ABSTRACT
It is widely known that in the 1590s the Italian madrigal underwent profound transformations in its quest for new forms of expression. Claudio Monteverdi gave this fascinating phenomenon the name 'seconda prattica', propounding the theoretical argument of a new relationship between text and music founded on the primacy, not the subjugation, of the word. When one is discussing seconda prattica as applied to Marenzio, we need to be somewhat cautious. According to Monteverdi, Marenzio was among the greatest musical innovators of the late Cinquecento alongside other famous madrigalists and the two first composers of opera all of whom were motivated by the same spiritual aim: the intimate understanding of 'true art'. Considered from the broad viewpoint of economic history, the composer's European success around the turn of the century belongs to the phenomenon Fernand Braudel has perceptively defined as the second Italian Renaissance: We find an undeniable richness in this Italy of the late Cinquecento and early Seicento.
