Monteverdi.

This book, the best complete survey of the life and works of Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), first appeared in Italian in 1985 and is now made available to English-speaking readers through Tim Carter's graceful translation. The new edition is valuable for other reasons as well. As Carter points out in his foreword, Fabbri revised his text in 1988-89, incorporating new research. Thus, for example, chapter 30, which narrates the composer's life from 1628 to 1632, now summarizes findings that precisely date the aging composer's entry into the priesthood in 1631 and 1632 (226). Another change is the elimination of the "Catalogo delle opere" of the original in favor of an "Index of Monteverdi's works" (323-336), an easier-to-read alphabetical listing that is also keyed to a more detailed catalogue published by Manfred Stattkus the same year as Fabbri's book. Finally, twelve pages of half-tone plates have been suppressed, as well as much of the discussion of the music. The former, no doubt an economic decision, is no great loss; the latter is a less happy change. The author, Carter writes, did so himself, "given that it was designed for a specific Italian readership" (xi). Still, one wonders from which side of the Alps the idea originated. Those Anglo-American readers with a penchant for more severe musical analysis may find Fabbri's treatment too empirical, too descriptive for their tastes. Others, however, might find it useful, as this reader did. Just as importantly, non-specialist readers with basic musical skills, to whom this book is also addressed, would find his work here invaluable.

Monteverdi is cast in three parts, which correspond to the cities in which the composer resided. Chapters 1-6 treat his youth and apprenticeship in his native Cremona, chapters 7-21 his years of service to the Gonzaga in Mantua from 1590 to 1612, and chapters 22-40 his service as maestro di cappella of S. Marco in Venice. Each part consists of chapters of biography alternating with analysis devoted to Monteverdi's music. The former are distinguished by straightforward narration, rich detail, and generous selections from the composer's letters. The musical chapters, despite the cuts mentioned above, are useful nonetheless. The contents of each madrigal book or sacred collection are listed in detail, together with all known authors of poetic texts; the libretti of stage works are accorded similarly careful treatment. Fabbri also offers a sensitive reconstruction of each work's historical context, providing information on such questions as patronage and liturgy. Finally, Monteverdi the controversialist, in his enormously important disagreement with the conservative theorist Giovanni Maria Artusi, is given first-rate coverage in chapter 10 (34-52).

A final word on this otherwise splendid book is in order. After explaining Fabbri's decision to cut most of his musical discussion, Carter adds that "present readers can find ample material in the rich bibliography in English on the composer" (xi). Perhaps so, but not from this bibliography alone. "Works cited" (312322) is an impressive list, but it omits the two most important monographs in English of the last ten years devoted to the composer. One looks in vain among the "Post-1825 texts" (314-322) for Gary Tomlinson's Monteverdi and the End of the Renaissance and Eric Chafe's Monteverdi's Tonal Language. Ellen Rosand's Opera in Seventeenth-Century Venice, which contains extensive chapters on Monteverdi's stage works, is also missing, as are all her journal articles on the composer. Tomlinson's book appeared in 1987, before the revisions for the English edition (Fabbri even reviewed it in the journal Rivista italiana di musicologia 23 [1988], 312-315); so did a number of Rosand's articles. The Rosand and Chafe books, it is true, saw print after the revision, in 1991 and 1992, respectively. Yet the bibliography contains other post-1989 entries, including an article by the translator himself that appeared in 1992. To have omitted this body of work is unfortunate. Fabbri's is the first book to which non-specialist readers will turn, and rightly so; for this reason, those readers would be still better served by being directed to all the best specialized literature.

ROBERT R. HOLZER University of Chicago