Английская Википедия:Carlo Gesualdo

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Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa (between 8 March 1566 and 30 March 1566 – 8 September 1613) was Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza. As a composer he is known for writing madrigals and pieces of sacred music that use a chromatic language not heard again until the late 19th century. He is also known for killing his first wife and her aristocratic lover upon finding them in flagrante delicto.

Biography

Early life

Gesualdo's family had acquired the principality of Venosa, in what is now the Province of Potenza, Southern Italy, in 1560.Шаблон:Citation needed He was probably born on March 30, 1566, three years after his older brother, Luigi,Шаблон:Sfn though some sources have stated that he was born on March 8.Шаблон:Citation needed Older sources give the year of birth as Шаблон:Circa 1560 or 1561, but this is no longer accepted.Шаблон:Citation needed A letter from Gesualdo's mother, Geronima Borromeo, indicates that the year is most likely 1566.Шаблон:Citation needed Gesualdo's uncle was Carlo Borromeo, later Saint Charles Borromeo. His mother was the niece of Pope Pius IV.Шаблон:Citation needed

Carlo was most likely born at Venosa, then part of the Kingdom of Naples, but little else is known about his early life.Шаблон:Citation needed "His mother died when he was only seven, and at the request of his uncle Carlo Borromeo, for whom he was named, he was sent to Rome to be set on the path of an ecclesiastical career. There he was placed under the protection of his uncle Alfonso (d. 1603), then dean of the College of Cardinals, later unsuccessful pretender to the papacy, and ultimately Archbishop of Naples."Шаблон:Sfn His brother Luigi was to become the next Prince of Venosa, but after his untimely death in 1584, Carlo became the designated successor. Abandoning the prospect of an ecclesiastical career,Шаблон:Citation needed, he married, in 1586, his first cousin, Donna Maria d'Avalos,Шаблон:Sfn the daughter of Carlo d'Avalos, prince of Montesarchio and Sveva Gesualdo.Шаблон:Sfn They had one child, a son, Don Emmanuele.Шаблон:Sfn

Gesualdo had a musical relationship with Pomponio Nenna, though whether it was student-to-teacher, or colleague-to-colleague, is uncertain.Шаблон:Citation needed Regardless of this, however, he had a single-minded devotion to music from an early age, and is said to have showed little interest in anything else.Шаблон:Citation needed In addition to the lute, he played the harpsichord, and guitar.Шаблон:Sfn In addition to Nenna, Gesualdo's accademia included the composers Giovanni de Macque, Scipione Dentice, Scipione Stella, Scipione Lacorcia, Ascanio Mayone, and the nobleman lutenist Ettorre de la Marra.Шаблон:Sfn

Homicide

Some years into her marriage with Gesualdo, Donna Maria began an affair with Fabrizio Carafa, third Duke of Andria and seventh Count of Ruovo.Шаблон:Sfn On the night of October 16, 1590,Шаблон:Sfn at the Palazzo San Severo in Naples, the two lovers were caught in flagrante by Gesualdo, who killed them both on the spot.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn

The day after the killing, a delegation of Neapolitan officials inspected the room in Gesualdo's apartment where the killings had taken place, and interrogated witnesses. The delegation's report did not lack in gruesome details, including the mutilation of the corpses and, according to the witnesses, Gesualdo going into the bedroom a second time "because he wasn't certain yet they were dead".Шаблон:Sfn

The Gran Corte della Vicaria found Gesualdo had not committed a crime.Шаблон:Sfn

Successor

About a year after the gruesome end of his first marriage,Шаблон:Cn Gesualdo's father died and he thus became the third Prince of Venosa and eighth Count of Conza.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn

