Selva morale et spirituale

After almost 30 years in the post of maestro di cappella at San Marco, in 1641 Monteverdi published a first (and only) collection of his Venetian church music: the Selva morale et spirituale. Like the famous collection of 1610, this contains first and foremost music for the mass and Vespers, but in far greater quantity: there are 14 Vesper psalms in this collection instead of five, and four hymns instead of one, etc. It is a "best of" resulting from many years' work, and from it, church musicians can select the music required for a Vespers or a mass.


The big effect in this music is the combination of soloistic and weighty tutti sections, it makes the music with its clearly defined sections and, for the most part homophonic choral passages more easily performable than the Vespers for today's choirs. Frieder Bernius, Stefan Schuck and Uwe Wolf gave programme proposals for the Selva >> See PDF