Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa was born between March 8 and March 30, 1566, and died on September 8, 1613. He was an Italian nobleman and composer who held the titles of Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza. He is most famous for writing madrigals and sacred music that used a type of musical language called chromatic, which was not commonly used again until the late 1800s. He is also known for killing his first wife and her aristocratic lover after discovering them caught in the act of committing a crime.

Biography

Gesualdo's family gained control of the principality of Venosa, now part of the Province of Potenza in southern Italy, in 1560. He was likely born on 30 March 1566, three years after his older brother, Luigi, though some sources say 8 March. Earlier records mention birth years of around 1560 or 1561, but these are no longer accepted. A letter from Gesualdo's mother, Geronima Borromeo, suggests the year is most likely 1566. His uncle was Carlo Borromeo, later known as Saint Charles Borromeo. His mother was the niece of Pope Pius IV.

Carlo was probably born in Venosa, then part of the Kingdom of Naples, but little is known about his early life. His mother died when he was seven, and at the request of his uncle Carlo Borromeo, for whom he was named, he was sent to Rome to pursue a religious career. There, he was placed under the care of his uncle Alfonso (died 1603), who was then dean of the College of Cardinals, later an unsuccessful candidate for the papacy, and eventually Archbishop of Naples. His brother Luigi was to inherit the title of Prince of Venosa, but after Luigi's early death in 1584, Carlo became the next in line. He abandoned his religious path and married his first cousin, Donna Maria d'Avalos, daughter of Carlo d'Avalos, prince of Montesarchio and Sveva Gesualdo. They had one child, a son named Don Emmanuele.

Gesualdo had a musical connection with Pomponio Nenna, though it is unclear whether Nenna was his teacher or a fellow musician. From a young age, Gesualdo showed a strong dedication to music and little interest in other pursuits. He played the lute, harpsichord, and guitar. Other musicians in his circle included composers Giovanni de Macque, Scipione Dentice, Scipione Stella, Scipione Lacorcia, Ascanio Mayone, and the noble lutenist Ettorre de la Marra.

Years into his marriage to Donna Maria, she began an affair with Fabrizio Carafa, third Duke of Andria and seventh Count of Ruvo. On 16 October 1590, at the Palazzo San Severo in Naples, Gesualdo discovered the couple in a compromising situation. He killed both of them immediately.

The next day, Neapolitan officials examined the room where the killings occurred and questioned witnesses. Their report described disturbing details, including the bodies being mutilated and Gesualdo returning to the bedroom to confirm their deaths. The Gran Corte della Vicaria ruled that Gesualdo had not committed a crime.

About a year after the murder, Gesualdo's father died, making him the third Prince of Venosa and eighth Count of Conza. By 1594, he arranged a second marriage to Leonora d'Este, niece of Duke Alfonso II. That year, he traveled to Ferrara, a center of musical innovation in Italy, to meet Luzzasco Luzzaschi, a leading composer of madrigals. Leonora joined him at his estate in 1597. During his time in Ferrara, Gesualdo created music and collaborated with the concerto delle donne, a group of three highly skilled female singers. He published his first madrigal book during this period.

In a letter dated 25 June 1594, Gesualdo mentioned writing music for the concerto delle donne. However, some of his compositions, such as those in new musical styles, may not have survived. After returning to his estate in 1595, Gesualdo formed a group of musicians to perform his works. His estate became a hub for music, but only for his own enjoyment. He rarely left his castle, focusing entirely on music. His most famous compositions were published in Naples in 1603 and from his castle in 1611. The most complex and challenging parts of his music were written during his time of isolation.

Gesualdo's relationship with his second wife, Leonora, was troubled. She accused him of abuse, and the Este family sought a divorce. She spent more time away from the estate. Gesualdo wrote angry letters to Modena, where she often stayed with her brother. According to Cecil Gray and Peter Warlock, "She seems to have been a very virtuous lady… for there is no record of his having killed her."

In 1600, Gesualdo's son from his second marriage died. Some believe he commissioned a painting for the Capuchins church in Gesualdo, depicting himself, his uncle Carlo Borromeo, his second wife Leonora, and his son, surrounded by angels. However, the painting's exact timing is unclear due to uncertainty about the child's identity.

In his later years, Gesualdo suffered from depression. According to Campanella, writing in 1635, Gesualdo had his servants beat him daily and sought relics of his uncle Carlo Borromeo, hoping they would cure his mental illness or absolve him of his crimes. His final musical work, a setting of Psalm 50 (the Miserere), features repeated, pleading musical phrases and contrasts between simple chants and complex harmonies.

Gesualdo died in isolation at his castle in Avellino, three weeks after his first son, Emanuele, died. One 20th-century biographer suggested he might have been murdered by his wife. He was buried in the chapel of Saint Ignatius in the Church of the Gesù Nuovo in Naples. His tomb was destroyed in an earthquake in 1688, and the burial plaque remains visible beneath the rebuilt church.