Ferrara years

By 1594, Gesualdo had arranged for another marriage, this time to Leonora d'Este,[1] the niece of Duke Alfonso II.Шаблон:Citation needed That year, Gesualdo ventured to Ferrara, the home of the d'Este court[1] and also one of the centers of progressive musical activity in Italy, especially the madrigal; Gesualdo was especially interested in meeting Luzzasco Luzzaschi, one of the most forward-looking composers in the genre.Шаблон:Citation needed Leonora was married to Gesualdo and moved with him back to his estate in 1597.[1] In the meantime, he engaged in more than two years of creative activity in the innovative environment of Ferrara, surrounded by some of the finest musicians in Italy.Шаблон:Citation needed While in Ferrara, he published his first book of madrigals.[1] He also worked with the concerto delle donne, the three virtuoso female singers who were among the most renowned performers in the country, and for whom many other composers wrote music.Шаблон:Citation needed

In a letter of June 25, 1594, Gesualdo indicated he was writing music for the three women in the concerto delle donne; however, it is probable that some of the music he wrote, for example that in the newly developing monodic and/or concertato styles, has not survived.Шаблон:Sfn

Return to Gesualdo and final years

Файл:Castello di Gesualdo ottobre2012.jpg
Castle of Gesualdo

After returning to his castle at Gesualdo from Ferrara in 1595, he set up a situation similar to the one that existed in Ferrara, with a group of resident virtuoso musicians who would sing his own music.Шаблон:Citation needed While his estate became a center of music-making, it was for Gesualdo alone.Шаблон:Citation needed With his considerable financial resources, he was able to hire singers and instrumentalists for his own pleasure.Шаблон:Citation needed He rarely left his castle, taking delight in nothing but music.Шаблон:Sfn His most well-known music was published in Naples in 1603 and from the castle of Gesualdo (with printer Шаблон:Ill)[2] in 1611.Шаблон:Citation needed The most notoriously chromatic and difficult portions of it were all written during his period of self-isolation.Шаблон:Citation needed

The relationship between Gesualdo and his new wife was not good; she accused him of abuse, and the Este family attempted to obtain a divorce. She spent more and more time away from the isolated estate. Gesualdo wrote many angry letters to Modena where she often went to stay 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."Шаблон:Sfn

In 1600, Gesualdo's son by his second marriage died. It has been postulatedШаблон:By whom that after this Gesualdo had a large painting commissioned for the church of the Capuchins at Gesualdo, showing Gesualdo, his uncle Carlo Borromeo, his second wife Leonora, and his son, underneath a group of angelic figures; however, some sources suspect the painting was commissioned earlier, as the identity of the child is unclear.Шаблон:Citation needed

Late in life he suffered from depression.Шаблон:Citation needed According to Campanella, writing in Lyon in 1635, Gesualdo had himself beaten daily by his servants, keeping a special servant whose duty it was to beat him "at stool",Шаблон:Sfn and he engaged in a relentless, and fruitless, correspondence with Cardinal Federico Borromeo to obtain relics, i.e., skeletal remains, of recently canonized uncle Carlo Borromeo, with which he hoped to obtain healing for his mental disorder and possibly absolution for his crimes.Шаблон:Citation needed Gesualdo's late setting of Psalm 51, the Miserere, is distinguished by its insistent and imploring musical repetitions, alternating lines of monophonic chant with pungently chromatic polyphony in a low vocal tessitura.Шаблон:Citation needed

Gesualdo died in isolation,Шаблон:Citation needed at his castle Gesualdo in Avellino,[3] three weeks after the death of his son Emanuele, his first son by his marriage to Maria.Шаблон:Citation needed One 20th-century biographer has raised the possibility that he was murdered by his wife.Шаблон:Sfn He was buried in the chapel Шаблон:Citation needed span, in the Church of the Gesù Nuovo, in Naples.[3] The sepulchre was destroyed in the earthquake of 1688.Шаблон:Citation needed When the church was rebuilt, the tomb was covered over, and now lies beneath it.Шаблон:Citation needed The burial plaque, however, remains visible.Шаблон:Citation needed

