Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613) was a highly musical Italian nobleman known for his pioneering style of chromatic madrigal composition. He murdered his wife and her lover after discovering their two-year affair. This tragic event inspired his intensely emotional and experimental music. Gesualdo further developed his compositional skills in Ferrara, where he learned from the top Italian madrigal composers and singers of the time. He suffered from depression in his later years but continued writing challenging and expressive vocal music until his death.

1. Carlo Gesualdo
1566 – 1613

2. Early Years
• Birth date disputed may have been born in
1566 in Venosa
• Very musical from young age, and knew he
wanted to pursue music
• Played harpsichord, lute, and guitar

3. Love Gone Wrong
• Gesualdo married Donna Maria d’Avalos, his
first cousin
• She had an affair with the Duke of Andria,
FabrizioCarafa, two years after they were
married
• Donna kept it a secret from Gesualdo for
almost two years, finally Gesualdo got wind of
the affair

4. Love Gone Wrong
• Gesualdo faked a hunting trip and snuck back
to find his wife in flagrante delictowith Carafa
• He murdered them and left their bodies on
display for everyone to see
• He could not be prosecuted because he was a
nobleman, but he had return to Venosa
• It was also said that he killed their baby, but it
is not a confirmed fact

5. Love Revived?
• Married Leonora d’Este, who lived in Ferrara
(a musical powerhouse)
• Here, he learned about madrigals, and
published a book of Italian madrigals
• In Ferrara, he had the chance to work with
some of the top Italian singers (concerto
delledonne)

6. Late Years
• In later years of his life, he hired musicians and
wrote from them for his, and only his, enjoyment
• He wrote some of his hardest music with
chromaticism in Naples
• His relationship with wife began to fade, but Cecil
Gray said, “She seems to have been a very
virtuous lady… for there is no record of his having
killed her.”
• Suffered from depression

7. Music
• Because of his life, Gesualdo expressed very
well in madrigal text-painting
• Extremely chromatic music
• Genres of music: instrumental, secular and
sacred vocal music
• Greatest hits: Six published
books, TenebraeResponsoria (sacred- Peter
betraying Jesus)

8. Music
• O Vos Omnes (Cambridge Singers)
• Ecco, moriro dunque (The Monteverdi Choir)
• Se la miamortebrami(Ensemble
Métamorphoses)

9. Other Articles of Goodness
• http://mq.oxfordjournals.org/content/LIV/4/4
09.extract (scholarly article)
• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P
MC1807043/ (scholarly article)
• http://open.spotify.com/user/1217274001/pl
aylist/4Dgs1jJDE2WOp2DQGYjsmT (Spotify
Playlist)