Gesualdo da Venosa

Io, contemporaneo della fine del mondo Non vedo il bagliore Né il buio che segue Né lo schianto Né il piagnisteo Ma la verità Da miliardi di anni Farsi lampo Concerto n° 4 in do minore Per archi di Baldassarre Galuppi (te, piccolo, minutissimo Mazzetto di fiori di campo) La settima frase di Ornithology L'ultima, prima della cadenza e dal da capo Via, il noto balzo da uccello, sull'ultima nota Di Charlie... (Pensiero causale - Imperativo categorico - Ferma distinzione dell'uomo dall'animale Teorema adiabatico!) I madrigali di Gesualdo, principe di Venosa Musicista assassino della sposa - Cosa importa? Scocca la sua nota Dolce come rosa Gesualdo da Venosa © 1995 Franco Battiato & Manlio Sgalambro Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa was a late 16th, early 17th century composer of sophisticated madrigals and sacred music. He is also known for brutally killing his wife and her lover when he discovered them in the act. Also appearing in this pot-pourri of lyrics: a concerto by a Venetian composer, a bebop standard composed by Charlie "Bird" Parker, a philosophical concept from Immanuel Kant and a theorem from quantum mechanics.

I, contemporary of the end of the world, don’t see the glow, nor the darkness that follows, nor the crash nor the whimper. But the truth from billions of years becomes a flash. Concerto in C Minor for strings by Baldassarre Galuppi. (you, small, incredibly minute bunch of flowers of the field) The seventh phrase of “Ornithology,” the last, before the solos and from the top, away, the well-known bird leap, on the final note of Charlie . . . (Causal reasoning – Categorical imperative – Firm distinction of man from animal Adiabatic theorem!) The madrigals of Gesualdo, prince of Venosa, musician assassin of his wife. What matters? His note strikes sweet like a rose. English translation © 2020 Dennis Criteser L'ombrella e la macchina da cucire was released in 1995. It was recorded at Battiato's home using only electronic instruments, and for him it was somewhat of a return to the musical experimentation that characterized his 1970s work. The lyrics were written by Manlio Sgalambro, the Sicilian philosopher who said that, for him, Hegel's The Phenomenology of Spirit sung like music in his ears. References to philosophy and literature abound; the title of the album is taken from a line by the French poet Isidore Ducasse: "Beautiful as a chance encounter between a sewing machine and an umbrella on an operating table." This line, according to Max Ernst, is the key to understanding surrealist poetry - "the search for beauty through the pairing of two seemingly irreconcilable realities." Battiato felt liberated by not having to write lyrics, and he was stimulated to explore and discover new musical realms by the different aesthetic that Sgalambro brought to wordsmithing, one that flows from a man in many ways his opposite. Sgalambro described it this way: "Spiritual, transcendent, ascetic the first [Battiato]. Materialist, fleeting, anti-poetic, even cynical, the second [Sgalambro]."

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