title: The Money Pit

text: Contractors Art and Brad Shirk summarily tear the house to pieces using Walter's $5,000 down payment, leaving him and Anna embroiled in bureaucracy to secure the necessary building permits to complete the work. His continuing frustration at the escalating costs of restoring the house leads him to brand it a "money pit", whilst the Shirks continue to assure him that their work will take "two weeks".


title: The Money Pit

text: The repair work continues for a grueling four months and Walter and Anna realize they need more money to complete the renovations. She attempts to secure additional funds from Max by selling him some artwork she received in their divorce. Although he does not care for it, he agrees to its purchase. He wines and dines her, and the next morning, when she wakes up in his bed, he allows her to believe that she has cheated on Walter; in reality, Max slept on the couch. Walter later asks her point-blank if she slept with Max, but she hastily denies it. His suspicions push her to admit that she did so, but the damage is done.


title: The Money Pit

text: Due to Walter and Anna's stubbornness, their relationship becomes more and more hostile and in a rare moment of agreement, they vow to sell the house once it is restored and split the proceeds. This nearly happens, but he misses her and says he loves her even if she did sleep with Max. She happily tells him that she didn't and they reconcile. In the end, they are married in front of the newly repaired house.


title: The Money Pit

text: Ultimately, Estelle and her husband/partner-in-crime, Carlos, resurface in Brazil where they try to persuade Walter's father and his new bride to purchase an old house they claim to have lived in for several years, implying that the vicious circle is about to start all over again.


title: The Money Pit

text: Exterior shots used a relatively rundown house in Lattingtown, Long Island that had been built in 1898 in the Colonial style. After the film, it was purchased for $2.1 million in 2002. In November 2019, the "Seattle PI" reported that the Long Island house had "finally" sold for around $3.5 million, at a significant loss in relation to renovation costs. Kathleen Turner was originally offered the role of Anna Crowley but she declined to star in "The Jewel of the Nile", although she found the script subpar.


title: The Money Pit

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 50% based on 22 reviews, with an average rating of 4.9/10. On Metacritic it has a score of 49 out of 100, based on reviews from 14 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade "C+" on scale of A+ to F.


title: The Money Pit

text: Roger Ebert gave "The Money Pit" only one out of four stars, calling the film "one monotonous sight gag after another."


title: The Money Pit

text: The film is a remake of the 1948 Cary Grant comedy "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House", a fact that was pointed out by multiple critics.


title: The Money Pit

text: The film was released on DVD by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment as part of a three-film set, the "Tom Hanks Comedy Favorites Collection", along with "The 'Burbs" and "Dragnet".


title: The Money Pit

text: In 2013, NBC announced they were developing a TV series based on the film, but the project was later put on hold.


title: Grindhouse

text: A grindhouse or action house is an American term for a theatre that mainly shows low-budget horror, splatter and exploitation films for adults. According to historian David Church, this theater type was named after the "grind policy", a film-programming strategy dating back to the early 1920s which continuously showed films at cut-rate ticket prices that typically rose over the course of each day. This exhibition practice was markedly different from the era's more common practice of fewer shows per day and graduated pricing for different seating sections in large urban theatres, which were typically studio-owned.


title: Grindhouse

text: Due to these theaters' proximity to controversially sexualized forms of entertainment like burlesque, the term "grindhouse" has often been erroneously associated with burlesque theaters in urban entertainment areas such as 42nd Street in New York City, where bump and grind dancing and striptease were featured. In the film "Lady of Burlesque" (1943) one of the characters refers to one such burlesque theatre on 42nd Street as a "grindhouse," but Church points out the primary definition in the "Oxford English Dictionary" is for a movie theater distinguished by three criteria:


title: Grindhouse

text: Church states the first use of the term "grind house" was in a 1923 "Variety" article, which may have adopted the contemporary slang usage of "grind" to refer to the actions of barkers exhorting potential patrons to enter the venue.


title: Grindhouse

text: Double, triple, and "all night" bills on a single admission charge often encouraged patrons to spend long periods of time in the theaters. The milieu was largely and faithfully captured at the time by the magazine "Sleazoid Express".


title: Grindhouse

text: Because grindhouse theaters were associated with a lower class audience, grindhouse theaters gradually became perceived as disreputable places that showed disreputable films, regardless of the variety of films — including subsequent-run Hollywood films — that were actually screened. Similar second-run screenings are held at discount theaters and neighborhood theatres; the distinguishing characteristics of the "grindhouse" are its typical urban setting and the programming of first-run films of low merit, not predominantly second-run films which had received wide releases.


title: Grindhouse

text: The introduction of television greatly eroded the audience for local and single-screen movie theaters, many of which were built during the cinema boom of the 1930s. In combination with urban decay after white flight out of older city areas in the mid to late 1960s, changing economics forced these theaters to either close or offer something that television could not. In the 1970s, many of these theaters became venues for exploitation films, such as adult pornography and sleaze, or slasher horror, and dubbed martial arts films from Hong Kong.


title: Grindhouse

text: Films shot for and screened at grindhouses characteristically contain large amounts of sex, violence, or bizarre subject matter. One featured genre were "roughies" or sexploitation films, a mix of sex, violence and sadism. Quality varied, but low budget production values and poor print quality were common. Critical opinions varied regarding typical grindhouse fare, but many films acquired cult following and critical praise.


title: Grindhouse

text: By the mid 1980s, home video and cable movie channels threatened to render the grindhouse obsolete. By the end of the decade, these theaters had vanished from Los Angeles's Broadway and Hollywood Boulevard, New York City's Times Square and San Francisco's Market Street. Another example was the Jolar Theater in Nashville, Tennessee, on lower Broadway, which was active until it burned down on April 14, 1978.


title: Grindhouse

text: By the mid-1990s, these particular theaters had all but disappeared from the United States; very few exist today.


title: Grindhouse

text: The Robert Rodriguez film "Planet Terror" and the Quentin Tarantino film "Death Proof", which were released together as "Grindhouse" in 2007, were created as an homage to the cinematic genre. A movie with a mock-trailer in "Grindhouse", "Machete" (also by Rodriguez), was subsequently made into its own feature-length film, with care to include the scene from the "Grindhouse trailer" (originally filmed as a trailer of a movie that did not/would never exist). The Canadian release of "Grindhouse" included one additional faux-trailer, "Hobo With a Shotgun", that was also subsequently made into a feature-length film. Similar films such as "Chillerama", "Drive Angry" and "Sign Gene" have appeared since. S. Craig Zahler's film "Brawl in Cell Block 99" is a modern example of the genre, along with his 2018 noir film "Dragged Across Concrete".


title: Grindhouse

text: "Manhunt", "Red Dead Revolver", "", "Wet", "Shank", "RAGE" and "Shadows of the Damned" are several examples of video games that serve as homages to the grindhouse movies.


title: Grindhouse

text: The author Jacques Boyreau released the book "Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box" in 2009 about the history of the genre. The field is also the focus of the 2010 documentary "American Grindhouse". Additionally, authors Bill Landis and Michelle Clifford released "Sleazoid Express," both an homage to the various grindhouses within Times Square, but also a history of the various genres that each theater featured.


title: Grindhouse

text: The Syfy TV show "Blood Drive" takes inspiration from grindhouse, with each episode featuring a different theme.


title: Grindhouse

text: The novel "Our Lady of the Inferno" is both written as an homage to grindhouse films and features several chapters that take place in a grindhouse theater.


title: Grindhouse

text: The animated series, "Seis Manos" has a similar premise as grindhouse films of a kung fu story taking place in 1970's Mexico and is shown with a similar grainy film filter and simulated projection miscues.


title: EZTV

text: EZTV was a TV torrent distribution group founded in May 2005 and dissolved in April 2015, after a hostile takeover of their domains and brand by "EZCLOUD LIMITED". It quickly became the most visited torrent site for TV shows.


title: EZTV

text: It was founded in response to the forced disappearance of TVTorrents.tv and btefnet via lawsuit. The group was founded by NovaKing with a loose coalition of volunteers and held no formal ties to its predecessors.


title: EZTV

text: In the aftermath of the takedown of TVTorrents and btefnet, the BitTorrent community felt a need for a site that moderated its content. The two groups were known to never provide any fake links, a problem that used to be quite prevalent on public bittorrent sites prior to improvements in community-powered filtering in recent years. A group of volunteers gathered in the IRC channel #EZTV on the EFnet IRC network to create a TV torrent group from scratch in order to fill this void in the public bittorrent scene.


title: EZTV

text: The idea behind EZTV was to create a group that would pick up where its two predecessors left off while avoiding what they considered the "weak spots" that had brought them down. This meant that EZTV should never host its own torrent files, its leadership structure should be dynamic and opaque to avoid presenting any obvious target for litigation, and the group should not host or run its own tracker.


title: EZTV

text: In addition, it was decided that EZTV should be a purely non-profit group by never asking for money of any kind from its users and to never have advertisements to avoid "profiting from piracy" litigation. This means that EZTV was run entirely on a volunteer basis. This clean, no-ads profile of EZTV has made the site a popular destination for the public torrent scene.


title: EZTV

text: During its first years of operation, EZTV hosted its site under the domain name eztvefnet.org. However, in October 2007 that domain began redirecting to a Google query for "eztv". Citing "administrative issues", EZTV had lost control over that domain and has redirected users to eztv.it. After the Italian authorities took down the EZTV.it domain, users were directed towards eztv.ch.


title: EZTV

text: By many accounts, EZTV was for a few years plagued with several periods of – sometimes prolonged – downtime.


title: EZTV

text: On 9 December 2014, The Pirate Bay was raided by the Swedish police, who seized servers, computers, and other equipment and resulted in EZTV going down.


title: EZTV

text: By the 11th of December, EZTV was releasing torrents again although the main site was not yet accessible with the regular domain, however the site could be reached through eztv proxy sites. As of 22 December 2014 EZTV was accessible again through the EZTV.ch domain for some weeks.


title: EZTV

text: Since October 2007, EZTV was using the EZTV.it domain name. But under pressure from copyright holders, the Italian .it registry lodged a complaint over some paperwork. Facing a possible confiscation of the EZTV.it domain name, they saw no other option than to switch to a new domain. The EZTV.it domain name was suspended, and a couple of months later was taken over by scammers attempting to claim EZTV as their own. But unlike the real EZTV this .it domain opens windows with advertisements.


