Update Title: BECF2729-63B0-4391-AD58-A0482C7E07A1

ID

Titlecode

Title Name

Marketing Copy

Instrumentation

Commission

Dedication

Program Notes

Oh Gesualdo, Divine Tormentor! is a collection of seven pieces by and about Gesualdo.
First, there are five of his most arresting madrigals (that is, madrigals for which some
thought he should be arrested) arranged from the five-voice vocal works to fit on four
instruments; then an original composition in which I use fragments of his most famous
madrigal, Moro lasso – (Perhaps I should be arrested for giving this movement the title
More or Less.); and last, a quiet yet disturbing finale I have called Momenti, which
consists of some of the strangest moments in Gesualdo’s music organized into a mini
tone-poem for string quartet. The title refers to the typical sentiment in the madrigal texts
of Gesualdo’s time, when it seemed that nearly all poets were dying of unrequited love,
and their ladies were all cruel and fair. Gesualdo perfectly depicts all this suffering and
yearning in his music, far better than any composer with the possible exception of Robert
Schumann. The texts become redundant quickly, but the music remains fresh, immediate
and surprising.
I would like to thank Mark Steinberg for asking me to take on this project for the
Brentano String Quartet.
There is more to the story. First, you should know that before he founded the Brentano
String Quartet, Mark Steinberg put together an ensemble called the Gesualdo String
Quartet. (The plot thickens.) Why name a string quartet after a composer who wrote
before string quartets existed? It had to do with Mark’s fascination with Gesualdo’s
strange, dark harmonies, weird approach to voice-leading and shocking mood swings.
Where had the young violinist become acquainted with this ancient music? In a class at
the Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division taught by, well, me. That was more than 20
years ago. And so, when Mark called me about a Gesualdo project, it felt to me as though
time had suddenly become compressed, as if the class were only yesterday.
It so happens that I not only taught Gesualdo’s music to my students at Juilliard, but I led
a seminar at Yale in 1984 on his music, and also composed a set of piano variations on
Moro lasso at that time for the pianist Sarah Rothenberg. That work was mentioned in
Soundings, a book on 20th century music by Glenn Watkins, the eminent musicologist
who edited the modern edition of Gesualdo’s madrigals. Watkins also wrote the book on
Gesualdo. That book, by the way, has an introduction by Stravinsky. Why Stravinsky?
Read on.
The Renaissance master of mannerism Don Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa, came
crashing into the 20th century when Igor Stravinsky composed his Monumentum pro
Gesualdo in 1960. Stravinsky was inspired by the “crank of chromaticism”, as he called
Gesualdo, and was aided and abetted in his endeavors to revive the neglected Neapolitan
master by the new, accurate editions of the music prepared by Glenn Watkins. That
Gesualdo’s murder of his first wife and her lover had been used to explain his intensely
chromatic music is merely a demonstration of how low musicology can sink. Gesualdo’s
colleagues in chromatic cunning – Luzzaschi, Nenna, d’India – never killed anyone. Case
closed.
Gesualdo himself would have thought it perfectly normal to perform his madrigals as
instrumental music, without any reference to the words. In the Prince’s own time, his
madrigals were performed on viols as part of theatrical performances “for action of a
melancholy nature”, according to the contemporary treatise Musica Scenica by Doni.
Gesualdo’s music has long been as controversial as his criminal behavior. The music
historian Charles Burney wrote in 1789 that “The madrigal Moro lasso is presented to the
musical reader as a specimen of his style, and harsh, crude, and licentious modulation; in
which, the beginning a composition in A minor, with the chord of C sharp, with a sharp
third, is neither consonant to the present laws of modulation, nor to those of the
ecclesiastical tones…” Burney further describes Gesualdo’s music as “repugnant to every
rule of transition…extremely shocking and disgusting to the ear, to go from one chord to
another in which there is no relation, real or imaginary…” Musicians love this music for
its deliberate rule-bending, still-surprising harmonic twists, and unrestrained imagination.
The madrigal Moro lasso (Alas, I die) has come to be a symbol of the restless creative
spirit, and supports the non-linear view of music history.
Speaking of non-linear events, it certainly closes a circle (temporarily, perhaps) for me to
return to Gesualdo on behalf of my one-time Gesualdo student, Mark Steinberg. It
probably does the same for him, even if the Brentano String Quartet is named for
Beethoven’s Immortal Beloved rather than for a man who sent his beloved’s immortal
soul on its way.

Title Brand

Year Composed

Copyright Number

Copyright Year

Duration

Ensemble Size

Date Created

Date Updated

Inhouse Note

Bsc Code

Text Author

Premier Performance Memo

Recording Credits

Review

Awards

Title Category

Title Movements

Title Grade

Set Series ID

Title Instrument Category Text

Title Sub Category Text

Title Sub Category

Title Instrument Header

Title Grade Text

Clean Url