My chorus director told us that with the 1610 Vespers, Monteverdi ushered in a whole new era in music. What he had invented was the baroque style of music.
He kind of snuck up on his audience with it. The first movement “Deus in Adjutorium” starts with very conservative chords of an almost Gregorian chant type of timbre, but that is pretty much the end of any late-renaissance period music. From there he created twisting and twining lines of music that lay out almost everything the baroque was going to be. He has polyphonic and homophonic sections. He has flashes of ornamentation. He writes out gorgeous fugues. He has murderously difficult syncopation. He even has a walking bass. Yet all of it is light and facile and it is absolutely beautiful.
The Washington Bach Consort did a particularly fine rendition of this piece back in April 2026. Maestro Dana Marsh had a refined and elegant interpretation of the work with an emphasis on that which is not obvious in the music and a de-emphasis on that which is. Many modern performers are tempted to blast out those obvious bits, but the maestro treated them with a delicate subtlety.
An extra bonus is being able to see all kinds of fun instruments. The stringed instrument here is a theorbo. The photo is not great but I was very far away. Theorbos comes in many different sizes; this was one of the largest I have seen. You can see where the elongated neck houses a second peg box, which is one of the characteristics of this instrument.
Yet another bonus is to experience this shimmering, gorgeous music at the National Presbyterian Church in Washington DC. The church has stunning modern architecture. The marvelous stained glass windows give me moments to contemplate the idea of love – especially the love that is between us – which is the most fundamental basis for the Christian faith.
Keep looking for beauty in both ordinary and extraordinary spaces!
We must be soldiers for Art! 