Gesualdo, Carlo (c. 1561–1613)

Italian composer and lutenist. His compositions, which comprise sacred and secular vocal music and some instrumental pieces, are noted for their complex (modern-sounding) harmonic structure, most unlike the work of his contemporaries. His highly chromatic madrigals (in six books, 1594–1611), set to emotional, passionate texts, were admired in the 20th century by Igor Stravinsky, among others.

In 1590 he had his wife and her lover murdered; he married Leonora d'Este of Ferrara in 1593, and lived at the court in Ferrara until 1596.

Gesualdo took his music studies seriously in his youth and became a very accomplished lutenist. He married his first cousin Maria d'Avalos, a Neapolitan noblewoman, in 1586. Though only 21, she had already been married twice and had children. She bore him a son, but became the lover of Fabrizio Caraffa, 3rd Duke of Andria; Gesualdo had them both murdered on the night of 16 October 1590. In 1594 he went to the court of Ferrara and married Leonora d'Este there, but returned to his estate at Naples in 1596, where he spent the rest of his life in a state of profound depression.

His work is notable for its expressive power and chromatic harmony. In 1960 Stravinsky orchestrated three of Gesualdo's madrigals, to mark the 400th anniversary of his birth. He is the subject of Alfred Schnittke's second opera, Gesualdo.

Works seven books of madrigals (the last posthumously published of pieces composed in 1594); two books of Sacrae cantiones, responds for six voices.