The Gesualdo Six
Program Notes by Owain Park
The Gesualdo Six explore some of the most beautiful and evocative writing from the two famous composers Palestrina and Gesualdo, featuring sacred works such as the ‘Gloria’ from Missa Papae Marcelli, settings of the Tenebrae Responsories, and profoundly moving motets, Sicut cervus and Peccantem me quotidie. The artistry of both composers also finds expression in the intricate interplay of secular and sacred madrigals, weaving narratives both poignant and jubilant.
Gesualdo – sacred works
The music of Carlo Gesualdo has always been a cornerstone of our repertoire—we performed his extraordinary Tenebrae Responsories for Maundy Thursday at our first concert. He is often portrayed as a radical in a conventional field, but it was composers such as Monteverdi who forged a new path and stitched the seams between the Renaissance and Baroque. The Responsories show Gesualdo’s adherence to the old, ‘Mannerist’ style, full of profuse exaggeration and dramatic hyperbole, yet confined to a polyphonic framework. He had taken all the elements as far as they would go, and so it is even more remarkable that the resulting music is a canvas of vivid colors and textures in which the most simple and poignant moments shine through.
“Gesualdo is often portrayed as a radical in a conventional field, but it was composers such as Monteverdi who forged a new path and stitched the seams between the Renaissance and Baroque.”
The radical preacher Girolamo Savonarola was born in Ferrara and remained a popular figure at the court there until long after his death in 1498, evidenced by the choice of texts by many Ferrara-linked composers, including Gesualdo. The text of In te Domine speravi (verses from Psalm 31) was the subject of Savonarola’s incomplete second meditation from prison. Gesualdo’s posthumously published setting is simple and psalm-like, and we intersperse the four-part choral texture with plainchant.
The opening subject in Gesualdo’s Peccantem me quotidie spans the interval of a seventh, although he presents it with a twist: consisting of a falling sixth which only passes by that elusive seventh sin. The text is a Response from the Office of the Dead, with the motet’s dark and somber tone capturing the essence of repentance and the struggle for redemption, perhaps reflecting Gesualdo’s own fascination with themes of guilt and spiritual longing.
Towards the end of his life, and some twenty-one years after partial estrangement from society due to his crimes—murdering two people and using his title as Prince of Venosa to shield himself from retribution—Gesualdo published three sets of Tenebrae Responsories for Holy Week. The texts trace the events of the Passion and were presumably performed in almost total darkness save for a handful of candles which were gradually extinguished. Gesualdo adheres to the rigidly austere formality of the Nocturns, sung liturgically in three groups of three Responsories, and he twists harmonies and melodic lines to create a profound musical expression of desolation.
In Tristis est anima mea, we encounter Jesus in the garden Gethsemane, his prayers portrayed by desolate, drooping figures. Suddenly, the music accelerates into frenzied motion, suggesting the fury of the mob and the flight of Jesus’s disciples. There follows a period of profound loneliness, radiant chords punctured by pungent dissonances, as Jesus says, “I will go to be sacrificed for you.”
Painting the darkness in the text, Tenebrae factae sunt opens with the four lowest voices singing tightly packed chords before the parts slip off to deliver an intricately chaotic series of harmonic twists and turns. Both of Jesus’s exclamations are marked by an expansion in the vocal ranges, with the voices meeting to deliver two very different messages: first, a cascade of falling entries as Jesus asks, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”; second, a pulsation of slow-moving chords as he prepares to give up the ghost.
Gesualdo composed two settings of O vos omnes, for five and six voices respectively. The text is adapted from Lamentations 1:12, with the word ‘sorrow’ featuring numerous times throughout the text. Apart from a brief flourish midway through the work at ‘attendite’ (“pay attention”), the music is characterized by aching dissonances and unnatural leaps between voice parts, embodying a remorseful soul.
“Palestrina was one of the most highly acclaimed musicians of the sixteenth century, and wrote a tremendous number of musical works, refining the musical style of his time.”
Palestrina – madrigals
Palestrina was one of the most highly acclaimed musicians of the sixteenth century, and wrote a tremendous number of musical works, refining the musical style of his time. The balance and elegant moderation of his music derives from his conservative melodic and harmonic style. He is best known for the 104 masses, though he composed in every other liturgical genre of his day, as well as nearly 100 madrigals.
