IN this short anniversary paper I wish to offer some observations on three aspects of the Vespers music contained in Monteverdi's great 1610 publication. All have received much less scholarly attention than they merit for the simple reason, certainly in two cases, that they are seen as belonging primarily to the world of the performer rather than to that of the scholar/editor. And because both scholars in general and editors in particular usually feel at liberty to side-step such questions, performers (who may or may not possess musicological skills) are themselves tempted to follow suit, tacitly encouraged in believing the matters to be of only peripheral importance, or at least unsusceptible to historical clarification. The three subjects under discussion here are (1) implied transpositions, (2) historical pitch standards and (3) contemporary liturgical practice (specifically, the function of the Sonata sopra Sancta Maria).

TRANSPOSITION PRACTICE

IT is now over a decade since I published a lengthy and detailed argument for the downward transposition (by a 4th) of certain movements in Monteverdi's 1610 collection – the Mass, Lauda Jerusalem and both Magnificats – and the best part of two decades since I first put forward the same ideas in performance.

Yet, despite my use of a sledge-hammer to crack a nut (as one friend put it), and despite subsequent endorsement from many scholars (Fallows, Kurtzman, Roche) and specialist performers (Dickey, Holloway, Wistreich), the issue is still considered controversial and opinion is divided. Several noted directors (Gardiner, Harnoncourt, Savall) have chosen to persist in presenting the Lauda Jerusalem and the Magnificat a7 untransposed – a course of action happily condoned by all but a few critics – even though there has apparently been no written critique of the arguments by any of the rumoured dissenting scholars.

A partial exception, misleadingly described as having ‘significant ramifications for … spurious notions of transposition’, is a still unpublished paper given in 19926 by the American scholar Stephen Bonta. This valuable study of ‘Clef, Mode, and Instruments in Italy, 1540–1650’ mainly explores the theoretical background to Monteverdi's use of high clefs for mode-1 pieces such as the two Magnificats, and thus addresses what is perhaps a central question for us today: why might a composer choose to notate music at one particular pitch level even if instrumentalists are required to realize it at another?