Published in Venice (with a dedication to Pope Paul V dated 1 September 1610) as Sanctissimae Virgini Missa senis vocibus ac Vesperae pluribus decantandae, cum nonnullis sacris concentibus, ad Sacella sive Principum Cubicula accommodata ("Mass for the Most Holy Virgin for six voices, and Vespers for several voices with some sacred songs, suitable for chapels and ducal chambers"), it is sometimes called Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610.

The thirteen movements include the introductory Deus in adiutorium, five Psalms, four concertato motets and a vocal sonata on the "Sancta Maria" litany, several differently scored stanzas of the hymn "Ave maris stella", and a choice of two Magnificats.

The composition is scored for up to ten vocal parts and instruments including cornettos, violins, viole da braccio, and basso continuo.

They have discussed whether it is a planned composition in a modern sense or a collection of music suitable for Vespers, and have debated the role of the added movements, instrumentation, keys and other issues of historically informed performance.

In some recordings and performances, antiphons for a given occasion of the church year are added to create a liturgical vespers service, while others strictly present only the printed music.

In the new genre, a complete story was told through characters; as well as choruses and ensembles, the vocal parts included recitative, aria, and arioso.

[14] On ordinary Sundays, the vespers service might be sung in Gregorian chant, while on high holidays, such as the feast day of a patron saint, elaborate concertante music was preferred.

[20] There are just two Marian songs in the whole work ("Audi coelum" and "Ave maris stella"); and the sonata could easily be rearranged to any saint's name.

[21] The first mention of the work's publication is in a July 1610 letter by Monteverdi's assistant, Bassano Casola, to Cardinal Ferdinando Gonzaga, the duke's younger son.

Casola described that two compositions were in the process to be printed, a six-part mass (Messa da Capella)[22] on motifs from Nicolas Gombert's In illo tempore, and psalms for a vespers setting for the Virgin (Salmi del Vespro della Madonna).

[22] He described the psalms as "varying and diverse inventions and harmonies over a canto fermo" (cantus firmus),[22] and noted that Monteverdi would travel to Rome to personally dedicate the publication to the Pope in the autumn.

[22] The cover describes both works: "Sanctissimae Virgini Missa senis vocibus ad ecclesiarum choros, ac Vespere pluribus decantandae cum nonnullis sacris concentibus ad Sacella sive Principum Cubicula accommodata" (Mass for the Most Holy Virgin for six voices for church choirs, and vespers for several voices with some sacred songs, suitable for chapels and ducal chambers).

[22] One of the partbooks contains the basso continuo and provides a kind of short score for the more complicated movements:[24] it gives the title of the Vespers as: "Vespro della Beata Vergine da concerto composta sopra canti firmi" (Vesper for the Blessed Virgin for concertos, composed on cantus firmi).

Monteverdi visited Rome, as anticipated, in October 1610 and it is likely that he delivered a copy to the Pope, given that the Papal Library holds an alto partbook.

[23] After the original print, the next time parts from the Vespers were published was in an 1834 book by Carl von Winterfeld devoted to the music of Giovanni Gabrieli.

Two years later, Hans F. Redlich published an edition which dropped two psalms, arranged the other movements in different order, and implemented the figured bass in a complicated way.

[9] The edition by Hans Redlich was the basis for performances in Zurich in February 1935 and of parts in New York in 1937, followed by Switzerland (mid-1940s), Brussels (1946) and London (on 14 May 1946 at Westminster Central Hall).

[43] The music is based on the opening toccata from Monteverdi's 1607 opera L'Orfeo,[27] to which the choir sings a falsobordone (a style of recitation) on the same chord.

It is set for two tenors, who sing in call and response (prima ad una voce sola), and expands to six voices at the word omnes (all).

The sonata is an instrumental movement with soprano singing of a cantus firmus from the Litany of Loreto (Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis – Holy Mary, pray for us), with rhythmic variants.

Styles range from chordal falsobordone to virtuoso singing, from recitative to polyphonic setting of many voices, and from continuo accompaniment to extensive instrumental obbligato.

The print of his Vespers shows unusual detail in reducing this freedom, for example, by precise notation of embellishments and even organ registration.

[55] The first recording of the Vespers was arguably an American performance in 1952, featuring musicians from the University of Illinois conducted by Leopold Stokowski.

[9] Although some musicologists argue that Monteverdi was offering a compendium of music for vespers services from which a selection could be made, most recordings present the composition as a unified work, deciding which of the two versions of scoring to perform.

[b] Recordings differ in presenting strictly what Monteverdi composed, or in liturgical context, with added antiphons for a specific feast day.

[9][59] Kurtzman, who edited a publication of the work for Oxford University Press,[60] notes: "... it seems as if Monteverdi were intent in displaying his skills in virtually all contemporary styles of composition, using every modern structural technique".

[54] This "rigorous adhesion to the psalm tones" is similar to the style of Giovanni Giacomo Gastoldi, who was choirmaster at the Basilica palatina di Santa Barbara at the ducal palace in Mantua.

[62] Whenham summarised about the use of chant: It allowed him to show that such settings, though conservative at base, could incorporate thoroughly up-to-date elements of musical style.

[61]Musicologists have debated topics such as the role of the sacri concentus and sonata, instrumentation, keys (chiavette), and issues of historically informed performance.

[38] The musicologist Tim Carter summarised in his entry for the composer for Grove in 2007: "His three major collections of liturgical and devotional music transcend the merely functional, exploiting a rich panoply of text-expressive and contrapuntal-structural techniques.