Music and the Scientific Revolution

Much of the musical output of the great Flemish composer Philippe de Monte conformed exactly to the style Johannes Kepler had in mind when he referred to earthly music as an imitation of the divine harmony of the orbiting stars. De Monte’s consummate skill in polyphony (composing in parts) is particularly evident in the genre for which he is best known, the Italian madrigal. This was a kind of part-song setting for five or so voices, in which the music is intended to express the (usually amorous) sentiments of the verse. The eight books of madrigals in this volume reveal De Monte’s stylistic development over a thirty-year period beginning in 1554. Having initially deployed a complicated but conventional style of polyphony he later adopted a more up-to-date approach that exploited colourful harmonic language to convey the poetry of Petrarch and his many imitators. As Kapellmeister at the court of Rudolf II in Prague, it is likely that De Monte would have encountered Kepler when he was appointed there as Imperial Mathematician in 1601.

Author: Philippe de Monte
Title: Il primo libro de madrigali, a cinque voci (Venice, 1580) [in a bound volume of part books from eight of the composer’s published collections of madrigals and sacred music] [On loan from Paul Harcourt, library volunteer]