Compositions and style

There is a lot of evidence suggesting that Gesualdo suffered greatly from guilt for the rest of his life, and he may have expressed this in his music. One clear feature of his music is the dramatic way he set words that describe strong emotions, such as "love," "pain," "death," "ecstasy," "agony," and others. These words appear often in his madrigal texts, many of which he likely wrote himself. While using words to create vivid musical images was common among madrigal composers in the late 16th century, Gesualdo took this practice to an extreme in his work.

His music is among the most experimental and expressive of the Renaissance, and it uses the most extreme chromaticism, or the use of many different musical notes. The types of musical progressions Gesualdo wrote were not used again in Western music until the 19th century, when they appeared in a different musical style.

Gesualdo's published music is divided into three categories: sacred vocal music, secular vocal music, and instrumental music. His most famous works are his six books of madrigals, published between 1594 and 1611, as well as his Tenebrae Responsoria, which are similar to madrigals but use texts from the Passion, a form used by many other composers. In these works, especially in parts that describe Christ's suffering or St. Peter's guilt, Gesualdo used very sharp dissonance and surprising chromatic contrasts.

The first books of madrigals Gesualdo published were similar in style to other composers of his time. Over time, he experimented more with harmonic progressions, cross-relations, and sudden changes in rhythm. His later books, especially Books Five and Six, include some of the most extreme examples of these techniques, such as the madrigals "Moro, lasso, al mio duolo" and "Beltà, poi che t'assenti," both from Book Six, published in 1611. Evidence suggests that Gesualdo kept these works in score form to share his complex counterpoint with other musicians. He also intended his music to be sung by equal voices, unlike the popular madrigal style of the time, which used instruments to replace or double voices. In addition to his published works, Gesualdo left behind many manuscripts containing his most experimental chromatic music, as well as compositions in modern forms like monody. Some of these were written during his time in Ferrara, where he composed music for three women in a special singing group known as the concerto di donne.

A key feature of Gesualdo's style is a structure where slow, intense chromatic passages alternate with faster, simpler diatonic passages. The music closely follows the text, with each word receiving special attention. Some chromatic passages use all twelve notes of the chromatic scale within a single phrase, spread across different voices. Gesualdo often used chromatic third relationships, such as pairing the chords of A major and F major, or C-sharp major and A minor, as seen in the beginning of "Moro, lasso, al mio duolo."

Reception

The interest in Carlo Gesualdo's music has been influenced by the shocking events in his life. In 2011, Alex Ross wrote in The New Yorker:

During his lifetime, the details about Gesualdo killing his first wife and her lover were shared widely. Poets like Tasso and many Neapolitan writers wrote about the event, hoping to gain attention. Stories about his cruelty were expanded with made-up tales, such as one claiming he harmed an illegitimate child of his wife and her lover by swinging it in a bassinet until it was near death. Until the 1620s, his music was copied by Neapolitan composers who wrote complex madrigals, including Antonio Cifra, Michelangelo Rossi, Giovanni de Macque, Scipione Dentice, Girolamo Frescobaldi, and Sigismondo d'India.

After the Renaissance, Gesualdo's life and music were mostly forgotten until the 20th century. In 1926, Gray and Warlock published a book about him. His life story inspired many fictional works and musical pieces, including a novel by Anatole France and a short story by Julio Cortázar. Several composers created music based on Gesualdo's work. In 1960, Igor Stravinsky wrote Monumentum pro Gesualdo, which includes an arrangement of Gesualdo's madrigal Beltà, poi che t'assenti. In 1995, Alfred Schnittke wrote an opera about Gesualdo's life. Franz Hummel composed another opera in 1996. Salvatore Sciarrino arranged several of Gesualdo's madrigals for an instrumental group.

Operas based on Gesualdo's life and music include:
• Maria di Venosa (1992) by Francesco d'Avalos.
• Gesualdo (1993) by Alfred Schnittke.
• Gesualdo (1998) by Franz Hummel.
• The Prince of Venosa (1998) by Scott Glasgow.
• Luci mie traditrici (1998) by Salvatore Sciarrino.
• Gesualdo (2003) by Bo Holten.
• Gesualdo (2010) by Marc-André Dalbavie, with lyrics by Richard Millet.

