Review

Claudio Monteverdi
Lamento d'Arianna:

Arranged by iTromboni

4 tenor, 1 bass trombone

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Publisher: Cherry Classics Music
Date of Publication: 2020
URL: http://www.cherryclassics.com

Score and parts.

Primary Genre: Trombone Ensembles - 5 trombones

This recitativo is the only surviving fragment of an opera that Monteverdi began after the death of his wife in September 1607. It exists in several different versions, the earliest being a five-voice madrigal (SV22) on which this arrangement is based, using only the first section of a more extended work of approximately 12 minutes. It is given in its original key of B-flat major. In Monteverdi’s hands at this time, tonality is in evolution, and in this piece it is ambiguous, with a clear F major dominant, but also a pull right up to the final cadence towards the Dorian mode.

Monteverdi’s score has no dynamic markings. They were used for the first time only 10 years earlier in Gabrieli’s Sonata pian’ e forte (1597); but they are certainly appropriate to this highly expressive music and this arrangement contains many, from pp to mf, and crescendo/decrescendo. The words set in the twice-repeated opening phrase are "Lasciatemi morire" (let me die) and these should define the tone and tempo of this piece, which is marked con dolore.

The arrangement is recommended on the publisher’s web-site ‘for moderately advanced performers.’ All parts are given in bass clef. First part, lying entirely above the stave, is quite challenging; the other parts are of intermediate difficulty. Range for first is b-flat-b-flat¹; second tops out at g-flat¹. Bass trombone goes down to BB-flat. Monteverdi’s style is a ‘natural’ for trombone and this piece will be a pleasure to play.