At the heart of the most celebrated music lies beauty, timelessness, memorable melodies and wondrous storytelling.

Yet the fact remains that many 18th century composers worked in positions of servitude, their output dictated by their employers and limited by available musical resources. Though they craved creative autonomy, most found themselves virtual slaves to patrons and masters, creating music that, in many cases, would only be performed once. Little wonder then that resourceful composers sometimes reworked existing pieces or ‘borrowed’ from others.

With such lack of control over creativity, it is difficult to imagine what legacy an 18th century composer could be expected to leave, let alone whether they would influence the history of Western classical music.

Yet the best composers did exactly that, despite the conditions under which they worked.

Claudio Monteverdi, as painted by Bernardo Strozzi, circa 1630

One such brilliant exponent was Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643). Straddling the transition between the Renaissance and Baroque periods, he was Director of Music at St Mark’s Basilica in Venice for an extraordinary 30 years. At the same time, he managed to revolutionise traditional styles of composition through harmonic vocabulary and develop his own musical language...