570548 bk Gesualdo US 29/1/10 13:06 Page 12 Carlo GESUALDO da Venosa Madrigals Book 1 Delitiæ Musicæ • Marco Longhini Marco Longhini Photo: Agnes Spaak 8.570548 12 570548 bk Gesualdo US 29/1/10 13:06 Page 2 Carlo * Danzan le ninfe oneste * The honest nymphs and shepherds dance GESUALDO – Seconda parte – Part Two da Venosa (Torquato Tasso) (1566-1613) Danzan le ninfe oneste e i pastorelli The honest nymphs and shepherds dance e i susurranti augelli in fra le fronde and amid the leaves the birds softly sing THE FIRST BOOK OF MADRIGALS, 1594 al mormorar dell’onde e vaghi fiori above the murmuring water, and the Graces IL PRIMO LIBRO DE’ MADRIGALI, 1594 donan le grazie ai pargoletti amori. give pretty flowers to the little cupids. 1 Baci soavi e cari (part 1) (a, b, d, e, f) 3:36 ( Son sì belle le rose ( The roses nature gave you 2 Quanto ha di dolce amore (part 2) (a, b, d, e, f) 3:15 (Livio Celiano) 3 Madonna, io ben vorrei (a, b, c, d, f) 3:35 Son sì belle le rose The roses nature gave you 4 Come esser può ch’io viva? (a, b, c, e, f) 2:41 che in voi natura pose are as beautiful 5 Gelo ha madonna in seno (a, b, c, d, f) 2:39 come quelle che l’arte as those that art 6 Mentre madonna (part 1) (b, c, d, e, f) 2:39 nel vago seno ha sparte. has strewn on your fair breast. 7 Ahi, troppo saggia (part 2) (b, c, d, e, f) 2:56 Non so, mirando poi, So I know not, on looking, se voi le rose, o sian le rose voi. if you are the roses, or the roses you. 8 Se da si nobil mano (a, b, c, e, f) 2:24 9 Amor, pace non chero (a, b, d, e, f, g) 2:03 ) Bella angioletta ) Beautiful little angel 0 Sì gioioso mi fanno i dolor miei (a, b, d, e, f) 3:32 (Torquato Tasso) ! O dolce mio martire (a, b, d, e, f) 2:39 Bella angioletta, da le vaghe piume, Beautiful little angel, with your fair feathers, @ Tirsi morir volea (part 1) (a, b, c, e, f) 3:21 prestane al grave pondo lend my burdensome body # Frenò Tirsi il desio (part 2) (a, b, c, e, f) 2:46 tante ch’io esca fuor di questo fondo enough of them that I may rise from these depths $ Mentre, mia stella, miri (a, b, c, e, f) 2:56 o possa in qualche ramo and from some branch % Non mirar, non mirare (a, b, c, e, f) 3:08 di te cantando dire: io amo. declare in song: I love you. ^ Questi leggiadri odorosetti fiori (a, c, d, e, f) 3:37 & Felice primavera! (part 1) (a, b, d, e, f, g) 2:11 * Danzan le ninfe (part 2) (a, b, d, e, f, g) 1:33 English translations by Susannah Howe ( Son sì belle le rose (a, b, c, e, f) 2:31 ) Bella angioletta (a, b, c, e, f) 2:13 Urtext Music for this recording by Marco Longhini and Rosaria Chiodini DELITIÆ MUSICÆ Alessandro Carmignani, Countertenor (cantus) (a) Paolo Costa, Countertenor (quintus) (b) Fabio Fùrnari, Tenor (quintus-altus) (c) Paolo Fanciulacci, Tenor (altus) (d) Marco Scavazza, Baritone (tenor) (e) Walter Testolin, Bass (bassus) (f) Carmen Leoni, Harpsichord (clavicembalo) (g) Marco Longhini, Conductor 8.570548 2 11 8.570548 570548 bk Gesualdo US 29/1/10 13:06 Page 10 $ Mentre, mia stella, miri $ As, my star, you watch Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa (1566-1613) (Torquato Tasso) The First Book of Madrigals, 1594 Mentre, mia stella, miri As, my star, you watch i bei celesti giri, the celestial bodies turn, Gesualdo and the City of Ferrara What connection was there between that northern city il ciel esser vorrei I wish that I were heaven, and a prince whose life had been spent between Naples, perchè tu rivolgessi that if you were to turn The First Book of Madrigals by Carlo Gesualdo, Prince Venosa and Gesualdo (two small towns in the south of fiso negli occhi miei your lovely eyes of Venosa, was published by a Ferrarese printer, Italy that still bear the name of his patrician family)? le tue dolci faville, and look up into mine, Vittorio Baldini, in 1594. Baldini also issued the Second For Carlo Gesualdo, it was a matter of publishing Io vagheggiar potessi, I could gaze down upon Book of Madrigals that same year. Both volumes were his own works at the court that perhaps cultivated and mille bellezze tue con luci mille. your thousand beauties through as many stars. edited by the musician Scipione Stella, who stated in the valued music more than any other at the time, and prefaces he wrote for each that he had compiled these appreciated the madrigal in particular, as a symbol of % Non mirar, non mirare % Look not, look not collections of previously