A Study On The Harmonic Features Of Monteverdi’s Three Madrigals

As a composer spanning the Renaissance and Baroque Music periods,Monteverdi’s "second practice" composition concept and creation techniques made an important contribution to the development of music in this period and had a profound impact.The creative techniques in his music not only influenced the development of the later Baroque homophonic style,but even the composers of the 19 th and 20 th centuries also learned from his madrigal works.The analysis of his creative techniques not only enables us to deeply understand the composer’s creative ideas,but also enables us to further understand the general situation of the creation of polyphonic music in this period.Madrigal is one of Monteverdi’s major musical achievements.His nine-volume madrigal runs through his entire creative career,and also spans the Renaissance and Baroque Music periods.The three madrigal works selected in this paper are not only widely known by people,but also a typical representative of his creative techniques.It is of great significance for us to study Monteverdi’s music creation and the development of the transition period from mode harmony to tonal harmony theory by exploring the harmonic characteristics contained in his madrigal songs.This paper takes Monteverdi’s three madrigal works from the end of the 16 th century to the beginning of the 17 th century as the research object,and discusses them from five parts.The introduction part is the summary of research basis and current situation.The first chapter focuses on the composer’s life and major musical achievements.The second chapter mainly analyzes the characteristics of the polyphonic music of the three madrigals,It analyzes the madrigal works from five aspects of the modes,chord structure and harmony progression,bass form,music texture and termination,and systematically reveals the creation methods in detail from the music score and sound materials.In the third chapter,based on the second chapter,the characteristics of tonality and harmony in his creative techniques,as well as the significance and influence of this feature are extracted.The conclusion part of the thesis summarizesthe thesis.Through the analysis,we can clearly see the evolution process from modal harmony to tonal harmony.