Over the period of 30 years (1613 - 1643) during which he was maestro di cappella at St. Mark's, Venice, Monteverdi composed a large body of church music for use in the Basilica. In 1640, the 73-year-old composer himself supervised the publication in Venice of nearly forty of these works in Selva morale e spirituale, an ambitious project that the aging composer undoubtedly looked upon as his musical last will and testament. In 1651, eight years after his death, a further collection of his sacred works was assembled and issued by the prolific Venetian publisher Alessandro Vincenti. Entitled Messa a quattro voci et salmi..., concertati, e parti de cappella, it includes fifteen works. Like its predecessor, the 1651 collection includes pieces in a wide variety of styles and for varying forces. It is headed by one of three Masses composed by Monteverdi in the old-fashioned a cappella (unaccompanied) style of the sixteenth century, an important reminder that while Monteverdi was a prime mover in leading music into the radical development of music we term the Baroque, he also never abandoned the great polyphonic inheritance of the Renaissance. The 1651 Mass is scored in four parts, and is considered by many authorities to be the finest of Monteverdi's three settings. Although adhering to a traditional style, it also includes more modern traits such as the use of chromaticism and madrigal-like part-writing. In the words of scholar Jerome Roche, the Mass "constitutes a real incarnation in seventeenth-century language of Palestrina's...intensity."

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