Carlo Gesualdo

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Carlo Gesualdo

Carlo Gesualdo ( Don Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa ) (born March  8, 1566 in Venosa , †  September 8, 1613 in Gesualdo , province of Avellino ) was an Italian prince and composer .

Life

Carlo Gesualdo was born to Fabrizio II, Prince of Venosa , and Girolama Borromeo . It was named after his uncle Karl Borromeo , who was later canonized cardinal and archbishop of Milan . His mother was a niece of Pope Pius IV. At court he received sound musical training in composition and playing the bass lute at an early age. After the death of his older brother, he succeeded in the line of succession and became the ruling prince in 1586. In the same year he married his cousin Maria d'Avalos (* 1562).

Gesualdo went down as one of the most colorful figures in music history, because his work as a composer is overshadowed by a capital crime . The jealousy tragedy occurred in 1590 when Gesualdo found out about an affair with his wife, Maria d'Avalos. Gesualdo and his confidants resorted to a ruse: They pretended to go on a hunting trip, but returned that evening and caught the lovers red-handed. It is not clear from the testimonials who from the hunting party stabbed the fatally in the dagger, but it can be assumed that at least Gesualdo's wife died at his own hand. The lover, Fabrizio Carafa , and a little daughter, whose fatherhood was unclear, also died that night. A judicial investigation was unsuccessful because honor killings among nobles were not atoned for. However, Gesualdo fled to avoid the vengeance of the victims' families and spent the next four years in Gesualdo Castle of the same name.

In 1591 he succeeded his father as Prince of Venosa.

In 1594 he remarried through the mediation of his uncle, Cardinal Alfonso Gesualdo , and spent two years in Ferrara with his second wife, Leonora d'Este . Most of his compositions, especially the first four madrigal books , were probably composed during this period . Then he retired again to Gesualdo Castle.

After the only child from his second marriage died in 1600, Gesualdo's depression intensified and he turned to composing sacred music. In 1611 he published his last works.

The Forgiveness of Carlo Gesualdo by Giovanni Balducci

He commissioned Giovanni Balducci from Naples with the altar painting The forgiveness of Carlo Gesualdo (Italian: Il perdono di Carlo Gesualdo ). It shows the resurrection of Christ, Hell, Gesualdo at the bottom left and his wife Leonora d'Este as supplicant on the opposite side. His uncle, Cardinal Karl Borromeo, stands behind him pleading for him.

plant

Gesualdo's compositional oeuvre includes a number of sacred works, including the responsories to the liturgy of the cartage and motets , as well as six books with madrigals . A seventh madrigal book is missing.

In terms of time, Gesualdo is at the transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque , with his Mannerist style always remaining committed to the vocal polyphony of the 16th century . A characteristic of Gesualdo's compositional style is the frequent use of chromatics and unexpected key changes for the purpose of vividly interpreting the text.

He stands in the tradition of other madrigalists such as Giaches de Wert and Luca Marenzio . Gesualdo's work was received by courtly academic circles until the middle of the 17th century, but disappeared when the new genre of opera began its triumphant advance.

  • 1594: Madrigali libro primo (5 voices)
  • 1594: Madrigali libro secundo (5 voices)
  • 1595: Madrigali libro terzo (5 voices)
  • 1596: Madrigali libro quarto (5 voices)
  • 1603: Sacrarum cantionum liber primus, 21 motets (5 voices)
  • 1603: Sacrarum cantionum liber secundus, 20 motets (6-7 voices, incomplete) James Wood reconstructed the missing parts for a CD recording published in 2013 with the Vocalconsort Berlin in meticulous musicological work .
  • 1611: Madrigali libro quinto (5 voices)
  • 1611: Madrigali libro sesto (5 voices)
  • 1611: Responsoria et alia ad Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae spectantia (6 voices)
  • 1626: Madrigali libro settimo (6 voices, lost)

reception

The murder has determined Gesualdo's music and life for centuries. For example, the events in the baroque tragedy Il tradimento per l'onore (1664) by Giacinto Andrea Cicognini are retold using a fictional constellation of people. The novels Melodies or Supplements to the Mercury Age (1993) by Helmut Krausser and Madrigal (1968) by László Passuth also contain a longer retelling of Vita Gesualdos .

In the 20th century, his madrigals in particular became interesting again due to their bold voice leading and harmony, so that numerous composers dealt with Gesualdo. For example, Igor Stravinsky has in Momentum pro Gesualdo di Venosa ad CD annum. Three Madrigals recomposed for instruments (1960) edited three madrigals. Stravinsky expresses himself in Themes and Conclusions about Gesualdo: “ ... as Gesualdo's mode of expression is dramatic, highly intimate, and very much in earnest, he weights the traditional madrigal of poised sentiments and conceits, of amorous delicacies and indelicacies, with a heavy load. ”

Interest in the historical figure Gesualdo and his music revived again in the 1990s. So was Klaus Huber from the French vocal ensemble Les Jeunes Solistes to Gesualdo commissioned Karfreitagsresponsorien the missing Lamentationes composing. In 1993 he presented the Lectio prima with Quia clamavi ad te: Miserere . The line-up resembles that of Gesualdos' responsories: cantus, sextus, altus, tenor, quintus and bassus. The Lamentationes series, completed in 1996/97, was premiered in 1997 by the Jeunes Solistes at the Witten Days for New Chamber Music under the title Lamentationes Sacrae et Profanae ad Responsoria Iesualdi .

