Moro, lasso, al mio duolo

[inmanln01]

writing an essay on this piece right now.

[GrauenausderTiefe]

@inmanln01 will you publish it?

[inmanln01]

@GrauenausderTiefe no it was just for a music history course in university!

[clauclau33]

Do you ever get those shivers that start in your scalp and then rush down your whole body?

[Cherodar]

This is beautiful and what I'm about to say isn't at all a complaint, but I notice that they're singing a whole major third lower than it's written, i.e. starting on an A major chord and ending on F major, rather than starting on C-sharp major and ending on A major. Is there a historical reason for this or something? I know that for baroque pieces people often tune down a whole or half step, but I hadn't heard of pitch decreasing even further as you go further back in history.

[tylervanbach]

1:54 so. beautiful.



[tylervanbach]

@tylervanbach e non vuol darmi aita!

[najika852]

im sorry but the painting is scaring me ><

[clintow]

Apparently Artusi has a YouTube account; I can't imagine anyone else that would dislike this

[12345JJBB]

Name of painting?!??!

[barutha]

@12345JJBB a bit late, but 'Laocoon' by El Greco

[12345JJBB]

@barutha better late than never, thanks a lot

[12345JJBB]

Nadeag

[dogkelp]

the original death metal tune, but ten times more entertaining. incredible.

[AlexShulhan123]

These voices communicate such profound emotion and truth.

[firesong75]

Stunning harmonically for any century and beautifully performed!

[kkallebb]

Love the illustration you've chosen to accompany this masterpiece: El Greco's depiction of Laocoon and his sons strangled by serpents. There aren't perhaps a lot of pictures from the renaissance that can illustrate G's music, but this is one of them.

[dragmio]

@kkallebb You're so right - El Greco's Laocoon is incredible. Ahead of it's time just like Gesualdo's music.

[ninebreaker21]

@kkallebb I introduced an El Greco scholar to Gesualdo. Her initial reaction, "this is El Greco music!"

[guitars2112]

2:24 oh my what a fun chord.

[beee245]

wow so I only just heard of him and I'm looking up his history and the murders and it is FASCINATING.

especially with this chilling genius as background music.

[DannyDaWriter]

Such bizarre harmonies and dissonances for a piece written at this time! It's almost painful — but I suspect this is part of the experience when listening to this pain. After all, the text invokes the subject of extreme pain and death. Lovely music and performance.

If anyone's interested, a few 20th century composers who music is comparable in attitude are Scelsi, Schnittke (who wrote an opera on Gesualdo!), and Feldman.

[luisortmul]

this is so fucking beautiful i want to die

[withcellist]

my thoughts exactly

[DrJuice1]

Gesualdo disapproves of your profanity.

[luisortmul]

on the contrary, i think he would have loved such an extreme comment!

i wrote very much under the spirit of his life and work

chúpate esa, que es de fresa!!!

:-)

[DannyDaWriter]

Profanity is the most raw of human expression; there are some instances wherein clean language cannot fully describe extremity. This is why I have lots of respect for George Carlin, the greatest comedian of our time — he said what needed to be said, and wasn't afraid of using "dirty words" to make his point come across.

[NormanNorma]

Its worth checking a timeline of composers to ascertain how shockingly early this it. Some of the craziest harmonic manipulations ever, incredibly anachronistic music.

[epn10]

What's strange is that Gesualdo composed his 5th/6th books in a style that was starting to go out of fashion in the early 17th century - the modal, polyphonic style of the Renaissance. This work is an extreme example - there is an underlying conventional structure, but it is surrounded by exotic, unexpected, and often shocking harmonies (0:38 and 2:12, for example). Gesualdo apparently did not fully embrace the tonal style (major/minor keys) popularized by Monteverdi - the "Seconda Prattica."

[DrJuice1]

i don't know which group performed it, but i've heard a different recording of Moro Lasso in which the harmonies are even more shocking than in this one.

by the way, how about the eery irony of the fact that Gesualdo murdered his wife and her lover because she was cheating on him and the lyrics in this song are about being rejected by a lover.

i only wonder if he wrote this before or after he knew his wife was cheating.

[luisortmul]

some other recordings (earlier) are so out of tune they are painful... maybe that caused the extra shocking harmonies?

[DannyDaWriter]

Hmm... Gesualdo committed the murders in 1586. Book VI (which contains "Moro, Lasso") was published in 1611. However, even before Book VI there was a definite display of extremes of human emotions in his writing.

[DrJuice1]

that's interesting. it's just seems like the text so closely relates to the murders: "wearily i die from my sorrow, and she who could give me life, alas, gives me death, and will not help me" or something like that.

[maryjivinjane]

Thanks for this wonderful video!

[BrokenConSacha]

Beautiful singing (if perhaps a little homogenous), but what's that screeching noise in the background?

[kkallebb]

Wonderful performance!