1638: Monteverdi’s Madrigals of Love and War published

Madrigals of Love and War (Madrigali Guerrieri ed Amorosi) Claudio Monteverdi

Composed: 1608 to 1638 Published: 1638 First Performed: ? Peak: -- Sales (in millions): -- Genre: classical > chamber music

Rating: 4.702 out of 5.00 (average of 4 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Work: Monteverdi offered his first book of madrigals in 1587 when “the popularity of the genre of little vocal pieces had just reached its pinnacle.” CG He published six more collections of madrigals through 1619. The “madrigals are an important component of his early operas” CG and “serve as a kind of laboratory in which he can experiment mainly with the building of dramatic tension in music in connection with the text’s dramatic content.” CG However, his best-known book of madrigals, Madrigali guerrieri ed amorosi (Madrigals of Love and War), was published in 1638 when Monteverdi was 71 years old and the music director of Venice’s ducal church of St. Mark’s. “The madrigals of the Eighth Book are for voices and instruments, developing further an Italian form with a hundred years of history.” MB It “was dedicated to Ferdinand III, the newly crowned Hapsburg Emperor in Vienna.” MB “The texts repeatedly expound the interlocking themes of love and war – the warrior as lover, the lover as warrior and the war between the sexes.” MB This was “the final collection of his secular music to be issued in his lifetime.” MB “This is an extensive collection of diverse compositions ranging from solo laments to vast eight-voice compositions with instrumental accompaniment.” CG It brought “together music written as early as 1608, and including one large work from 1624 and a variety of other compositions whose origins are unknown but which probably span the entire period 1619-1638.” MB The work “transformed a venerable genre – the Renaissance part song – into dramatic scenes that rival the flamboyant art of Caravaggio or Bernini. By updating an old musical form, Monteverdi created a repertoire that is both timeless and singular: few madrigals from any age hold a candle to these masterworks for multiple voices and instruments.” LH

Reviews: CG Collegium1704.com by Čeněk Svoboda, translated by Mark Newkirk LH arslyricahouston.org MB MagnificatBaroque.com by Jeffrey Kurtzman Related DMDB Links: First posted 2/22/2026.

Today in Music (1955): Glenn Gould finished his famous recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations

Goldberg Variations, for keyboard (Clavier-Übung IV), BWV 988 (BC L9) Johann Sebastian Bach (composer)

Published: 1741 Recorded by Glenn Gould: June 10-16, 1955 Charted: -- Peak: -- Sales (in millions): 2.0 US Genre: classical > baroque > solo piano

Parts/Movements: Aria Variatio 1. a 1 Clav. Variatio 2. a 1 Clav. Variatio 3. Canone all’Unisono. a 1 Clav. Variatio 4. a 1 Clav. Variatio 5. a 1 ô vero 2 Clav. Variatio 6. Canone alla Seconda. a 1 Clav. Variatio 7. a 1 ô vero 2 Clav. al tempo di Giga Variatio 8. a 2 Clav. Variatio 9. Canone alla Terza. a 1 Clav. Variatio 10. Fughetta. a 1 Clav. Variatio 11. a 2 Clav. Variatio 12. a 1 Clav. Canone alla Quarta in moto contrario Variatio 13. a 2 Clav. Variatio 14. a 2 Clav. Variatio 15. Canone alla Quinta. a 1 Clav.: Andante Variatio 16. Ouverture. a 1 Clav. Variatio 17. a 2 Clav. Variatio 18. Canone alla Sesta. a 1 Clav. Variatio 19. a 1 Clav. Variatio 20. a 2 Clav. Variatio 21. Canone alla Settima Variatio 22. a 1 Clav. alla breve Variatio 23. a 2 Clav. Variatio 24. Canone all'Ottava. a 1 Clav. Variatio 25. a 2 Clav.: Adagio Variatio 26. a 2 Clav. Variatio 27. Canone alla Nona. a 2 Clav. Variatio 28. a 2 Clav. Variatio 29. a 1 ô vero 2 Clav. Variatio 30. a 1 Clav. Quodlibet Aria da Capo Average Length: 63:40