title: EZTV

text: As of 25 April 2015, the EZTV.ch and the EZTV-Proxy.net the "semi" accepted proxy are under control of "EZCLOUD LIMITED". Simultaneously with the takeover of the EZTV.ch domain and the EZTV-Proxy.net proxy, the scam group "EZCLOUD LIMITED" started attempts to take over the online identities by impersonating them on their own clone of the original websites, further assimilating the brand name and disrupting the workings and communication of the original group and attempting to gain revenue via an unofficial EZTV Bitcoin and adverts on these hijacked sites. "EZCLOUD LIMITED" gained access to the EZTV.se domain via the registrar and reset Novaking's information allowing them access to the domain accounts for EZTV, using this access they hijacked the EZTV domains and locked Novaking out.


title: EZTV

text: The original EZTV domain was under EZCLOUD LIMITED's control around 29 April 2015. The topic of the IRC channel where EZTV was discussed was set to: "DO NOT USE THE SITES! They are not ours anymore. Thanks for all the fish." Around 5 May 2015 Rarbg, BT-Chat, and other sites removed EZTV as an affiliate and took steps to stop indexing "EZCLOUD LIMITED" releases. KickassTorrents, BT-Chat and The Pirate Bay suspended or deactivated the official EZTV accounts and added warnings to the old releases, ex-EZTV staff continue their warnings that people should avoid the scam site that is left behind.


title: EZTV

text: After the original owner NovaKing and his staff called it quits after the hostile takeover, the EZTV branding was used by the members of EZCLOUD LIMITEDEZ under the domain EZTV.io. In 2020 this domain was disabled due to disputes due to which EZTV switched to a new domain. This resulted in it being blocked in Netherlands due to it being on the same Cloudflare IP Address as The Pirate Bay. This was later resolved with EZTV being moved to a different IP address.


title: EZTV

text: Initially, EZTV and fellow TV torrent distribution group VTV acted as competition across the board but with different approaches. Over time, however, it has become clear that the two groups cooperate in some ways since VTV distributes releases that EZTV does not do via EZTV's IRC channel and website.


title: EZTV

text: In summer of 2008, EZTV and the documentary torrent distribution group MVGroup initiated a partnership that saw MVG's torrents distributed by EZTV on their IRC channel and website. The agreement benefited both sides, as MVG gained increased exposure and a vastly improved seeder base while EZTV expanded the list of shows available through them.


title: EZTV

text: In a statement to TorrentFreak, MVGroup admins said they "would like to take this opportunity to thank EZTV in helping us continue our founder's legacy, to spread high quality educational material via p2p, to everyone, for free (...)".


title: EZTV

text: The Creative Commons media distributor VODO has for a long time held a prominent position on the EZTV site. EZTV was one of the first torrent groups to offer VODO exposure to their audience, along with The Pirate Bay, Mininova, isoHunt and others.


title: EZTV

text: One notable exception to the no-fakes mechanic was a 2008 April Fools' Day prank, where a release was posted on EZTV's website purporting to be a DVD screener pre-air release of an episode of the TV-show "Lost". This episode was, in fact, an episode of "Flavor of Love" with an edit at the beginning saying "April Fool's".


title: EZTV

text: A year after the Lost pre-air incident, the group replaced their site with a service dedicated to sports related shows – EZSports. In the aftermath of this prank, many users actually wanted the group to let the EZSports site stay online and be provided as a parallel service to the regular EZTV. The group was initially positive to the idea, but a lack of volunteers to maintain the site stopped it in its tracks.


title: EZTV

text: In 2012 the group pulled another April Fools' Day prank on the community. This time they renamed their releases with the extension .rm (RealMedia) and posted an announcement on the site explaining they had changed the format of their releases in response to "all the comments people have been leaving on our forums" after the Scene changed the encoding of their releases in the weeks prior to the prank.


title: EZTV

text: EZTV and its RSS website ezRSS are currently blocked by multiple ISPs in Italy and in the UK at request from MPA and FACT.


title: Alvin Bragg

text: Alvin Leonard Bragg Jr. (born October 21, 1973) is an American politician and lawyer from the state of New York who is serving as the New York County District Attorney. In 2021, he became the first African-American and first person of color elected to that office. Bragg previously served as chief deputy attorney general of New York and as an assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York.


title: Alvin Bragg

text: Bragg is from Harlem, and grew up on Striver's Row. In an interview with "The American Prospect", Bragg noted that he had been "deeply affected by the criminal justice system – most directly through three gunpoint stops by the NYPD." He graduated from the Trinity School before attending Harvard College. He graduated from Harvard "cum laude" with a Bachelor of Arts in government in 1995 and earned his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the "Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review".


title: Alvin Bragg

text: Bragg clerked for federal district judge Robert P. Patterson Jr. before he joined the law firm Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello as an associate, where his work focused on white collar fraud and civil rights issues. In 2003, he joined the office of the Attorney General of New York under Eliot Spitzer before becoming the chief of litigation and investigations for the New York City Council. In 2009, Bragg left the city council to serve as assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York.


title: Alvin Bragg

text: In 2017, Eric Schneiderman, then serving as attorney general, appointed Bragg Chief Deputy Attorney General of New York. Bragg ran the criminal justice and social justice divisions, overseeing lawsuits brought by the state against the Donald J. Trump Foundation, Harvey Weinstein and The Weinstein Company, and the addition of a citizenship question on the 2020 United States Census. He left the position in December 2018 and became a professor at the New York Law School, where he was co-director of the Racial Justice Project. Bragg is a member of the board of directors for the Legal Aid Society. He has represented the families of Ramarley Graham and Eric Garner in civil litigation against New York City.


title: Alvin Bragg

text: In June 2019, Bragg started his candidacy for the 2021 Democratic Party nomination for New York County District Attorney, then held by Cyrus Vance Jr., who did not to run for reelection. Following the June 22, 2021 Democratic primary, Bragg led in the reported vote count and Tali Farhadian Weinstein conceded the primary to Bragg on July 2. On November 2, 2021, Bragg defeated Republican Thomas Kenniff in the general election, becoming the first African-American to be elected New York County District Attorney.


title: Alvin Bragg

text: On January 4, 2022, after three days in office, he announced that his office would no longer prosecute low-level offenses such as fare evasion, resisting arrest, prostitution, and cannabis-related misdemeanors unless accompanied by a felony charge. He also decided to seek lesser charges for burglaries and store robberies where the offender "displays a dangerous instrument but does not create a genuine risk of physical harm". On January 20, Bragg disputed what he described was a "legalistic" interpretation of his prosecution policy memo and indicated that he supported a zero tolerance policy for violent crimes.


title: Alvin Bragg

text: On February 23, 2022, Carey R. Dunne and Mark F. Pomerantz, the lead prosecutors in the New York County District Attorney's investigation into Donald Trump and his businesses, resigned abruptly after Bragg "indicated to them that he had doubts about moving forward with a case against Mr. Trump". In his letter of resignation, Pomerantz wrote that the "team that has been investigating Mr. Trump harbors no doubt about whether he committed crimes, including falsifying business records, and that it was “a grave failure of justice” not to pursue criminal charges. "The New York Times" reported that Bragg "balked at pursuing an indictment against Mr. Trump" and lacked confidence proving in court that Trump "knowingly falsified the value of his assets on annual financial statements." "The Washington Post" noted that Bragg was slow to meet with Dunne and Pomerantz after taking office and when they finally met to discuss the case, a source in the D.A.'s Office commented that Bragg seemed distracted and disengaged, continually checking his cell phone (allegations Bragg's spokesperson denied).


title: Alvin Bragg

text: On July 7, 2022, Jose Alba, a bodega clerk, was attacked by a customer in a dispute over a bag of potato chips. Alba attempted to de-escalate, but after being shoved into a wall, defended himself with a knife, killing the assailant. Bragg, in his prosecutorial discretion, decided to charge Alba and requested bail at $500,000; the judge set it at $250,000. The dead attacker's girlfriend also stabbed Alba with her own knife, after attempting to turn Alba's knife back on him. Bragg declined to charge her. After intense backlash, Bragg ultimately decided to drop the charges against Alba, noting that “a homicide case against Alba could not be proven at trial beyond a reasonable doubt”.


title: Alvin Bragg

text: On September 6, 2022, "The Washington Post" reported that Steve Bannon would be indicted on September 8 by Bragg's prosecutors on the same charges of fraud that he was federally pardoned for by then-President Trump in 2020. "The New York Times" reported that, on September 8, Bannon was charged with "defrauding Americans who wanted to contribute to construction of a southern border wall, resurrecting a threat that Mr. Bannon seemed to have escaped with a 2021 presidential pardon," and that he pleaded not guilty.


title: Vassal state

text: A vassal state is any state that has a mutual obligation to a superior state or empire, in a status similar to that of a vassal in the feudal system in medieval Europe. Vassal states were common among the empires of the Near East, dating back to the era of the Egyptian, Hittite and Mitanni conflict, as well as ancient China. The use of vassal states continued through the Middle Ages, with the last empire to use such states being the Ottoman Empire.


title: Vassal state

text: The relationships between vassal rulers and empires was dependent on the policies and agreements of each empire. While payment of tribute and military service is common amongst vassal states, the degree of independence and benefits given to vassal states varied. Today, more common terms are puppet state, protectorate, client state, associated state or satellite state.


title: Vassal state

text: The reign of Thutmose III (1479 BC-1425 BC) laid the foundations for the systems that functioned during the Amarna period of Egypt. Vassal states in the Levant became fully integrated in Egypt’s economy with the construction of harbours – allowing for greater communication and collection of tax between Egypt and its vassal states during this period.


title: Vassal state

text: Much of what is known about Egypt’s vassal states from the reigns of Amenhotep III and Tutankhamun (1390 BC-1323 BC) stems from the Amarna letters – a collection of 350 cuneiform tablets. The different ways vassal rulers communicated with the Pharaoh via grovelling and obsequiousness is a key method of extrapolating relationships between Egypt and vassal states.


