A Christmas Concert

Music in Italy and Malta at the time of the Selva Morale e Spirituale (1641)

Music by: Claudio Monteverdi, Ignazio Donati, Alessandro Grandi, Andrea Falconieri, Isabella Leonarda, Tarquinio Merula and Carlo Tassoni. Including some first performances in modern time.


Selva morale e spirituale (SV 252–288) is the short title of a collection of sacred music by Claudio Monteverdi, published in Venice in 1640 and 1641. The title translates to 'Moral and Spiritual Forest'. Published in 1641, this anthology of sacred music ranks second only to Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine of 1610 as a comprehensive survey of the various styles and forms that he employed and the innovations he brought to Baroque music. All the settings were almost certainly composed during his years in Venice, though not necessarily just for performance in St Mark's.

The collection includes single-voice motets, madrigals, instrumental pieces, one Mass (that is the main part of our concert), psalms, and multiple settings of the Salve Regina and the Magnificat, representing both the prima pratica of Renaissance counterpoint and the seconda pratica that comprised Monteverdi's novel techniques, which included solo vocal music set to homophonic accompaniment, the use of basso continuo, and the expansion of tonality and harmony for heightened expressions. Together with the Monteverdi compositions will be performed piece by contemporaries of Monteverdi as Ignazio Donati, Alessandro Grandi, Tarquinio Merula and Andrea Falconieri.

As a special Christmas gift the public will be able to listen to some pieces in first modern performance conserved in the music archive of the Mdina Carhedral Museum.