Introduction

Abstract Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine, published together with his Missa in illo tempore, has been a familiar item in music histories and the subject of intense interest among early music performers and enthusiasts for many years. And well it should be, given the grand dimensions, vocal and instrumental virtuosity, musical colour, and extraordinary variety characterizing the collection of fourteen compositions subsumed under the title Vespro della Beata Vergine in the composer’s Bassus Generalis part-book. The importance of this publication to Monteverdi himself is underscored by its dedication to Pope Paul V2 Interest in the Vespers has led to several modern editions and innumerable performances and recordings, some of very high quality, employing historical instruments and up-to-date knowledge of early seventeenth-century performance practices.3By now, the Vespers of 16m are truly in the public domain, familiar to large numbers of musicians and music-lovers.