MONTEVERDE, Claudio (1568-1643), the inventor of the “free style” of musical composition, was born at Cremona in 1568; he was engaged at an early age as violist to the duke of Mantua, and studied composition with some success under Ingegneri, the duke’s “maestro di capella, ’ though without thoroughly mastering the difficulties of musical science. His knowledge of counterpoint was limited, and his ear imperfect, but he was a bold experimenter, and his undisguised empiricism led to discoveries which exercised a lasting influence upon the progress of art. He was the first composer who ventured to use unprepared dissonances,— employing them first in his madrigals, the beauty of which they utterly destroyed, but afterwards introducing them into music of another kind with such excellent effect that their value was universally recognized, and all opposition to their use effectually silenced. In 1603 he succeeded Ingegneri as “maestro di capella;” and in 1607 he produced, for the marriage of Francesco Gonzaga, his first opera, Ariana, in which he employed the newly-discovered discords with irresistible effect. Though he did not invent the lyric drama—Peri’s Euridice having been produced at Florence in 1600—he raised it to a level which distanced all contemporary competition. His second opera, Orfeo, composed in 1608, was even more successful than Ariana, and was based upon a principle which is held by some modern critics to embody the only law to which the dramatic composer owes obedience—that of accommodating the music to the exigencies of the scene. In 1613 Monteverde was invited to Venice, as “maestro di capella”at St Mark’s. Here he composed much sacred music, the greater part of which is lost,—a circumstance the less to be regretted, since ...