title: Vassal state

text: Egypt’s key vassal states were located on the northern frontier, and included states such as Nuhasse, Qatna and Ugarit. These were located on the fringes of the territory claimed by Egypt and were a potential threat from acting with the Hittites in Anatolia, or the Mitanni in Iraq and Syria. Due to these vassal states’ distance from the Nile, and their value as a buffer zone from rival kingdoms, these states appeared to have a more high-status relationship with the pharaoh and Egypt. These states could also solicit the Pharaoh for various requests. The fulfilment of these asks by Egypt may have served the purpose of ensuring the loyalty of these distant vassal states. However, these vassal states were claimed by the Hittite Empire following the death of Akhenaten (1353 BC-1336 BC) and were never reclaimed.


title: Vassal state

text: Under Ramesses II (1279 BC-1213 BC), Egypt engaged in several military campaigns against the Hittites, eventually capturing the kingdoms of Kadesh and Amurru by taking advantage of growing problems in the Hittite Empire. In 1258 BC, Ramesses and the Hittite King Hattusili III signed a peace treaty that created a border from north of Biblos to Damascus between the two empires.


title: Vassal state

text: The kingdom of Byblos was significant in linking the worlds of Egypt, the Near East and the Aegean to one another. It is first attested during the reign of Thutmose III. Through Byblos, the Egyptians had access to products from Lebanon and Syria, while also using the kingdom as a base for military activity. Byblos held religious importance to Egypt, as the local goddess appeared in the form of Hathor, and was associated with Isis. Byblos was also valuable for Egypt as a trade partner, as it allowed the latter to interact with the regional trade connections between Byblos and other small cities. Byblos itself seemed to have a large amount of influence itself. Rib-Hadda’s letters indicate that Byblos had control over its own territory, until it was taken in conflict with Amurru.


title: Vassal state

text: Correspondence with the kingdom of Byblos is well documented, as the longest interaction between Egypt and a vassal state and spanned a period of 12 years. The subject king in these letters – Rib-Hadda – is unique among vassal rulers as his letters are more verbose than other small rulers in the Near East. Despite his loyalty to the Pharaoh, Rib-Hadda never received any meaningful reply from Egypt during times of need and was eventually exiled from his own kingdom by his brother.


title: Vassal state

text: While Rib-Hadda’s brother was on the throne, Byblos continued to communicate with the Egyptians, although there is some contention over potential alliances between Byblos and Amurru and the Hittite Empire as well.


title: Vassal state

text: Interactions between Byblos and Egypt declined in the 12th and 11th centuries BC with the fall of the New Kingdom. Following Egypt’s resurgence, kingdoms such as Tyre and Sidon were favoured over Byblos. By the Early Iron Age, Byblos no longer had connections to any great powers in the region. While the city still had religious authority until the Roman Empire, it had long lost its economic and political importance.


title: Vassal state

text: The Hittite Empire incorporated vassal states that extended over much of Anatolia and Northern Syria. The addition of vassal states reached its peak under the reigns of Suppiluliuma I and Mursili II in the 14th Century BC. The relationships between the Hittites and their vassal states centered around the Hittite king and the vassal ruler; the terms of their relationship were imposed unilaterally by the former, and accepted by the latter. Whenever a new Hittite king or vassal ruler came into power, a new treaty would be drawn up.


title: Vassal state

text: In rare cases, local rulers were given "kiurwana" (protectorate status). While they had distinct privileges such as exemption from tribute they did not have any more freedom of activity than other vassal states. All relations among the regions under Hittite control were strictly determined by the king. While this led to the belief that contact between vassal states was limited, it has also been thought that such restrictions were limited to the enemies of the Hatti.


title: Vassal state

text: The treaties imposed on vassal states came with military obligations, though vassals were also promised military assistance in return. Some treaties also contained details of annual tribute. Treaties were often concluded with a marriage between a vassal ruler and a Hatti princess of the royal family. The princess would hold greater power than other wives of the vassal, and succession would pass down her descendants.


title: Vassal state

text: Vassal states were obliged to support and swear fealty to the king’s legitimate successors as well. In the event of a usurper taking the throne, the vassal state was freed from all treaty obligations except to help restore a legitimate king to the throne. In doing so, vassal rulers were guaranteed sovereignty from themselves and their successors in their region.


title: Vassal state

text: The relations of Ugarit are the most well-known of the Hittite’s vassal states. Sources on Ugarit’s role and relationship with the Hittites mostly comes from the Ugarit Archives, with only a few from Hittite sources. From the sources, it is believed that Ugarit held economic and commercial importance to the Hittite Empire, as many letters and documents relate to trade. Ugarit also maintained a relationship with Egypt, due to contacts with the pharaohs court. Most evidence of this contact comes from the era of the Pax Hethitica, which came after peace between Egypt and the Hittite Empire.


title: Vassal state

text: Amurru’s relationship to the Hittite Empire is attested to in documents recovered from Ugarit and Hattusa. Unlike Ugarit, Amurru does not appear to have been a trading centre. Rather, Hitttite sources place importance on the political and military role this kingdom played in the empire, as it was located on the border of Hatti territory and Egypt. Previously a vassal state of Egypt, the Kingdom defected to the Hittites under the ruler Aziru. Amurru was loyal to the Hittite Empire from the end of the Amarna Period until the reign of Muwatalli II, when they switched allegiances back to Egypt. The defection was punished with a temporary replacement of the king with a more loyal ruler. Two marriages occurred between Hittites and Amurru royalty at this time, raising Amurru’s importance within the Empire. Amurru’s relationship with the Hittite Empire was maintained until the collapse of the latter in the 12th Century BC. A shift from Semitic names used by descendents of Aziru suggest a lasting impact of Hittite influence in the region.


title: Vassal state

text: While Carchemish was a leading power in Syria and delegate for Syrian affairs, not much is known about their interactions with the Great Powers of the region. What is known comes from archives at Hattusa, Emar and Ugarit. When the city was conquered by Suppiluliuma I, he installed his son on the throne Due to this, the later kings of Carchemish acted as representatives for the Hittite Empire in Syria. In the 13th Century, Carchemish was trading directly with Assyria, and had relations with Babylonia as well. Carchemish also survived the end of the Hittite Empire, and became its own city-state in the Early Iron Age. In the 8th Century BC, it was annexed by the Assyrian Empire.


title: Vassal state

text: The vassal states of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911 BC-609 BC) had a unique relationship with the Empire they became a part of. While vassal states were necessary to the politics of the empire and connected by administrative and economic means, they are not considered to be ‘properly Assyrian’. Neo-Assyrian imperial ideology placed importance on unified diversity, and as such vassal states maintained a degree of cultural independence. While territorial expansion slowed in the 7th century BCE, the amount of vassal states increased in number, suggesting a change in foreign policy.


title: Vassal state

text: Assyrian kings expressed their hold over vassal states through the collection of flora and fauna from these regions. The earliest records of this practice date back to Tiglath-pileser I (1114 BC-1076 BC) in the Middle Assyrian Period. It was revived by Ashurnasirpal in the Neo-Assyrian Period by creating a garden with specimens from across the empire. Later Neo-Assyrian rulers would expand on this practice; Sargon II created a garden that imitated the forests of Northern Syria, while Sennacherib created a swamp that reflected the landscape of Southern Babylonia. In artistic representations, subjects of vassal states are depicted bringing tribute to Assyria. These representatives are shown bowing or crouching before the king. The gifts offered range from horses and monkeys to wineskins. These scenes of tribute and audience with the king express how vassal states participated in the Neo-Assyrian Empire.


title: Vassal state

text: By the 8th Century BC, the southern vassal states of the empire saw an increase in settlement. In comparison to the northern regions of the empire - which were previously devastated - these kingdoms become denser and the more prosperous parts of the empire. The kingdoms west of the Euphrates river were considered vassal states until the 7th century BC, when they were incorporated into the proper provincial system of the empire, though they still had various degrees of political control depending on location. In Judah, there was a further increase in settlement in the 7th century that was greater than the 8th. It was the same in Jordan, showing that Neo-Assyrian control over the region was a successful period for these kingdoms.


title: Vassal state

text: While the Persians made use of Satraps (appointed Persian governors) rather than vassal rulers in subject regions, there were rare cases of vassal states being utilized. Herodotus writes that negotiations took place between king Amyntas I of Macedonia and the Persians after the former’s subjugation by the Achaemenids by 513 BC. The Macedonians became further connected to the Persians as Amyntas married his daughter to a Persian nobleman (Hdt. 5.21.). Under Darius I, Macedonia was organized into a regular tax district of the Empire (Hdt. 6.44.). Their control over Macedonia is attested in the DNa inscription at Naqsh-I-Rustam. Amyntas’ son Alexander I supported Xerxes I during the Persian invasion of Greece. In 479 BC, the Achaemenid forces were defeated by the Greeks, and Macedonia was no longer considered Greek by other city-states.


title: Vassal state

text: Another region considered a vassal state rather than a satrap was Arabia. According to Herodotus, they aided Cambyses II in his invasion of Egypt (525 BC). As such, Arabia did not become a satrap and was exempt from paying annual tribute. Instead, they are attested to in the Behistun inscription and in the Persepolis Fortification Tablets as providing 1000 talents per year. In Xerxes’ invasion of Greece, Herodotus mentions the Arabians among the different sections of the Persian army as being led by Arsamenes - the son of Darius I.


title: Vassal state

text: Despite the size of the Achaemenid Empire, there was efficient communication and connectivity between different regions. The Royal Road which ran through most of the Empire allowed for the movement and sharing of goods, culture and ideas between the Achaemenid satraps and vassal states.


title: Vassal state

text: From the time of the Zhou Dynasty (1046–770 BC) until the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), a varying number of vassal states existed in ancient China.


title: Vassal state

text: These ranged in size from small city states to vassals which controlled large swathes of territory such as the States of Chu and Qi. One of these vassal states would go on to conquer China and unite the country under the first emperor Qin Shi Huang.


