Gesualdo : the man and his music / Glenn Watkins ; preface by Igor Stravinsky.

Author/creator Watkins, Glenn
Format Book
Edition2nd edition.
Publication InfoOxford : Clarendon, 1991.
Descriptionxxiv, 414 pages, 1 unnumbered page of plates : illustrations, music ; 24 cm
Subjects
Gesualdo, Carlo, principe di Venosa, approximately 1560-1613.
Composers--Italy.

Contents Gesualdo di Venosa: New Perspective / Igor Stravinsky -- List of Plates -- The Man -- The Early Years: 1560-1590 -- Family origins and connections -- Birth and youth -- The first marriage and tragedy -- Literary reflections on the murder -- A painting at S. Maria delle Grazie -- The end of the affair -- Ferrara: 1594-1596 -- The situation at Ferrara -- The second marriage -- Marriage festivities and court life -- The musical scene: Madrigal Books 1 and 2 published -- Tasso and Gesualdo -- The return to Gesualdo -- Residence in Ferrara -- The Last Years: 1597-1613 -- Domestic crisis -- Gesualdo's death -- Burial and will -- The Music -- The Question of Mannerism -- The crisis of the Ars Perfecta -- The elements of Mannerism -- Nature and genius -- Gesualdo and Mannerism -- Text and Form -- Poetic form -- The canzone -- The ballata -- The multi-stanza canzone and sestina -- The sonnet -- The madrigal -- Musical form -- The verse/phrase -- Larger structural features -- Poetic subjects -- The problem of textual identification -- The Madrigals: Books I and II -- Contrapuntal foundations -- Some comparisons -- The Madrigals: Books III and IV -- Backgrounds -- Transitions -- The Madrigals: Books V and VI -- Text and music: disruption and contrast -- Gesualdo and the dissonance -- Double counterpoint -- Tonality and cadence -- Accidentals and chromaticism -- Harmonic progression -- The Late Style: Models and Successors -- Pomponio Nenna -- Luzzaschi and Macque -- Minor Neapolitan figures -- The Sacrae Cantiones.
Abstract Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa, is equally celebrated as the composer of madrigals of great power and tortured complexity and as the murderer of his wife and her lover in flagrante delicto. His life and compositions are not unconnected. His neurotic sensibility found an ideal outlet in the mannerist tendencies of late Renaissance music, and his works are the most extreme examples of those tendencies. Watkins's extended study of Gesualdo's life and works was originally published in 1973. Alongside detailed analysis of Gesualdo's remarkable madrigals and of the few works in other genres, it contained much new biographical material, particularly on the latter part of the composer's life. This new edition has been extensively updated, and contains a new chapter covering the research of recent years. The preface to the first edition, by Igor Stravinsky is reprinted.
General notePrevious edition: London : Oxford University Press, 1973.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references (pages 385-399), list of works (pages 400-405), and index.
LCCNgb 90004919
ISBN0198161972 (pbk) :
ISBN0198162162 (cased)

Availability

Library Location Call Number Status Item Actions
Music Music Stacks ML410.G29 W5 1991 ✔ Available Place Hold