Other music inspired by Gesualdo or his work includes:
• Monumentum pro Gesualdo (1960) by Igor Stravinsky.
• Omaggio a Gesualdo (1971) for violin and six instrumental groups by Jan van Vlijmen.
• Tenebrae Super Gesualdo (1972) for Alto Flute, Bass Clarinet, Cello, Glockenspiel, Guitar, Harpsichord, Marimba, Mezzo-Soprano, Viola, Violin, and Celeste by Peter Maxwell Davies.
• Italian singer-songwriter Franco Battiato wrote and recorded the song Gesualdo da Venosa for his 1995 album L'ombrello e la macchina da cucire. The song was remastered in 2008.
• In 1997, Australian composer Brett Dean created Carlo, a piece for string orchestra, tape, and sampler.
• Tenebre (1997) for String Orchestra by Scott Glasgow.
• Le voci sottovetro: Elaborazioni da Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa (1998) for voice and ensemble by Salvatore Sciarrino.
• In 1998, Italian jazz composer Corrado Guarino, with saxophonist Tino Tracanna, released the CD Gesualdo, featuring arrangements from Gesualdo's madrigals.
• La terribile e spaventosa storia del Principe di Venosa e della bella Maria (1999) for Opera dei Pupi by Salvatore Sciarrino.
• Sulla morte e la follia (2004) for Violin, Violoncello, and Piano by Sergio Blardony.
• Tenebrae (2008) by John Pickard.
• Mexican/British composer Hilda Paredes arranged three madrigals from Book Six for countertenor and string quartet: Belta, poi che t'assenti, Arditta zanzaretta, and Moro lasso. These were first performed in Tokyo in 2012 and continue to be played.
• Night of Your Ascension (2015), an album by experimental music group Wrekmeister Harmonies.
• The Prince of Venosa (2016) for string quartet by Caio Facó.
• The Second Violinist (2017), an opera by Donnacha Dennehy, written and directed by Enda Walsh. The story includes themes from Gesualdo’s life and music.

The Conservatorio di Musica Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa (State Conservatory of Music Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa) in Potenza, Basilicata, Italy, was created in 1971 and named after the composer.

In The Doors of Perception (1954), Aldous Huxley wrote about Gesualdo's madrigals.

David Pownall's play Music to Murder By (1976) compared Gesualdo's life with that of 20th-century composer Peter Warlock. In 1985, French writer Michel Breitman published the novel Le Témoin de poussière, which focuses on the later years of Gesualdo's life. In 1995, Werner Herzog directed the film Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices, about Gesualdo's life and music.

In NME, musician Anna Calvi named Gesualdo as one of her favorite cult heroes.

The group The Gesualdo Six, a British vocal

Score editions

Carlo Gesualdo's "Madrigali a cinque voci" (Libro Quinto – Libro Sesto) was published in a critical edition by Maria Caraci Vela and Antonio Delfino. The poetic texts were edited by Nicola Panizza. The book includes a contribution by Francesco Saggio and a preface by Giuseppe Mastrominico. It was published by La Stamperia del Principe Gesualdo and archived on October 1, 2020, by the Wayback Machine. The publication year is 2013, and the ISBN is 978-88-906830-2-2.

Recordings

Gesualdo's madrigals and his Tenebrae Responsoria are often recorded.

• Gesualdo, Madrigaux. Les Arts Florissants, Harmonia Mundi France, CD 901268 (selections from madrigal books 4 through 6)
• Gesualdo, Complete Sacred Music for Five Voices. Oxford Camerata, Jeremy Summerly, Naxos 8.550742
• Gesualdo, Madrigali Libri I-III. Gesualdo Consort Amsterdam, CPO 777 138–2
• Carlo Gesualdo de Verona, "The Complete Madrigals" [Libri I-VI]. 7 discs. Marco Longhini & Delitiæ Musicæ, Naxos 8507013
• Gesualdo, Madrigali a 5 voci Books 1-6 [Complete]. 6 discs. Quintetto Vocale Italiano, Newton Classics 8802136
• Gesualdo, Madrigali, Libro I. The Kassiopeia Quintet, GLO5221 (only complete edition of Gesualdo's madrigals available now)
• Gesualdo, Madrigali, Libro II. The Kassiopeia Quintet, GLO5222
• Gesualdo, Madrigali, Libro III. The Kassiopeia Quintet, GLO5223
• Gesualdo, Madrigali, Libro IV. The Kassiopeia Quintet, GLO5224
• Gesualdo, Madrigali, Libro V. The Kassiopeia Quintet, GLO5225
• Gesualdo, Madrigali, Libro VI. The Kassiopeia Quintet, GLO5226
• Gesualdo, Quarto Libro di Madrigali. La Venexiana, Glossa GCD920934
• Gesualdo, Quinto Libro di Madrigali. La Venexiana, Glossa GCD920935
• Gesualdo, Quinto Libro di Madrigali. The Hilliard Ensemble, ECM New Series, ECM 2175 476 4755
• Gesualdo, Quinto Libro di Madrigali. The Consort of Musicke, Anthony Rooley, L'Oiseau-Lyre 475 9110 DM
• Gesualdo, Sesto Libro di Madrigali. IL Complesso Barocco, Symphonia SY94133 (deleted), now Pan Classics PC10229
• Gesualdo, Sesto Libro di Madrigali. La Compagnia del Madrigale, Glossa GCD922801

• Il cembalo intorno a Gesualdo. Paola Erdas (harpsichord)
• Gesualdo, Sacrae Cantiones Liber Secundus. Vocalconsort Berlin, James Wood, HMC 902123