title: Vassal state

text: The Qing dynasty of China viewed the Joseon dynasty of Korea as an autonomous vassal state. The Joseon dynasty was autonomous in its internal and external affairs. It was not a colony or dependency of China. However, China abandoned its conventional laissez-faire policy of noninterference toward Korea and adopted a radical interventionist policy of interference in the late 19th century. Yuan Shikai argued that Korea was a dependent "vassal state"; Owen N. Denny argued that Korea was an independent "tributary state". William W. Rockhill said that calling Korea a vassal state is "misleading". According to Rockhill: "The tribute sent to Peking by all the 'vassal states,' and also by the Tibetans, and the Aboriginal tribes of Western China, is solely a "quid pro quo" for the privilege of trading with the Chinese under extraordinarily favorable conditions." Rockhill argued that Korea viewed China not as a suzerain but as a family head: Korea likened the Ming dynasty to a father and the Qing dynasty to an older brother. According to Rockhill: "As to the custom of submitting to the Emperor the choice made by the king of an heir to the throne, or of a consort, or informing him of the death of his mother, of his wife, etc., we can look at them as only strictly ceremonial relations, bearing with them no idea of subordination."


title: Vassal state

text: The Ottoman Empire (1299–1923) controlled a number of tributary or vassal states in the peripheral areas of its territory. Vassalage took a number of different forms with some states permitted to elect their own leaders. Other states paid tribute for their lands.


title: Vassal state

text: During the 18th century, the Ottoman Empire controlled many vassal and tributary states such as the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, and the Crimean Khanate.


title: Tuck Jagadish

text: Tuck Jagadish is a 2021 Indian Telugu-language action family drama film, written and directed by Shiva Nirvana and produced by Sahu Garapati and Harish Peddi under the banner Shine Screens. The film stars Nani as the title role, alongside Ritu Varma, Aishwarya Rajesh, and Jagapathi Babu. In the film, a revenue officer tries to reform all the property issues in the village while also planning to reunite with his elder brother's family after a dispute over inheritance.


title: Tuck Jagadish

text: The film was announced in December 2019 with principal photography taking place in Pollachi and Palani of Tamil Nadu, and Rajahmundry of Andhra Pradesh. Filming, though briefly halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, was completed in December 2020. The film features soundtrack composed by Thaman S and background music scored by Gopi Sundar. The film has cinematography by Prasad Murella and editing by Prawin Pudi.


title: Tuck Jagadish

text: The theatrical release of this film was deferred multiple times due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulting the producers to opt for direct-to-streaming release on Amazon Prime Video. The film premiered on 10 September 2021 with the festival of Vinayaka Chaviti and received mixed to negative reviews from the critics.


title: Tuck Jagadish

text: Adisesha Naidu is the headman of Bhudevipuram village. Adishesha has two sons with his first wife Tulsamma (Bosu and Jagadish) and two daughters and a son with his second wife Arjunamma (Ganga, Kumari, and Bujji who is mute). Tulasamma brings fortune to the family through which Adisesha becomes rich. Following the death of Tulasamma, while giving birth to Jagadish, Arjunamma takes Bosu and Jagadish with her as her own children, and all the children are brought up together as a joint family. Jagdish loves his stepmother and treats her as his own and also ideal brother to all his sisters. Bosu, however, secretly dislikes the other family members as he believes he is the only rightful inheritor of his father's wealth as the first son. He also hates the thought that his father has a soft corner for his girl children. Bhudevipuram is notorious for its property disputes which are usually solved by Adisesha Naidu. On one such occasion, Veerendra's father is killed in a feud and he develops hatred toward Adisesha's family.


title: Tuck Jagadish

text: Upon the death of Adisesha by cardiac arrest, Bosu threatens the advocate and ensures to prepare the will giving him access to all the family assets rather than to his other siblings, contrary to what his father wished. He secretly makes a deal with Veerendra and gets his niece Chandra married to Veerendra's brother in exchange for a share in a windmill project coming up in the place of farms leased out to local farmers by Adisesha. Bosu also insults Arjunamma and his half-siblings when they demand a share in the property, thereby outing them. Following his father's death, Jagadish is also sent away to the city for further studies and is not informed of his niece's wedding. Upon returning to the village, he is furious about being kept in dark about property disputes, farm issues, etc. He is shut down by his brother Bosu when he tries to talk him into sharing his portion of wealth with other family members. Jagadish then is appointed as the Mandal Revenue Officer (MRO) for that village with the district collector's support and starts mending everything his brother has done.


title: Tuck Jagadish

text: Jagadish visits his niece Chandra and understands that she's been a victim of domestic abuse and wishes to take her away from there. When she resists, he hands over her a remote with a light on the terrace of her house which signals that she's in trouble. Unable to get a No Objection Certificate for the windmill project from the MRO Jagadish, Veerendra takes 5 crore from the project owner Somaraju and cheats Bosu. This causes a rift between Veerendra and Bosu that ensues Bose to be attacked by Veerendra's brother.


title: Tuck Jagadish

text: While Bosu is in a hospital bed, his stepmother donates blood for his recovery. With the help of the advocate, Jagadish learns and reveals to Bosu, that his stepmother was his biological mother and Jagadish is the only child of Adisesha Naidu's first wife Tulsamma, thereby inheriting the entire property. Bosu is torn and hurt by the way he treated his own family and mends his relationship with them. Jagadish, however, is wrongly assumed to be after the property by everyone in the family except Bosu and Chandra.


title: Tuck Jagadish

text: Bosu visits Veerendra to repair Chandra's wedding life and recollect 5 crores so that it's paid back to Somaraju. Veerendra and his brother refuse and try to kill Bose and Chandra. Chandra realizes the danger and turns on the signal light to apprise Jagadish of the situation. Jagadish arrives and in the ensuing fight kills Veerendra and his brother; thereby taking Bosu and Chandra back to the family. The family members realize their mistakes and misunderstandings and live together.


title: Tuck Jagadish

text: Jagadish marries the Village Revenue Officer Gummadi Varalakshmi and is transferred to a new village rampant in corruption which he is ready to address.


title: Tuck Jagadish

text: In August 2019, sources claimed that Nani will collaborate with Shiva Nirvana, for an untitled project, marking their second collaboration after "Ninnu Kori" (2017). The film was reportedly produced by Sahu Garapati and Harish Peddi, under the banner Shine Screens. The film's title poster was released on 3 December 2019, with the title being revealed as "Tuck Jagadish". Although there was no information on the genre or the plot, it speculated that the protagonist's character in the film will be reportedly suffering from bipolar disorder, for which Nani clarified that the news is false. "Tuck Jagadish" is Nani's first film in the masala genre.


title: Tuck Jagadish

text: On 2 December 2019, Ritu Varma was cast alongside Nani, after having previously collaborated for "Yevade Subramanyam" (2015). The film marked her return to Telugu films after "Kesava" (2017), where she was reported to play a village girl in the film. She called it as her "big commercial film". Aishwarya Rajesh was also cast in the second leading role, with Jagapathi Babu being seen as Nani's brother. The cast members also included Nassar, Daniel Balaji, Thiruveer, Rohini, Devadarshini, and Praveen.


title: Tuck Jagadish

text: The film was launched officially on 30 January 2020, with principal shoot began on 11 February 2020. The filming initially took place in Pollachi after which the crew headed to Rajahmundry to shoot some crucial scenes, an action sequence and the song "Inkosaari Inkosaari" was planned to be shot, before filming came to halt, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 7 October 2020, Nani resumed the shooting of the film in Hyderabad, adhering to the safety guidelines ensured to curb COVID-19 spread. However, on 18 October, the team halted shoot after its key technician was diagnosed with COVID-19. As only 75% of the shooting is under completion, before lockdown, the makers continued the shoot. The film entered its final schedule on 5 December 2020, and also entered its post-production stage, with Nani started dubbing for his portions in January 2021.


title: Tuck Jagadish

text: The film was originally announced with Thaman S as the music director, in his first collaboration with Nani for the first time and his second film Shiva Nirvana, after working on the film score for "Majili" (2019). However, due to differences of opinion with Shiva Nirvana, Thaman walked out of the project and subsequently, Gopi Sundar, who worked in Nirvana's previous films did the background score.


title: Tuck Jagadish

text: Eventually, Thaman finished composing five songs for the film's soundtrack, before his exit. The song "Inkosaari Inkosaari" was released as the first single on 13 February 2021 ahead of Valentine's Day. The single had lyrics written by Chaitanya Prasad and was sung by Shreya Ghoshal and Kaala Bhairava. On 13 March 2021, another single "Kolo Kolanna Kolo" was released which had lyrics written by Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry and sung by Armaan Malik, Sri Krishna and Harini Ivvaturi. The third single "Neeti Neeti Sukka" sung by Mohana Bhogaraju and written by Kalyan Chakravarthy was released on 27 March 2021, coinciding with "Parichaya Vedika", a special promotional event for the film which was held on the same day.


title: Tuck Jagadish

text: Despite working on the film score, Sundar also composed one song titled as "Tuck Song" was released along with the soundtrack album on 1 September 2021. The track was sung and written by the director Shiva Nirvana, making his debut in both the fields. A reviewer from "Indiaglitz" said that "With the set of songs in the soundtrack, one can say that "Tuck Jagadish" is a mass-commercial entertainer, and the songs will have a massy appeal to all kinds of audience". "Deccan Herald" opined that the film score works in a few scenes but falls flat in others. Another critic from "123Telugu" wrote that Thaman's work in the soundtrack was decent but criticised Gopi Sundar's score stating that it was below par.


title: Tuck Jagadish

text: The film was initially scheduled for a theatrical release on 16 April 2021, but was later pushed back by a week to 23 April 2021. The release was put on hold, following the second wave of COVID-19 in India. Following, the reopening of theatres in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the producers of Tuck Jagadish reinstated the plans for theatrical release during late-July and early-August. However, they had decided to release the film through over-the-top streaming services (OTT), following the regulations of ticket prices levied by the Chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy faced disapproval from the exhibitors. In this process, medium and high-budget films may garner higher ticket rates as per the new regulations, which was condemned by many members from the film fraternity. The digital rights were sold to Amazon Prime Video.