Rating: 4.438 out of 5.00 (average of 11 ratings) Quotable: “Among the most sophisticated works ever written for keyboard.” – John Keiller, AllMusic.com Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Work: “Bach was perhaps never so rewarded for one of his works as” WK he was for the Goldberg Variations, which were written for harpsichord, but is sometimes performed on piano. WK In fact, pianist Glenn Gould has given the Goldberg Variations their greatest audience with several recordings, collectively having exceeded two million in sales. His recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1983 and added to the National Recording Registry in 2003. Gould, a “twenty-two-year-old Canadian prodigy, transformed this often-overlooked also-ran of the piano repertoire into a platform for thoughtful, ecstatic, intensely personal playing.” TM “Before Glenn Gould, pianists usually approached the Goldberg Variations with great reverence, observing Bach’s notions of structure and pace, while adding little themselves.” TM “On his 1955 recording debut, Gould completely gooses Goldberg. But he’s never merely a brash youth.” TM “If any classical work cries out for CD, it’s this one: Longer than a single LP side, it moves forward too breathlessly to be interrupted. And pianist Glenn Gould’s performance is both stunningly original and compellingly right…Gould was celebrated for his grunts, which…almost turn his playing into 18th-century rock & roll.” EW’93 Indeed, Gould’s 1955 recording of the Goldberg Variations “launched a career that ballooned to rock-star proportions. He became a mythic figure, a situation his willfully odd demeanor…did little to dispel.” TM Scholars have debated the specifics about the origin of the work, but have generally accepted that they were commissioned by Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, AM who may have been the first to perform them. WK Goldberg’s “job was to perform for Count Keyserking, a chronic insomniac who needed music to lull him to sleep. Many records suggest that Bach once taught Goldberg, a famed virtuoso, who would have easily been able to play the variations. It is also believed that the technical wizardry required to play the variations comes directly from Bach’s study of Domenico Scarlatti’s Essercizi for keyboard from 1739, itself a daunting piece for exceptional players only.” AM It has been suggested that the aria is “not the composer’s own, but was related to a now-untraceable French keyboard dance.” AM However, “more recent scholarly literature…suggest that there is no basis for such doubts.” WK “The variations do not follow the melody of the aria, but rather use its bass line…and chord progression.” WK “The basic harmonies and structures of the variations are all the same as the theme’s.” AM “Every third variation in the series…is a canon, following an ascending pattern.” WK “The variations that intervene between the canons are also arranged in a pattern.” WK “The work exemplifies Bach’s quest for the greatest amount of diversity within relentless unity...The work does not sound like the awesomely complex compendium that it is. The music is deceptively simple and heartfelt, with a noble calm even when the performer is obliged to cross hands at lightning speeds. It never seethes or gets gritty, and is, of course, never boring.” AM “This work is sublime and compassionate, graceful, warm, and relentlessly intricate, a demonstration of unmatched craft in music history and genuine, poetic imagination. The Goldberg Variations is a work that still engages scholars hundreds of years after its publication and is equally valuable for attracting new listeners to this sort of music.” AM

Reviews: AM AllMusic.com review by John Keillor EW’93 Entertainment Weekly (10/29/1993). “100 Greatest CDs: A Love-It-Or-Loathe It Guide to the Essential Disc Library” TM Tom Moon (2008). 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die. Workman Publishing Company, Inc.: New York, NY. Page 321. WK Wikipedia Related DMDB Links: First posted 6/16/2018; last updated 7/19/2025.

Today in Music (1965): Bob Dylan Bringing It All Back Home released

Bringing It All Back Home Bob Dylan

Released: March 22, 1965 Peak: 6 US, 11 UK, -- CN, -- AU Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 1.5 US, -- UK, 3.5 world (includes US + UK), 9.39 EAS Genre: folk rock

Tracks: Click on a song title for more details. Subterranean Homesick Blues [2:21] She Belongs to Me [2:47] Maggie’s Farm [3:54] Love Minus Zero/No Limit [2:51] Outlaw Blues [3:05] On the Road Again [2:35] Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream [6:30] Mr. Tambourine Man [5:30] Gates of Eden [5:40] It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding [7:29] It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue [4:12] Total Running Time: 47:21

