Taking a step back from the mainstream: Carlo Gesualdo
Jeremy Lev
When you're creating music with the intention of appealing to others, the essence of the pure creative experience is diluted. And that sucks for both the artist and the listener, who should feel insulted that the music is being consciously constructed to appeal to the listener's basest tastes. You want to write about what you know, what keeps you up at night because it's so fascinating, stimulating, or just plain interesting.
I want to briefly bring to attention an artist who truly embraced unadulterated, pure, selfish artistic creation. His name was Carlo Gesualdo, 16th century Prince of Venosa. He was an Italian composer, an aristocrat, and a murderer (brutally chopping his wife and lover to bits with a sword). Nonetheless, unlike his contemporaries who had to succumb to the interests of their financial backers (equivalent to record companies), Gesualdo was rich and had no people to appease. As a result he created some of the most progressive, expressive, and mind-expanding music of the time. Not really to be explored again until the 19th, maybe even 20th century with folks like Stravinsky.
His secular vocal music, also known as the madrigals, illustrated significant chromatic phrasing, violent rhythmic contrasts, and complete shifts from sharp dissonance to pleasant harmonies. They were filled with themes of love, death, agony, pain, and ecstasy. As a manic-depressive aristocratic murderer, Gesualdo found little love, and died alone at his estate in 1613.
This is just a brief and simple description of Carlo Gesualdo and his music, but hopefully this has intrigued you enough to check him out, and delve deeper into the classical music in general, and rise above today's mainstream music.
To learn more about Carlo Gesaldo, check out Sergio Vartolo's CD.
About The Author
Jeremy Lev is an emerging solo artist from Chapel Hill via New York. His sound is a soulful cabaret vibe layered with classical and world influences that's presented through an intimate warm acoustic style.
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