title: Tuck Jagadish

text: The film was planned for a release on 10 September 2021, during the festival Ganesh Chaturthi. However, Sunil Narang, the vice president of Telangana Film Chamber of Commerce (TFCC), requested the producers not to release on the date, as it may eventually affect the prospects of "Love Story" (2021), another film which scheduled for release theatrically on the same date, and was postponed later. However, the producers claimed that the decision was taken by the streaming platform's executives, and the producers do not have to interfere about the change of release. In an interview to "The Indian Express", Nani spoke about the film's release that "An OTT is a great platform to watch different types of content. It also has a massive reach and has inspired a change in the preferences of the audience. However, I firmly believe that nothing can replace the big-screen entertainment."


title: Tuck Jagadish

text: As a part of the promotional purposes, "Tuck Jagadish Parichaya Vedika", a promotional pre-release event was planned by the film's team. Starting from 27 March 2021, the team planned four events across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states. The first set of event was held at Rajahmundry, with the film's team being present at the event. However, due to restrictions imposed by government to curb COVID-19 spread, the team suspended the plans for three other promotional events, and held a formal press meet during the first week of April 2021. Another promotional event was held on 1 September 2021 at H. I. C. C. Novotel in Hyderabad, to release the film's trailer and songs. A virtual fan meet was held on 8 September 2021, prior to the film's release.


title: Tuck Jagadish

text: "Tuck Jagadish" received mixed reviews from the critics. Writing for "The Hindu", Sangeetha Devi Dundoo called "Tuck Jagadish" a familiar family drama with a predictable storyline. She appreciated the emotional scenes between the characters and stated: "The later part of the story, though predictable and long-drawn, work partly because of the earnestness with which Nani, Aishwarya Rajesh and Jagapati Babu shoulder it. Ritu Varma is charming and effective." Manoj Kumar R of "The Indian Express" said that the film was "old wine in a new bottle," criticizing the poor writing by Nirvana. "He seems to have borrowed, rehashed and refurbished ideas and the philosophy of all hit melodramatic films that he has ever watched without any value addition," he added. "Hindustan Times" critic Haricharan Pudipeddi also felt the same, and wrote: "The emotional family drama moments are tiring to sit through, and the film is stuck in the 1980s, story-wise, but luckily the action choreography and performances make up for the boring plot."


title: Tuck Jagadish

text: Murali Krishna CH of "Cinema Express" stated: ""Tuck Jagadish" is a mixed bag of emotions that depicts family conflict, sibling rivalry and heartbreak." Contrary to other critics, Krishna opined that the pacing was aptly suited to the film, given its "delicate, emotional tale that evokes the complexity of its premise." "India Today" editor Janani K concluded her review by stating: "Tuck Jagadish is an emotional family drama that stresses the importance of human relationships. Had the screenplay had some refreshing sequences, the film would have had more impact."


title: Tuck Jagadish

text: "The Quint" gave a rating of 3 out of 5 and opined that the film just stops short of being fully 'mass'. They further cited it as "pleasant yet familiar good vs evil story". Balakrishna Ganeshan of "The News Minute" opined that the title had little relevance to the plot and suggested "Naidu gari Kutumbam" () instead. Ganesan also explored the politics of the film and wrote: "Tollywood films have always looked at village life from the perspective of Gandhi, or to be more precise, from an upper caste perspective that romanticises it. Villages are a cesspool of casteism. Defying caste codes will result in violence of various degrees." Nirmal Narayanan of the "International Business Times" wrote: ""Tuck Jagadish" is cliched but engaging. If you are the one who loves to see that age-old village drama again, watch it."


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (baptized 15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string player. A composer of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, he is considered a crucial transitional figure between the Renaissance and Baroque periods of music history.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: Born in Cremona, where he undertook his first musical studies and compositions, Monteverdi developed his career first at the court of Mantua () and then until his death in the Republic of Venice where he was "maestro di cappella" at the basilica of San Marco. His surviving letters give insight into the life of a professional musician in Italy of the period, including problems of income, patronage and politics.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: Much of Monteverdi's output, including many stage works, has been lost. His surviving music includes nine books of madrigals, large-scale religious works, such as his "Vespro della Beata Vergine" ("Vespers for the Blessed Virgin") of 1610, and three complete operas. His opera "L'Orfeo" (1607) is the earliest of the genre still widely performed; towards the end of his life he wrote works for Venice, including "Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria" and "L'incoronazione di Poppea".


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: While he worked extensively in the tradition of earlier Renaissance polyphony, as evidenced in his madrigals, he undertook great developments in form and melody, and began to employ the basso continuo technique, distinctive of the Baroque. No stranger to controversy, he defended his sometimes novel techniques as elements of a "seconda pratica", contrasting with the more orthodox earlier style which he termed the "prima pratica". Largely forgotten during the eighteenth and much of the nineteenth centuries, his works enjoyed a rediscovery around the beginning of the twentieth century. He is now established both as a significant influence in European musical history and as a composer whose works are regularly performed and recorded.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: Monteverdi was baptised in the church of SS Nazaro e Celso, Cremona, on 15 May 1567. The register records his name as "Claudio Zuan Antonio" the son of "Messer Baldasar Mondeverdo". He was the first child of the apothecary Baldassare Monteverdi and his first wife Maddalena (née Zignani); they had married early the previous year. Claudio's brother Giulio Cesare Monteverdi (b. 1573) was also to become a musician; there were two other brothers and two sisters from Baldassare's marriage to Maddalena and his subsequent marriage in 1576 or 1577. Cremona was close to the border of the Republic of Venice, and not far from the lands controlled by the Duchy of Mantua, in both of which states Monteverdi was later to establish his career.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: There is no clear record of Monteverdi's early musical training, or evidence that (as is sometimes claimed) he was a member of the Cathedral choir or studied at Cremona University. Monteverdi's first published work, a set of motets, " (Sacred Songs)" for three voices, was issued in Venice in 1582, when he was only fifteen years old. In this, and his other initial publications, he describes himself as the pupil of Marc'Antonio Ingegneri, who was from 1581 (and possibly from 1576) to 1592 the "maestro di cappella" at Cremona Cathedral. The musicologist Tim Carter deduces that Ingegneri "gave him a solid grounding in counterpoint and composition", and that Monteverdi would also have studied playing instruments of the viol family and singing.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: Monteverdi's first publications also give evidence of his connections beyond Cremona, even in his early years. His second published work, "Madrigali spirituali" (Spiritual Madrigals, 1583), was printed at Brescia. His next works (his first published secular compositions) were sets of five-part madrigals, according to his biographer Paolo Fabbri: "the inevitable proving ground for any composer of the second half of the sixteenth century ... the secular genre "par excellence"". The first book of madrigals (Venice, 1587) was dedicated to Count Marco Verità of Verona; the second book of madrigals (Venice, 1590) was dedicated to the President of the Senate of Milan, Giacomo Ricardi, for whom he had played the viola da braccio in 1587.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: In the dedication of his second book of madrigals, Monteverdi had described himself as a player of the "vivuola" (which could mean either viola da gamba or viola da braccio). In 1590 or 1591 he entered the service of Duke Vincenzo I Gonzaga of Mantua; he recalled in his dedication to the Duke of his third book of madrigals (Venice, 1592) that "the most noble exercise of the "vivuola" opened to me the fortunate way into your service." In the same dedication he compares his instrumental playing to "flowers" and his compositions as "fruit" which as it matures "can more worthily and more perfectly serve you", indicating his intentions to establish himself as a composer.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: Duke Vincenzo was keen to establish his court as a musical centre, and sought to recruit leading musicians. When Monteverdi arrived in Mantua, the "maestro di capella" at the court was the Flemish musician Giaches de Wert. Other notable musicians at the court during this period included the composer and violinist Salomone Rossi, Rossi's sister, the singer Madama Europa, and Francesco Rasi. Monteverdi married the court singer Claudia de Cattaneis in 1599; they were to have three children, two sons (Francesco, b. 1601 and Massimiliano, b. 1604), and a daughter who died soon after birth in 1603. Monteverdi's brother Giulio Cesare joined the court musicians in 1602.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: When Wert died in 1596, his post was given to Benedetto Pallavicino, but Monteverdi was clearly highly regarded by Vincenzo and accompanied him on his military campaigns in Hungary (1595) and also on a visit to Flanders in 1599. Here at the town of Spa he is reported by his brother Giulio Cesare as encountering, and bringing back to Italy, the "canto alla francese". (The meaning of this, literally "song in the French style", is debatable, but may refer to the French-influenced poetry of Gabriello Chiabrera, some of which was set by Monteverdi in his "Scherzi musicali", and which departs from the traditional Italian style of lines of 9 or 11 syllables). Monteverdi may possibly have been a member of Vincenzo's entourage at Florence in 1600 for the marriage of Maria de' Medici and Henry IV of France, at which celebrations Jacopo Peri's opera "Euridice" (the earliest surviving opera) was premiered. On the death of Pallavicino in 1601, Monteverdi was confirmed as the new "maestro di capella".


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: At the turn of the 17th century, Monteverdi found himself the target of musical controversy. The influential Bolognese theorist Giovanni Maria Artusi attacked Monteverdi's music (without naming the composer) in his work "L'Artusi, overo Delle imperfettioni della moderna musica (Artusi, or On the imperfections of modern music)" of 1600, followed by a sequel in 1603. Artusi cited extracts from Monteverdi's works not yet published (they later formed parts of his fourth and fifth books of madrigals of 1603 and 1605), condemning their use of harmony and their innovations in use of musical modes, compared to orthodox polyphonic practice of the sixteenth century. Artusi attempted to correspond with Monteverdi on these issues; the composer refused to respond, but found a champion in a pseudonymous supporter, "L'Ottuso Academico" ("The Obtuse Academic"). Eventually Monteverdi replied in the preface to the fifth book of madrigals that his duties at court prevented him from a detailed reply; but in a note to "the studious reader", he claimed that he would shortly publish a response, "Seconda Pratica, overo Perfettione della Moderna Musica (The Second Style, or Perfection of Modern Music)." This work never appeared, but a later publication by Claudio's brother Giulio Cesare made it clear that the "seconda pratica" which Monteverdi defended was not seen by him as a radical change or his own invention, but was an evolution from previous styles ("prima pratica") which was complementary to them.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: This debate seems in any case to have raised the composer's profile, leading to reprints of his earlier books of madrigals. Some of his madrigals were published in Copenhagen in 1605 and 1606, and the poet Tommaso Stigliani (1573–1651) published a eulogy of him in his 1605 poem "O sirene de' fiumi". The composer of madrigal comedies and theorist Adriano Banchieri wrote in 1609: "I must not neglect to mention the most noble of composers, Monteverdi ... his expressive qualities are truly deserving of the highest commendation, and we find in them countless examples of matchless declamation ... enhanced by comparable harmonies." The modern music historian Massimo Ossi has placed the Artusi issue in the context of Monteverdi's artistic development: "If the controversy seems to define Monteverdi's historical position, it also seems to have been about stylistic developments that by 1600 Monteverdi had already outgrown".