Compositions and style

Шаблон:Listen Шаблон:See also The evidence that Gesualdo was tortured by guilt for the remainder of his life is considerable, and he may have given expression to it in his music. One of the most obvious characteristics of his music is the extravagant text setting of words representing extremes of emotion: "love", "pain", "death", "ecstasy", "agony" and other similar words occur frequently in his madrigal texts, most of which he probably wrote himself. While this type of word-painting is common among madrigalists of the late 16th century, it reached an extreme development in Gesualdo's music.Шаблон:Citation needed

His music is among the most experimental and expressive of the Renaissance, and without question is the most wildly chromatic. Progressions such as those written by Gesualdo did not appear again in Western music until the 19th century, and then in a context of tonality.Шаблон:Citation needed

Gesualdo's published music falls into three categories: sacred vocal music, secular vocal music, and instrumental music. His most famous compositions are his six books of madrigals, published between 1594 and 1611, as well as his Tenebrae Responsoria, which are very much like madrigals, except that they use texts from the Passion, a form (Tenebrae) used by many other composers. As in the later books of secular madrigals, he uses particularly sharp dissonance and shocking chromatic juxtapositions, especially in the parts highlighting text passages having to do with Christ's suffering, or the guilt of St. Peter in having betrayed him.Шаблон:Citation needed

The first books of madrigals that Gesualdo published are close in style to the work of other contemporary madrigalists. Experiments with harmonic progression, cross-relation and violent rhythmic contrast increase in the later books, with Books Five and Six containing the most famous and extreme examples (for instance, the madrigals "Moro, lasso, al mio duolo" and "Beltà, poi che t'assenti", both of which are in Book Six, published in 1611). There is evidence that Gesualdo had these works in score form, in order to better display his contrapuntal inventions to other musicians, and also that Gesualdo intended his works to be sung by equal voices, as opposed to the concerted madrigal style popular in the period, which involved doubling and replacing voices with instruments.Шаблон:Sfn In addition to the works which he published, he left a large quantity of music in manuscript. This contains some of his richest experiments in chromaticism, as well as compositions in such contemporary avant-garde forms as monody. Some of these were products of the years he spent in Ferrara, and some were specifically written for the virtuoso singers there, the three women of the concerto di donne.Шаблон:Citation needed

Characteristic of the Gesualdo style is a sectional format in which relatively slow-tempo passages of wild, occasionally shocking chromaticism alternate with quick-tempo diatonic passages. The text is closely wedded to the music, with individual words being given maximum attention. Some of the chromatic passages include all twelve notes of the chromatic scale within a single phrase, although scattered throughout different voices. Gesualdo was particularly fond of chromatic third relations, for instance juxtaposing the chords of A major and F major,Шаблон:Citation needed or even C-sharp major and A minor, as he does at the beginning of "Moro, lasso, al mio duolo".[4]

Reception

Файл:Carlo Gesualdo.png
Portrait of Carlo Gesualdo, Painting by Francesco Mancini, c. 18th century

The fascination for Gesualdo's music has been fuelled by the sensational aspects of his biography. In 2011 Alex Ross wrote in The New Yorker:Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Blockquote

In his own lifetime, the salacious details of Gesualdo's killing of his first wife and her lover were widely publicized, including in verse by poets such as Tasso and an entire flock of Neapolitan poets, eager to capitalize on the sensation.Шаблон:Citation needed The accounts of his cruelty were expanded with apocryphal stories such as the alleged killing of an illegitimate child of Donna Maria and her lover, which according to one variant of the made-up story was "suspended in a bassinet and swung to the point of death".Шаблон:Sfn Until the 1620s his music was imitated by Neapolitan composers of polyphonic madrigals such as Antonio Cifra, Michelangelo Rossi, Giovanni de Macque, Scipione Dentice, Girolamo Frescobaldi and Sigismondo d'India.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:SfnШаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn

