Life
Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza, was an Italian nobleman and composer born in 1566 and died on 8 September 1613. He is infamously known for murdering his first wife and her lover after discovering their affair in 1590, an act that has long overshadowed his musical legacy. Carlo Gesualdo spent much of his life at his estate in Venosa, though a three-year stay in Ferrara brought him into close contact with leading poets and musicians of the day. He is celebrated for six books of madrigals and volumes of sacred music, including the Tenebrae Responsoria, distinguished by an extravagantly chromatic harmonic language not paralleled again until the late 19th century.
Impact
Gesualdo pushed chromaticism and expressive dissonance to extremes unmatched by any composer of his era, using unconventional harmonic shifts to intensify the anguished texts of his late madrigals and sacred works. Largely dismissed by contemporaries as an eccentric aristocrat, he was rediscovered in the 20th century as a radical harmonic innovator whose experiments prefigured much later developments in chromatic and even atonal music.
Repertoire
Moro, lasso, al mio duolo, 1611
A madrigal from Gesualdo’s Sixth Book renowned for its extreme, disorienting chromaticism used to express the pain of dying from unrequited love.
Carlo Gesualdo – Moro, lasso, al mio duolo — Performed by La Compagnia del Madrigale · Studio recording
Tenebrae Responsories for Maundy Thursday, 1611
A set of dramatic, harmonically daring settings of the Holy Week responsories, showcasing Gesualdo’s sacred-music counterpart to his chromatic madrigal style.
The King’s Singers: Gesualdo, Tenebrae Responsories for Maundy Thursday — Performed by The King’s Singers · Studio recording