Non sit quid volo sed fiat quod tibi placet': i 'contrafacta' sacri del 'Lamento d'Arianna' di Claudio Monteverdi

Abstract

Claudio Monteverdi's «Lamento d'Arianna» was not only sung and imitated widely by 17th-century musicians and composers, but it served also as model for sacred contrafacta. In the article, three contrafacta are discussed, two of which have not been known yet. While the Latin contrafactum «Pianto della Madonna» was created under the auspices of Monteverdi himself (he included the piece in his church music collection «Selva morale e spirituale» of 1641), the two «Lamenti della Maddalena» are anonymous, Italian contrafacta, in which the saint and sinner Magdalen substitutes the Theban princess Arianna. The article discusses the decisive changes of meaning that are caused by the sacred substitutions and shows that at least the second, considerably expanded «Lamento della Maddalena» gives evidence of a later, more operatic recitative style.