Italian composer. The first of his nine madrigal books appeared in 1587, the second in 1590. He visited the Gonzaga court in Mantua, and his next book (1592) shows a freer handling of dissonance and a close coordination of music and words.

 

He married in 1599 and settled in Mantua. Attacked in 1600 for the even freer dissonance in his most recent works, he replied that music now had two "practices", the stricter first practice for sacred works and the more expressive second practice for secular music.

 

It was his first opera, Orfeo, performed in 1607 that finally established him as a composer of large format music rather than exquisite miniature works.

 

In 1610 he completed his great Vespers. After long attempts to obtain his release from Mantua, it was finally granted in 1612, and the next year he became responsible for the music of the Basilica of San Marco in Venice.

 

After opening the first opera house in Venice (1637), he wrote his last three operas, including Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria (1640) and the notable Incoronazione di Poppea (1643). Monteverdi is the first great figure in baroque music, a notable innovator who synthesized the elements of the new style to create the first baroque masterpieces of both sacred and secular music.