The Gesualdo Hex: Music, Myth, and Memory

by Glenn Watkins

In this vivid tale of adultery and intrigue, witchcraft and murder, Glenn Watkins explores the fascinating life of the Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo—a 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.


Today, however, Gesualdo’s music, once deemed so strange as to be unperformable, stands as one of the most vibrant legacies of the late Italian Renaissance with an undeniable impact on a host of twentieth-century musicians and artists. The incendiary details of Gesualdo’s life recede, and his grip on our musical imagination comes to the fore. Watkins challenges our preconceptions of what has become a nearly mythic persona, weaving together the cumulative experience of some of the most vibrant artists of the past century from Stravinsky and Schoenberg to Abbado and Herzog.


Beyond questions of mere influence, however, The Gesualdo Hex offers a profound meditation on cultural memory and historical awareness: how composers attempt to shape the legacy they will bequeath to the world, and how music and history inevitably take on a new guise as they are revisited by subsequent generations and reinterpreted in light of contemporary experience. In examining Gesualdo’s life, music, myth, and memory intertwine with one another to reveal an uncanny affinity with our own time. With his elegant and engaging prose, Watkins asks us to grapple with our understanding not only of art and the artists who create it but also of history itself.

Genres: Music, History, Nonfiction

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well-researched, interesting, and thought-provoking, this book on Gesualdo is not just a book on the music or even the life of one composer. It takes the far-reaching effects of one composer and brings it into the present, through the lives of Schoenberg, Stravinsky and others.

I was interested by the patterns of popularity of specific periods in music, and how much of what we know about Renaissance Music actually comes from research done after World War II. I have a bunch of references marked in the book to follow up on, and may add to this review later, but this is a fascinating picture of Gesualdo, and while it is far more scholarly than its description would have you believe, it is well worth the read.

[Adam Irving · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is at times very confused on just what type of monograph it is trying to be. A biography of the composer Gesualdo? A high gloss/interpretation of two twentieth century composers? An argument of how history is interpreted? At times, this book tries to be all three and, while each aspect has merit, stitching the whole together is not always successful. Some elements have explanation, for the author had personal experience with Stravinsky and so spending a good deal of time on that element is understandable. Is there a central thesis? I'm not so sure, because keeping the line strung through each section of the book, it can be easy for the reader to become *too* lost in the current subject. It is only in the last few chapters that all the pieces come together. Here, we see several decades of experience, reflection and consideration as a music historian come to the fore. While I personally think we could have arrived to that end point in a more streamlined, I also acknowledge I am almost certainly not the intended audience of this work. Definitely something of interest to early music advocates, specifically how to take such a distant historical figure and connect him to the present day.

[Andrew Austin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was hoping from the title that this would be more of a mystical book - it’s just history. Every once in a while he throws in the word “hex” to make the whole subject seem more spooky than it is. The hardest part to read is the middle where Stravinsky is the focus - as is the author, who narrates in the first person and name-drops with great fervor - at a cocktail party, I would roll my eyes and walk away from him. Well-researched for sure - the best part is the breviary in which one finds additional reading and listening.

[Alex Stephenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not to call this "scattered", but the central link between Gesualdo and the 20th century composers discussed here can get a bit lost at times, especially in the Stravinsky section which gets very lost in its own era. Nevertheless, as an examination of Gesualdo's life and lasting influence, and how the latter came to be, this is an excellent overview.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

This wonderfully deep book begins with an examination of the life and music of Gesualdo, and then becomes a wonderful exploration of the connections between this Renaissance composer, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, and modern music as well as why and how Gesualdo and his music continue to resonate with modern musicians and composers. It's completely fascinating.
I especially loved how Watkins wove everything together to create a very compelling look at how the past interacts with the present and what that means for art, artists, and the way we find meaning in them both. It's clear that Watkins not only really knows his subject matter but also really loves it - the writing, while on the scholarly side, really drew me in and kept me thinking. I know that I will keep thinking about this book and coming back to the ideas it contains.

[Bruno · Rating 4 out of 5]

Het heeft bijna een jaar geduurd eer ik dit uitgelezen heb. De reden daartoe was omdat ik in de veronderstelling verkeerde dat ik beter eerst _The Rest is Noise_ zou uitlezen om een gedegen basis te hebben, maar dat bleek niet nodig. Wat de inhoud betreft citeer ik graag Richard Taruskin op de omslag: "Part memoir, part thriller, part metahistory." Zeer gespecialiseerde literatuur, maar boeiend voor wie in Gesualdo en zijn invloed op de hedendaagse muziek geïnteresseerd is.

[Stefanie Lubkowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating so far...and fascinating to the end. I liked the way this book considered Gesualdo's legacy, not only in terms of his influence on contemporary composers, but also on the ways in which his biography, legend, and music have been treated historically, and how we make sense of the meaning and importance of someone and something in the past.

[Carter Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

While it was highly creative and engaging, I sometimes wonder if Watkins looks too deeply into history to make connections that aren't there. While his original work on Gesualdo was brilliant, this one was not quite as much so.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe if I had read this over January like I initially planned, there would have been a slightly more interesting senior seminar.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

brought up the level of my understanding of the Madrigal and of its place in music history.