Rating: 4.608 out of 5.00 (average of 29 ratings) Quotable ““If you’re…just starting your Dylan collection, this is the perfect place to start.” – Steve Marshall, The Night Owl Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

Revolutionizng the Folk Scene “After a short period as a backup pianist for rockabilly star Bobby Vee, Dylan converted to the guitar and began exploring folk territory, heavily influenced by folk legend Woody Guthrie, whose potent celebrations of the common man would lure Dylan away from rock and roll and into New York’s acoustic Greenwich Village scene.” CS “With his early acoustic albums Dylan…revolutionized the early-1960s folk scene simply by writing his own songs.” TB Then “the floodgates opened and every sensitive teenager who could pick three chords on a battered acoustic guitar suddenly became a folksy singer-songwriter. Dylan was also seen as the inventor of protest music, so the eyes of the musical community were firmly fixed on him, watching his every move.” TB Plugging In Dylan made one of rock ‘n’ roll history’s most significant move in 1965 with the release of Bringing It All Back Home. He “broke all musical boundaries” NO with this “remarkable collection of songs unlike anything else up to that time.” NO “You can feel the excitement of the world being turned on its head, of a cult figure discovering his talent and joyously making the most of it.” RD “If you’re…just starting your Dylan collection, this is the perfect place to start.” NO He “lost some of his most loyal fans…after he did the unthinkable – he plugged in.” CS “With Another Side of Bob Dylan, Dylan had begun pushing past folk” AM and now, “for the first time, this folk music hero used an electric guitar.” NO “On Side One of this pioneering album, Dylan amplifies his cryptic, confrontational songwriting with guitar lightning and galloping drums” 500 and “blows folk music open.” RD “By fusing the Chuck Berry beat of the Rolling Stones and the Beatles with the leftist, folk tradition of the folk revival” CS Dylan created “a new kind of rock & roll.” CS Doesn’t Abandon Acoustic – And Was Always Electric Anyway “Dylan still remembers his folk heritage.” CS he “returns to solo acoustic guitar on the four superb songs on Side Two” 500 where he delivers “some of his best acoustic narratives. But for Dylan, the future was electric.” CS “The fact is that Dylan had always been an electric musician, with his journey into folk music only a temporary departure from his true home of pompadour haircuts and electric guitars.” CS “Bluesmen like Muddy Waters and Jimmy Reed and rockers like Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly [were] among his early appearances.” CS “Only the restraining hand of his producer John Hammond Sr. kept Dylan’s rock and roll cuts off his early albums, as Hammond knew Dylan was best marketed as an acoustic act.” CS Exceptional Songwriting “It’s not just that he went electric, either.” AM “The nominal folk songs derive from the same vantage point as the rockers, leaving traditional folk concerns behind and delving deep into the personal.” AM “From start to finish, Bringing It All Back Home is one of Dylan’s most enduring statements, containing some of Dylan’s greatest songs and performances.” NO “He’s exploding with imagination throughout the record.” AM Home “had the requisite folk tunes that fans expected, it also contained songs of introspection and paranoia, alongside beautifully poetic love songs – all within the confines of a single album.” NO “This is the point where Dylan eclipses any conventional sense of folk and rewrites the rules of rock, making it safe for personal expression and poetry, not only making words mean as much as the music, but making the music an extension of the words.” AM The Songs Here’s a breakdown of each of the individual songs.

Subterranean Homesick Blues Bob Dylan

Writer(s): Bob Dylan Released: 3/8/1965 (single), Bringing It All Back Home (1965) Peak: 39 BB, 52 CB, 53 HR, 6 AC, 2 CL, 9 UK, 4 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 72.18 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: The “raucous leadoff track” NO from Bringing It All Back Home was Dylan’s first top-40 single and his “first single to show off his rock and roll interest.” CS This song and “Maggie’s Farm” are loud, caustic, and funny as hell.” 500 It “is a stream of nonsense consciousness.” RD It is “a rock ‘n’ roll song with nicely twisted lyrics that tells about the then current mood of things; this one at its release truly was the first rap song ever made.” KN Dylan “pays tribute to electrified rocker Chuck Berry by borrowing from his ‘Too Much Monkey Business.’” CS “The opener is only the beginning of the revolution” CS where Dylan plugged in and went electric.

