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.
While he was infamous for his murders, he also remains famous for his music, which 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 music until the 19th century, and then in a context of tonality that prevents them from being directly comparable.
Gesualdo's published music falls into three categories: sacred vocal music, secular vocal music, and instrumental music. His most famous compositions are his six published books of madrigals (between 1594 and 1611), as well as his Tenebrae Responsories, which are very much like madrigals, except that they use texts from the Passion. 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.
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.
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, or even A minor and D-flat major (as he does at the beginning of Moro, lasso).
His most famous sacred composition is the set of Tenebrae Responsories, published in 1611, which are stylistically madrigali spirituali — madrigals on sacred texts. As in the later books of 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 Jesus.
Ancide sol la morte
Carlo Gesualdo Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
E tu, mio core, che la vita sei,
Uccider non mi puoi
Col dolce colpo de' begli occhi tuoi.
Io, morendo per te, lieto morrei,
Se ferita mortale
Uscir ptesse de beltà vitale.
The lyrics of Carlo Gesualdo's song Ancide sol la morte are rich with emotions and complexities that delve deep into the human psyche. The phrase "Ancide sol la morte" translates to "Only death can kill me." The song goes on to express the notion that even though the heart is the source of life, the sweet gaze of a lover cannot kill it. The singer says that they would willingly die if mortal wounds could come from the blade of their lover's beauty. This line implies that love is powerful enough to bring an end to life.
Overall, the song expresses the idea that love and death are intertwined. The singer is willing to die for the object of their affection but knows that death is the only force that can destroy them completely. The language used in the song is romantic and passionate, and it is a perfect example of Gesualdo's ability to merge music and poetry to create a truly powerful artistic experience.
Line by Line Meaning
Ancide sol la morte,
Only death can kill me,
E tu, mio core, che la vita sei,
And you, my heart, who are my life,
Uccider non mi puoi
You cannot kill me,
Col dolce colpo de' begli occhi tuoi.
With the sweet blow of your beautiful eyes.
Io, morendo per te, lieto morrei,
I would happily die for you,
Se ferita mortale
If a mortal wound,
Uscir ptesse de beltà vitale.
Could come about from vital beauty.
Contributed by Stella W. Suggest a correction in the comments below.