Gesualdo, Carlo

Gesualdo, Carlo, Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza, Italian lutenist and composer; b. probably in Naples, c. 1560; d. there, Sept. 8, 1613. In 1590, his unfaithful wife and 1st cousin, Maria d’Avalos, and her lover were murdered at Gesualdo’s orders. In 1594 he was at the court of the Estensi in Ferrara, where he married his 2nd wife, Leonora d’Este, the same year. Sometime after the death of the Duke of Ferrara, in 1597, Carlo returned to Naples, where he remained until death. Living in the epoch when the “new music” (the homophonic style) made its appearance, he was one of the most original musicians of the time. Like Rore, Banchieri, and Vincentino, he was a so-called chromaticist. His later madrigals reveal a distinctly individual style of expression and are characterized by strong contrasts, new (for their time) harmonic progressions, and a skillful use of dissonance; he was a master in producing tone color through, the use of different voice registers and in expressing the poetic contents of his texts. He publ. 6 vols. of madrigals a 5 (1594-1611; modern ed. by F. Vatielli and A. Bizzelli, 1956-58). A complete edition of his works was ed. by W. Weisman and G. Watkins (10 vols., 1957-67).

Bibliography

R Keiner, Die Madrigale G. s von Venosa (diss., Univ. of Leipzig, 1914); C. Gray and P. Heseltine, C. G., Prince of Venosa, Musician and Murderer (London, 1926); F. Vatielli, II Principe di Venosa e Leonora d’Este (Milan, 1941); G. Watkins, G., The Man and His Music (London, 1973); A. Vaccaro, C. G., principe di Venosa: L’uomo e i tempi (Venosa, 1989; 2nd ed., rev. and aug., 1998).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire