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.
Ardita Zanzaretta
Carlo Gesualdo Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Morde colei che il mio cor strugge e tiene
In così crude pene;
Fugge poi e rivola
In quel bel seno che il mio cor invola,
Indi la prende e stringe e la dà morte
Per sua felice sorte.
Ti morderò ancor io,
E se mi prendi e stringi, ahi, verrò meno
Provando in quel bel sen dolce veleno.
The lyrics to Carlo Gesualdo's "Ardita Zanzaretta" are a fascinating exploration of the pain and pleasure of love. The singer is haunted by a mosquito that bites and torments the person that the singer loves and desires. Despite the mosquito's cruelty, the singer cannot help but envy it for being able to touch and be close to the object of their desire.
The mosquito's flight represents the fleeting nature of love and desire, as it comes and goes without warning or explanation. But when the mosquito finally lands on the person's breast, it is a moment of intense bliss for the singer, despite the fatal consequences for the insect. The singer declares their own desire to also bite and be close to their beloved, even if it means risking their own destruction.
Overall, the lyrics of "Ardita Zanzaretta" capture the intense emotional conflict and paradoxes that often accompany love: the pain and pleasure, the desire and destruction, the temporary and eternal.
Line by Line Meaning
Ardita zanzaretta
Bold little mosquito
Morde colei che il mio cor strugge e tiene
Bites the one who torments and holds my heart
In così crude pene;
In such crude pain;
Fugge poi e rivola
Then flies away and returns
In quel bel seno che il mio cor invola,
To that beautiful bosom that steals my heart,
Indi la prende e stringe e la dà morte
Then it grabs and squeezes and gives it death
Per sua felice sorte.
To its happy fate.
Ti morderò ancor io,
I will also bite you,
Dolce amato ben mio,
My sweet beloved,
E se mi prendi e stringi, ahi, verrò meno
And if you grab and squeeze me, oh, I will faint
Provando in quel bel sen dolce veleno.
Experiencing in that beautiful bosom sweet poison.
Contributed by Madison P. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Carlos Aguilar
He is my favorite composer, I´m so glad by your channel, in my country is so hard buy his music
Georg Kramer
all the strange beauties in this world compressed into three minutes
Ivan K.
Way too much reverb in this recording.
Jeff Triggs
I must admit to liking it with this much reverb
Opera
2:49
diego vicente valderrama pepper
0:19