In late 1616 the Duke of Mantua wrote, asking him to return to his service. Monteverdi refused. The following is an extract from his letter to the Duke:

…… but they have honoured me also in such a way that in the cappella they do not accept any report on a new singer unless it is come from the Maestro di Cappella, neither do they accept players of instruments, or organists except those chosen by the Maestro di Cappella. There is no gentleman who does not esteem and honour me, and when I go to make either church music or chamber music, I can assure your excellency that the whole city runs to hear it. And of the Maestro di Cappella, if he does not wish to go into the chapel on any day no one will say anything to him, and his position is certain until he dies…..

The esteem in which the citizens of Venice held Monteverdi is also exemplified in the writings of the contemporary poet Giulio Strozzi in 1620.

The music at the Mass and the responsories was composed and performed for the occasion by Claudio Monteverdi, whose fame makes the fine quality of the work easily understandable. In these compositions he has given expression to a particular emotion, which in transporting our Princes with pure delight makes them honour him for his genius. The ceremonies began with a plaintive sinfonia which brought tears to the eyes…….

Throughout the late Renaissance Venice’s musical reputation was huge. Indeed the city was referred to throughout Europe during the Renaissance as “the Republic of Music”. Part of the popular appeal of Monteverdi’s church music was that, at the time, it was thought to be thoroughly new and modern, inventive and creative, an original new style, rather than a recycling of the old style of contemporary Italian masters such as Palestrina (1525-1594). Before him, Giovanni Gabrieli had significantly developed the amount of ornamentation used in the music used by virtuoso players of the violin (at the time a new and modern instrument), cornett and trombone, contrasting this with sections of less florid music for ripieno musicians, and thereby anticipating somewhat the Concerto Grosso style which was to become a popular genre in the Baroque.

The music of both Gabrieli and Monteverdi makes much use of a particular dramatic device which was, in part, inspired by the architecture of St Mark’s. This device was peculiar to Venice and was known as Chori Spezzati (literally, separated choirs). The many balconies, galleries, opposing, elevated choir lofts and side chapels in the building allowed composers to place small and large groups of musicians around the building and to write antiphonally for them so that the sound would be coming from several different places within the building in a spatially separated and stereophonic way. (It is interesting to note that the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, where Bach was Kantor for twenty-seven years, also had opposing elevated choir lofts, although these no longer survive.) Aware of the practical difficulties of getting singers who are spatially separated to sing together, the Venetians wrote music which was designed to allow different groups to sing in alternation. Many composers, including Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672), came to Venice to learn from these eminent Venetian musicians, and soon the practice spread across Europe. Monteverdi’s compositional language became increasingly concertante in style, with the emphasis shifting more to solo singers, duets, trios and groups of singers performing one-to-a-part. For this style to succeed, he required singers with greater virtuosity and technical skill.

Monteverdi appointed, by preference, singers and instrumentalists who were also skilled or emerging composers, no doubt partly to assist him with the ever-present demand for new music. Alessandro Grandi (d.1637), Franceso Cavalli (1602-1676) and Giovanni Rovetta (1596-1668), who was to succeed Monteverdi on his death, were three in particular. Cavalli was appointed to the Basilica as a singer in 1616, became second organist in 1639 and then in turn succeded Rovetta as Maestro di Cappella in 1665. In 1627 Alessandro Grandi, who had become Monteverdi’s immediate deputy, left, and Rovetta, a singer and instrumentalist, was promoted to this position. (During the 1630s Cavalli was the highest paid singer on the St Mark’s books, and lived in a house on the Grand Canal for an annual rent of 108 ducats.)