Claudio, a remarkable Italian composer, was born at Cremona about the year 1565. He entered into the service of the Duke of Mantua as a performer on the viol, and received lessons in counterpoint from Marc Antonio Ingegneri, the Duke's chapel-master, to whose office he afterwards succeeded about 1604. On the 19th of August 1613 he was appointed chapel-master of St Mark's at Venice, and held that place till his death in the autumn of 1649. The first two books of his Madrigals are so incorrectly written as to prove that his study of counterpoint had not at that time (1587) been very profound. In his third book of Madrigals he appeared to more advantage; and the ideas which had emanated from Florentine musicians regarding the necessity of expressing the sense of the words in vocal music, had evidently stimulated his genius to explore new paths of composition. Regarding the harmonic novelties and the new tonality introduced by Monteverde, see the articles Music and Tonality in the present work.

(G.F.G.)