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: The non-appearance of Monteverdi's promised explanatory treatise may have been a deliberate ploy, since by 1608, by Monteverdi's reckoning, Artusi had become fully reconciled to modern trends in music, and the "seconda pratica" was by then well established; Monteverdi had no need to revisit the issue. On the other hand, letters to Giovanni Battista Doni of 1632 show that Monteverdi was still preparing a defence of the "seconda practica", in a treatise entitled "Melodia"; he may still have been working on this at the time of his death ten years later.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: In 1606 Vincenzo's heir Francesco commissioned from Monteverdi the opera "L'Orfeo", to a libretto by Alessandro Striggio, for the Carnival season of 1607. It was given two performances in February and March 1607; the singers included, in the title role, Rasi, who had sung in the first performance of "Euridice" witnessed by Vincenzo in 1600. This was followed in 1608 by the opera "L'Arianna" (libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini), intended for the celebration of the marriage of Francesco to Margherita of Savoy. All the music for this opera is lost apart from "Ariadne's Lament", which became extremely popular. To this period also belongs the ballet entertainment "Il ballo delle ingrate".


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: The strain of the hard work Monteverdi had been putting into these and other compositions was exacerbated by personal tragedies. His wife died in September 1607 and the young singer Caterina Martinelli, intended for the title role of "Arianna", died of smallpox in March 1608. Monteverdi also resented his increasingly poor financial treatment by the Gonzagas. He retired to Cremona in 1608 to convalesce, and wrote a bitter letter to Vincenzo's minister Annibale Chieppio in November of that year seeking (unsuccessfully) "an honourable dismissal". Although the Duke increased Monteverdi's salary and pension, and Monteverdi returned to continue his work at the court, he began to seek patronage elsewhere. After publishing his Vespers in 1610, which were dedicated to Pope Paul V, he visited Rome, ostensibly hoping to place his son Francesco at a seminary, but apparently also seeking alternative employment. In the same year he may also have visited Venice, where a large collection of his church music was being printed, with a similar intention.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: Duke Vincenzo died on 18 February 1612. When Francesco succeeded him, court intrigues and cost-cutting led to the dismissal of Monteverdi and his brother Giulio Cesare, who both returned, almost penniless, to Cremona. Despite Francesco's own death from smallpox in December 1612, Monteverdi was unable to return to favour with his successor, his brother Cardinal Ferdinando Gonzaga. In 1613, following the death of Giulio Cesare Martinengo, Monteverdi auditioned for his post as "maestro" at the basilica of San Marco in Venice, for which he submitted music for a Mass. He was appointed in August 1613, and given 50 ducats for his expenses (of which he was robbed, together with his other belongings, by highwaymen at Sanguinetto on his return to Cremona).


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: Martinengo had been ill for some time before his death and had left the music of San Marco in a fragile state. The choir had been neglected and the administration overlooked. When Monteverdi arrived to take up his post, his principal responsibility was to recruit, train, discipline and manage the musicians of San Marco (the "capella"), who amounted to about 30 singers and six instrumentalists; the numbers could be increased for major events. Among the recruits to the choir was Francesco Cavalli, who joined in 1616 at the age of 14; he was to remain connected with San Marco throughout his life, and was to develop a close association with Monteverdi. Monteverdi also sought to expand the repertory, including not only the traditional "a cappella" repertoire of Roman and Flemish composers, but also examples of the modern style which he favoured, including the use of continuo and other instruments. Apart from this he was of course expected to compose music for all the major feasts of the church. This included a new mass each year for Holy Cross Day and Christmas Eve, cantatas in honour of the Venetian Doge, and numerous other works (many of which are lost). Monteverdi was also free to obtain income by providing music for other Venetian churches and for other patrons, and was frequently commissioned to provide music for state banquets. The Procurators of San Marco, to whom Monteverdi was directly responsible, showed their satisfaction with his work in 1616 by raising his annual salary from 300 ducats to 400.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: The relative freedom which the Republic of Venice afforded him, compared to the problems of court politics in Mantua, are reflected in Monteverdi's letters to Striggio, particularly his letter of 13 March 1620, when he rejects an invitation to return to Mantua, extolling his present position and finances in Venice, and referring to the pension which Mantua still owes him. Nonetheless, remaining a Mantuan citizen, he accepted commissions from the new Duke Ferdinando, who had formally renounced his position as Cardinal in 1616 to take on the duties of state. These included the "balli" "Tirsi e Clori" (1616) and "Apollo" (1620), an opera "Andromeda" (1620) and an "intermedio", "Le nozze di Tetide", for the marriage of Ferdinando with Caterina de' Medici (1617). Most of these compositions were extensively delayed in creation – partly, as shown by surviving correspondence, through the composer's unwillingness to prioritise them, and partly because of constant changes in the court's requirements. They are now lost, apart from "Tirsi e Clori", which was included in the seventh book of madrigals (published 1619) and dedicated to the Duchess Caterina, for which the composer received a pearl necklace from the Duchess. A subsequent major commission, the opera "La finta pazza Licori", to a libretto by Giulio Strozzi, was completed for Fernando's successor Vincenzo II, who succeeded to the dukedom in 1626. Because of the latter's illness (he died in 1627), it was never performed, and it is now also lost.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: Monteverdi also received commissions from other Italian states and from their communities in Venice. These included, for the Milanese community in 1620, music for the Feast of St. Charles Borromeo, and for the Florentine community a Requiem Mass for Cosimo II de' Medici (1621). Monteverdi acted on behalf of Paolo Giordano II, Duke of Bracciano, to arrange publication of works by the Cremona musician Francesco Petratti. Among Monteverdi's private Venetian patrons was the nobleman Girolamo Mocenigo, at whose home was premiered in 1624 the dramatic entertainment "Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda" based on an episode from Torquato Tasso's "La Gerusalemme liberata". In 1627 Monteverdi received a major commission from Odoardo Farnese, Duke of Parma, for a series of works, and gained leave from the Procurators to spend time there during 1627 and 1628.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: Monteverdi's musical direction received the attention of foreign visitors. The Dutch diplomat and musician Constantijn Huygens, attending a Vespers service at the church of SS. Giovanni e Lucia, wrote that he "heard the most perfect music I had ever heard in my life. It was directed by the most famous Claudio Monteverdi ... who was also the composer and was accompanied by four theorbos, two cornettos, two bassoons, one "basso de viola" of huge size, organs and other instruments ...". Monteverdi wrote a mass, and provided other musical entertainment, for the visit to Venice in 1625 of the Crown Prince Władysław of Poland, who may have sought to revive attempts made a few years previously to lure Monteverdi to Warsaw. He also provided chamber music for Wolfgang Wilhelm, Count Palatine of Neuburg, when the latter was paying an incognito visit to Venice in July 1625.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: Correspondence of Monteverdi in 1625 and 1626 with the Mantuan courtier Ercole Marigliani reveals an interest in alchemy, which apparently Monteverdi had taken up as a hobby. He discusses experiments to transform lead into gold, the problems of obtaining mercury, and mentions commissioning special vessels for his experiments from the glassworks at Murano.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: Despite his generally satisfactory situation in Venice, Monteverdi experienced personal problems from time to time. He was on one occasion – probably because of his wide network of contacts – the subject of an anonymous denunciation to the Venetian authorities alleging that he supported the Habsburgs. He was also subject to anxieties about his children. His son Francesco, while a student of law at Padua in 1619, was spending in Monteverdi's opinion too much time with music, and he, therefore, moved him to the University of Bologna. This did not have the required result, and it seems that Monteverdi resigned himself to Francesco having a musical career – he joined the choir of San Marco in 1623. His other son Massimiliano, who graduated in medicine, was arrested by the Inquisition in Mantua in 1627 for reading forbidden literature. Monteverdi was obliged to sell the necklace he had received from Duchess Caterina to pay for his son's (eventually successful) defence. Monteverdi wrote at the time to Striggio seeking his help, and fearing that Massimiliano might be subject to torture; it seems that Striggio's intervention was helpful. Money worries at this time also led Monteverdi to visit Cremona to secure for himself a church canonry.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: A series of disturbing events troubled Monteverdi's world in the period around 1630. Mantua was invaded by Habsburg armies in 1630, who besieged the plague-stricken town, and after its fall in July looted its treasures, and dispersed the artistic community. The plague was carried to Mantua's ally Venice by an embassy led by Monteverdi's confidante Striggio, and over a period of 16 months led to over 45,000 deaths, leaving Venice's population in 1633 at just above 100,000, the lowest level for about 150 years. Among the plague victims was Monteverdi's assistant at San Marco, and a notable composer in his own right, Alessandro Grandi. The plague and the after-effects of war had an inevitable deleterious effect on the economy and artistic life of Venice. Monteverdi's younger brother Giulio Cesare also died at this time, probably from the plague.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: By this time Monteverdi was in his sixties, and his rate of composition seems to have slowed down. He had written a setting of Strozzi's "Proserpina rapita (The Abduction of Proserpina)", now lost except for one vocal trio, for a Mocenigo wedding in 1630, and produced a Mass for deliverance from the plague for San Marco which was performed in November 1631. His set of "Scherzi musicali" was published in Venice in 1632. In 1631, Monteverdi was admitted to the tonsure, and was ordained deacon, and later priest, in 1632. Although these ceremonies took place in Venice, he was nominated as a member of Diocese of Cremona; this may imply that he intended to retire there.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: The opening of the opera house of San Cassiano in 1637, the first public opera house in Europe, stimulated the city's musical life and coincided with a new burst of the composer's activity. The year 1638 saw the publication of Monteverdi's eighth book of madrigals and a revision of the "Ballo delle ingrate". The eighth book contains a "ballo", "Volgendi il ciel", which may have been composed for the Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand III, to whom the book is dedicated. The years 1640–1641 saw the publication of the extensive collection of church music, "Selva morale e spirituale". Among other commissions, Monteverdi wrote music in 1637 and 1638 for Strozzi's "Accademia degli Unisoni" in Venice, and in 1641 a ballet, "La vittoria d'Amore", for the court of Piacenza.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: Monteverdi was still not entirely free from his responsibilities for the musicians at San Marco. He wrote to complain about one of his singers to the Procurators, on 9 June 1637: "I, Claudio Monteverdi ... come humbly ... to set forth to you how Domenicato Aldegati ... a bass, yesterday morning ... at the time of the greatest concourse of people ... spoke these exact words ...'The Director of Music comes from a brood of cut-throat bastards, a thieving, fucking, he-goat ... and I shit on him and whoever protects him ...


