Carlos Gesualdo, image taken from wikipedia
Polyphonic songs (i.e. voices sing different melodies, but in such a way that they sound harmonious together) were a trendy thing during the Renaissance. In France for instance they had the chanson, and in Italy the madrigal.
A well known composer of the latter is Carlo Gesualdo (156?-1613), who wrote ground breaking madrigals and became a legend after murdering his wife Maria d’Avalos (and her lover).
These murders were committed with the help of his servants, after catching the couple sleeping together. Gesualdo stabbed his wife repeatedly (the servants took care of her lover, the Duke of Andria), as he was never convinced she was fully dead:
“even then he reentered the room to inflict several additional dagger thrusts, all the while muttering ‘I do not believe she is dead” (from the book “Gesualdo, the man and his music”, by Glenn Watkins, 2nd ed., 1991)
Gesualdo’s legend increased with time, and it was said that he also murdered his youngest son (fearful of the kid not being actually his), though this may have been made up.
His music in any case is very strange and beautiful. The phrases do not go where we think they “should” be going, as the chords resolve in unexpected ways. The following YouTube video is taken from a documentary (“Death for five voices”) by one of my favorite film directors, Werner Herzog. Who better than Herzog to do a documentary on Gesualdo? Having said so, and no matter how crazy Gesualdo’s life was, this documentary has to be taken with a grain of salt, as it is more about the legend of Gesualdo than the real man behind that legend.
In case anyone is interested here are the links to the whole documentary (each part has a running time of approx 10 mins)