Io son ferito, ahi lasso is in a similar style to one of his sacred polyphonic works, artfully shaping its tale of a wounded lover. Listen for the pointed repetitions of “accusar” (accuse), the painful affirmations of “Io spasm’e moro” (I shiver and die), and the confused, almost slow-motion portrayal of “crudel partito” (cruel fate).
With Queste saranno ben lagrime, we introduce a somewhat rare but real phenomenon: the ‘sacred madrigal.’ These were madrigal-style compositions using sacred texts, blending the expressive musical techniques of secular madrigals with the devotional content and purpose of sacred music. These were likely composed for private devotion or elite courtly religious settings, where expressive sacred music was appreciated.
Quando dal terzo cielo appears in Il trionfo di Dori, a celebrated anthology of 29 Italian madrigals published by Angelo Gardano in Venice in 1592. This collection stands as one of the finest achievements of late Renaissance madrigal composition, bringing together works by many of the leading composers of the day. Dedicated to the noblewoman Leonora d’Este, Il trionfo di Dori reflects the pastoral tastes of the period, with each madrigal written in praise of “Dori,” a mythological figure embodying idealized beauty and love. Through this unifying theme, the anthology offers a vivid glimpse into the refined poetic and musical culture of late sixteenth-century Italy.
Palestrina – sacred works
Palestrina’s mastery of strict Renaissance counterpoint was used as a pedagogical model by students of nearly every succeeding generation.
Palestrina’s Lamentationes Jeremiae Prophetae belong to a long tradition of Holy Week music in which the grief of Jerusalem, lamented by the prophet Jeremiah, becomes a meditation on Christ’s Passion. Composed for the Matins office of Holy Saturday, the third lesson (Lectio III) sets the final verses of the first chapter of the Book of Lamentations in Latin. These texts— marked in the liturgy by the Hebrew letters that begin each verse—are among the most poignant of the Tenebrae service. Lectio III for Sabbato Sancto (Holy Saturday) is part of the third lesson of the Matins or Tenebrae offices for that day. The dramatic weight in this Lectio comes from the alternation: the ebb and flow between moments of intense, complex polyphony and moments of repose; the contrast of smaller groups against the full ensemble.
This setting of the Nunc dimittis by Palestrina pairs the ancient Latin text of Simeon with the traditional antiphon “Salva nos, Domine, vigilantes” (“Save us, O Lord, while waking…”) and is composed in Tone III for four voices. Interestingly, one widely used choral arrangement (in Carols for Choirs 2) gives Aspiciens a longe as a “Matin Responsory” by adapting a setting of this Nunc dimittis by Palestrina, and is often sung at the service of Nine Lessons and Carols.
Few motets by Palestrina are as beloved as Sicut cervus, a four-voice setting of Psalm 42:1. Long, flowing lines suggest the psalmist’s patient yearning, while towards the end shorter motifs, closer imitation, and gentle dissonances heighten the sense of urgent desire. The result is one of the most enduring examples of Renaissance sacred polyphony.
Closing this section is the Gloria from Missa Papae Marcelli, the most famous of Palestrina’s works. It was first published in the Second Book of Masses of 1567; the actual date of its composition has been much discussed in the light of the work’s supposed salvation of polyphonic Church music from the executioner’s axe of the Counter- Reformation. The Mass accords fully with the directives of the Council of Trent: without ever losing a feeling of forward propulsion, of the dynamic springing from the static, Palestrina ensures that every word of the text is clearly projected and heard.
Gesualdo – madrigals
Books 5 & 6 (1611)
The madrigal settings composed by Gesualdo are well-known today for their extreme style: his chromatic melodies create dissonant and disjointed harmonic progressions that explore the most melancholy aspects of the dark texts he set. It has been suggested that Gesualdo’s harmonic adventurousness was inspired by his visits to Ferrara from 1594, where he was able to experiment upon the archicembalo with six keyboards that had been constructed by the court maestro Nicola Vicentino.
In Asciugate i begli occhi, Gesualdo’s use of intricate harmonic progressions and bold chromaticism underscores the emotional depth of the text, which implores the addressee to dry their tears and embrace the fleeting beauty of love. To conclude our program, we turn to Gesualdo’s sixth and final book of madrigals, published in 1611. In Ancide sol la morte, he explores his full box of harmonic tricks to enhance the text’s exploration of death as both a literal and metaphorical force. Finally, one of the most celebrated madrigals by Gesualdo: Moro, lasso, al mio duolo, which conveys a powerful sense of anguish and despair, reflecting the text’s theme of a love so intense it leads to a figurative death.
© Owain Park, 2025