Monteverdi uses some very close dissonances to describe death and release.