The sixty-sixth classical recording: #20 Claudio Monteverdi - Madrigals
One of the reasons to do these recordings chronologically is that it gives an insight into how these evolve. The content is still lost on me - although as secular songs, I assume they are more basic than what we get with other songs. Monteverdi's madrigals, at least in the version we have here, is accompanied by a lute, but is mostly given shape as a polyphonic song, two voices building together.There is something romantic about the sound, where it feels more grounded than the motets we've had before, and it feels closer to more modern songs at time - though still slower and clearly influenced by motets. They're also more affected than 'folk' music, more developed than what I'm sure they felt the commoners would sing, and the combination of that makes for something effective to listen to.