The Gesualdo Hex: Music, Myth, and Memory [Hardcover]

An amazingly rich book with shocking news about Gesualdos life and elegantly wise thoughts about avant-garde composing in the 1950s. Gesualdos music is the guide through this labyrinth. Louis AndriessenIn this vivid tale of adultery and intrigue, witchcraft and murder, Glenn Watkins explores the fascinating life of the Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdoa life suffused with scandal and bordering on the fantastical. An isolated prince, Gesualdo had a personal life that was no less eccentric and bewildering than the music he composed; his biography has often clouded our perception of his oeuvre, which music scholars have periodically dismissed as a late Renaissance deformation of little consequence.[A] brilliant look at how cultural influences propagate through time in strange and unpredictable ways&With his second wonderfully illuminating book on Gesualdo, Watkins reconfirms the extremely significant role he has played in the further understanding of this remarkable princes life and work.A riveting investigation of one of the most provocative musicians of the Renaissance, who continues to captivate composers, artists, and audiences today.