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: Monteverdi's contribution to opera at this period is notable. He revised his earlier opera "L'Arianna" in 1640 and wrote three new works for the commercial stage, "Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria (The Return of Ulysses to his Homeland", 1640, first performed in Bologna with Venetian singers), "Le nozze d'Enea e Lavinia (The Marriage of Aeneas and Lavinia", 1641, music now lost), and "L'incoronazione di Poppea" ("The Coronation of Poppea", 1643). The introduction to the printed scenario of "Le nozze d'Enea", by an unknown author, acknowledges that Monteverdi is to be credited for the rebirth of theatrical music and that "he will be sighed for in later ages, for his compositions will surely outlive the ravages of time."


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: In his last surviving letter (20 August 1643), Monteverdi, already ill, was still hoping for the settlement of the long-disputed pension from Mantua, and asked the Doge of Venice to intervene on his behalf. He died in Venice on 29 November 1643, after paying a brief visit to Cremona, and is buried in the Church of the Frari. He was survived by his sons; Masimilliano died in 1661, Francesco after 1677.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: There is a consensus among music historians that a period extending from the mid-15th century to around 1625, characterised in Lewis Lockwood's phrase by "substantial unity of outlook and language", should be identified as the period of "Renaissance music". Musical literature has also defined the succeeding period (covering music from approximately 1580 to 1750) as the era of "Baroque music". It is in the late-16th to early-17th-century overlap of these periods that much of Monteverdi's creativity flourished; he stands as a transitional figure between the Renaissance and the Baroque.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: In the Renaissance era, music had developed as a formal discipline, a "pure science of relationships" in the words of Lockwood. In the Baroque era it became a form of aesthetic expression, increasingly used to adorn religious, social and festive celebrations in which, in accordance with Plato's ideal, the music was subordinated to the text. Solo singing with instrumental accompaniment, or monody, acquired greater significance towards the end of the 16th century, replacing polyphony as the principal means of dramatic music expression. This was the changing world in which Monteverdi was active. Percy Scholes in his "Oxford Companion to Music" describes the "new music" thus: "[Composers] discarded the choral polyphony of the madrigal style as barbaric, and set dialogue or soliloquy for single voices, imitating more or less the inflexions of speech and accompanying the voice by playing mere supporting chords. Short choruses were interspersed, but they too were homophonic rather than polyphonic."


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: Ingegneri, Monteverdi's first tutor, was a master of the "musica reservata" vocal style, which involved the use of chromatic progressions and word-painting; Monteverdi's early compositions were grounded in this style. Ingegneri was a traditional Renaissance composer, "something of an anachronism", according to Arnold, but Monteverdi also studied the work of more "modern" composers such as Luca Marenzio, Luzzasco Luzzaschi, and a little later, Giaches de Wert, from whom he would learn the art of expressing passion. He was a precocious and productive student, as indicated by his youthful publications of 1582–83. Mark Ringer writes that "these teenaged efforts reveal palpable ambition matched with a convincing mastery of contemporary style", but at this stage they display their creator's competence rather than any striking originality. Geoffrey Chew classifies them as "not in the most modern vein for the period", acceptable but out-of-date. Chew rates the "Canzonette" collection of 1584 much more highly than the earlier juvenilia: "These brief three-voice pieces draw on the airy, modern style of the villanellas of Marenzio, [drawing on] a substantial vocabulary of text-related madrigalisms".


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: The canzonetta form was much used by composers of the day as a technical exercise, and is a prominent element in Monteverdi's first book of madrigals published in 1587. In this book, the playful, pastoral settings again reflect the style of Marenzio, while Luzzaschi's influence is evident in Monteverdi's use of dissonance. The second book (1590) begins with a setting modelled on Marenzio of a modern verse, Torquato Tasso's "Non si levav' ancor", and concludes with a text from 50 years earlier: Pietro Bembo's "Cantai un tempo". Monteverdi set the latter to music in an archaic style reminiscent of the long-dead Cipriano de Rore. Between them is "Ecco mormorar l'onde", strongly influenced by de Wert and hailed by Chew as the great masterpiece of the second book.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: A thread common throughout these early works is Monteverdi's use of the technique of "imitatio", a general practice among composers of the period whereby material from earlier or contemporary composers was used as models for their own work. Monteverdi continued to use this procedure well beyond his apprentice years, a factor that in some critics' eyes has compromised his reputation for originality.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: Monteverdi's first fifteen years of service in Mantua are bracketed by his publications of the third book of madrigals in 1592 and the fourth and fifth books in 1603 and 1605. Between 1592 and 1603 he made minor contributions to other anthologies. How much he composed in this period is a matter of conjecture; his many duties in the Mantuan court may have limited his opportunities, but several of the madrigals that he published in the fourth and fifth books were written and performed during the 1590s, some figuring prominently in the Artusi controversy.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: The third book shows strongly the increased influence of Wert, by that time Monteverdi's direct superior as "maestro de capella" at Mantua. Two poets dominate the collection: Tasso, whose lyrical poetry had figured prominently in the second book but is here represented through the more epic, heroic verses from "Gerusalemme liberata", and Giovanni Battista Guarini, whose verses had appeared sporadically in Monteverdi's earlier publications, but form around half of the contents of the third book. Wert's influence is reflected in Monteverdi's forthrightly modern approach, and his expressive and chromatic settings of Tasso's verses. Of the Guarini settings, Chew writes: "The epigrammatic style ... closely matches a poetic and musical ideal of the period ... [and] often depends on strong, final cadential progressions, with or without the intensification provided by chains of suspended dissonances". Chew cites the setting of "Stracciami pur il core" as "a prime example of Monteverdi's irregular dissonance practice". Tasso and Guarini were both regular visitors to the Mantuan court; Monteverdi's association with them and his absorption of their ideas may have helped lay the foundations of his own approach to the musical dramas that he would create a decade later.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: As the 1590s progressed, Monteverdi moved closer towards the form that he would identify in due course as the "seconda pratica". Claude V. Palisca quotes the madrigal "Ohimè, se tanto amate", published in the fourth book but written before 1600 – it is among the works attacked by Artusi – as a typical example of the composer's developing powers of invention. In this madrigal Monteverdi again departs from the established practice in the use of dissonance, by means of a vocal ornament Palisca describes as "échappé". Monteverdi's daring use of this device is, says Palisca, "like a forbidden pleasure". In this and in other settings the poet's images were supreme, even at the expense of musical consistency.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: The fourth book includes madrigals to which Artusi objected on the grounds of their "modernism". However, Ossi describes it as "an anthology of disparate works firmly rooted in the 16th century", closer in nature to the third book than to the fifth. Besides Tasso and Guarini, Monteverdi set to music verses by Rinuccini, Maurizio Moro ("Sì ch'io vorrei morire") and Ridolfo Arlotti ("Luci serene e chiare"). There is evidence of the composer's familiarity with the works of Carlo Gesualdo, and with composers of the school of Ferrara such as Luzzaschi; the book was dedicated to a Ferrarese musical society, the "Accademici Intrepidi".


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: The fifth book looks more to the future; for example, Monteverdi employs the "concertato" style with basso continuo (a device that was to become a typical feature in the emergent Baroque era), and includes a "sinfonia" (instrumental interlude) in the final piece. He presents his music through complex counterpoint and daring harmonies, although at times combining the expressive possibilities of the new music with traditional polyphony.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: Aquilino Coppini drew much of the music for his sacred contrafacta of 1608 from Monteverdi's 3rd, 4th and 5th books of madrigals. In writing to a friend in 1609 Coppini commented that Monteverdi's pieces "require, during their performance, more flexible rests and bars that are not strictly regular, now pressing forward or abandoning themselves to slowing down [...] In them there is a truly wondrous capacity for moving the affections".


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: In Monteverdi's final five years' service in Mantua he completed the operas "L'Orfeo" (1607) and "L'Arianna" (1608), and wrote quantities of sacred music, including the "Messa in illo tempore" (1610) and also the collection known as "Vespro della Beata Vergine" which is often referred to as "Monteverdi's "Vespers"" (1610). He also published "Scherzi musicale a tre voci" (1607), settings of verses composed since 1599 and dedicated to the Gonzaga heir, Francesco. The vocal trio in the "Scherzi" comprises two sopranos and a bass, accompanied by simple instrumental ritornellos. According to Bowers the music "reflected the modesty of the prince's resources; it was, nevertheless, the earliest publication to associate voices and instruments in this particular way".