She Belongs to Me Bob Dylan

Writer(s): Bob Dylan Released: Bringing It All Back Home (1965) Peak: 21 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 13.93 streaming About the Song: “The painfully shy She Belongs to Me” CS and Love Minus Zero/No Limit are “uncommonly beautiful love songs.” AM

Maggie’s Farm Bob Dylan

Writer(s): Bob Dylan Released: 6/19/1965 (single), Bringing It All Back Home (1965) Peak: 12 CL, 22 UK, 6 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 18.91 streaming About the Song: “The rural rocker Maggie’s Farm” CS “and It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding openly criticize the American government.” CS This is “a great upbeat sounding song about something that is a downer, but you got to smile when you hear the nasty things that Bob has to say about Maggie’s family.” KN This and Subterranean Homesick Blues “are loud, caustic, and funny as hell.” 500

Love Minus Zero/No Limit Bob Dylan

Writer(s): Bob Dylan Released: Bringing It All Back Home (1965) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 10.84 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: She Belongs to Me and Love Minus Zero/No Limit are “uncommonly beautiful love songs.” AM

Outlaw Blues Bob Dylan

Writer(s): Bob Dylan Released: Bringing It All Back Home (1965) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 5.19 streaming About the Song: Outlaw Blues, an “up-tempo Chuck Berry-style workout,” TB “and On the Road Again are rambunctious 12-bar blues.” RD

On the Road Again Bob Dylan

Writer(s): Bob Dylan Released: Bringing It All Back Home (1965) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 4.60 streaming About the Song: Outlaw Blues and “the hilariously surreal On the Road Again” TB “are rambunctious 12-bar blues.” RD This song “and Bob Dylan's 115th Dream are “uncommonly funny fantasias.” AM

Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream Bob Dylan

Writer(s): Bob Dylan Released: Bringing It All Back Home (1965) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 5.32 streaming About the Song: On the Road Again and Bob Dylan's 115th Dream are “uncommonly funny fantasias.” AM

Mr. Tambourine Man Bob Dylan

Writer(s): Bob Dylan Released: 3/22/1965 (single), Bringing It All Back Home (1965) Peak: 4 CL, 3 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 156.15 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: Dylan offers songs that are “individual, yet not personal” AM such as on “the whimsical poetry of Mr. Tambourine Man.” AM Of course, this song gained even greater fame when covered by the Byrds. Their #1 version of the song effectively kicked off the folk-rock movement in the 1960s.

Gates of Eden Bob Dylan

Writer(s): Bob Dylan Released: Bringing It All Back Home (1965) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 4.13 streaming About the Song: “The dream-like Gates of Eden.” CS

It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding Bob Dylan

Writer(s): Bob Dylan Released: Bringing It All Back Home (1965) Peak: 14 CL Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 17.94 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: In Maggie’s Farm and the scabrous “It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding,” 500 with its “surreal paranoia,” AM Dylan “openly criticize the American government.” CS This “is another masterpiece that holds itself together and keeps building to its close almost 8 minutes later.” KN Dylan’s biographer called it the “ultimate protest song.” CS

It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue Bob Dylan

Writer(s): Bob Dylan Released: Bringing It All Back Home (1965) Peak: 16 CL, 10 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 39.89 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: “The closing ballad, It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue, [is] arguably his finest, most affectionate song of dismissal.” 500

Resources/References: AM AllMusic.com review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine RD Robert Dimery (2006). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Quintet Publishing Limited: New York, NY. Page 75. KN Keno’s Classic Rock Album Reviews NO Steve Marshall (2001). The Night Owl review RV The Review (Oct./Nov. 2001). “The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time” by Clarke Speicher 500 Rolling Stone (2020). “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” CS Chris Smith (2009). 101 Albums That Changed Popular Music. Oxford University Press. Pages 30-2. TB Thunder Bay (2005). Albums: The Stories Behind 50 Years of Great Recordings. Thunder Bay Press; San Diego, CA. Pages 60-3. Related DMDB Pages: First posted 3/7/2011; last updated 9/15/2026.