Beautiful torment: Interpreting dissonance and text-painting in selected sacred choral works of William Byrd and Carlo Gesualdo

Abstract

The end of the sixteenth century was filled with social, religious, and political turmoil; and yet, the musical atmosphere in England and Italy was conducive to new ideas in text-setting and chromatic inflection that had not been seen in previous eras. This thesis takes an interdisciplinary approach in looking at two late sixteenth-century composers, William Byrd and Carlo Gesualdo, and describes their personal and political sufferings and how these torments may have affected their compositional styles.

Brief explorations of England and Catholicism in the time of the Protestant Reformation, the Mannerist movement in the arts, the movement toward chromaticism in Italy and the meditative exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola are included as preparation for the discussion of the Latin motets chosen for this thesis: Ave verum corpus and Surge, illuminare Jerusalem by Byrd and Aestimatus sum and Ave dulcissima Afaria by Gesualdo.

The themes of these motets represent Byrd's political statements against the Anglican Church and his encouragement to a recusant community which envisioned itself as being similar to the Jews in their Babylonian captivity; and Gesualdo's personal pleas for forgiveness and possible desire for relief from guilt in the deaths of his wife and her lover.

The texts of the motets are examined in detail as to their liturgical or nonliturgical functions, their history, and their inclusion in the collections of the composers (the Gradualia ofByrd and the Sacrae Cantiones andResponsoria of Gesualdo). The thesis proposes that both composers were influenced by St. Ignatius and the teachings of the Jesuit order, in particular the Spiritual Exercises and their intense devotion to modes of prayer and reflection upon individual words and phrases of text. The motets are analyzed for their text-painting and treatment of dissonance.

Finally, issues of twenty-first century performance of the motets are discussed, with suggestions for articulations, text stress, and rhythmic groupings.

Date of Award	2010
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	Eastern Illinois University
Supervisor	Luminita Florea (Supervisor)