After the Renaissance Gesualdo's life story and his music were largely forgotten until the 20th century: in 1926 Gray and Warlock published their book on Gesualdo.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn The life of Gesualdo provided inspiration for numerous works of fiction and musical drama, including a novel by Anatole FranceШаблон:Citation needed and a short story by Julio Cortázar.Шаблон:Sfn Several composers responded to Gesualdo's music: In 1960 Igor Stravinsky wrote Monumentum pro Gesualdo, containing an arrangement of Gesualdo's madrigal "Beltà, poi che t'assenti".Шаблон:Citation needed In 1995 Alfred Schnittke wrote an opera based on Gesualdo's life.Шаблон:Citation needed Another Gesualdo opera was written by Franz Hummel in 1996.[5] Salvatore Sciarrino arranged several of Gesualdo's madrigals for an instrumental ensemble.Шаблон:Citation needed

Music based on Gesualdo's life and music

Шаблон:More citations needed section Operas based on Gesualdo's life and music:

Other music inspired by Gesualdo or his music includes:

Legacy

The Conservatorio di Musica Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa ([State] Conservatory of Music Carlo Gesualdo do Venoza), Potenza, in the region of Basilicata, Italy, was founded in 1971 and named for the composer.[9]

In The Doors of Perception (1954), Aldous Huxley writes of Gesualdo's madrigals:

Mozart's C-Minor Piano Concerto was interrupted after the first movement, and a recording of some madrigals by Gesualdo took its place.

'These voices' I said appreciatively, 'these voices – they're a kind of bridge back to the human world.'

And a bridge they remained even while singing the most startlingly chromatic of the mad prince's compositions. Through the uneven phrases of the madrigals, the music pursued its course, never sticking to the same key for two bars together. In Gesualdo, that fantastic character out of a Webster melodrama, psychological disintegration had exaggerated, had pushed to the extreme limit, a tendency inherent in modal as opposed to fully tonal music. The resulting works sounded as though they might have been written by the later Schoenberg.

'And yet,' I felt myself constrained to say, as I listened to these strange products of a Counter-reformation psychosis working upon a late medieval art form, 'and yet it does not matter that he's all in bits. The whole is disorganized. But each individual fragment is in order, is a representative of a Higher Order. The Highest Order prevails even in the disintegration. The totality is present even in the broken pieces. More clearly present, perhaps, than in a completely coherent work. At least you aren't lulled into a sense of false security by some merely human, merely fabricated order. You have to rely on your immediate perception of the ultimate order. So in a certain sense disintegration may have its advantages. But of course it's dangerous, horribly dangerous. Suppose you couldn't get back, out of the chaos...'

David Pownall's play Music to Murder By (1976) juxtaposes the life of Gesualdo with that of twentieth-century composer Peter Warlock.[10] In 1985 the French writer Michel Breitman published the novel Шаблон:Ill based on the latter part of the life of Gesualdo.Шаблон:Citation needed In 1995,[11] Werner Herzog directed the film Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices about the life and music of Gesualdo.[12]

In the NME musician Anna Calvi named Gesualdo as one of her ultimate cult heroes:[13]Шаблон:Blockquote

Gesualdo's name is used by The Gesualdo Six, a British vocal consort, directed by Owain Park. The group was founded in Cambridge in 2014 for a performance of the Tenebrae Responsories for Maundy Thursday in Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge. The group perform a broad-ranging repertoire, from the music of the medieval period through to contemporary compositions of the present day.[14]

Score editions

  • 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. Шаблон:ISBN

Recordings

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

Madrigals

Шаблон:Unsourced section

  • Gesualdo, Madrigaux. Les Arts Florissants: Harmonia Mundi France CD 901268 (selection from madrigal books 4–6)
  • 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 currently available)
  • 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

Tenebrae

Шаблон:See

Other

  • Il cembalo intorno a Gesualdo, Paola Erdas (harpsichord)[15]
  • Gesualdo, Sacrae Cantiones Liber Secundus. Vocalconsort Berlin, James Wood: HMC 902123Шаблон:Cn

References

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Sources

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Further reading

External links

Шаблон:Commons category

Шаблон:Carlo Gesualdo Шаблон:Concerto delle donne Шаблон:Renaissance music Шаблон:Authority control