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: The opera opens with a brief trumpet toccata. The prologue of La musica (a figure representing music) is introduced with a ritornello by the strings, repeated often to represent the "power of music" – one of the earliest examples of an operatic leitmotif. Act 1 presents a pastoral idyll, the buoyant mood of which continues into Act 2. The confusion and grief which follow the news of Euridice's death are musically reflected by harsh dissonances and the juxtaposition of keys. The music remains in this vein until the act ends with the consoling sounds of the ritornello.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: Act 3 is dominated by Orfeo's aria "Possente spirto e formidabil nume" by which he attempts to persuade Caronte to allow him to enter Hades. Monteverdi's vocal embellishments and virtuoso accompaniment provide what Tim Carter has described as "one of the most compelling visual and aural representations" in early opera. In Act 4 the warmth of Proserpina's singing on behalf of Orfeo is retained until Orfeo fatally "looks back". The brief final act, which sees Orfeo's rescue and metamorphosis, is framed by the final appearance of the ritornello and by a lively moresca that brings the audience back to their everyday world.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: Throughout the opera Monteverdi makes innovative use of polyphony, extending the rules beyond the conventions which composers normally observed in fidelity to Palestrina. He combines elements of the traditional 16th-century madrigal with the new monodic style where the text dominates the music and sinfonias and instrumental ritornellos illustrate the action.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: The music for this opera is lost except for the "Lamento d'Arianna", which was published in the sixth book in 1614 as a five-voice madrigal; a separate monodic version was published in 1623. In its operatic context the lament depicts Arianna's various emotional reactions to her abandonment: sorrow, anger, fear, self-pity, desolation and a sense of futility. Throughout, indignation and anger are punctuated by tenderness, until a descending line brings the piece to a quiet conclusion.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: The musicologist Suzanne Cusick writes that Monteverdi "creat[ed] the lament as a recognizable genre of vocal chamber music and as a standard scene in opera ... that would become crucial, almost genre-defining, to the full-scale public operas of 17th-century Venice". Cusick observes how Monteverdi is able to match in music the "rhetorical and syntactical gestures" in the text of Ottavio Rinuccini. The opening repeated words "Lasciatemi morire" (Let me die) are accompanied by a dominant seventh chord which Ringer describes as "an unforgettable chromatic stab of pain". Ringer suggests that the lament defines Monteverdi's innovative creativity in a manner similar to that in which the Prelude and the Liebestod in "Tristan und Isolde" announced Wagner's discovery of new expressive frontiers.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: Rinuccini's full libretto, which has survived, was set in modern times by Alexander Goehr ("Arianna", 1995), including a version of Monteverdi's "Lament".


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: The "Vespro della Beata Vergine", Monteverdi's first published sacred music since the "Madrigali spirituali" of 1583, consists of 14 components: an introductory versicle and response, five psalms interspersed with five "sacred concertos" (Monteverdi's term), a hymn, and two Magnificat settings. Collectively these pieces fulfil the requirements for a Vespers service on any feast day of the Virgin. Monteverdi employs many musical styles; the more traditional features, such as cantus firmus, falsobordone and Venetian canzone, are mixed with the latest madrigal style, including echo effects and chains of dissonances. Some of the musical features used are reminiscent of "L'Orfeo", written slightly earlier for similar instrumental and vocal forces.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: In this work the "sacred concertos" fulfil the role of the antiphons which divide the psalms in regular Vespers services. Their non-liturgical character has led writers to question whether they should be within the service, or indeed whether this was Monteverdi's intention. In some versions of Monteverdi's "Vespers" (for example, those of Denis Stevens) the concertos are replaced with antiphons associated with the Virgin, although John Whenham in his analysis of the work argues that the collection as a whole should be regarded as a single liturgical and artistic entity.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: All the psalms, and the Magnificat, are based on melodically limited and repetitious Gregorian chant psalm tones, around which Monteverdi builds a range of innovative textures. This concertato style challenges the traditional cantus firmus, and is most evident in the "Sonata sopra Sancta Maria", written for eight string and wind instruments plus basso continuo, and a single soprano voice. Monteverdi uses modern rhythms, frequent metre changes and constantly varying textures; yet, according to John Eliot Gardiner, "for all the virtuosity of its instrumental writing and the evident care which has gone into the combinations of timbre", Monteverdi's chief concern was resolving the proper combination of words and music.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: The actual musical ingredients of the Vespers were not novel to Mantua – concertato had been used by Lodovico Grossi da Viadana, a former choirmaster at the cathedral of Mantua, while the "Sonata sopra" had been anticipated by Archangelo Crotti in his "Sancta Maria" published in 1608. It is, writes Denis Arnold, Monteverdi's mixture of the various elements that makes the music unique. Arnold adds that the Vespers achieved fame and popularity only after their 20th-century rediscovery; they were not particularly regarded in Monteverdi's time.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: During his years in Venice Monteverdi published his sixth (1614), seventh (1619) and eighth (1638) books of madrigals. The sixth book consists of works written before the composer's departure from Mantua. Hans Redlich sees it as a transitional work, containing Monteverdi's last madrigal compositions in the manner of the "prima pratica", together with music which is typical of the new style of expression which Monteverdi had displayed in the dramatic works of 1607–08. The central theme of the collection is loss; the best-known work is the five-voice version of the "Lamento d'Arianna", which, says Massimo Ossi, gives "an object lesson in the close relationship between monodic recitative and counterpoint". The book contains Monteverdi's first settings of verses by Giambattista Marino, and two settings of Petrarch which Ossi considers the most extraordinary pieces in the volume, providing some "stunning musical moments".


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: While Monteverdi had looked backwards in the sixth book, he moved forward in the seventh book from the traditional concept of the madrigal, and from monody, in favour of chamber duets. There are exceptions, such the two solo "lettere amorose" (love letters) "Se i languidi miei sguardi" and "Se pur destina e vole", written to be performed "genere rapresentativo" – acted as well as sung. Of the duets which are the main features of the volume, Chew highlights "Ohimé, dov'è il mio ben, dov'è il mio core", a romanesca in which two high voices express dissonances above a repetitive bass pattern. The book also contains large-scale ensemble works, and the ballet "Tirsi e Clori". This was the height of Monteverdi's "Marino period"; six of the pieces in the book are settings of the poet's verses. As Carter puts it, Monteverdi "embraced Marino's madrigalian kisses and love-bites with ... the enthusiasm typical of the period". Some commentators have opined that the composer should have had better poetic taste.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: The eighth book, subtitled "Madrigali guerrieri, et amorosi ..." ("Madrigals of war and love") is structured in two symmetrical halves, one for "war" and one for "love". Each half begins with a six-voice setting, followed by an equally large-scale Petrarch setting, then a series of duets mainly for tenor voices, and concludes with a theatrical number and a final ballet. The "war" half contains several items written as tributes to the emperor Ferdinand III, who had succeeded to the Habsburg throne in 1637. Many of Monteverdi's familiar poets – Strozzi, Rinuccini, Tasso, Marino, Guarini – are represented in the settings.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: It is difficult to gauge when many of the pieces were composed, although the ballet "Mascherata dell' ingrate" that ends the book dates back to 1608 and the celebration of the Gonzaga-Savoy marriage. The "Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda", centrepiece of the "war" settings, had been written and performed in Venice in 1624; on its publication in the eighth book, Monteverdi explicitly linked it to his concept of "concitato genera" (otherwise "stile concitato" – "aroused style") that would "fittingly imitate the utterance and the accents of a brave man who is engaged in warfare", and implied that since he had originated this style, others had begun to copy it. The work employed for the first time instructions for the use of pizzicato string chords, and also evocations of fanfares and other sounds of combat.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: The critic Andrew Clements describes the eighth book as "a statement of artistic principles and compositional authority", in which Monteverdi "shaped and expanded the madrigal form to accommodate what he wanted to do ... the pieces collected in Book Eight make up a treasury of what music in the first half the 17th century could possibly express."


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: During this period of his Venetian residency, Monteverdi composed quantities of sacred music. Numerous motets and other short works were included in anthologies by local publishers such as Giulio Cesare Bianchi (a former student of Monteverdi) and Lorenzo Calvi, and others were published elsewhere in Italy and Austria. The range of styles in the motets is broad, from simple strophic arias with string accompaniment to full-scale declamations with an alleluia finale.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: Monteverdi retained emotional and political attachments to the Mantuan court and wrote for it, or undertook to write, large amounts of stage music including at least four operas. The ballet "Tirsi e Clori" survives through its inclusion in the seventh book, but the rest of the Mantuan dramatic music is lost. Many of the missing manuscripts may have disappeared in the wars that overcame Mantua in 1630. The most significant aspect of their loss, according to Carter, is the extent to which they might have provided musical links between Monteverdi's early Mantuan operas and those he wrote in Venice after 1638: "Without these links ... it is hard to a produce a coherent account of his development as a composer for the stage". Likewise, Janet Beat regrets that the 30-year gap hampers the study of how opera orchestration developed during those critical early years.


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: Apart from the madrigal books, Monteverdi's only published collection during this period was the volume of "Scherzi musicale" in 1632. For unknown reasons, the composer's name does not appear on the inscription, the dedication being signed by the Venetian printer Bartolomeo Magni; Carter surmises that the recently ordained Monteverdi may have wished to keep his distance from this secular collection. It mixes strophic continuo songs for solo voice with more complex works which employ continuous variation over repeated bass patterns. Chew selects the chaconne for two tenors, "Zefiro torna e di soavi accenti", as the outstanding item in the collection: "[T]he greater part of this piece consists of repetitions of a bass pattern which ensures tonal unity of a simple kind, owing to its being framed as a simple cadence in a G major tonal type: over these repetitions, inventive variations unfold in virtuoso passage-work".


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: "Main articles": "Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria"; "L'incoronazione di Poppea"; "Selva morale e spirituale"


title: Claudio Monteverdi

text: The last years of Monteverdi's life were much occupied with opera for the Venetian stage. Richard Taruskin, in his "Oxford History of Western Music", gave his chapter on this topic the title "Opera from Monteverdi to Monteverdi." This wording, originally proposed humorously by the Italian music historian Nino Pirrotta, is interpreted seriously by Taruskin as indicating that Monteverdi is significantly responsible for the transformation of the opera genre from a private entertainment of the nobility (as with "Orfeo" in 1607), to what became a major commercial genre, as exemplified by his opera "L'incoronazione di Poppea" (1643). His two surviving operatic works of this period, "Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria" and "L'incoronazione" are held by Arnold to be the first "modern" operas; "Il ritorno" is the first Venetian opera to depart from what Ellen Rosand terms "the mythological pastoral". However, David Johnson in the "North American Review" warns audiences not to expect immediate affinity with Mozart, Verdi or Puccini: "You have to submit yourself to a much slower pace, to a much more chaste conception of melody, to a vocal style that is at first merely like dry declamation and only on repeated hearings begins to assume an extraordinary eloquence."