Welcome
to February! Last year at this time, we looked at the topic “Jealousy in Music.” Because
there are so many interesting stories in music history that relate to this
topic, I thought it would be fun to dive into a second round and look at how
jealousy played a part in the lives of several composers and performers. This
week, let’s talk about Carlo Gesualdo.
Gesualdo
was an interesting character, the Prince of Venosa and a well-known composer.
During the Renaissance period in which he lived, aristocrats did not typically
seek to publish their music as this trade was usually associated with those of
lower classes. Gesualdo is known particularly for his madrigals. A madrigal
during the sixteenth century was a short secular piece for any number of
equally important voices that used free form poetry as its text. (The madrigal
took on different forms depending on what time period it was written in so it
is important to look at the century during which Gesualdo lived). One key
feature of the madrigal was the use of music to enhance the meaning of the
text. Many madrigal composers, including Gesualdo, would use word painting.
This is a musical term used to describe music that literally represents a text.
For instance, if a text talks about climbing stairs, the musical line will move
up with the stairs.
Many
scholars believe Gesulado was ahead of his time in the way he dealt with
harmonies. Some believe his last two books of madrigals to be autobiographical
in that they convey a sorrowful mood and the pain he likely experienced in life
due to unhappy marriages and various ailments. His “Io parto” e non piu dissi from his Book VI of madrigals is a great
example of this sorrow as it portrays a woman who mourns for her lover who is
about to depart. When the text refers to the man “returning to life,” the music
becomes faster and diatonic, exemplifying this concept of word painting. Can
you hear this in this example?
Is
Gesualdo famous more so for his music or for the horrific event that occurred
in his life? Join me next time as we uncover how jealousy overtook this
Renaissance composer, leading to tragedy.
