By ANTHONY TOMMASINI [NY Times, 17 August 2007]
The 1950 book on Claudio Monteverdi by Leo Schrade, a penetrating study of a pivotal composer, is flawed only by its hyped-up title, ìMonteverdi: Creator of Modern Music.î Monteverdi, the Italian master born in Cremona in 1567, loomed over the uneasy transition from the musical Renaissance to the Baroque. But the creator of modern music?