published works by his prince the synthesis between the different arts, and as the (Filippo Alberti (1548-1618)) and protector and had corrected the printing errors they mature and favourite fruit of a sophisticated aristocratic Non mirar, non mirare Look not, look not contained. At that time, it would not have been fitting culture. For Ferrara, meanwhile, the prince represented di questa bella imago on the noble, precious aspect for a nobleman to concern himself with publishing potential salvation from a dire political fate: Duke l’altere parti e rare. of this lovely image. books or music (princely occupations in Renaissance Alfonso II d’Este (grandson of the infamous Lucrezia Ahi, che di morir vago Alas, I long for death society were very different, outwardly at least), and Borgia), the last of the noble family of patrons that had tu pur rimiri come yet you merely look on, therefore he had had a number of works printed under governed the city since 1332, had no children and if l’immoto guardo gira your unchanging gaze turns away, the name of Giuseppe Pilonii (not a pseudonym, but a there were no male heir (because of a long-standing e loquace silenzio il labro spira. and your lips utter an eloquent silence. “dear friend” of the Flemish musician Jean de Macque, agreement with the papacy), the family lands would be O desir troppo ardito, O too passionate desire, both members of the Gesualdo household in the years returned to the Papal States. It must have been felt that va, va, che sei ferito! go, go, for you are wounded! after 1586; sadly, all trace of this earlier publication has marriage between Gesualdo and Alfonso’s niece been lost). Stella’s prefaces are dated 2nd June 1594 for Leonora might be the ideal way to try and resolve this ^ Questi leggiadri odorosetti fiori ^ These fair and perfumed blooms Book One and 10th May 1594 for Book Two: the latter delicate situation by currying favour with Carlo’s uncle, (Livio Celiano (1557-1629)) therefore appears to predate the former. Two further Cardinal Alfonso Gesualdo, one of the most powerful Questi leggiadri odorosetti fiori These fair and perfumed blooms books followed in quick succession (in 1595 and 1596), and influential men in Rome. On 19th February 1594, fur già ninfe e pastori once were nymphs and shepherds both also published in Ferrara by Baldini. As was very the Prince arrived in Ferrara: “bringing with him two ed or de’ miei pensieri and now are the silent messengers often the case in Renaissance Italy, the publication of a books of music in five parts, all his own work” (as son muti messaggieri. of my thoughts. book of music simply meant bringing together some of a chronicled by Alfonso Fontanelli, sent out by the Duke Deh, mentre voi pietosa Ah, while you, in compassion composer’s best pieces – works he believed would be to meet the wedding party and report back on his future volgete gli occhi a la lor sorte ria, turn your gaze on their unhappy fate, enjoyed and appreciated by a wider audience of listeners relative) as well as a retinue of thirty from his own pietà vi mova de la doglia mia. let my suffering too move you to pity. and performers. Hence these madrigals (eighty in all, court. The marriage took place on 21st February with all twenty in each book) are split between four volumes, kinds of merrymaking, including a joust, a grand & Felice primavera! – Parte prima & Happy Spring! – Part One probably not in accurate chronological order, but all twenty-three-course banquet (details of this, as of all the (Torquato Tasso) connected by having been printed in Ferrara. Fifteen festivities, have survived) and the exchange of Felice primavera! Happy Spring! years were to pass before another Gesualdo publication expensive gifts, such as the beautifully engraved de’ bei pensier fiorisce nel mio core Joyful thoughts cause Love’s new laurels appeared; Baldini had by then lost interest, and the ceremonial cuirass which can still be seen today at Novo lauro d’Amore to flourish within my heart, composer’s last two books were printed in Venice, both Prague Castle, and the ode Lascia, o figlio di Urania, il A cui ride la terra e il ciel d’intorno and heaven and earth smile at the sight in 1611. bel Parnaso, written expressly for the occasion by the e di bel manto adorno while the Po adorns its banks How, then, did Gesualdo come to bear his first great poet Torquato Tasso.