Another intensive examination of Gesualdo's life and work comes from Salvatore Sciarrino , who has devoted himself to this topic since the nineties and, in addition to the arrangement of madrigals ( e.g. in Le voci sottovetro for ensemble and voice, 1998), a burlesque in the Sicilian tradition Puppet theater ( Terribile e spaventosa storia del Principe da Venosa et della bella Maria for mezzo-soprano, saxophone quartet and percussion, 1999) and an opera based on Cicognini's tragedy ( Luci mie traditrici , German title: Die tödliche Blume , 1996-98).

Further arrangements of the Gesualdo material for the opera stage are by Alfred Schnittke ( Gesualdo , opera in seven images, a prologue and an epilogue, 1994), Franz Hummel ( Gesualdo , opera in two acts, 1996) and Marc-André Dalbavie ( Gesualdo , Opera in three acts, 2010). Francesco d'Avalos (1930-2014), a descendant of the murdered Maria d'Avalos, composed the musical drama Maria di Venosa in 1992 , which he recorded on CD himself. In 1995 Werner Herzog's film Gesualdo - Death for five voices was released .

The German composer Valentin Ruckebier set the text of the well-known Gesualdo madrigal Moro, lasso in his work Thoughts Before Leaving for choir, which refers to the tragic life story of Carlo Gesualdo.

expenditure

  • Carlo Gesualdo: Madrigali a cinque voci (Libro Quinto - Libro Sesto) , Edizione critica a cura di Maria Caraci Vela e Antonio Delfino, testi poetici a cura di Nicola Panizza, con uno scritto di Francesco Saggio, prefazione di Giuseppe Mastrominico, La Stamperia del Principe Gesualdo, Gesualdo, 2013, ISBN 978-88-906830-2-2 .

literature

  • Annibale Cogliano: Carlo Gesualdo. Il principe l'amante e la strega. Edizioni Sscientifiche Italiane, Napoli 2005, ISBN 88-495-0876-X .
  • Annibale Cogliano: Carlo Gesualdo omicida fra storia e mito. Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, Napoli 2006, ISBN 88-495-1232-5 .
  • Alfred Einstein : The Italian Madrigal. Princeton 1949.
  • Cecil Gray, Philip Heseltine: Carlo Gesualdo, Musician and Murderer. St. Stephen's Press, London 1926.
  • Johannes Menke : Imitatio affectus humani - On the structure and aesthetics of Gesualdo's late work. In: Musik & Ästhetik , Heft 5, Stuttgart 1998, pp. 26–43. ISBN 3-608-98579-4
  • Sandro Naglia: Il processo compositivo in Gesualdo da Venosa: un'interpretazione tonale , Roma, IkonaLiber, 2012, ISBN 978-88-97778-06-6 .
  • Peter Niedermüller: “Contrapunto” and “effetto”. Studies on Carlo Gesualdo's madrigals. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-27908-6 .
  • Ewald Reder: Il principe - the prince: power - murder - music; Carlo Gesualdo (1566 - 1613) , Wilhelmshaven: Noetzel, Heinrichshofen-Bücher, 2012, ISBN 978-3-7959-0954-3 .
  • Gustave Reese : Music in the Renaissance . Norton, New York 1954, ISBN 0-393-09530-4 .
  • Glenn Watkins: Carlo Gesualdo di Venosa. Life and work of a princely composer. Matthes & Seitz, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-88221-233-0 .
  • Karin Wettig: Composition studies on Carlo Gesualdo's madrigals . Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1990. ( Europäische Hochschulschriften Série 36: Musicologie, Volume 45). ISBN 3-631-42606-2 .

Web links

Commons : Carlo Gesualdo  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Kathleen Kuiper: Carlo Gesualdo, principe di Venosa, conte di Conza ( en ) Britannica. Retrieved July 25, 2014.
  2. ^ A b Eleonore Büning: The tenors float pale and colorless. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . March 27, 2013, accessed April 8, 2013 .
  3. ↑ Details on Lamentationes Sacrae et Profanae ad Responsoria Iesualdi in the commentary by Klaus Huber .
  4. ↑ Maria di Venosa on Allmusic (English)
  5. ↑ Review of the Werner Herzog film Gesualdo - Death for five voices ( Memento of the original from March 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.klassikinfo.de
personal data
SURNAME Gesualdo, Carlo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Don Carlo Gesualdo, Principe di Venosa
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian prince and composer
DATE OF BIRTH March 8, 1566
PLACE OF BIRTH Naples , Italy
DATE OF DEATH September 8, 1613
Place of death Gesualdo , Avellino Province, Italy